Mid Summer

It is VERY hot here.  Lots of time playing under the trees when we go outside.   Today we discovered hundreds of cicada cases.  After deciding they didn't taste very nice, our baby was happy to toddle around collecting as many as he could find.

The teasel plants are in full flower, and we have lots of very, very busy bumblebees.

After tea I did a bit of sewing - I am going through a doll clothes phase again.

Here we have Elizabeth modelling a little mid-century modern print dress.

Keep It Simple Birthday Celebrations

Another post from YEARS ago!   Miss almost 7 is now 13.

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We've noticed a "thing" happening in the world nowadays.

Children's birthdays are getting ... well ... extravagant.

When our littlest guy turned one we joked about what sort of party we would have for him. A bouncy castle, mini-jeeps, little quad-bikes, a clown, pony rides, a marquee and catering for 50.

Instead we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, gave him his teddy (which he has named Bare Bear) and had a biscuit after tea to celebrate.

When the next little guy up just turned 4 not so long ago he got a Lego set, a resin rabbit for his garden, a tiny little torch and a wonderful morning tea! It was just the family as usual, and the wonderful treats you see on the photo above.

Miss almost 7 has her birthday this week. We have a few treats tucked away and something nice planned for lunch. Tea will be something she has chosen and the day will be special for her.

I was talking to someone a while back who reminded me about children's parties when we were little (he was as ancient as me) in the 1970's. When mothers cooked the food like lamingtons, cherios (not cereal like in America - here in NZ they are little red sausages served with tomato sauce), ginger snaps with whipped cream in them, individual jellies, hundreds-and-thousands open sandwiches, tiny little savouries and of course a cake.

The games were pass the parcel, hunt the thimble, pin the tail on the donkey ...

For the majority now it seems those days are gone. Parents have 'better' ideas - they hire the entire gymnasium for an hour, and then take everyone to a restaurant afterwards or take 15 of their children's best friends for a horse trek or hire a bouncy castle and a juggler to put on a show or they get a "Party Organiser" to do the whole thing! And the parties get bigger and better (and subsequently more expensive) each year. Stress!!  I'm aware that it's often the parents that enjoy this sort of thing, and if they don't mind the expense and the stress then that's up to them.  But ... hmm ...  I really recommend if the child is old enough that some consultation go on with the child as to what they would like, and clear limits be put in place (by both parent and children!).

Birthdays ARE specials days. A time to celebrate the life of the child - to thank the Lord for sending that specific child into that exact place in our family. But the hype and glamour is misplaced.

At another end of the scale we have people who don't celebrate birthdays at all.  It isn't commanded in scripture, and if a child has problems with getting stressed with the anxiety or wound up with waiting, or perhaps becomes prideful and nasty on their special day, then a re-think on the celebrations might be necessary.

I would like to encourage parents to really go back to basics with birthdays for young children.  Pray for direction and instruction.    When a child is older they might specifically ask for something special, but having been brought up on a diet of simplicity and the quiet life I believe the requests won't be too extravagant (or expensive!).

Dark Times In Youth Fiction

I wrote this article in 2009 - I believe things have become darker in the intervening 6 years.


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Hi followers and other interested dropper-inners.

New Zealand is currently in the middle of "NZ Book Month".

On the envelope of my bank statement I see "Kids, read NZ books and we could take you to Auckland Zoo and "Shortland Street" !"

First up - kids can't read. Kids are young goats.

Secondly - Shortland Street (from my vague memories of it) is a New Zealand soap opera with adult themes, conflict and drama - not the sort of thing children need to be watching. So why would a child be excited about winning a trip to see the sets and meet the actors?

But most disturbing to me is the fact that I have done a little research into "Young Adult" fiction just recently - due to the fact that I have written (and am continually adding bits to!) a Young Adult fiction novel.

I was interested to see what other New Zealand authors were offering our youth.

And - by the way - Young Adult fiction is, apparently, read by 12 - 18 year olds.

A helpful librarian was ready to show me some recently published New Zealand Young Adult fiction books - but I stopped her and said "No fantasy." She hesitated a minute and said "Ok - right, that narrows it down quite a lot."

In the end I came home with five books for my initial read-through.

These five books were published from between 1999 and 2007.

