mini mocha: April 2010

Bird Watching

Not really sure if we are bird watching or the bird is watching us.

"Mum, Mum, look! Something landed in the neighbours yard! A flying thing!"
said H.

Yes something landed on the shed, a large bird, a White faced Heron I think. Lovely smokey grey feathers. A first time visitor to our backyard. A very convenient way to learn about our environment, flora and fauna.

We watched, he watched and that was that.

Later he came back to land in the yard right next to the dog (who was snoring), he had a look around and took off again.

What was he searching for?

Today at Play

Today we made wrapping paper with stamps and stickers, did magic painting, drawing, balloon popping, reading, maths, and the keyboard accompanied Letterland music.

Learning to write

H had fun with some drawing and writing the other day...

He likes doodling and copying his big brother.

This is big Humpty Dumpty and baby humpty.

Lego Love

This would have to be up there with the best toys ever made.

It just keeps coming out to the play table again and again.

This time it was the Lego Fort, with horses, wagons, bank robbers and cavalry...

DIY Renovation - Playroom

Before photos -

After painting the walls and tiles, removing security door and adding french doors and a deck, laying timber floating floor, removing cupboard doors, adding more in, adding extra bench along to the wall, then filling with book and toy shelves ...

Carrot Cake - Long Weekend Treat

Haven't made carrot cake for a while (too busy painting) but thought I would try something different and add dates, pecans, naked ginger and replace golden syrup with a little treacle.

We had no cream cheese, so a light dusting of icing sugar for the top.

Worked well for our lunch out.

ANZAC DAY

The Storyteller Hat

I have had this idea... based on a storytelling session I went to many years ago, that we make a storytellers Hat.

It could be a fantastic, bizarre, and very busy hat.

Perhaps a large brim cane hat with all sorts of things on it, or an old bucket hat from the closet.

This hat helps brings the characters alive, perhaps a magical one, which adds spark to the storytelling.

Kids would love it, I am sure of it. Might just give it a go next time we do stories.

Perhaps we could add something to it each time we read, something relevant from the story?

This would be great for class/library sessions at school.

What little one would not want to get into a book if it was delivered in a such a way as to make the story even more exciting?

I have been thinking of such things because sadly not all children have found their love of books like we have.

Oh the joy they are missing!

Another Geography Puzzle

This puzzle has lots more in the way of funny pics and plenty more facts to learn about Australia and it's immediate neighbours.

J has been copying words down from the puzzle and finding places like the Big Banana.

Purchased at Australian Geographic Store.

Drawing Personalised Placemats

Another way to keep little ones busy whilst I am cooking dinner...

Getting them to create the placemats for dinner, drawing, making their own art buys time.

I started doing this when I was a child and now can continue the tradition. It is great for special occassions like Mothers Day, when you can get the children to draw portraits and decorate them nicely.

Geography Fun

We like puzzles (I wish there was a puzzle library) and I especially like puzzles with a difference, such as this one...

This puzzle of the globe contains 600 pieces and is a multifaceted puzzle, it has each country cut out in its own shape (some very small pieces), it also has details about each country written on the sea. It can be done over and over again without loosing its appeal.

We spent a few hours yesterday doing this puzzle and it is amazing how many times we had to look at the box to find out which country went where.

J was given the job of finding the names of places on the box for us when we were stuck.

This puzzle is an extremely good geography teaching tool, we were reading, sorting and connecting countries, oceans and seas. It is made from recycled materials, was under $30 and the brand name is "A broader view", made in USA.

Today H and I picked a few countries to focus on and discussed where some animals live on the map.

It just so happens we are doing passports at the moment so we also made a little one to do some stamping in, which fits in nicely with our geography theme.

Have fun learning at play.

Bunny Bag

This was the Easter bag from last year, which is now used as a shopping bag in the play kitchen.

J's New Train Blog

J has always enjoyed setting up different train tracks and making up train stories.

Now he has his own blog WOODEN TRACKS where he posts photos of the tracks he sets up.

We will slowly add some stories of the trains' adventures...

Muesli slice

Oats, pepitas, dates, naked un-crystallized ginger, sultanas, pecans, honey, self raising flour, 1 egg, butter. baked for 40 mins. yummy and has no nasty preservatives therefore good for kiddy snacks.

Bathroom Renovation - Upstairs Ens

The Finished Bathroom -

Plywood benchtop, off white floor tiles continued up wall into an open shower (glass panel) replaces the black, white and dull grey below -

DIY - Laundry

BEFORE

Our laundry is a part of our garage, which is actually OK, however it was not user friendly or clean, so with some fibreboard and some white wash and a round sink and tap from IKEA we created this...

Very inexpensive, all the cupboards made from melamine, the lights and handles from IKEA. All very wipeable.

The washing machine and dryer are both underneath with a cupboard separating them.

Insects...in our garden

Today we looked closely at insects in our garden.

We had 4 different types of butterflies, some very large spider eating wasps and these two guys...

They are eating our plants, however they look like something from a Science fiction movie, so interesting close up.

Passionfruit...in our garden

Is this not the most exquisite flower ! Even more amazing than this, is the most exquisite fruit that develops from its core...

We are so fortunate to have over 30 passionfruit starting to ripen in our backyard and plenty of these beautiful flowers. How do I know this? I got the boys to take pencil and paper and count the number of flowers and fruit. We are all keen on graphs at the moment.

We love them! Can't wait to slurp them up!

DIY Renovation - Downstairs Bathroom

BEFORE -

AFTER-

The cabinet was made from plywood and sealed with a waterproof sealer. Two doors were added and a $70 bowl sink.

For all our renovations, we source wholesale/warehouse stock, highly discounted products, and try to put them together and make them look a bit different.