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Only 3 weeks to go now! This week’s step in the Christmas Preparation Plan is an easy task. I have found that in the lead up to Christmas, the children really do enter into the spirit of giving and are very co-operative when it comes to rationalising their toys and donating some to charity.

We have one large games/toy cupboard in the older boys room and take everything out and then sort into the standard piles:

We aim to have consensus on what we do with each item. Sometimes the older two children forget that although the game is “babyish” for them, they have 2 (and another one to come) siblings for whom it would be age appropriate.

At the boy’s school this week they have also started their “non perishables” drive. There is a challenge amongst the classes to see who can collect the most cans of food or other non perishable food to go to the Vinnie’s Christmas Appeal. It is amazing how into this challenge that the children get, I have to make sure they aren’t raiding the cupboards when I am not looking!

It is however a great time to point out to the children how lucky we are. We have a great home, a good car, plenty of food, clothing, toys and lots of love. There are others around us who have very little in comparison and we need to play a part in looking after those who are less fortunate than our selves.

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In my post last week on Christmas Decorations, I had said that I would post about some Christmas Decorations that the children were going to make on the weekend.

Well our weekend didn’t quite go as planned and there was a lot of vomiting from the children and then time spent fixing issues with the blog, so we didn’t get around to making them. We did however have time today and had lots of fun making Christmas Paper Chains.

I can remember enjoying making these as a child myself and we have made them the last few years with the children. Little Rascal actually reminded me that he wanted to do them again this year in November, so they had all been looking forward to this.

They are a very simple and fun Christmas Decoration that you can make with the children. Here is how we made ours:

(1). What you will need.

(2). Cutting Up Strips

So the children could do as much as this as possible themselves, I initially cut up 25cm widths of the wrapping paper. For the younger children then I roughly marked out lines at 3.5 cm intervals on the precut widths. The older children did this themselves. These lines gave them a rough guide as to where to cut.

(3). Stapling the links

The children formed their first strip into a loop and stapled it together to make the first link in the chain. Then for the next links, the children threaded the paper strip through the existing link and then stapled the strip to make the next link in the chain.

(4). Hang them up.

We have our Christmas Tree set up in one room which is not the main family area, so we chose to hang the Children’s Christmas Paper Chains in the family area to make it look more “Christmassy”

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Yesterday I posted a list of children’s activities on in Melbourne for December, something which will become a regular part of my posting schedule. Apologies to non Melbourne readers, but the feedback has been positive, so I hope you don’t find it too boring!

In November I posted a list of activities also, and I thought I would share with you a couple of the children’s activities that we participated in:

Family Classic Kids - Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
I was a little worried that my older two boys (9 & 7) would find this a little boring, but I was definitely wrong. They were thoroughly entertained for the 45 minute session. There are a couple of actors who help take the children through the different components of an orchestra and how music can tell a story.

The actors were funny and the setting is quite intimate, so the children felt quite part of the show. Apologies for the lack of detail in the photo, but photography was not permitted during the show and Mr I managed to snap this at the end for me.

Tot Spot: Outside Art - NGV International
I have only just come across this activity recently and the session we attended on Monday morning was the last for the year. Possum really enjoyed herself and we spent a lot of time over the remainder of Monday talking about what we had seen and what she and Babaganouski had made.

The plan was to tour the Sculpture Garden and then sit outside and make our own sculpture. Melbourne’s weather however was unseasonably cold and windy, so we did the tour and then went back into the Great Hall and the children made sculptures there.

The above photo shows the work of Babaganouski on the left and Possum on the right. Babaganouski would have been quite happy to have sat and cut up straws for the whole session, he loved the sound that they made when he cut them with the scissors.

During the discussion of the sculptures, the instructor always started by asking the children what they thought each one was, encouraging participation from all children. She then explained to the children what the sculptor said it was, what materials they were made of and how they were made.

Next year Tot Spot art sessions will be run on the last Monday and Thursday of every month.

What have you and the kids been up to?

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You wouldn’t currently guess it by our current weather patterns, but summer is approaching in Melbourne and so too are the summer school holidays. As always there is so much to do in Melbourne with the children. Some of these events are free, some are cheap and others more expensive but a very special treat.

(1). NGV International - Family Day: The Cricket and the Dragon
Date: 7 December 2008
Time: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Cost: Free
Location: 180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

To be held in the Grollo Equisit Gardens and Great Hall to celebrate The cricket and the dragon: Animals in Asian Art, a special exhibition for children. Artist Tom Ripon will be sculpting a large baby elephant from wire mesh, KITA Performing Arts Company will be on at 11am when they present Tricky Tales a performance based around three traditional stories from Korea, China and Indonesia. Children will have an opportunity to paint an animal picture and make an origami jumping frog from 12noon.

(2). Homeless World Cup
Date: 1 - 7 December 2008
Time: Lunchtime until early evening
Cost: Free
Location: Federation Square and Birrarung Marr, Melbourne

This should be amazing and it is the first time it has been held in Melbourne. If you haven’t heard of this before here is a description from their website:

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

In Melbourne across the week there will be over 400 matches, 56 international teams, each match lasts 15 minutes. There is no reserved seating, so you can just turn up and see some great street football action.

