From the monthly archives: March 2014
How to have fun on a rainy day!
- Look through old photos, dig out the albums, or if you are a little more high-tech - connect your photo albums to your tv or laptop and have a slide show. My kids never tire of seeing baby photos of themselves, or picture from holidays or family trips.
- Take to the kitchen and bake or cook up a storm. We have two faves, ‘Cupcake Wars’ and ‘Kids Café’. Check out the Womens Weekly birthday cakes book for cake-spiration or the Junior Masterchef book for café ideas. My daughters' lovely teacher tells me this is also a great way to incorporate maths into your day (weighing, measuring, taking the money for orders…)
- Get your craft on and get creative. We love Beci Orpin! Her books are a fab way to inspire little minds. The kids also love to dig out animal books, favourite picture books and pore over the pages for more inspiration. If you are really keen, you can tackle an old school diorama of a cool scene – firm faves are ‘underwater’, ‘robot city’ ‘dinosaur land’(Play School does a fab job on these!).
- Get wet! Head down to your local park and get wet. If we drive, we like to take a plastic tub to throw all the wet gumboots and clothes (if you’ve had a really good time in puddles) so the car stays dry. If we are walking, I put the tub near the front door and collect the wet gear as they come in. Let the kids sail leaf boats, look for frogs and see what has come out in the wet weather.
- Snuggle up on the couch together and watch classics. Our top picks are Princess Bride, Stardust, Labyrinth and Mathilda, just add popcorn and bingo a cinematic memory yours for the taking.
It’s a familiar battleground.
Homework o’clock.
Understanding, encouraging, cajoling, threatening, pleading, and any other tool I have in my arsenal in an attempt to ensure the kids are receiving a good education and we are not going completely loony trying to get EVERYTHING done.
One of the major quandaries I seem to be coming up against lately is finding the balance between stepping in and stepping back.
Helping your kids is one thing, becoming a helicopter parent is a whole other can of worms!
Where do you draw the line?
Take maths.
The kids now have Mathletics (an online learning portal with a bunch of tests and ‘live challenges’), worksheets and timetables to learn by rote (yep, those are still old school). Then there are the incidental maths type activities, cooking (weighing and measuring, counting, sorting…
The perfectionist in me wants each of the kids to get every question right, to have every worksheet completed, neatly and on time. Perfectly and correctly.
No mistakes.
I find I have to draw a line though because it can be a slippery slope to becoming THAT parent who possibly, no definitely, completed the assignment and then got disappointed when they ‘only received a B’.
I think kids need to learn what frustration, failure and pressure to get things done feels like, and they need to know it’s ok and perfectly normal. We all make mistakes sometimes, become angry when things don't go our way and frustrated when we are struggling to master a new skill. It's ok to admit that and then work through it. That's what can ultimately help us to become independent and build our confidence, and find our way.
There was a great article in The Age about how we can build resilience in our kids, and how it can be a great life lesson and skill to take into adulthood.
What do you think? Do you allow your kids to fail or feel disappointed? Or do you think there is plenty of time to learn those hard lessons?
Enjoy xx
It's been a little quiet on the blog front here...
The main reason is we are gearing up for Perth Upmarket on the weekend.
Preparing for our favourite farmers markets, Mt Claremont, we are now there each fortnight!
Plus we are getting set for Marketgirl!
Busy, busy times!
What have you been up to?
Enjoy xx
Mt Claremont Farmers Market!
