hat

As a general rule I don't let the kids choose their own clothes.  Left to their own devices they'd probably end up looking like a crazy homeless person and a transvestite hooker in various states of undress.  Until the answer to every fashion question is no longer 'hot pink sparkles', I have appointed myself as stylist.  But just to give the kids a little freedom of expression I occasionally break my own rule and let them pick something out.  This hat was one such concession.  The weather is warming up and both the kids were in need of a new hat.  I let Minty look through my fabric stash and she chose this pink Alexander Henry 'dear zoo' print.  It's quite loud and honestly I'd never intended to use it for a garment (I had it earmarked for a library bag or a backpack) but I think the end result is pretty cute.  And if it means there are going to be fewer arguments over being sun smart I think we'll all be happy!  The hat is reversible, but I don't actually have any photos of the other side.  It's a more subtle pink and white stripe, so it should fit the bill when more sedate head wear is required.  The pattern is from Liesl Gibson's Little Things to Sew.

In which Danny comes to breakfast...

My kids are wretched first thing in the morning.  Low blood sugar prior to breakfast inevitably leads to some combination of sobbing, whining and brawling, with flash points caused by disputes over who will or will not get honey drizzled on their porridge, and who will get to sit on the much coveted pink chair.  The usual scene at breakfast time, involves the two kids jostling at the  child gate to the kitchen, both chanting 'I want pink' with increasing hostility, whilst I hurriedly try to make the porridge before someone comes to blows or bites someones ear off.  By the time the breakfast is ready it is not uncommon for one or both children to be so overcome with grief that they are unable to eat a single bite.  On the very worst mornings, my solution is to invite Danny Kaye (via youTube) to breakfast.  There really isn't much Danny can't fix.  I defy anyone to start the morning with 'the best things happen while you're dancing' and not feel energised and ready to face just about anything.  Other firm favourites include the songs from Hans Christian Anderson (particularly the ugly duckling), everything is tickety-boo and of course lullaby in ragtime.  By the time breakfast is over Turi is usually tapping around the lounge swinging his best broadway arms!

house update

I've been taking a bit of a blog nap.  Although stacks has been going on around these parts, I have writers block and can't seem to commit fingers to the keyboard.  Things have been rather hectic the last couple of weeks with the Mr spending long hours on site, while I take on a virtual solo parenting role.

To give you a bit of a house update, after a lot of drama our power has finally been connected on site and our solar panels have been installed, (just in the nick of time for us to receive the grant!)  Since we don't have a house to put them on yet, they had to be ground mounted (you can see the structure behind Turi in the photo on the right).  We've also had the site excavated, ready to start digging the stumps this week.

I'm going to try and push through my writing funk and post a bit more this week, but for now I'm off the take the kids to the swimming pool and try and make the most of this glorious day.

Bean bag games

OK so I'm not really comfortable calling this a sewing project since the sewing involved was minimal and basic at best but I'm going to share this anyway since it's all I've achieved this week.  

Minty seems to have boundless energy at the moment and for those times when it's impractical to take her out (too wet, too hot, Turi's naptime) I've been trying to come up with some indoor games that channel this energy for good rather than evil.  I was talking to my mum about it and she reminded me of those little bean bags that kids use in primary school for physical development class.  So I decided to make some of my own.  Mine are 5inch squares, sewn from vintage sheets and fabric scraps I had in my stash.  Minty helped pin up the squares and when I had whipped around the edges on the machine she filled them up with lentils from a bowl using a teaspoon (is it just me or does spooning lentils sound like something those Montessori folk would get up to?).  

Now I know these little bean bags don't look like much but there are hundreds of different games you can play with them if you use a little imagination.  To get you started here are a few ideas (found here, here and here):

