From the category archives:

Observation

Wordless Wednesday – Baby Tomatoes

May 16, 2012 Life and Living

It has come to my attention that some people think I can grow plants. In reality, I have a black thumb. I can germinate them, but then they always die, or go mouldy, or are blown away in a cyclone (seriously!) or are otherwise stunted and sickly. So here I am very proudly showing off [...]

Kid Questions: Why does my voice sound funny in the tunnel?

April 30, 2012 Energy and Change

There is a spot in our school where the classrooms and verandahs make a little tunnel about 10m long. The kids all love the echoey sound and it’s common to see them popping in and out and giggling madly. The little girl noticed it the other day when we were walking through the school and [...]

Hoop Surveys

April 5, 2012 Activities

The last time we did this type of thing we were outside with cameras, the whole yard was our canvas and we were skimming over the top, picking the highlights. This week we did the opposite – pulled it back to a piece of ivory two inches on a side, on which we worked with [...]

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 [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Glue on your hands

March 7, 2012 Materials

Putting glue on your hand then peeling it off? That’s totally science!

Road Runner is funny because he breaks the laws (of physics)

March 5, 2012 Energy and Change

While researching this post (watching cartoons on YouTube) I discovered that Road Runner cartoons are from the 60s – a lot older than I thought. Which shows that some things are timeless, especially what makes us laugh. Road Runner is funny because it breaks the rules. When people watch something like Road Runner they always [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Whirlpools

February 22, 2012 Babies

I can’t say how happy it makes me that the girls love watching the whirlpool when you pull the plug out. I love seeing the two waves on top of the water – the huge influence of such a tiny flaw. A shining, silvery hole twisting and turning in the water. Excuse the scum.

Wordless Wednesday – All Around Us

February 15, 2012 Life and Living

I had a couple of examples of interesting life around us on the holidays. The first was the enormous moth above – it’s as long as my finger! It’s a hawkmoth, which comes from the Yeperenye caterpillar and is an important Dreaming spirit in the Alice Springs region. It was just in a corner of the [...]

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 [...]