Eat Play Love Life

It’s always a hard choice, where to send your children to school. For now, we are choosing not to. There are so many reasons and don’t get me wrong, the school I was part of in Singapore I loved. Loved, it was a wonderful place; a kind, loving community and had the most wonderful people and educators I’ve ever met. However, for right now this is the path we are walking with our children. We are all learning every day. I hope in the future the world of travel opens up again so we can continue to learn about the world, in the world with our children🤞

I should also say, you know your family, yourself and your child best. Whatever you have chosen with your family in terms of education is your choice and I hope you don't let others make you feel guilty or not like a "good parent". There are no "good parents" we are all just trying to do the best with the information we have and are hoping our kids don't hate us in the end. Good luck to you and to us all!

Raising Free People We can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people - we must examine privilege and power in our relationships with our children, the world’s most vulnerable citizens and embrace chaos in efforts to allow trust-based practices to emerge. We can do this through liberation work...

Travelling this summer? Here's a post for you.

Hanmer Springs and Christchurch 2020 A summary of our trip to Hanmer Springs and Christchurch.

Marble painting is always a hit for the littles. It’s a great simple process art experience. I’ll be cutting this into strips to use as a paper chain for our tree. We’ve sometimes used it as a colour mixing experience. The excitement that comes when you put 2 primary colours on the paper and the children roll the marbles around to discover they’ve made a new colour is priceless. Give it a go. Keep track of those marbles with littles!

This year is the first year since the kids were born that we’re spending Christmas at home. We finally got a tree and it’s been so fun watching the family put it up and create the ornaments to go on it. My heart is full💕

We are so very blessed to live so close to so many “wild” spaces. A friend and I have decided to make a commitment to spend at least one day every week exploring these beautiful spaces with our children. Last week we spent 3 days in different wild spaces and each time the children came up with different games/stories etc all on their own. If there is an interest, I would be happy to note down some of the things the children have engaged in while in nature. It’s amazing how these spaces feel so incredibly healing to me and how much joy it creates in my children 😊We have and could spend hours playing here. What’s your family’s favourite experience? 💙

I know I’m not alone in saying this. As a teacher, my most treasured gifts were those made by children. Art, cards, letters and little notes always brought me the most joy because it was a true memory of the time we shared together. I have kept all those gifts. So, after a year of not being a classroom teacher to receive this in the mail from an ex-student...well, it’s been one of the best memories I will take with me from this year. Thank you🥰 ❤️ ❤️

Sometimes the boys choose to make their own play and sometimes I set up an invitation to play for them. I try not to overdo my invitations, as I believe there is so much to gain from the children leading the way. The boys went to sleep early last night so I set something up. M started playing with it on his own. A was engaged in hole punching and cutting. I love when they are happily at play, however I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching them get excited over the things I set up for them. Eventually, both boys were playing together. I know this will continue to spark their imagination and wouldn’t be surprised if they set something similar up themselves later in the week. How often do you set something up? Have your children come to expect you leading or directing the play? Where is your happy medium? Do your children have time to get bored?

A is loving telling stories at the moment. We used a shoe box and wax paper to make a shadow puppet theatre. A used items he already had to create a story that included rocket launchers, earthquakes and Chase from Paw Patrol🤷🏽‍♀️He hasn’t expressed an interest in making puppets, but who knows where this next week will lead us. The most exciting thing seems to be playing with the torches😅 💙

Just feeling really grateful for “home” days in our week. The boys wanted to show me a track near our house and then we just kept walking. They have been reading books about plastic and learning about biodegradation. So nice to see them transfer that new found knowledge to the world around them. They also pretended they were Mars Rovers Curiosity and Opportunity exploring and “drilling” for samples in search of life. Happy days. 💙💙

New Post for you this Sunday. Happy Reading.

We Become the Stories We Tell. How our lives are influenced by what we see and hear around us.

Head to the link in my bio to have a read. #2020

So, it’s not a surprise that I suck at taking photos, but doing it anyway (sorry beautiful insta)😅🤷🏽‍♀️ . In an effort to share what actually happens in our house and to make others feel like setting up play experiences is doable without a massive budget, here is ours.
We’re in a rental so we’re using what we can. We don’t have a lot of stuff seeing as our boxes are still in a different country.
I do a toy rotation, there is no set schedule. I will change one or two things up every now and then depending on the boys.
We’ve had a “shop” in our place for awhile and have turned a room into a “kitchen”. The big boxes drive the boys to from shop to kitchen with their produce. They have been loving it.
Don’t be afraid to try set something up, it doesn’t have to be beautiful. It’s fun and so fulfilling to watch the joy in their play.

Planting micro-greens today among other things. It was a good start to the week. Hope you had a happy Monday too!

