July 2010

NGV Kids Corner

July 30, 2010

National Gallery Of Victoria has recently established a very special place for kids to play and explore called NGV Kids Corner. We went there for the first time in June and played, explored and created in the Light Play exhibition. Sparkling crystals, fish that respond to shadow and a view through a kaleidoscope are all [...]

Continue Reading →

How To Cope When Dad Travels For Work (A Lot!!!)

July 29, 2010

This is the second guest post from my dear friend Annie. If you missed her first post, it was fantastic and received great feedback, you can read it here Discipline Strategies – Helping Boys With Their Temper. *** Due to his job my husband, the father of our two children aged 8 and 10 years, [...]

Continue Reading →

Rhyming with Abby Cadabby

July 28, 2010

We had the absolute pleasure to interview the gorgeous Abby Cadabby last week. If you are not familiar with Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, her character was introduced in 2007. Abby was the first new female Muppet to join the program in over 13 years. She is a pink “fairy-in-training” who uses rhyme and magic [...]

Continue Reading →

10 Children’s Activities For August 2010 In Melbourne

July 27, 2010

1. Melbourne Writer’s Festival Schools Sessions Last year I took my 10 year old for the first time to attend a couple of the schools sessions from the Melbourne Writer’s Festival (MWF). It was a fantastic experience for my son (you can see his review of his time on his post Melbourne Writer’s Festival Schools [...]

Continue Reading →

Some More Christmas In July

July 25, 2010

Tip Junkie is having a fabulous Christmas In July special. You can find all the posts here. It covers everything from decorations and cards, to budgeting and organisation (one of my Christmas budget posts has made her list!). Laurie also has amazing give aways totaling over $1,600 in free products and promoting several fabulous Tip [...]

Continue Reading →

Children’s Routines

July 23, 2010

Today’s post was inspired by a couple of lovely readers Gin and Sarah. They were interested in routines that I have for kids and any charts that I might use. Children’s School Routine Since my first child has been in school I have used a children’s timetable to help them keep themselves organised for school. [...]

Continue Reading →

Spending Individual Time With The Kids

July 22, 2010

Today’s post was inspired by Polly at I was just thinking who asked how I managed to spend individual time with my children. When I was halfway through my pregnancy with my fifth child, I was interviewed by Claire Halliday for an article in The Age on large families. When she asked what I found [...]

Continue Reading →

Book Week Ideas

July 21, 2010

You can find more ideas for celebrating book week on my current post for 2011 here – Book Week Activities 2011 – Ideas for CBCA Shortlisted Book. It is only a month away until Book Week starts here in Australia. Book Week is the longest running children’s festival in Australia, celebrating its 65th birthday in [...]

Continue Reading →

Reflections On A Mother’s Journey

July 20, 2010

This is a guest post from a dear friend Belinda. Belinda was my first “Surrey Hills” friend. We moved to Surrey Hills when my eldest son started grade one (5.5 years ago!). It was a huge change for me and I found trying to befriend new parents who had already known each other for a [...]

Continue Reading →

Book Review: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time by Mark Haddon

July 18, 2010

Welcome to the July Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival. The Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival hosted by Science@home is for anyone, because we are all teachers and learners all the time. This month our theme is “English”, including Speaking, Listening, Reading and Viewing. I think our bloggers have covered all of these and there are lots of resources and [...]