Over the last few weeks I have posted ideas on birthday party food which I used at my son’s 3 year old party in early May. If you missed them they were:

• Milky Way Cars
• Jelly Shots
• Mini Hot Dogs and Mini Hamburgers
• Individual Lunch Boxes

For this age group I have a personal preference for having activities for the kids rather than games. Sharing and turn taking for 2 to 3 year olds is a developing skill. Expecting co-operation for intricate games in the exciting setting of a birthday party is a big ask. It is certainly possible, but I have lent towards activity based parties where the kids can create and move about with greater freedom.

For Babaganouski’s 3rd birthday party the theme was loosely based on construction and I had three key activities through out the 1.5 hour duration of the party.

Construction

This was the first activity for kids to do upon arrival. I went to the fabulous Reverse Art Truck and purchased a large garbage bag full of odds and ends for the kids to construct with. If you aren’t familiar with the Reverse Art Truck it is located in Ringwood (Melbourne) and is a non profit organization which collects rejects, seconds and factory offcuts for distribution to schools, early learning centres, community groups and individuals.

The biggest hit by far was the foam shapes with sticky backing. The kids just had to peel off the back and stick them on to the cardboard off cuts They could stick them together like bricks and made all sorts of buildings etc. The first photo at the top was taken after the party and shows only the remnants of what was left of this popular material.

Hammering

Thankfully the rain held off, so we could then go outside for the next activity. (Some kids chose to stay inside and kept working on their constructions which was also fine.) When our kids have turned two they have all received their own mini toolbox, complete with real hammer, nails, screwdrivers, screws, nuts and bolts. I used these hammers and bought a couple of extra small hammers from the $2 shop.

You can see that the object that they are hammering into is and part of an old tree stump. I had three of these, all of which have been weathered, so are very easy surfaces to hammer into. The nail that we used are called Clouts. They have a very large head, so make it easier for the little ones to hit.

Just in case you were wondering, there were 6 hammers and there were no accidents!

Chalk Drawing and Water Painting

As we had more children than hammers and wood, I also had chalk for the children to draw on the bricks with. I had along side this set up 3 buckets of water and numerous paint brushes (also from $2 shop). The kids could either paint off their chalk drawings or just use the water to paint the bricks.

After this it was back inside for their individual lunch boxes and honeycomb ice cream birthday cake. I think 1.5 hours is definitely long enough for a three year old birthday party - especially for mum!

Technorati Tags: Children's Activities, children's birthday party, parenting

• 10 School Holiday Activities To Do At Home
• Planning Children’s Birthday Parties - Party Week and Party Day Timetables.
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• Children’s Party Food - Mini Hot Dogs and Mini Hamburgers

Last week I posted on 10 Children’s Activities For June/July School Holidays. There is always such an amazing amount of wonderful activities on offer in Melbourne. With that said however, I am mindful that during the school holidays, my kids need to rest. In particular my little girl who is in her first year of school.

As the end of a term comes, I find the kids are tired, which leads to them being more emotional and looking for a break from the morning school routines (so is mum ).

Again with this list of things to do at home, we would not do all the activities. During the school holidays my kids need less structured activities, allowing them time simply to wind down at their own pace and play/read etc but choose to spend their time doing what interests them.

It is also important that they do not become reliant upon me always providing entertainment for them. The oldest of our four children are all at ages where they are capable of finding ways to entertain themselves (3 year old may need some guidance at times though).

So our school holidays in June/July will be made up of a couple key outings, a couple of key projects/activities at home and plenty of time for the kids to relax and follow their own interests. So I manage to catch with friends I usually try an d combine the outings with friends, so that we still have plenty of down time for the kids to recharge before they head back to school.

1. Make Lemonade

A traditional favourite with my kids and in Australia lemons are in season in June and July, so even if you don’t have your own lemon tree, you can pick them up cheaply at the market.

If you are after some instructions for your little ones to follow, itty bitty love has a lovely photo tutorial.