(3). Christmas in the City
Date: 1 - 30 December 2008
Time: All day
Cost: Free
Location: City Of Melbourne

The Myer Christmas Windows are part of Christmas in the City Of Melbourne. Each year the windows of this department store are decorated with a Christmas theme, which is always visually entertaining for children (and adults).

Whilst in the city you can also check out the Nativity Wall.

This striking display features a message of hope and joy in the heart of the City of Christmas, through a contemporary calligraphic interpretation of a traditional nativity scene. A blessing ceremony, held on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, Friday 5 December at 10.15am will be marked by traditional carols sung by a choir.

(4). State Library of Victoria - Sparky Stories: Digital workshop for kids
Date: 7 & 14 December 2008
Time: 10am - 12pm
Cost: Free, but booking required.
Location: 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Aimed for children aged 5 to 12, each child can create a digital picture-book, complete with illustrations and their own narration.

(5). ACMI - Animated Kid’s Christmas Classics
Date: Mon 15 - Sat 20 Dec & Mon 22 - Wed 24 Dec 2008
Location: Federation Square, Melbourne

A number of movies being shown including - The Snowman & Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

(6). Art Play - Homage à Picasso
Date: 20 December 2008
Time: 1pm - 3pm
Cost: $20 and booking required.
Location: Birrarung Marr, Melbourne

Artist Edna Primoratz will teach the children about some of Picasso’s finest works before leading them through the creative process to help paint their own portrait on a plate to take home.

(7). Carols by Candlelight
Date: Various
Time: Various
Cost: Local tend to be free.
Location: Various locations around Melbourne

The link above is to the biggest Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne, we however will be going to our local and much much smaller version. Check with your local council to see when your Carols by Candlelight is on, some are very early in December.

(8). Lysterfield Park - Open Water Learning Experience
Date: 1 - 5 December 2008
Cost: $5 per child
Location: Lysterfield Park - approx 40kms east of Melbourne.

The Open Water Learning Experience (OWLE) is part of the state governments ‘Play It Safe By The Water’ campaign offering fun and educational activities that provide students with a practical approach to familiarising themselves with open water environments. With a major emphasis on water safety the program teaches and empowers students to use potentially lifesaving skills.

(9). Raspberry Picking
Raspberry picking starts in December, with the season beginning to peak late December. There are many pick your own berry farms around an hour away from Melbourne. Here are just a couple that would provide a fun family outing for the day:

(10). Wave Pool
Being summer, water activities are always a great way to enjoy time with the children. My children love wave pools and we have spent many hours in the water having fun. In Melbourne you can try the wave pools at:

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Seven weeks to Christmas now! This week I have stuck to my Christmas Preparation Plan and have been working on Handmade Christmas Cards for the Children and myself. This post will show the results of the children’s work and mine will come later this week.

It is tradition at the children’s preschool and school to give out Christmas Cards to their class members and teacher at the end of the year. (The teacher also gets a gift, but more on that in another post!)

For the last couple of years I have encouraged the children to come up with their own design and make their own cards. The children now expect that they will make their own cards which is very sweet, as they put time into thinking about their design.

This year each child drew a design using the Paint application on their PC. Mac users like myself can download Tux Paint to use instead.

These programs are easy for children to use and allow them to use different colours, textures, widths and add text if they wish to their pictures. The designs below were what they came up with:

Thinker (Almost 10 y.o)

Little Rascal (7.5 y.o)

Possum (Almost 5 y.o)

Once they have created their design, I alter the size of the picture using Picnik (free image editing software), so that I can print out four cards per A4 piece of cardboard. The dimensions of the picture for the card are 275 x 171, so they are a small card.

I have also included the Children’s Christmas Card Template so that you can just slot your kids designs in if you wish. Happy card making!

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There is so much going on in our lovely city at the moment, that I thought I would collate a list of my highlights of children’s activities in Melbourne, for the month of November.

We have a couple of these events booked already, which I am looking forward to and will post some photos once we have been.

CHOOKAHS! Annual Kids Festival

Chookas Festival runs this week end at the Arts Centre. The festival aims to encourage

children to see, experience and participate in the performing arts. This year the Arts Centre will be adventurously transformed by the thrills, magic and dynamic feats of the circus.

Specifically designed with children from 3 - 8 years in mind, there is a fantastic range of paid and free events across the weekend. (Thanks to B to putting me on to this one and the MSO gig.)

e.t: the extra-terrestrial @ ACMI

None of my children have seen E.T. and I have such fond memories of seeing this movie when I was a child. ACMI is screening E.T. Sun 16 Nov 2008, 10.30am & 1pm and Sun 23 Nov 2008, 10.30am & 1pm, so it will be a perfect opportunity for them to see the movie on the big screen.

All tickets are only $5 per and you can book online or by calling (03) 8663 2583.

Family Classic Kids with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The MSO have been running a series of these concerts and the next (and last) one is on Saturday 8th November.

