encouraging the "What if??" in kids

These are the new most favourite thing to draw with in our house, Twistable Pencils by Crayola. Sort of a cross between a pencil and a crayon, they are bright and easy to draw with, but also have a fine point for more detailed drawing. I love them!!

Lately, Jumeirah has been "thinking outside the box" for want of some way to put it! We will be sitting in the car and the question comes " Mum, if you could have a super power, what would you like?" Hmm tough one... would I freeze time? Read minds?? ( hubbin tells me I wouldnt like this one which makes me want it more!) Click my fingers like Mary Poppins and have all sorts of wonderful, cleany uppery stuff happen?? Whilst I was wishful thinking away, she told me " I would like to fly". Oh yeah that would be awesome too :)

When we got home, we read a princess book, I gave her the question, " If you were a princess what would you be like?" and she raced off to draw a picture of herself as a princess for her " project".






Its such a great picture and I love the way she sees herself as a princess, kind caring and a great sharer. She'd be a wonderful princess :)

Over the weekend, she talked about what she had done in school that week which was Aboriginal stories or "Dreamtime stories" (How the birds got their colours, How the kangaroo got its tail etc) and seeing as shes been in a creating mood, I suggested she write her own.
I asked her to pick an animal she wanted to focus on, and then to pick something about them eg a body part, a particular ability of that animal etc. I gently suggested a Giraffe and his long neck, but she said "a starfish". I had no idea where she was going with this one and she would not be persuaded to pick a different she set to working out her story.

This is her story of how the Starfish got its suckers.










(this page is my writing as she couldnt write fast enough and was getting frustrated)







Kind put me to shame really. But it was a fantastic activity for her to stretch that incredible brain of hers.

Story writing, make believe and "what ifs?" give a child a great opportunity to really "think outside the box", and allows them to explore and create from their own imagination. I was totally surprised at how limited my own imagination has become in comparison. I loved being a part of this whole process with her, watching her story unfold, amazed that she was able to work out the plot and ending for herself, and blown away by her ability to create a story that was interesting and clever.

Photo bliss

Rainbow Beach

Earlier tonight, I posted a link to a website that was offering an awesome prize, $100 gift voucher to spend on some awesome products.

Its being offered over at Moms with Cameras, the voucher is for the website Paint the Moon.

I discovered Paint the Moon a little while ago. Its got the most fantastic range of "actions" and tones to use when editing your photos. Now, I am not really into "editing" my photos very much. I like the way I take photos and have worked pretty hard to try and get it right through the lens, rather than fiddle too much in Photoshop. ( not to say I dont like others who do it, I am just not very good at the editing part!)
But I had a bloggy friend write about the website, and found out that she has HEAPS of free things to try out and so I got some cool freebies and have fallen in love :)

Its not something I use on every photo, but sometimes I like to muck around with the colour and tones of a photo to see the different results I can get. Somtimes the results are subtle, other times you can totally change the mood of a photo.
Heres a photo from todays adventures: the original, and then run through a few things from Paint the Moon.

Original
Sunny Days

Vanilla Pop

Strawberries and Cream

Its something you should definitely add to your photoshop to try out yourself!!

I would love to see how yours turn out :)

Today was a "kick your shoes off, wiggle your toes in the sand and sunshine" kinda day as we headed out to Rainbow Beach for our family day ( daddy goes back to work next week so we made the most of one last day) .

We collected shells....
Walked hand in hand

we climbed rocks and thought we were very clever......

performed shows......


walked on daddys shadow....

drew around our own shadows.....
had "moments" that a photo just cant really capture...


There is absolutely NO photos of Jared that were any decent, hes avoiding me and my black face mask :) Its ok, I'll get him tomorrow :)

Happy weekending!!

Win a $100 Gift Card from Paint the Moon at www.moms-with-cameras.com!

Moms with cameras


Paint the Moon


This is just a quick one before I do a better one tonight, but Paint the Moon is the new photo place I have been learning about so much!! Will show you some cool stuff a bit later! But go to moms with cameras to get in the competition to win an awesome gift voucher prize! Seriously this is an awesome prize :)

whats on the shelf?

What the shelf looks like before the attack...