2. Reverse Finger Painting

Hopefully for the water reserves in Melbourne there will be some rain over these school holidays. Rain however does usually mean being copped inside the house, so I loved this painting idea by Kate that SquiggleMum posted about earlier this month. As the paint is confined to the tray, there is much less mess than conventional painting, so easier to do inside the house.

3. Story Theatre

Red Bird Crafts has a beautiful tutorial on how to make your own story theatre. In the tutorial Emily uses cut out pictures, but you could just as easily let your child be the artist and have them draw the characters for their play.

4. Mandalas

Inspired by the Mandala Post on Let’s Explore I bookmarked some sites that provide free mandala print outs for children to colour in. These would be perfect for the kids to colour in on a rainy day.

Mandala is the Sanskrit word for “sacred circle.” Native American, Hindu, and Buddhist Tantric practices have use Mandalas for thousands of years to express illuminated states of consciousness and for healing the body, mind, and spirit. Paper Mandalas

• Basic Mandalas
• Advanced Mandalas

5. Chalk Drawing And Water Painting

We have a paved brick area at the back of our house. It provides a perfect large canvas for the kids to draw with chalk. We generally combine this activity with small buckets of water and large paintbrushes. They can then paint away the chalk if they wish, or paint the brick wall with water.

6. Camping Inside

My kids love camping and we don’t get to do it anywhere near as often as we would like. This holidays as we are not going away and it is in the middle of winter, we will have a camping night inside. We get out the sleeping bags, light the fire (which we rarely do) toast some marshmallows and sleep all the children can sleep together in the sitting room.

7. Giant Cardboard Construction

At Filthy Wizardry they show you how you can build an enormous cardboard rocket ship which as illustrated above is impressive! On the other hand you just allow for a more free form project. Collect boxes from markets, supermarkets etc and let the children’s imagination run wild

8. Make A Movie

The majority of the earlier activities are more suitable for children 6 and under. This activity and the next couple are aimed at those over six. Get the kids to write a script that they can then turn into a movie, using props, costumes what ever they can find! Having a Mac makes it then very easy to teach them how to edit it using iMovie.

9. Balloon Volleyball

Rig up some string across a room and allow the kids to play a game of balloon volley ball. This keeps my older boys amused for ages.

10. Cook A Meal

Allowing the kids to plan the meal, create a shopping list, make the selections at the supermarket and then cook a meal for the family.

What will your kids be up to at home?

Technorati Tags: children, parenting, School holidays

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A couple of years ago a friend (MC) told me about how at a party she went to, they served up the children’s food in individual lunch boxes. I thought that this was a great idea and have been using it as the main way to serve food at my children’s birthday parties ever since.

I have found that since serving their food in individual lunch boxes, the kids eat more and less is wasted. If the party is in the cooler weather, I clear a room and spread picnic blankets on the floor and have the children sit down to eat. If it is summer we take the picnic outside.

The children sit focused for a considerable amount of time as they investigate their lunch box and eat their way through the contents.

Unfortunately I took the photo before I put the mini hot dog in. But you can see there was enough room to add a mini hot dog for the kids.

Clean up is also easy, as you can just pick up the boxes, place food scraps in the bin and the boxes and juice bottles into the recycling.

I picked up these boxes (unmade) from Lombards, but imagine that you can purchase them from any party/catering type store. From memory they were only about 12 cents each.

EDIT: Recipes for the other treats in the lunch boxes:

• Milky Way Cars
• Jelly Shots

Technorati Tags: children's birthday party, food

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On the long week end in June I took the children to see the John Brack Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (Ian Potter Centre).

Access to the NGV is free but the Brack’s exhibition itself does have an admission fee. (Adult: $15, Concession: $12, Children: $7.50 (Ages 5–15), Family: $42, NGV Member Adult: $7.50, NGV Member Family: $21). We were lucky enough to be given a family membership for Christmas last year, so the exhibition only cost us $21, which is great value.