None of them are books we would let our children read.

The first had a plot based on deception. It was very boring to slog through the story waiting for the character to be revealed as a fraud. None of the characters was particularly likeable, there was a lot of sneering and rudeness to each other. One out of ten for slightly humorous situations.

The second book might have been classed "edgy" or "gritty" - but even for an adult it was awful. Inapproriate relationships, crude language, dope smoking, suicide. Zero out of ten.

Third up - started out with historical interest went straight into foul language, inappropriate comments, moved into the occult with ghost speaking to our main character. Zero.

Fourth - Interesting setting, character finds a ring in a rockpool - when she puts it on she can't stop telling the truth even when it should be kept hidden. She finds a tarot card reader who helps her find out about the ring ... Occult. How easy for our children to be introduced to these things through books like these. Zero out of ten.

And the last one for this session - the main character had no redeeming qualities, she was snarky, self-centred, full of self-pity, moody, nasty to others, the other characters were shallow. A bit too wordy and descriptive for me - heaps of descriptive bits about estuary birds which I skipped over and I wouldn't think there would be a great number of young people who would read all that word for word. Near the end there is a potential for a plane crash, but main character saves the day - however it took 10 pages to describe the near crash and the safe landing. Another Zero I'd have to say.

Am I too hard to please?

Probably, but I only want the best for our children.

That's why our little children don't read fiction from the public library.

We read a really good story the other day about a man who had a big army, but God told him there were too many, and to send the ones who didn't want to fight home. Well, in the end there weren't many men left - but the battle was won!

Let's be very choosy folks. VERY choosy.

READING ALOUD TIME HINT

A post from my old blog when I had hundreds and hundreds of very small children ... or did it just feel that way?   Oh, actually, looking at the post there were only TWO little boys using this system. 

Our story listeners are now 13, 10, 8, 5 and 11 months.  So I only really need to keep the 5yr old busy and the baby asleep during reading time.

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As mentioned previously, our family love our reading aloud sessions.

But its sometimes a problem to keep the little ones quiet when we read aloud.

NOT NOW!

Mummy has devised the following scheme.

Take some shoe boxes.

Put stickers on the boxes (we have two boys using this system at the moment so we have 1A 1B, 2A 2B, 3A 3B etc)

Put a collection of toys in them (1A may have three wooden blocks, a car, a tractor, a small doll; 1B may have some polished stones, a wooden bowl, a basket, a silk scarf, a small boat ... )

It goes without saying that we DO NOT put these type of things in our boxes - whistles, drums, clicky cars ... although some children have a knack of making ANY toy noisy! If that is the case, just keep training. :o)

Store the boxes in order.

When reading time comes put a blanket down for each child (not touching each other!) and say "Blanket time!!"











One child is the "A" child.

The other child is the "B" child.

"A" child gets box 1A

"B" child gets box 1B

They sit nicely on their blanket, and wait while Mummy puts the boxes down.

Mummy gets comfy and says "You may open your boxes".

Mummy reads, the other children draw, colour etc and the little boys play with the toys in their boxes.

When "A" child has been through all the "A" boxes (we have eight) he becomes the "B" child, and goes through all the "B" boxes.

The boxes do not come out unless we are reading, so the toys stay special.

The children also have a pillow or cushion on their blanket, so if they don't want to play with the toys they can cozy down and just listen to the story.

INSECT HABITAT

   

Some years back we visited an Eco show and saw this amazing, and very tidy, bug habitat.

We collected bits and pieces and came up with this:





 

Not quite like the original, but unique and made with love.

It stood for nearly a year, and was home to many insects, but unfortunately the predominant tenants were wasps which we're not keen on!