When discussing the week ahead with the boys, A decided he wanted to make frames for “Grandma and Seeya” (Seeya is what he calls my dad). We decided we’d have a beach day today, but due to the cold morning we swapped our day around a bit. I think the grandparents are going to be super happy with these frames...if they survive the airmail journey 🤞I think, when I asked A what he was interested in learning more about this week, he was staring at a picture on the wall and said “frames”. Then giving him space to compose a thought he said he wanted to know how to make a frame. When I said we could make frames from the cardboard we had he lit up and said “yah, we can make it for grandma and Seeya”. I was not expecting to be making frames this week, but I think it goes to show how working in collaboration with family members can inspire some great experiences. The boys have left the craft table to play “cook” and with their fire engine. The frames will remain out for them so they can return to it whenever they feel ready to continue. For those interested they were sat at the craft table(dinning table) for a good 2-3 maybe 4 hours making these frames, colouring and making cards for their cousin.

Just because it’s no longer trending doesn’t mean it’s no longer important. Have a read and let me know your thoughts.

Hope this gets you thinking reflectively about your own life.

Not enough Where is your line in the sand now?

This country just floors me. It is so beautiful. I love seeing the boys play here so much💕💕

One of the things I learned from working in a Reggio Inspired Preschool was, first and foremost, listen to the children and see what captivates them. Then based on that information, offering opened ended materials in order for them to express themselves in whatever way may come out.
The boys have been really intrigued with all things space related. Watching numerous documentaries, reading space related fiction and non-fiction from our local library and ebooks, so many art experiences, construction with playmags, boxes and more, star gazing, pretend play, NASA readings/photos etc.

Today, I found both boys under the coffee table blasting off to space!

M has been really into the Milky Way and stars so we made our very own red giant. Then M insisted I take a photo of him in front of his work!

I’m no expert, but here are a few stories we love to read in our home. We are the stories we tell. Check your books shelves folks. Change the story, it is your job as a parent/carer to educate and if you don’t know make an effort to learn. If you have some good books in your bookshelf please comment below.

I have been trying to find the perfect cookie for awhile now. I’m so excited to say, I have found my perfect cookie!!! Thanks to tasty.co it’s rightly named “The best chewy chocolate chip cookies” Do yourself a favour and try it out. I would follow the recommendation to part melt the butter and then stir it until it’s all melted. Thank you Soo good!!!

Sometimes, most/all of the time, learning is messy. A got the things he wanted to play with today. I didn’t set it out. He is welcome to most experiences in the house. These things are out for curious minds. My only request is that material and tools are used respectfully, safely and are tidied after. 💙

Sometimes I just leave things set up on the table and more often than not the boys interact with it. ✂️

The boys are loving this book at the moment. Thank you!

While a few of you might know how I feel about templates, the boys really wanted to try the suggested activity from and I’m never one to stand in the way when the boys are keen to do things like this. M in particular enjoyed this activity.

Here's something a little closer to my heart. Hope it's not too heavy folks.

Let's talk food I come from a foodie family. To me, eating good food is like experiencing the highest form of Art. It's the only thing I'm aware of that can

We have been doing a lot of colour based experiences lately. The boys are working towards purposefully mixing colours; well, A is. That’s not to say they don’t mix all the colours together, of course that is what it ends up like. For M that’s how it begins as well! 😅😆 I try to model what I’m after, however I think it’s important to respect where they are at. I believe that it’s my responsibility to expose my children to certain concepts or ideas if/when I believe they are ready or interested. I always keep this phrase in my head, which we were taught in Drama School: “Hold on tightly, let go lightly”. So many great life lessons came from my time there. Thanks

A has been loving using his imagination to make trains, cars etc. Though his current favourite interest is performing. I was attending to M when I snapped this photo. A said he was making a train with many carriages. His train got longer with more use of tape and scissors. He then turned his train back into cars, which he placed in front of a ‘stage’ he had made. The audience were meant to sit in the cars to watch the show (yes, I broke a box). It was a lovely performance though! ... I think my box breaking was an added bonus because A got to fix it again with his much beloved tape and scissors! 😅 He will soon be learning about resource scarcity🤷🏽‍♀️

Doesn’t look like much, but the last few days have been so much busier at the beach. Even though we all kept our distance it was nice to see so many people enjoying the joys of nature and hearing laughter ringing through the air. The boys and I did some movement, comparative language and shape recognition games on the sand. I drew different sized shapes on the sand and the boys had to find and jump x times/bunny hop/turn, balance etc on said shape. They enjoyed it so much, A drew his own shapes on the sand for me to jump in! He then drew a path between the shapes for M and I to balance on in between all the shape jumping.

We tried ice painting today...lasted about 5 minutes and then decided it was more fun painting ourselves 🤷🏽‍♀️😅

Keeping busy. The boys have been enjoying some science experiments, fine motor experiences, adventuring in nature and, yes as always, cooking! A made the pastry for our mini shepherds pies for dinner. Recipe . If you would like to know more details about any of the photos do let me know. We made “snow” by freezing some baking soda and then adding shaving cream to it. Feels super nice!

Made homemade puffy paint today. I was super excited because I’ve done it in a classroom before and it was always a big hit! Not a big hit with my kids...they were engaged for the first painting, but that was it. They had more fun playing with the shell that was full of rain water and sand😅 🤷🏽‍♀️