We picked up some of the booklets provided for the kids and walked around the exhibition looking at “What John Brack saw…:”. The exhibition spanned his work from the 50’s right through until the 90’s.

My kids found Brack’s work engaging and accessible. The booklet gave us some information on key paintings and questions to get the kids really looking at the art work.

There are distinct differences in Brack’s style through the decades and it was interesting to see the preferences of the children.

The 5 and 3 year old were definitely more drawn to his earlier work like The car (1955) and Subdivision (1954). Myself, the 10 and 8 year old were fascinated by his work in the 1980’s, in which he used pencils as a representation of people. We spent quite a bit of time (as much as the 3 year old could tolerate!) examining The battle (1981-83).

A free drop in Artcart activity is offered between 12pm - 4pm on Sundays. We missed out on the John Brack activity which finished the week end before, but participated in an activity related to a furniture design exhibition that was on. The children made some very cute creations which we took home with us.

We now have the Salvador Dali exhibition to look forward too!

Technorati Tags: art, Children's Activities, ngv

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• 10 Children’s Activities For June/July School Holidays In Melbourne

Friday is the last day of Term 2 for Victorians. I for one am looking forward to the holidays. We are staying in Melbourne for the holidays, catching up with friends, going on some excursions and getting some rest!

Here are just some of the fantastic school holiday activities that Melbourne has to offer.

1. Puppet Lab

Held at Artplay over the school holidays, professional puppeteers will perform and conduct workshops. Activities run from Saturday 4th July until Friday 10 July. These sessions book out quickly so if you are interested you should call Artplay on (03) 9664 7900 ASAP. Cost for these activities vary but range from free to $35.

EDIT: Artplay sessions book out incredibly quickly. I tried to book a session for August and it was already full, so if you are interested, I recommend booking ASAP.

2. Puppet Animation

More puppet action to coincide with Puppets at Fed Square, ACMI
has “kids in the studio - puppet animation”. These sessions are a great activity for the family to do together. In the free session children can create their own clay puppet to keep and animate their puppet’s story with stop motion animation and modern digital techniques.

It is recommended for children aged 5 to 13 and runs on the following dates:

• Mon 29 Jun to Fri 3 Jul 2009
• Mon 6 Jul to Fri 10 Jul 2009
• Drop in any time between 12pm and 4pm.

3. Around The World To India.

The Immigration Museum Winter school holiday program runs from 27 Jun - 12 Jul 2009. Celebrate the mystique and wonder of India:

Be captivated by amazing stories of journeys to Australia. Pick up an Immigration Adventures booklet and explore the museum in a fun and engaging way.

Construct and decorate a shadow puppet depicting the Hindu gods, Hanuman (Monkey God) and Ganesh (Elephant god).

Dress up as a Hampi local or a visiting archaeologist. Parents: don’t forget to bring your camera!

Cost: Adults $8, Concessions and Children free entry and the Immigration Museum is open daily 10am – 5pm.

4. Footy Forum For Kids.

The Queen Victoria Market will be providing FREE opportunities for kids to meet, talk footy and have autographs signed by some of their favourite AFL Players.

Tuesday 30 June 2009, 11am to 12noon
Matthew Richardson and Player TBC*

Thursday 2 July 2009, 11am to 12noon
Players TBC*

Tuesday 7 July 2009, 11am to 12noon
Players TBC*

Thursday 9 July 2009, 11am to 12noon
Adam Cooney and Daniel Jackson

5. Junior Ranger COME and TRY.

Parks Victoria (PDF) is running school holiday activities from Monday 29 June – Friday 3 Jul at the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

This winter, come along and participate in the park’s Junior Ranger COME and TRY…holiday program of free, fun filled and informative activities. The forest in winter, often cloaked with cool damp fog, becomes a place of mystery and magic and we look forward to seeing you there.

This is a free activities but bookings are required and can be made by calling Parks Victoria on 03 9757 7724.