• throw beanbag in the air and catch it (to make it harder turn around while it is in the air)
• throw beanbag up and backwards over your head and try and catch it behind your back
• throw beanbag in air, clap your hands once and catch it
• throw beanbag in air and clap your hands under your right leg before catching it again.  Then try with the other leg.
• throw beanbag up, jump, then try to catch it.  Try jumping twice, then three times.
• throw it up, kneel down and try and catch it.
• throw and catch with just your right hand, then just your left.
• balance the beanbag on your foot, then throw it up and catch it from there.  Try with the other foot.
• Throw the bean bag in the air and try and catch it on your foot.
• Try running with the beanbag balanced on your head.  Now try jumping.  Kneel down and stand up again or sit down.  Try climbing the stairs.  Try doing these with two, then three beanbags balanced on your head.
• Now try walking, running, jumping etc with the beanbag balanced on your shoulder.
• Play catch with the beanbags.
• Set up hoops, buckets, or boxes (maybe the laundry basket!) and try throwing the beanbags in from a distance.  You can allocate harder targets more points to make the game more complicated.
• play tic tac toe by drawing up a grid with masking tape on the floor, or chalk outside and then throw the beanbags in the squares to try and get three in a row.
• Stand up some paper towel tubes on the floor and toss the beanbags at them to try and knock them down.
• Set up some coloured cardboard shapes on the floor and ask the kids to throw a beanbag into a specific shape or colour.  Or try and throw a specific number of bean bags on a particular shape.
• Set up a pretend pond with lilly pads made from cardboard or cloths on the floor.  Use some stuffed toys to be crocodiles.  Give each kid three beanbags (frogs) and ask them to try and throw their frog onto a lilly pad.  The winner is whoever keeps the most frogs safe from the crocodiles by landing them on the lily pads.

So far Minty has played lots of balancing and catch games.  Turi on the other hand is only interested in using the bean bags as pillows and mattresses for his toys!!

Conversations with Minty...

Minty: Did you know that a zebra with black and orange stripes is a tiger?

In which we eat our words...

Minty has recently become interested in learning her letters.  Now I know some parents out there are hard core Steiner converts and don't believe in teaching kids to write until they are 6 years old.  If you fall into this camp you will probably think I am cramping my child's creative spirit and hindering her ability to enjoy childhood.  At the other end of the spectrum there are those parents whose children came out of the womb holding a pencil in a pincer grasp and are well on the way to writing their first novel by age 3.  These parents will probably be shocked that Minty still can't write her own name.  

This post isn't intended as some kind of educational manifesto.  At the moment I'm just following the kids interests and trying to keep everything light hearted and fun.  With this in mind I'm going to share with you a few games we've been playing and things we've been doing to help Minty take the very first steps toward literacy.  

So as not to overwhelm Minty, I'm just showing her the letters in her name and Turi's name to start off with.  When she's got these down we'll move on if she's still interested.

One of the activities we've done is to make sand letters.  I found the idea here.  Basically you just write each letter on a card with some glue and let your child tip sand on it.  Shake off the excess sand and leave it to dry.  Minty uses the cards to trace over the letter with her finger.  The textural nature of these apparently help kids to remember the shape of the letter when they are learning to write.

Another game we're playing is a sort of letter scramble game.  I've written all the letters to Turi and Minty's names on bits of paper.  I mix them all up on the floor and then Minty tries to peg them up on the clothes horse in order to spell out the names.  

In another attempt to encourage letter recognition we made alphabet cookies today.  I used this recipe.  This activity encouraged a lot of dialogue about the different letters.  Talking about their shapes and which letter we were cutting out of the dough.  When Minty asks for a cookie, I try to ask her which letter she would like from a selection of two ('would you like this letter M or this letter T?') I also like to think there is an element of maths to this activity, while the kids frantically try to work out which letter has the greatest surface area so that they can choose the biggest cookie!

Since I know you are all such a creative bunch, do you have any more fun ideas for learning the alphabet?

Go fish!

I don't think I'm alone in thinking gifts for boys are hard… and even harder when you're trying to come up with something hand made.  So I'm excited to share my latest sewing project with you.  It's a magnetic fishing game I made for one of Minty's little friends who just turned four.  He loves going fishing with his dad and has a boat made out of cardboard boxes permanently set up in their lounge room so I had a feeling this would be perfect for him.  I'm pretty sure I was right!  He seemed genuinely excited with his gift and even stopped mid-party to give it a try.  Minty loved it too and was pretty reluctant to give it away!

The fish are fairly simple, primitive designs.  I just sketched the patterns free-hand but if you wanted to make these yourself and felt nervous I'm sure you'd be able to find some fish templates if you googled around.  I used fabric from my stash - some Heather Ross mendocino, Joelle Hoverson cake rock beach and some other solids and linen I had lying around.  Each fish has a small washer stitched to it's nose.  Originally I was planning on sewing these inside but with all the stuffing and fabric the magnet wasn't strong enough to pick them up.  The rod is made with a dowel and string.  The magnet is glued to the end of the string as the magnet was too hard to drill through.  I also made a simple drawstring bag to store the fish in (don't you just love little drawstring bags for storing little toys?!)