Today, I had the rare pleasure of spending some quiet, solo time with the three-year old. It was a really nice, low-key afternoon playing with blocks and Lego. Except of course for the part where I was standing on the couch telling him to smile for the camera.
But you know, other than that, really low-key.
Wow, a new post category. Because , yeah that’s amazing right 
Well, let me explain. I figure, this site is almost entirely about the creative stuff we do with the kids and that’s totally what it’s meant to be. But creativity is everywhere and there is just so much stuff that inspires me that I want to take the time to share some of the good stuff here once in a while, rather than just post it to Pinstergram and the like.
It’s gonna get random up in here. Believe!
It’ll mostly be things that I’ve seen in my travels either online or OMG in the real world that inspire me and that hopefully can be related back to creative times with the kids. What it’s not going to be is links to cool posts. That’s what Pinterest is for. This is personal yo!
Like the image above. Math, How rad is it! This is an image I found on my computer that I can’t even remember saving but it was in a fold called “temp images don’t delete” so it’s clear that I put it there. But I digress, my point is “wow, check out these pictures maths made”. (I wonder if that’s what I thought originally?) The boys are too little to really get how rad this is but I’m going to show them any way and then we’ll try and draw our own and it will be AWESOME!!!
Anyway, I hope you’ll find something cool here that you dig on and can take your own inspiration from and maybe even keep it in a folder called “temp images don’t delete”. And don’t worry, It’s not going to end up all “tumblr” here, it’s just a once in a while thing.
Have fun
Not too long ago we took a day trip out to… wait for it, can you guess where? Yup, Werribee Open Range Zoo. (Man, you’re like Sherlock Holmes). If you live in or are visiting Melbourne, Australia, you should totally check it out. It’s a bit less than an hour out of town and it’s mental! (In a good way).
It’s mental! (In a good way)
There’s a bit of a standard zoo park that you can walk around, which is cool in itself, but the real kicker is the open range bus tour. Basically, you jump in a bus with Big open windows and go and get all “up close and personal” with the Rhino, Giraffes, Antelope and the like. It’s Rad! And I say that even though most of the action was happening on the other side of the bus to us. “Way to pick the good side Dad. Bah!
It’s rad you should totally check it out. Melbourne zoo is pretty rad too. That just leaves Healesville Sanctuary to visit now and we’ll have done the set. Zoos Victoria do an awesome job and are definitely worth the cost of entry and totally worth the cost of membership. NB: This is not an ad but it IS a great deal.
Anyway, Checkit. Wroarrrr!
I saw a post over at artchoo (which is a pretty rad blog you should totally check out) the other day about their two favourite ABC Apps. We’ve mentioned before that we have a a bunch of kids apps, one of the more recent additions is Endless Alphabet which Jeanette mentions in her post.
We’ve been playing with it for a few weeks and we too think it’s AWESOME! It’s a beautifully finished piece of learning. The illustrations, characters and tone are all really cute and at times quite funny. The letter sounds they make have real personality and seem to really reinforce the letter. I guess by giving the letter a character there is some extra form of retention? Not sure but it seems to be working.
Best of all though is that the three year-old’s grasp of letters has just gone gang busters. He needs some guidance when playing with the app as he can get a bit carried away, but when he focuses, he really takes it in. We’ve even started using the same method of talking about letters when working on our alphabet without the app.
What letter makes an Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr sound?
It’s really catching on, we can now even play a halfway decent game of eye spy, we still need clues, but the game is actually getting pretty fun.
Anyway, I’m not a teacher but I can definitely recommend this app if you’re looking for something to learn / play with letters on. Also, I’m in no way affiliated with the makers of this app and not being paid to say this. I just think it’s awesome.
Another Easter, another trip to the grand parents, This year we had an awesome trip, the boys and their cousins are that little bit older and really starting to enjoy each others company.
No trip to the grand parents would be complete without a trip to the local op shop in the hunt for some dusty old kids books. This year there were a few little golden books but otherwise, pickings were relatively slim, that is except for this little beauty.
I’m now officially on an ebay hunt for more of these.
Sesame street library is awesome! The boys love it, the illustrations are beautiful, it’s funny (I totally “LOL’d”) and there is even some pretty good learning in there. I’m now officially on an ebay hunt for some more of these. I suggest you do the same. Did I mention that I think they’re Rad?