6. The Melbourne Magic Festival.

The Melbourne Magic Festival runs from June 29 until July 11 at the Northcote Town Hall. They are offering a range of kids (and adult) workshops in the art of magic. Tickets for sessions are only $12 per child and are on sale at Northcote Town Hall and (03) 9481 9500.

7. Sewing and Craft Sessions.

The Thread Den is located in Errol St North Melbourne. Classes cost between $30 - $60 per child.

The kids school holiday program will return for two great weeks of sewing and craft, with classes suitable for children and teens. Led by local designers and craftspeople, this program has been coordinated with a focus on our responsibility to recycling and purchasing materials locally.

8. Circus Sports And Cue Sports.

The National Sports Museum will be running its school holiay program from Monday June 29 - Friday July 3 and Monday July 6 - Friday July 10.

Juggle, spin, balance- experience the thrills and spills of our ‘circus skills’ workshop when the circus comes to the National Sports Museum during the school holidays.

Learn more about the ‘sport of courts’, discover the tricks with billiards world champion, Robby Foldvari and, back by popular demand, is Sam Starr for another round of fun and frivolity.

Kids of all ages can race against the clock in Game On – netball, Australian football, cricket, cycling and soccer – all this and much more in a ‘hands, feet and bottoms on’ interactive environment where you create your own sporting memories.

Further details of the sessions will be updated on The National Sports Museum Website closer to the date. NSM is open 10.00am – 5.00pm daily and it is $7.50 for adults, $4.00 for kids aged 5 -15 and under 5’s are free.

9. Art Sparks

NGV International’sSalavadar Dali Art Spark sessions for the June/July school holidays will be related to the Salvador Dali Liquid Desire exhibition. Session run Mon 29 Jun – Fri 10 Jul from 10.30am–4pm.

Kids can become artists like Dalí when they join in the special art activities in the NGV Dalí Kids Space. Parent/carer supervision required.

The cost of the art activity is free, but the Dali exhibition itself is not, entry prices for the exhibition are as follows:
Adult: $23
Concession: $18
Child: $11 (ages 5-15)
Family (2 adults + 3 children): $60
NGV Member Adult: $16
NGV Member Family: $40

10. Fairy Park.

Image Fairy Park

Fairy Park is an 1 hour drive from Melbourne CBD. I haven’t been here nor do I know any one who has, so if you have been, I would love to hear your thoughts.

The park includes Fairy Tale Land, Model Trains, Summit Views and Camelot Playground. Cost of entry for the park is as follows:
Children under the age of 3 FREE
Children aged from 3 to 13 years $8.00
Adult prices from 14 years and over $16.00
Admission between 10 am to 4 pm.

The park includes Fairy Tale Land, Model Trains, SUmmit Views and Camelot Playground.

Enjoy the school holidays, what ever you are doing!

Technorati Tags: Children's Activities, Melbourne, School holidays

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Now these are not the type of Jelly Shots that some of us may have consumed in the early nineties in dodgy night clubs. They were laced with alcohol - these jelly shots are of the kiddy variety!

Jelly to me is one of those foods that is the domain of kids. I loved it when I was a child, but now I just can’t bring myself to eat it.

My kids do however love jelly and I have found it to be a winner at children’s birthday parties. The bonus for me is that it is super easy to make and can be done in advance.

Recently for the younger children’s parties I have found that making the jelly’s in the plastic shot glasses has worked incredibly well. I have found that for the under 5’s, having the jelly in larger cups tends to lead to a lot of waste.

Serving

The appearance of the jelly shots is attractive to kids and it means they can taste more than one colour. Hand out a teaspoon to the kids and the jelly shots disappear pretty quickly. The plastic shot glasses are actually pretty sturdy and wash up well for re use.

Decorating

You can get fancy and decorate them with a lolly on top. Just make sure you wait for the jelly to set, before you do. Chocolate should be avoided as it gets messy with the jelly.

For my daughters last birthday I did pink jelly and then just before serving topped them with pink mini marshmallows - very pretty!