Activities For Older Child

• drawing,
• painting,
• cooking,
• photography,
• birdwatching,
• reading,
• making plant displays in vases,
• making playdough,
• writing,
• making charts,
• lists to tick when out,
• brushing the dog,
• hide and seek,
• teaching the dog tricks,
• finding out new stuff about camera,
• writing people letters,
• making a swing,
• copying fancy fonts,
• posters – one for each bird,
• making soft toys,
• making dresses for dollies or teddies,
• crayon rubbings,
• chocolate leaves,
• trimming bushes,
• planting a little garden,
• making a nature movie
• making a hut,
• eating,
• making people files,
• making a miniature garden,
• looking for owl pellets,
• making a book,
• making a costume,
• writing a script,
• putting on old clothes and getting muddy (only with permission!),
• looking through old notebooks,
• making a weather station,
• making a treehut,
• cutting down a tree,
• practicing falling over painlessly,
• painting with water,
• making a boat to sail on pond,
• wall art in bedroom,
• knitting a scarf,
• looking at the stars,
• make an ant house,
• make a miniature scene,
• start a diary,
• illustrate poems,
• paint by numbers,
• decorate an old shirt with markers,
• bible journalling,
• learn shorthand,
• pressing flowers,
• making bookmarks,
• making little nature things to sell,
• make birdy afternoon tea,
• go far from house and do silly singing,
• make a giant nest to sit in.
• crosstitch,
• gathering seeds,
• learning/practicing an instrument,
• memorising scripture,
• biking,
• nature collection (in basket),
• make paper for letters,
• make a leaf crown,
• rubber stamping,
• finger painting,
• cardmaking,
• woodworking,
• weeding the garden,
• painting,
• making a balm,
• make a bird feeder,
• paper planes,
• make a puppet,
• box television,
• bubbles,
• paper plate masks,
• make a castle,

Wonderful Activities

Last year when I was pregnant, I made this list of activities that we could all do with our 5 year old to keep him busy.

You might enjoy some of them too - because I wrote it out quickly you might not understand some of them - just drop me a comment if anything needs more explanations!

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THINGS TO DO WITH JOEY

Take books under Greenwood tree and read to him

newspaper under feet and scoot along “walking” or “running”

screwed up bits of newspaper in a box – all have to be opened because one has a “prize” in it

teddy/dolly hospital: bandages, handkies, pretend lotion, use stethescope and make “notes”

go outside and quickly gather 6 items: give him a box and he needs to find 6 matching items with you i.e., willow leaf, plantain “flower”, dandelion

electronic typewriter closely supervised

make a bong-line-  use loose parts from children's garden

peg in bottle – 2 pegs opposite ends of bit of string, peg one to bottom of shirt, get other into a glass Heinz pasta sauce bottle

make about five large fish out of cardboard, make lips into an “o” and cut out centre, use fishing line and stick, put opened paperclip on end and try to catch, or hang fishing line over your ear

2 pillowcases with matching items at each end of lounge – Joey pulls one item out and then has to race to other side of lounge and without looking, just feeling, try to find matching item

items on tray – what have I taken away? Also do this outside with natural finds

play money – teach him one or two at a time – i.e., one day teach 10c and 20c pieces

sewing cards – cut shapes out of cardboard and punch holes around outside then tape a piece of wool to card, wrap sellotape around end of wool to make “needle”

chalk on deck anyhow he likes

hopscotch on deck, or a line with numbers he needs to hop on number as you call it

board game on deck with a huge die made from a cardboard box

blindfold and crawl outside, bang the pot/bucket outside

ziplock bag with three blobs of paint – red, blue and yellow. Seal bag Joey to squish

drawing – overlap squares, triangles or circles and then colour

nature weaving, remember to put newspaper behind the cardboard when putting the warp threads over the cardboard. Remove newspaper then there will be space for nature finds to be woven in.

Make butterfly rings for fingertips, then go outside to dance them around the flowers

make a large wet-felted ball for Joseph to play with

bowl of water with a coin in the bottom, try to get another coin to land on the top of the first one

make strip of cardboard with six squares numbered 1-6. Gather six items. Roll die and cover whichever number you roll with the item – use button, stone, small toy etc.

cup of tea set

Lego

Duplo

Tikes Peak

playdough

real cooking

pretend washing up

gather cloths from kitchen and get Joey to wash them in a basin and hang on a line we have put up

bubble play in the outdoor kitchen sink

teach him to take turns with kicking or rolling a ball back and forth

card games – memory, fish,

tutor system

paint with water on the deck with large paintbrush

big paper, big paintbrush, paint in cardboard egg containers, three colours, do this on GRASS!

Watering strawberries

take pop-up tent under a tree with blanket, book and snacks

DON'T HAVE THE EXPECTATION THAT HE WILL STICK TO EVERY GAME