wa'shi gonna do?

'Mum, can I play with your pretty tape?'

Words which could make a washi-lover nervous.

But clearly sticking the pretty is not really the goal here.

Much more fun to make patterns, colour-coordinate, build towers ...

... and of course knock them down!

Clearly washi is an important educational toy, I should probably get more right?

watch, learn, enact

Years ago I knew a couple who both ran NGO's, both always working to raise the funds needed to pay salaries and do the research they required.
Their 2 year old son started having nightmares about 'funders'.

A friend of Friday's (whose parents travel a lot for work), once initiated a crazed game of 'packing' - running around our house stuffing random things into a small suitcase in a harried and desperate fashion. Friday followed behind, loving the pace but slightly bemused (she whose parents rarely travel) by the concept.

Today, the daughter of a friend who works to create partnerships between various organisations, picked up our little ukelele, and sang a sweet little song with the lyrics: 'Meetings, I've got lots of meetings.'

They really are little sponges, and it's remarkable how much comes out in their play. Or, as the pictures illustrate, and we know from experience, sometimes it's got nothing to do with anything.
Except the insides of their heads. Fascinating little creatures.

undecipherable play

I really ...

... couldn't tell you what's happening here.

And I'm a little afraid to ask.

planet kids, muizenberg

I'm not a fan of indoor play places (sometimes I think I'm such a parenting grinch), but Planet Kids in Muizenberg is truly an exception.

A beautiful building, huge room, high ceilings, wooden floors and lots and lots of creative, original and stimulating play to be had.

Exciting sit-on slide, takes kids up to 35kg.

All manner of ride-on's. These padded platforms with wheels and some gorgeous little wooden cars too.

Lovely wooden puzzles and a couple of fooz-ball tables for some calmer fun.

Great imaginative 'ball wall' - with lots of different sized balls and holes to lob them through.

Plus, two indoor jumping castles - one is a UFO with aliens inside! A corner for smaller kiddies, comfy seating for the grown-ups, coffee, an outside jungle gym etc for sunny days, a fun collection of party stuff for sale and a dedicated room for birthday parties.
What's not to love?

chalk and cheese

Sunday's new school couldn't be less like the school she attended last year. We loved last year's school, and we love this one, make no mistake, but I do marvel at the differences.

Last year's school was bright and colourful and spanking clean. This year's school is earthy and natural, the brightest colours in the place are on the kids, this year's school is muddy and haphazard and ... mysterious.

Last year's dressing up rail was a parade of delightful outfits, various characters and animals, lots of sparkly fairy wings.
This year's dressing up suitcase is a unknown bundle of weird and wonderful - second-hand hats and homemade creations, scarves in every natural dyed colour known to childkind.

Last year's play-dough was glittery and aromatic, cut with bright plastic shape cutters, this year's play-dough is ... yup, naturally dyed, and slowly all melding into the same shade of brown, moulded into gnomes and toadstools.

Last year's outside was a big netted trampoline, climbing frames and a guinea-pig in a hutch. This year's outside is a vintage swing-set, a climbable tree, a teepee and a friendly Great Dane to pet through a fence.

Last year's school had the alphabet on the wall, this year's school has a surfboard in the corner.

But what last year's school and this year's school have in common is this: a teacher whom Sunday loves. A woman who sees my baby girl, who gets her idiosyncrasies and laughs at her jokes, who guides her through these first fragile years of learning about group interaction and standing on one's own two small feet.

Two utterly different sides of the same warm, secure coin. How lucky to be exposed to both.

lessons in rice

These photos are from back in February. I have a feeling it was the first morning I got an inkling that my next few months at home with Sunday weren't going to be all plain sailing ...

It started off alright, a little girl very busy doing funny little girl things.

See that tray of coloured rice? I left it there naively thinking it would extend her solo play time, while I got some work done.
2 colours rice and some pouring and scooping toys. What's not to love right?

It was all going swimmingly until I mixed the rice. And something in her then-nearly-3-year-old make-up VIOLENTLY OBJECTED to such an outright parental disrespect for the natural order of dyed rice segregation.
In short, all hell broke loose (no photos supplied).

In those early days of tantrum hell my first response was to IMMEDIATELY FIX THE PROBLEM and so ...

... we quickly set about dying new batches of rice.
(See that sweet clear-eyed face, showing no trace of recent demonic fury and rage.)