Ingredients

• 2 packet of jelly crystals
• 1 packet of plastic shot glasses (can be purchased in packs of 30 from $2 shops.)
• Teaspoons
• 1 packet mini marshmallows for decoration (optional)

Instructions

1. Make the jelly as per instructions.
2. 1 packet of jelly makes 18 shot glasses. I tend to use two packets of jelly and 30 shot glasses. I pour the remaining jelly into other containers to set for consumption after the party.
3. They take a few hours to set properly, so I make them the night before.
4. Add decoration before serving.
5. Have fun.

Technorati Tags: children, food, jelly, parties

• Children’s Party Food - Lunch Boxes
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• Children’s Party Food - Mini Hot Dogs and Mini Hamburgers
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Mini hotdogs and mini hamburgers have been a recent creation in terms of children’s party food for me. Looking for an alternative to the hot food that I traditionally serve up, I came up with a mini version of a “fun food” that my children think is a special treat.

My kids love cocktail frankfurts and they have always been popular to serve up at their parties. I have found that serving them up as mini hot dogs has made them even more popular.

The kids liked the mini hamburgers but the mini hot dogs were definitely more popular. The adults though (especially me) preferred the mini hamburgers. I kept them quiet basic, as I did not know what the salad eating preferences were of the children coming to the birthday party.

Mini Hot Dogs

Ingredients:

• 12 Bake At Home Dinner Rolls
• 12 Cocktail Frankfurts
• Tomato Sauce
• Mustard

Instructions:

These take about 5 minutes to cook, so are super quick and super easy.

1. Heat oven in advance to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Bring saucepan of water to the boil.
3. Place rolls on a tray and into oven.
4. Add cocktail frankfurts to boiling water.
5. Cook cocktail frankfurts for about 5 minutes (if left too long their skins will split).
6. Drain cocktail frankfurts and allow to cool.
7. Take rolls out of oven and cut in the middle.
8. Add cocktail frankfurt to the roll, add your desired sauce and your mini hot dogs are ready.

Makes 12.

Mini Hamburgers

Ingredients:

• 12 Dinner Rolls
• 500gms Minced Beef
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Onion
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 3 tbsp Tomato Sauce
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil
• Lettuce
• Cheese
• Tomato
• Additional Tomato Sauce

Instructions:

1. Place mince in medium size bowl.
2. Finely chop onion and grate carrot and add to mince.
3. Add Tomato and Worcestershire Sauce and mix well.
4. Use a couple of tablespoons of mixture and make into patties. I kept mine thin so as they would cook quickly and properly all the way through.
5. Heat oil in a large frying on a moderate heat. Add hamburgers and fry for about 4 minutes each side, until cooked.
6. While the mini hamburgers are cooking, slice cheese and tomato and cut up lettuce.
7. There are a couple of options on how to prepare these for a party. I actually cooked them in advance and just warmed them in the microwave, before putting them into their rolls.
8. Add hamburger to roll and then add cheese, tomato and lettuce.
9. Add any additional sauces and your mini hamburgers are ready!

Makes 12 - 24. The hamburger mixture will make at least 24 mini hamburgers. You can either cook them all up or freeze half of the uncooked hamburgers and have them another time.

Technorati Tags: children, party food, Recipes

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I have written before on my view on TV (less is best!) so I won’t bore you with all the reasons why I think TV needs to be limited for kids. If you are interested though, you can read the following:

• Study: TV May Inhibit Babies’ Language Development
• TV And Kids Under Age 3
• How TV Affects Your Child

To be honest I would like to think that we could do without a TV at all in our house, but there are times when I put the TV and the kids quieten down for half an hour or so, and I am very grateful for the quiet that it brings.

We have developed a roster system in our house to manage the competing needs of the children. Time on the computer, playing the Wii or watching the TV are treated equally as they are all sedentary activities.

