More Holiday Fun – Pictures and Movies

The other thing my kids spent ages doing while we were on holidays was making movies and taking photos.

I love the way our kids can play with video cameras and cameras today in a way we couldn’t when we were kids. With everything being digital, results can be instant and there’s no extra cost in developing or recording. We were even able to look at the kid’s work on the LCD TV in the house we were staying in that had a port for an SD card – amazing!

The kids were really fired up when they could see their work so instantly. They took a tonne of photos and put together some really nice movies too. I love that we have a record of their perspective.

Em likes to take in a whole scene

Or focus on people

Whereas Ed seems to be drawn to little things that catch his eye.

There were lots of photos of all their friends too.

Of course it wouldn't be a kid-photo-shoot be without a bit of crazy!

I love this little insight into the way their minds work.

There are lots of great benefits in this sort of play.

Taking photos builds on perspective and creativity and encourages the kids to notice what’s going on around them. It also works eye hand co-ordination and gets them planning and preparing as they work out where to put their hands, what button to press and not to cover the lens.

Making movies builds on extra skills too. At first the kids would just take random footage of their toys and what they were thinking of at the time.

As they got more into it, they started wanting to write out a plan of their movie and then practice it before they started taping. They gradually saw it as an opportunity to tell a story in their own voice.

We talked about how writing out a movie is called writing a script and how practicing it is called a rehearsal. We’re yet to edit the movies, but it’s part of the process Em is keen to be involved in. Ed is a bit young for that yet, but had a ball just putting it all together.

Holiday Fun With A Deck of Cards

We've just returned from a fabulous trip to sunny Port Douglas. It's one of my most favourite places to visit and this year we hired a house so that we could have a bit of space for just lounging around. I packed quite a few toys and things to do. I wanted the kids to be able to keep themselves busy so I could do some important things (like reading and sitting and looking at mountains and rainforest!).

One of the best things I packed (well actually, I didn't, my husband did) was a deck of cards. I spent many hours playing with cards as a kid; there are really a lot of fun things to do with them.

Here's a few:

Sorting the cards

It's fun to sort and classify the cards in many different ways. You can put all the reds in one pile and all the blacks in another. You can put all the hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs together. You can put all the numbers together and you can even put the cards in numerical order from lowest to highest or highest to lowest. Each time the cards are sorted in a different way, it builds on important maths skills and sorting and classifying is just as important as counting and ordering.

Playing Card Games

Good old “Snap” is a great game for kids to start with and children as young as 2 can often get the hang - even if you start by just matching black and red. It builds on concentration and reflexes as well as helping to identify numbers, colours and symbols. It's also heaps of fun and guaranteed to get participants laughing. Unfortunately it sometimes gets participants crying too, but learning that you can have fun without "winning" is also important.

Older kids will enjoy games that are slightly more complicated. My hub loves a good card game and has taught the kids to play something called "2's and 3's". It's something he used to play when he was a kid. There are loads of great card games for kids and I think the best thing to do is try to remember what you enjoyed.

If you have no idea, you could try these ideas from About.com

Solitaire

I taught both the kids how to play “Clock Solitaire” and they both loved it. It was a real favourite of mine when I was young. It's the easiest to learn out of all the “Solitaries” and is great for concentrating, remembering, learning numbers and time as well as working motor skills when handling, shuffling and dealing the cards.

Here's a link to how to play "Clock "Solitaire" if you've forgotten the rules.


Building Card Houses

My kids had the most fun (and frustration!!) with this old fave. It was actually great for Em who sometimes finds it hard when things don't go the way she wants them to. It really worked on her patience, persistence and acceptance. Ed had great fun too, controlling his muscles and sense of balance to get the cards sitting just right.

Ed's Masterpiece

Sharing Fun Food Facts

I love to arm my kids with information about things, especially food. I think it's important for kids to know that we don't just eat for taste - food is to nourish our bodies to help us stay healthy and strong.

I remember the first time I taught about food in my Kinder program. I was amazed at the level of interest and just how much ownership the kids took of what went into their bodies after they knew how food effected it's functioning.

