From the category archives:

Activities

Spinning Eggs

March 15, 2012 Activities

This is something that has been on my list of possible activities literally for years. But I’ve never got to it because it feels so contrived. I mean when would you have a reason to do this? No, it’s just a fun trick, not something you’d ever actually do. Except, first watch the movie. Now, [...]

Living Things Scavenger Hunt

March 8, 2012 Activities

The girls adore taking pictures, but tend to just snap away and we get hundreds of photos of leaves, or the sky, or their fingers and then they are forgotten. At the same time we keep finding fascinating things outside but not having a way to record them. So we remembered to take the camera [...]

Singing in the Rain

March 2, 2012 Activities

It’s raining again here. And raining, and raining. So I’m updating a post from over two years ago when I was starting out – it’s still fun today. Firstly – get out there! Before you go, get some towels and nice warm clothes ready and some soup or hot chocolate that can be easily heated. [...]

9 Things to do with Bicarb Soda and Acid

March 1, 2012 Activities

Bicarbonate soda and acid is one of the most common and fun chemical reactions. It’s closely related chemically to an extremely important environmental reaction – calcium carbonate and acid. This is the one where slightly acidic water slowly wears away limestone cliffs, but it is also extremely important to balance in the oceans and the [...]

Night and Day Collage

February 23, 2012 Activities

Little girl is enjoying her time on her own again, especially the time to be creative without being overshadowed by her big sister. It’s hard when someone you adore and want to be just like has such good ideas and the execution is beyond you. Her thing at the moment is cutting, and she’s surprisingly [...]

Girly Construction (Boys can do it too)

February 16, 2012 Activities

Sometimes it is brought sharply home to me that I have girls. And not just girls but fairy princesses. I don’t know if this is popular culture or some sort of cosmic payback, because I’m one of the least girly women you could think of. I don’t know if I even own high heels although [...]

A Farm in a Box

February 9, 2012 Activities

When we were kids we, like so many others, had silkworms. It was a fun introduction to lifecycles, responsibility and the ethical dilemma of collecting the silk easily or letting them eat their way out. Now I’ve discovered there is an even easier version where you can see the pupae rather than having them tucked [...]

Marvellous Marbling

February 2, 2012 Activities

The big girl received an art book for Christmas. Most of it is way too old for her, but she loves picking things out and then we get to work out how to modify them for her. She wanted to try marbling, but we had a few problems to solve so we tried lots of [...]

Engineer’s Report: Gingerbread House

December 22, 2011 Activities

Location: Slab has been well prepared, very smooth and level on a hard substrate. Block is minimum size, house too close to front boundary. Floorplan: A simple rectangle with only one room and firepit in the centre for cooking. Entrance centre front is decorative only, 6 windows give adequate light and ventilation but difficult to [...]

Holiday Activities

December 19, 2011 Activities

I‘m seriously out of touch but I know everyone is doing the Christmas Links post. So instead I decided to do holiday links, and include ideas of things to do with your kids over the holidays. I’m trying to go for some of the older ones, so unless you’ve been around since the beginning these [...]