No sooner is one party finished and it is on to the next ...
Here is some inspiration for the next party at our house! Sienna will be 6 in August which gives me 7 weeks to prepare!
Images courtesy of Sweet Soire & The Tomkat Studio
a cold snap
It's so cold, really cold....heater, socks and slippers kind of cold!
A quick snapshot of a warm breakfast on a cold winter's morning. Fresh lemon's picked from Grandma's beautiful garden, coffee made by my lovely husband and warm porridge with banana & strawberries enjoyed by one gorgeous little boy.
Enjoy your day and keep warm!
Read More...
It's so cold, really cold....heater, socks and slippers kind of cold!
A quick snapshot of a warm breakfast on a cold winter's morning. Fresh lemon's picked from Grandma's beautiful garden, coffee made by my lovely husband and warm porridge with banana & strawberries enjoyed by one gorgeous little boy.
Enjoy your day and keep warm!
Free-range Tsunamis
You know how sometimes you're absolutely sure of the rightness of something. When I heard about Lenore's quest to give her kids some independent breathing space, I just knew she was right. She's right that children deserve independence. She's right that being responsible is a necessary part of growing up. She's right that the world isn't necessarily any more dangerous than it ever was. She's right that parents today are so convinced that something is going to happen to their child that kids are growing up feeling like they've done something wrong.
And why wouldn't they? Many parents are so fearful of 'something happening' to their child they box them up inside their schools and homes like criminals. Leonore sites the example of a parent who won't even let her children collect mail from the mailbox in their own front yard.
It's not just the fear of abduction. Parents are fearful of their children getting run over, falling over, being maimed, trampled, bullied, getting lost, getting hit by a sniper bullet.... They watch their children every minute of every day and usually a few times during the night too. They schedule so many indoor 'extra curricular' activities that the poor child is surrounded by four walls from the minute they wake up until the minute they go to sleep.
Can you imagine living like that*?
I choose to believe that the world is a safe and loving place. Not everything in the world, but most of it. We've educated the Tsunamis from infancy about what is dangerous and what is not. We didn't 'babyproof' the house (although we're not unsafe: we used gates at the stairways before they got the hang of stairs and certain antics by The Badoo forced me to buy those plugs for the electricity outlet because, well, she's The Badoo). We practice crossing the road together safely every single time. We're quiet in the car when the traffic gets heavy. We would never go into a public toilet alone. We know that strangers are usually friends, but we don't talk to them unless a grown-up we know is also listening.
Now, marry Leonore's rightness with Richard Louv's Last Child in the Wood rightness and you've pretty much got our parenting style. The Tsunamis are lucky enough to live in a house surrounded on three sides by national park and reserve. They explore the reserve around our house and their own imaginations every day. They make mud pies and throw them at each other. They dig for worms and herd ants into houses made from sticks. Clambering over large sandstone boulders, climbing up swaying trees, reaching the top to call down to mum "you look like a barbie doll' (why, thank you my children). I let them roam. They're free-range, organic children with skinned knees and grubby faces - just the way nature intended.
Of course, every now and then I call out to them and they know they must call back immediately. If they don't Barbie will come tearing up that reserve so fast you'd swear she'd been shot from a cannon... Afterall, I'm free-range, not neglectful!
* Oh, wait a minute, I have a corporate job...
wordless Wednesday
It's
Wednesday again!
&
I
would
love you
to join
in
It's easy
all you have to
do is blog
a photo
no words!
& enter your blog post here in the list
The joy of play and creating...
Building a Dinosaur
A Saturday morning at the Queensland Museum with Daddy discovering, exploring and having FUN! After a busy morning exploring the Museum my husband was keen to follow up with a creative activity. He came home with some boxes and the two of them went about creating a dinosaur masterpiece, much to the joy of one little boy.
Step 1:
Find some old boxes, cardboard, pipes - what ever you have around the house that can be recycled or visit your local supermarket/electrical store and they should be happy to pass on old boxes to you.
Step 2:
Use paint, crayons, felt pens, egg cartons or even glue and fabric to decorate your boxes.
Step 3:
Construct your dinosaur anyway you wish - don't forget to add appropriate accessories to your dinosaur such as tail, feet, hands, teeth - whatever you wish to complete your mischievous masterpiece.
Most of all have fun!
Read More...
Building a Dinosaur
A Saturday morning at the Queensland Museum with Daddy discovering, exploring and having FUN! After a busy morning exploring the Museum my husband was keen to follow up with a creative activity. He came home with some boxes and the two of them went about creating a dinosaur masterpiece, much to the joy of one little boy.
Step 1:
Find some old boxes, cardboard, pipes - what ever you have around the house that can be recycled or visit your local supermarket/electrical store and they should be happy to pass on old boxes to you.
Step 2:
Use paint, crayons, felt pens, egg cartons or even glue and fabric to decorate your boxes.
Step 3:
Construct your dinosaur anyway you wish - don't forget to add appropriate accessories to your dinosaur such as tail, feet, hands, teeth - whatever you wish to complete your mischievous masterpiece.
Most of all have fun!
The things I (we? surely not just me?) do and say
On the train this morning, sitting in the vestibule (I would never sit in the actual carriage) I found myself thinking "why do I always sit in the vestibule? Why don't I ever sit in the actual carriage?" And, you know what, I didn't have an answer. At the back of my mind a little voice was saying "claustrophobia!" and "what if there was a fire?" and "terrorist!" but I ignored the back of my mind as it's prone to histrionics and I prefer to think of myself as a calm, rational sort of person.
It's just that every now and then I catch myself doing something slightly bizarre. For instance, if I'm walking down the footpath and the school girl chant "step on a crack, break your mother's back" pops into my head (as it does on occasion) I simply cannot step on a crack. So I go hopping and skipping along the footpath like an overgrown 5 year old. The back of my mind is saying "please, just don't break your poor long-suffering mother's back, especially not now that she's in her sixties and has osteoarthritis, the damage could be catastrophic!!"
Or if I have peas on my plate, I must eat the peas first before I can get to the good stuff. The back of my mind is silent on this one but my poor long-suffering mother's voice is clear at the front of it: eat your peas, young lady!
And just the other night I threw myself from the door onto the bed, making sure that no part of me touched the floor between... difficult one to explain this, but the back of my mind says "remember when you were younger and your little sister told you that people lived under your bed and they would reach out and grab your ankles if you came anywhere near your bed... imagine if they grabbed your ankles!"
Well, see, apparently they still live under there.
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