Sep16

Straw Necklaces

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Another beading activity, one that is very cheap and easy, but still plenty of fun. I took two packs of coloured drinking straws and cut them up into small lengths (no measurement required!). Then I gave each of the kids a piece of poly string, and let them thread the string through the cut up straw lengths, as if they were beads. After they filled the string with straws, I tied the ends together so that they could be worn as necklaces. They each made several of these necklaces, and we have plenty of straw pieces left over for another day.

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Sep16

Rain May and Captain Daniel by Catherine Bateson

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IMG_3407Rain May and Captain Daniel by Catherine Bateson, paperback, 138 pages, published by University of Queensland Press in 2002.

When Rain’s parents separate, her mother, Maggie, decides that they will leave Melbourne and move to Clarkson, a small country town in rural Victoria. There’s not much to the town, it doesn’t even have a pizza place, and the old cottage they move into is tired and rundown. Maggie is determined to make a go of it in their ‘dream house’, even if Rain isn’t happy with the move. Then she meets Daniel, the boy next door. Rain and Daniel are about the same age, and despite their differences they become firm friends. Rain has to cope with visits to her father in Melbourne where he lives with his new girlfriend Julia, and this situation isn’t easy for her. But when she discovers that Daniel is ill, it gives her life some perspective, and the strength to make the most of what she has.

A friend lent me this book, and I enjoyed it. It is written in a somewhat unconventional way, with most of the story told from Rain’s perspective, including some fridge poems her and Maggie write to each other. The rest of the story is told in a log-book format from Captain Daniel’s perspective, as he records events in Star Trek style.

The characters are interesting, well written, and believable. Rain’s friendship with Daniel sees her stand up for him, but she still resents him sometimes. And Daniel doubts that Rain will want to be friends with him once she gets to know the ‘cool’ kids. Diana, Daniel’s mum, worries too much, and is obsessively tidy. Rain’s father and Julia work a lot and have trouble finding time for her, while Maggie has a steadfast resolution to make their new life work and goes at it with gusto. These flaws and quirks add reality to the characters and to the story.

The book itself is a fairly easy read, but I think some of the content and themes, such as divorce and dating, might be more suitable for middle to upper primary school age kids and beyond. Younger children, though they may be capable of reading the text, wouldn’t necessarily understand or appreciate the story very well.

 

* Rain May and Captain Daniel was the winner for the 2003 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year in the Younger Readers category.

Sep15

Beading Necklaces

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IMG_2105Since L was able to thread beads onto some elastic, she has loved making her own necklaces and bracelets. Plastic beads are readily available and reasonably cheap, and are great for beading fun with the kids. It is cheaper, and longer lasting than store-bought play jewelery, and you get all the fun of creating something for yourself with the beads you want to use. L and A use the jewelery they have made in their dress-ups, and often wear them around the house and out and about just because they like them. They have also made them as gifts for their friends.

We usually use elastic for our beading projects, as it makes it easy for the kids to put on and take off themselves. Proper clear beading elastic is the best for this, but we have used basic hat elastic too. Unfortunately, after a while, the hat elastic tends to stretch and break, which requires tying the broken section together (more knots on the necklace) or re-threading the beads.

IMG_2106This time, however, I had some pre-made non-stretchy necklace lengths with clips to do them up, I think they came from Spotlight. Only the beads with the larger holes would fit over the end of each length, but the kids didn’t mind, they threaded lots of beads onto them, and then wore them about the house. I had to help them undo and fasten the clips though, so it didn’t lend itself to independent dress-up play as much as the elastic ones we’ve made.

 

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IMG_2111A also spent some time running her hands through the beads, swishing them around with her fingers, and trying to get them to stick to her hands. She liked the sensation of rolling the beads in her palms, and spreading them on the floor.

Sensory play with the beads.

Sensory play with the beads.

Sep15

A Puzzling Afternoon

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A proud of her helicopter rescue puzzle.

A proud of her helicopter rescue puzzle.

We love doing puzzles, but we’ve already done all the ones we own multiple times. I had been thinking of getting some new ones, but L’s school has a great range of puzzles that they rotate through the classrooms and the library that we can use, so I’d been putting it off . A and I often spend a couple of mornings each week doing puzzles in the library after we’ve taken L to class. L will sometimes do a puzzle there if we have enough time before class begins, but she isn’t as interested in puzzles as A. We encourage both of them to do puzzles, as they are not only fun, but they are great for hand eye coordination and logic skills.IMG_2137

IMG_2134Last week our neighbour gave us two bags of secondhand puzzles for the kids, so we spent the afternoon sorting through them, and doing them all. There was a mix of wooden board puzzles, large floor puzzles, a counting one, a couple of cube puzzles and some simple jigsaws. I think they enjoyed the floor puzzles best. Most of them were a little easy for L, but she still had fun putting them together with us. It was nice to spend a couple of peaceful hours doing puzzles with the kids and Big L while baby T slept.

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Sep11

Sprouting Birdseed

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Now that’s it’s spring, we’ve started barbequing again. We love to use the bbq, and eat outside when it’s nice. Having our first BBQ of spring made me think of plastic plates and napkins. And since the kids had been playing with a tub of birdseed earlier in the day, I thought we could have a go at growing some of it.