Today dawned cold and bleak, lovely wintery weather. Jumeirah asked why she was going to school so early, when actually it was almost 9am! One of those rug up or stay in bed days :)

Unfortunately, life with three children doesnt really allow for such luxuries as staying in bed all day so I got up and set off to find something to do.
As this whole week is set to be gloomy and indoorsy, we decided to fix up the activity shelf.
Years ago, when it was just Jumeirah and me, she had free reign to all her toys. Anytime, any place, she could get anything and EVERYTHING out. Which she did. Often. Leading me to spend days searching for missing pieces, and nights trying to sort out toys to be put back with their own families. It was frustrating and not only that, I found she got bored, even having the ability to play with everything.
So, once I had two kids, I set up a system that worked and still works now.
I bought a cheap shelving system and only a selection of toys and activities go on it each week. I found this way, not only do I not have to sort copious amounts of toys out, they can pack it up themselves as its not too much to deal with. And having something for only a week and then getting packed away for awhile makes it more exciting when it finally comes back out again. Its still a free choice chelf, they can pick and choose as they like.
And so I packed away the shelf things and got some new ones out, with the help of Jared and Amahli.
Jared really wanted the gears out. This is such a great building/ cause and effect activity. Both he and Amahli sat for ages, connecting the gears and spinning them. I love the rainbows :)

Books are always on the shelf but I invested in some new ones this week so they were popular today too.
I found these treasures for $3 (! yes its a bargain!) in Target.




Two I bought are eye spy style books, with facts on transport, but also lots of interseting tiny detail to pore over. Jared and I played "Who can find..." for ages.


I bought this one for Jumeirah, "Why do I wash my hands?" as she constantly needs reminding to stop and do it.

She has way too much going on in her brain and needs to get to the next thing fast so she forgets. This book showed her the facts on germs and other nasties so she really understand why its important. She loved getting into the details of this book, she has such a love to KNOW why, how, where and when of everything. I also found one called " Why do I run?" which shows how the body works in excerise. Shes been mad keen on healthy eating and excerise lately, wanting to get fit and strong so she can race daddy.



We also have a few puzzles, some letter boards, and big transport vehicles. Its still a big hit in our family, the two littles love playing with trucks and cars. Last week I did something crazy and let them play with the sandpit INSIDE ( who does that??!) with their little diggers and they absolutely loved it. So they asked for it again and I relented, knowing that enjoyment sometimes needs to come ahead of the mess factor... :)

This afternoon, having 5 seconds of alone time with Jared, he spotted Jumeirahs city picture and wanted to make a city too. He wasnt keen on drawing it, so we got out the scissors and I drew him some shapes to cut out. Hes getting pretty good at this, just needs to practise a bit more :)





He cut quite a few out, then also made some "grass" and we glued it down. He also drew a big sun and said "Its a day, Mum!"

And whilst I had scissors in my hands, I snipped some more golden locks from this gorgeous boy, who was looking a bit mad professorish, but now looks like a handsome man again :)

night picture

Hat Head: pure paradise

Trial Bay Gaol
Crazy Escapees



We didn't go far, and we didn't go for long.. but a short break was EXACTLY what I needed.
Such a lovely couple of days with my gang over the weekend and then away to Trial Bay ( just up the coast). Its such a great spot with lots to do and see ( we went to the Gaol, the beach and the lighthouse as well as hung out in the games room at the caravan park) but also gave me time to just STOP. Something I don't do often enough, then wonder why I get tired and burnt out!

Hubbin is off this week on a break himself so we probably wont be doing as much crafty stuff, opting to chill out at the beach or park. But I do have a few things to show that we have been doing lately...
I had cut out some shapes for Jared to trace with the plan to make a "city" picture. I wanted to continue with talking about opposites and wanted to show him "day" and "night" and talk about it. I made windows and buildings and got it all set up for him. He, unfortunately, was totally not keen but Jumeirah was and so she sat and began to trace some shapes. Half way through the first rectangle building she tells me "I could do this better without the tracing bit!" and so she just drew her city.




I told her that we were going to turn her city from day to night and she was curious as to how that would work. She drew her city with pastels and had a great time.
We talked about the differences between day and night: the lights, the sounds, and she added, " The tooth fairy comes only at night!" And so I encouraged her to add the tooth fairy into her picture.
Once she had finished, I gave her black food colouring to paint over her picture. It was instantly transformed to the middle of the night and she absolutely squealed at how cool it looked :)




How cute is the tooth fairy :)

She loved the effect so much she went on to create some more pictures, then paint over them too. Bright pastels give an almost neon look to her pictures, and creates a totally new look to a picture :)