The table above shows the roster that we currently have in operation. The child whose name (or in this example age) appears next to the day is allowed to choose which activity they want to do - Wii, computer or TV. If they choose TV they are also allowed to choose the program which they want to watch (within family guidelines).

The remaining children then need to agree how to use the available technology. Due to the spread of ages, it can sometimes be quite challenging for them to find a middle ground. But as their time is ticking away, they usually come to some form of compromise!

The TV roster changes regularly to take into account after school activities and ages of the children.

How do you manage the TV in your house or if you have decided to go without TV, how has that worked for you?

Technorati Tags: children, parenting, tv

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On Monday we sent all the letters photographed above (needed to use the coloured blocks to obscure the addresses) to towns all over Australia and the world! We participated in Pigeon Pair’s:

I submitted four of my five children’s name to participate in the swap. This meant that we needed to write a total of 20 letters to other children located in Australia, USA and UK. This took us a couple of sessions to complete.

First time around we weren’t quite organised enough with our materials, but after that experience we soon worked out a process and we had a much better flow going and a more enjoyable time.

The children have been very excited coming home from school this week and checking what has arrived for them in the mail. They have received all wonderful manner of treasures and learnt new things about different towns in Australia and cities around the world.

A big thank you to Christie for organising it and I can highly recommend joining in if she runs another one.

Technorati Tags: Children's Activities, mail swap

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This post is part of a series of simple activities that can help increase your child’s independence. These activities are aimed at children aged two and above. Previous posts can be found below:

• Juicing oranges
• Cutting Food
• Grating Food
• Making Their Own Lunch

We have been teaching our eldest son Thinker, who is 10 to make an evening meal. He likes the idea of cooking dinner for the family and has been very proud of his results.

We have taken a staged approach to build up to him cooking the evening meal as follows:

Select The Meal To Cook.

We decided to let Thinker choose the meal he would like to cook. We felt that he would be more likely to enjoy the process if he actually loved the meal he was going to cook. He chose Tacos. This was a perfect choice for a first meal. It is simple, requires only minimal exposure to heat and at his age, after some practice he should be capable of cooking the meal completely on his own.

Watch Dad Cook The Meal.

Although cooking Tacos does not really need a recipe, Mr I made one for himself when he learnt to cook them (cooking is not his strong point!). You can print out the recipe from this link: Tacos Recipe.

We also made a conscious decision to let Mr I take him through cooking the meal. This was important for a couple of reasons. One was to show him that men can and do cook and secondly, Thinker is at a stage of his life where he is showing a distinct preference for being taught by his dad and not his mum. This does make me a little sad, but I need to respect that.

Thinker then watched his dad read the steps in the recipe and carry them out, asking questions along the way. He could also make some notes on the recipe, if he wanted to remember things for later.

Cooking With Assistance.

The next stage was for Thinker to lead the cooking process, but with an adult present for assistance. Dad stayed with him the whole time and offered advice when asked and prevented any major issues occurring.

Repeat Cooking.

I have found that to become skilled in cooking a particular meal that you need to cook it at regular intervals. Luckily all the children love Tacos, so they have been on high rotation on the menu plan and Thinker has been the head chef! Thinker cooked the meal three of times with ad hoc adult assistance.

Cooking By Himself.

We allowed Thinker to tell us when he felt that he was confident to cook by himself. Naturally mum and dad are there to help if needed, but there is no checking up on him and he is responsible for putting the meal together, including setting up the table for everyone to serve themselves.

At the moment we have been cooking the Tacos on the weekend. Once I feel that he has really mastered the meal, I will have him cook this one night during the week. This will be a tremendous help for me as I will be able to listen to the younger children’s reading, feed the baby etc while the meal is being cooked.

For Thinker this has been an important step in increasing his independence and life skills. When his siblings thank him for the tasty meal, you can see the pride in his face and sense of accomplishment he feels.

We will stick with him just cooking Tacos for a while and then will start the process over again. What meals have you got the kids whipping up for you?

Technorati Tags: children cooking, parenting

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