I thought I'd share some of the food facts I continually talk about with my kids. I really find it helps to get them to eat good, nourishing food:

• Meat has protein in it that builds up strong muscles.
• Bread, crackers and cereals have grains that give you energy and keep your poo healthy.
• Milk, cheese and yoghurt have calcium that is good for your teeth and bones.
• Fruit and vegetables have vitamins and minerals that keep your eyes and hair and skin healthy and also help your body to fight germs that can make you sick.
• Water is good for your kidneys and keeps your wee healthy.
• Too much sugar is bad for your teeth and puts you in a bad mood.
• Too much salt is bad for your blood and makes you really thirsty.
• Too much fat is bad for your heart.
  

Food is quite a complicated topic and some of these 'facts' probably over-simplify things. But you have to give kids a starting point and I've found these small pieces of information along with a bit of basic knowledge about how the body functions really help to get the kids eating well.

Do you have any tricks to get your kids to eat well or fun food facts you like to share in your house?

Foamie Pictures

I bought a packet of foam dinosaur stickers the other day on a bit of a whim. The kids have been a bit sick of late and I've been on the look-out for quiet activities for the two kids to do together. Ones that require a bit of imagination and creativity but not so much input from me.

The stickers I chose were just the shape and outline of the dinosaurs, so when the kids were using them, they not only had to think about the background in the pictures they were making with the stickers, but also the what the faces of the dinosaurs would be like.


Em, who is seven, experimented with colour and stories and also thought a lot about the detail that would be on the dinosaurs if the stickers were real pictures.



Ed, who is "going to be five" (as you can see in the pics!), thought about whether his dinosaurs would be happy, sad, angry or excited. He spent a lot of time thinking about the story he was creating in his pictures.



They both had a great time with it, talking, creating and researching.

I couldn't resist these people shaped foam stickers when I spotted them a few days later. I also bought some fine-tipped permanent markers so that it was easier to include detail.


So the fun started all over again .....

Keeping it Simple

I read an article today (and the many comments afterwards) that reminded me of how simple a happy life can be. It’s so easy to try to complicate things with career aspirations, mortgages, a constant barrage of info from the media on how to look better, feel better, have more and do more …




When it comes to kids, they need very little to be happy

• lots of sleep
• good, nutritious food served at meals spent with loved ones
  
• lots of love and hugs and kisses and smiles
• someone who listens to them and values what they have to say and do
• simple toys and materials that encourage creativity, exploration, investigation and imagination
• a place to feel safe and secure
• music, books, songs and silly games

I don’t think adults are too different.

It makes you wonder how things got so complicated ……………….

What simple things make you and your little one happy?

The Fairies are Back

Last year I wrote a very excited post about a beautiful fairy toadstool that had popped up on my front nature strip. It was a proper red and white toadstool, the 'Enid Blyton' kind that features regularly in stories about fairies and pixies and goblins. We were so excited and very tempted to play fairies under our toadstool until some of my northern hemisphere readers pointed out just how poisonous this type of fungi is.

I thought it was a lovely, magical one-off kind of thing because these toadstools don't pop up much in this part of the world. So you can imagine my astonishment when this year, 13 toadstools appeared on my lawn.







Yes, it seems the fairy enjoyed her stay so much last year, she told all her friends and now we have fairy village just outside our front gate. Ok, I realise the one that was out there last year probably spawned and that's why we have so many this year, but I like the idea of the one little fairy that was here last year telling all her friends about the wonderful time she had outside our house and the beautiful happy energy that radiated from us and so all her friends have come to experience it to. That's a much nicer story and I'm sticking to it!

Fun With A Lid

I just love listening to how the kids are playing and thinking of ways I can build on what they’re doing.

Ed loves to set up a little house for his teddy Yarji. Recently, he had put together the highchair, potty, microwave and stroller to play house when I suggested he use a little swing we have to give Yarji a back yard. He was keen to set this up and so I started to think about ways I could incorporate a slide.

I grabbed a lid I had to a large plastic container and propped it up against a dining room chair. This made a perfect slide for Yarj.

After Yarj had a few turns, Ed ran off to get some cars to drive down the slide too

Then Yarj’s turtle friend “came over” in his tissue-box car and had a go playing in Yarji’s backyard too.

Making ramps like this is a great way to keep kids interested and busy. It really works cognitive skills as kids experiment, anticipate and recall how each toy and item behaves as it travels down the ramp. It’s generally something they’re happy to use over and over and over again.

I'm playing along at the Childhood 101 "We Play"link up