Each colour carefully and prettily segregated as they dried in the sunshine. And then very carefully and prettily separately decanted into a plastic muffin tray from the recycling.

Whereupon what was the first thing she did? MIXED THE COLOURS OF COURSE.

In retrospect there were a lot of lessons learnt that day, about the deep complexities of the 3 year old mind. About trying to apply adult logic to a very non-adult small person.
And in the months since we've learnt how very many games, crafts and fun times can be had with a simple batch of coloured rice.

For all of us.

We've also learnt how spilled uncooked rice will stick to your toes and spread throughout your house in ways we could never have imagined.
This batch of rice served us well, but finally, today, I swept up and chucked the last of it. And like the tantrums which held us all hostage these past months (but have started to abate) I hope not to see any more dyed rice around here for a long, long time.

weekend of industry

It was a project-based weekend.

All of us had one. Most, more than one.

And predictably they are all still just like this, scattered about the house, thumbing their noses at the looming Monday morning.
Except for that delicious pulla of course, just enough remains to have with my coffee tomorrow. As I contemplate the happy mess.

marble painting

I've noticed that, especially with my older girl, there can be some resistance if it's felt I'm being too 'instructive'.
I suppose it makes sense that if I'm the person always instructing them about eating properly, dressing properly (knickers are NOT optional wear!), wearing sunblock etc they don't want to feel too dictated to when it comes to fun things, like art projects.

So this past weekend, knowing they've both done this at school, I asked them to 'show me' how to do marble painting.
I feigned complete ignorance and took instruction as to what we'd need, how to go about it etc.

A plastic muffin tray was pulled from the recycling box, 3 paint colours were chosen and a hunt around the house produced 3 different size marbles and some old medicine spoons for transferring paint-covered spheres to awaiting virgin paper. Their respective teachers taught them well!

With lots of: 'See Mum? This is how you do it', the lesson began.

These 'kitty litter' trays from the plastic shop have proved their worth (R20!) time and time again!

And then we came to the part about home art which I've always struggled with, and I think they especially love precisely because it's so unlikely to happen in a classroom environment: getting down and dirty!

For why stick to marbles if your fingers are right there at the end of your inquisitive hands?

And so endth the lesson, and the last dregs of paint!

4 Dec

With a grandfather and an uncle as eminent botanists is it any wonder she knows how to pontificate, at length and with varying degrees of bullsh*t, about various plants?
This game was called 'Kirstenbosch'.

how to make friends and influence people

The 5 year old approach.

1. Scan immediate area for possible candidates. Remain alert at all times.
The beach, playground, open field next to your house - all of these are places which could produce your next BFF. Stay attune to the sounds of young voices at play, or even shrieking at their parents - both are signs of possible compatibility.

2. Approach with subtlety, and zero fear of rejection. There are various methods.
Start mimicking the existing game, whether it be jumping over waves and screeching, or quietly collecting daisy petals. Continue until your presence is noticed.
Another tactic is to engage the subject's younger/older sibling in a game. But never lose sight of the real prize,  no matter how fun the game at hand, keep an eye on your chosen candidate, you're winning when they start looking sour.

3. Swoop in.
'Come help me get the ball away from your brother.'
WINNER. I could not be prouder of her subtle and devious tactics.
'Here's an interesting shell, would you like it for your collection?'
Another goodie.
'Whaaaa, I just farted and fell over in the water!'
Not as impressive, to me, but the target is now putty in her hands - entranced and utterly hooked.

4. Play like you've known each other forever.
Fairy garden fairy garden fairy garden princess dress pirate capture feed ducks shark attack harass younger siblings sand castle fairy garden here comes the bride cast some spells fairy garden dragon fireman fart daisy chain fairy garden.

5. Keep 'em keen.
Ask, after an hour's play, 'What's your name again?'

Come home deeply satisfied with peer encounter and secure in the knowledge that you've cemented your presence in the world just a little bit more.

Ah, that making friends remained this easy. And simple!

scratch patch, simon's town

After a week of flu-induced confinement the girls were champing for an outing. Still not very strong though, I decided to keep it low-exertion and sold them on 'an expedition to find treasure'!

Feels so good under little toes.

Select, fill, discard, repeat.

Frolic.