Pre-wetting the napkins.

Pre-wetting the napkins.

Turns out we didn’t actually have plastic plates, but Big L found some plastic bowls and napkins hidden away on top of a cupboard. The kids took two bowls each, lined them with a couple of napkins, and then sprayed them with water. Then they each tossed some wild birdseed into the bowls, and sprayed them again. A was a bit disappointed when nothing happened straight away.

Birdseed in the bowls.

Birdseed in the bowls.

We moved the bowls into a spot on the dining table where the sun shines through a window in the mornings. Both L and A have been very dedicated in watering the bowls at least twice a day (along with the table, floor, and anything nearby).

A spraying the seeds with water.

A spraying the seeds with water.

After a few days some of the seeds began to sprout. A was very excited to see the first sprouts coming up. The kids have checked on their bowls multiple times each day to see how they are going, and they have started to notice that the different seeds have different sprouts, and some are different shades of green. L noticed that the different seeds have sprouted at different times, and some are growing more quickly than others. A has been particularly interested in the sunflower sprouts, as the seed shell is still on most of the sprouts, and she’s been wondering if it will come off. I told her she will have to continue to watch and see.

After 8 days.

After 8 days.

This activity has stimulated discussion about the differences between plants and their growth, including what they need to grow. L was a bit sceptical that anything could grow on the paper napkins, as plants normally need soil. Growing them like this has been good because she could see them from the first tiny sprout, that she can’t see when it is growing in soil. She has enjoyed watching the seeds grow, and we will continue to watch them for as long as we can.

The bowl with the best growth (also the most seeds, thanks to A's enthusiasm).

The bowl with the best growth (also the most seeds, thanks to A’s enthusiasm).

After 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks.

 

Sep10

Alphabet Stamping

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Last year one of L’s teacher’s leant her a set of alphabet stamps and an ink pad. She had a great time with it, stamping out her name, and the names of everyone in our family, her spelling words, and the alphabet just for fun. So, she was given her very own alphabet stamping set for Christmas. L uses this set regularly to practice her spelling words. She likes to use all four ink colours in each word if she can.

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Sep10

Sorting and Patterns with Beads

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A big pile of plastic beads and we were set for an hour of fun! A separated all these beads into different coloured piles. She was particularly excited about the four shades of pink she found. She also liked the fluoro yellow and fluoro green beads, though she called them “blue-ray” colours 🙂

Sorting.

Sorting.

More sorting.

More sorting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sorted piles.

The sorted piles.

Once she had sorted all the colours out we compared the size of each pile. She showed me the biggest piles and the smallest piles. She also counted the number of beads in the smaller piles. We talked about some of the shapes she could see too. Some of the beads were round, some heart shaped, some looked like flowers, and she even found a red butterfly.

We used the beads to practice making patterns. I set out some simple two and three colour patterns and asked A to place the next bead. She liked doing that, and then she made up some of her own patterns with the beads.

Placing the next bead in the pattern.

Placing the next bead in the pattern.

Making patterns.

Making patterns.

Sep5

Spelling with Beads

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We like to use plastic beads to make play jewelry, but the beads can be used in a number of different ways too. This week we used them for making L’s spelling words. It was a great fine motor skill activity too, as she had to pick up the individual beads in her fingers and place them carefully to make each letter.

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IMG_1792L also did some sorting of the beads, using one colour for a whole letter. The ‘e’ in course is also done in a pattern of white and blue beads. Using these beads for sorting and pattern making will be a fun maths activity for A some time soon.

Sep5

Sandpit Spelling

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Preparing the sandpit.

Preparing the sandpit.

We cleaned out the sandpit on the weekend. It had various sand toys scattered through it, and there was some grass growing along one edge that needed removing. I think we’ll have to get some more sand for it soon, A has been gradually removing the sand, one shoeful at a time 🙂 Once it was cleared out, L raked it over ready to write her spelling words in the sand. She was going to use a stick as a pencil, but in the end she decided to just use her finger. The words didn’t last long, L dug them up pretty quickly and just played in the sand.

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Aug31

Bird Seed Play

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I found an old bag of wild bird seed in the laundry cupboard this week. I’m not sure how long it had been there, but it still looked fine, so I pulled it out to do something with. I remembered how much fun A had at the school’s ‘Stay and Play’ when they put out bird seed to play with one morning. So I tipped the rest of the bag of seed into two of our play tubs, one for each child, as they told me they didn’t want to share it today.

Having fun.

Having fun.

Whisking.

Whisking.

They enjoyed running their fingers through it, and watching the seeds drop back into the tub. Then they got busy with the funnels and sieve, as well as some of the measuring cups, spoons and jugs. L picked out a lot of the sunflower seeds and put them into her jug. A put her feet in the tub to see what it would feel like, and then proceeded to sit in the tub for further fun. They made bird seed pancakes and muffins, and whisked it round and round. Then they started stealing it from each other, leading to some screaming and complaining…. that didn’t last though, the bird seed was too much fun, and they went back to playing nicely together.

Using the funnel.

Using the funnel.

This was a very simple activity that gave both of the kids a good deal of enjoyment.