I'd remembered the Scratch Patch near Simon's Town as badly lit and a little bit stinky, but that was 30-odd years ago.
These days it's nicely laid-out and a very easy outing with kids. You pick the size bag you can afford and have as much time as you like to fill it with treasure. Informative posters scattered around tell you what you're 'hunting', there's a cafe for tea and milkshakes and a gift shop to browse the real sparklies 'look with your EYES only!'.

We weren't even back in car before they started planning the games they'd play when they got home. Those R25 bags of semi-precious stones was one of the best investments I made these holidays.

g(l)umboots

What is it about kids and puddles?

Like moths to a flame.

I've recently discovered there is no better cure for a bout of the winter glumps, then gumboot walking on Rondebosch Common.

All you need is a break in the weather and a sense of adventure,

a little bit of curiousity ...

... and dry pants in the car for the trip home.

the pink princess

Oh it was inevitable really. The first sign was her declaration, some weeks back, that she was going to buy a 'Barbie statue' with her birthday money from Ouma.
(A pretty astute comment as my sister-in-law pointed out, for is Barbie not much more statue looking than traditional dolly?).

The second sign was her asking me, seconds before opening her birthday presents, 'Is there a PRINCESS dress Mum?'
Oh.

As it turns out there wasn't. I'd really not picked up that she wanted one. But she did. And though she showed no disappointment with the gifts she did receive (sweet girl) there was a quiet determination that a pink princess dress would be procured.

So off we went to the Fairy Shop with purse stuffed with Ouma's birthday money (plus Christmas AND last birthday's money too ...), where she spotted The One right away.
And has hardly taken it off since.

 

It seems even the most tom-boyish girl will have a princess-phase. Five is probably the perfect time to indulge it I think.

Not being a particularly 'girly' girl myself I didn't see this one coming. I didn't encourage it and to be truthful, I didn't think I'd really enjoy it. 

But can you see the joy? Can you see it swirling and twirling around inside her and out? Can you see she's still choosing to pair the dress with high-top sneakers?

It's a thing of great beauty.

I think I'll dig out my old Peaches 'n Cream Barbie for her tomorrow ... Feels like it'll kinda suit the theme.

a good moment

What with the pox 'n all, the girls and I spent rather a lot of time house-bound last week. These two sisters, who for the most part are starting to play beautifully together, got a little frayed around the edges and eventually snapped like the string of a cheap bead necklace. Oh, and that also happened.

Tears, beads everywhere, accusatory finger-pointing, despair and then - what do you know - busyness for the next hour or so.

First the beads needed to be collected, counted, colour-categorised, and then re-strung. All favourite activities.

Little beads proved a bit tricky for little fingers, so I dug out the shape-sorting bucket and a shoe-lace.

Happiness.

But we weren't done categorising (these are girls after my own heart). Quick colour and shape reference cards were made and they were off.

A squabble which turned into an hour's diversion of fun, learning and sisterly cooperation. A bad moment which needed just the gentlest input from me to change course.

We all learnt something that afternoon.

bookcase dolls house

It's been a bit of a week ... my small girl turned 2 on Sunday and last night my 92 year old grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep. Makes for some mixed emotions, but all of them around celebrating family - and what greater thing is there to celebrate really?

For Sunday's birthday I ambitiously tackled a bookcase dolls house, as always greatly inspired by Pinterest. Not having a handy IKEA from which to purchase the perfect bookcase I scrounged around furniture stores in Woodstock and stumbled across this beauty ...

... not.

But, voila! Lookee here ...

I lucked out on the kalahari.net Educo sale and got the bathroom, kiddies room and kitchen dolls house sets at 50% off, used some other bits 'n bobs we had around, some pretty paper (wouldn't I love Orla Kiely wallpaper in my own kitchen?) and some pieces carefully saved from my childhood dolls house (made by my beloved departed grandad). The whole project cost well under R500 and is, if I do say so myself, magnificent.

The bathroom has proved to be the most popular with a certain birthday girl who took it upon herself to potty-train the week before her 2nd birthday! All the dolls house inhabitants seem to be suffering some terrible tummy bug judging by how often they're on and off the commode. Plenty of showers being taken too.

After a short but furious debate with my co-architect (ie Husband) we I decided to fore go partitions between the rooms. We can always add those later but for now the open-plan layout works well for little hands.

It's all about celebrating families round here.