Held at the Iwaki Auditorium ABC Southbank Centre, Melbourne, the concert runs for 45 minutes.

Family Classic Kids performances are an exciting learning experience for the young and the young at heart. With the children sitting right next to the orchestra, there are opportunities to sing along, respond to the music with movement and actions, follow a story and maybe even conduct!

A family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) is $50 and can be booked online.

Tot Spot: Outside Art - NGV International

These sessions are very popular. The first session for Nov (Nov 17) is already booked out. Places are still available for the session on Monday 24th Nov at 10am.

A spot of quality time for pre-schoolers with their parents or carers. Each session includes Gallery exploration and art activities. Ages 3–5.

Enjoy the NGV Gardens when we search for outside art and make some sculptures of your own.

The sessions costs $12 per child and you must book on 03 8620 2222. Quote event code P0801.

Artcart: Batik - The Ian Potter Centre:
NGV Australia

These are free sessions to be run every Sunday from 2 November until 30 November. ArtCart is aimed for children ages 3 and older, but parent/carer supervision is required.

This month the art activity is linked to he exhibition Across the desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia. The activity will encourage children to experiment with wax crayons to make a picture.

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The countdown continues - 9 weeks until Christmas. My countdown is naturally of a planning nature and I am working through a Christmas Preparation Plan to allow a smooth and paced lead up to Christmas this year.

Week Nine’s activity was to complete making handmade gifts. Today with the two youngest children, I made the last of our handmade Christmas gifts, homemade bath salts. They were incredibly easy to make and it was really a fun activity to make with the children.

At their request tonight, we tested the bath salts (including me) in the bath and the children and myself were delighted with the results.

Here is a very simple tutorial that you can follow to make your own bath salts:

The Ingredients

• 1 cup of Epsom Salts
• 1 cup of Sea Salt
• 3 tablespoons of dehydrated milk
• Food Colouring
• 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil

A note about the sea salt. I bought sea salt that was “double washed and naturally evapourated”. It has slightly larger crystals than traditional table salt and looks better presentation wise.

The Instructions

(1.) Mix the salts in a large bowl.

(2). Add approximately 8 - 10 drops of food colouring to the salts. If you want a darker colour, obviously just add more dye. Mix dye in with a whisk.

(3). Add the powdered milk and use the whisk again to mix thoroughly.

(4). Add the essential oil to the mix. The smell is the strongest notable characteristic of the bath salts, so it is worth while using a quality oil. I used an essential oil blend called harmony, which smells divine!

(5). Spoon mixture into a dry jar.

(6). Place lid on and close tightly.

(7). I used a CD to cut out a circle piece of fabric to decorate the bath salts. The fabric is held in place by a length of thin ribbon.

I still have one more batch of bath salts to make (Possum thinks the next batch should be green) and I will have finished the handmade gifts for Christmas. As you can see from the photo above, I have been using the same materials across the three projects, so that I can team up multiple items, like gift sets.

Instructions for the other items can be found here:
- Handmade Fabric Covered Notebooks
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We have a beautiful border collie dog named Millie. Millie is now a much quieter dog than she used to be as she has passed her 13th year. She has always been brilliant with the children and other than her slight tendency to bark at things in the sky, she is also a very well behaved, outside only dog. We now have some recent animal additions to the house, that I would like to introduce to you:

Hermit Crabs

Below are “Active” and “Sleepy”. They are Hermit Crabs and are the loved pet of Little Rascal. We have had Hermit Crabs as children’s pets before in our house, with not a lot of success. Little Rascal first received the tank complete with heat pad and two crabs for a birthday present (all my sisters put in togehter). As the Hermit Crabs come from Queensland, they really didn’t enjoy Melbourne’s cold autumn (he received them in April last year).

After we lost the first Hermit Crab to the cold, we moved them into a warmer area of the house, but it wasn’t long before the colder mornings took their toll. We did get more Hermit Crabs but they didn’t last too long either.

So now we are trying in spring to see if the Hermit Crabs can cope better in Melbourne’s warmer weather!

Axolotl

The other new addition is the still to be named axolotl (Mexican Walking Fish). Thinker had seen a documentary on the axolotl and decided that he would save his pocket money and buy one. Thinker already had the tank and filter etc (another group birthday present from my sisters!), so he only actually had to purchase the Mexican walking fish.

Thinker didn’t even have to buy food. Axolotl’s eat worms and our compost is teaming with worms, so he simply goes to the compost, then rinses the worm and drops it in the tank. For a creature that doesn’t move around a much and has poor eye sight, it can move very quick to devour its lunch!

Responsibilities Of Pet Ownership

Before making these purchases, we had serious discussions with both children on the responsibilities that come with pet ownership. With a human addition to come to the house soon, the last thing that I want is more cleaning and feeding!

So both boys accepted that to have these animals as pets, that they would be fully responsible for the feeding and cleaning that is associated with the pet. I have to admit to having my doubts as to whether they would indeed do this, but to date they have both been very keen to take care of their new pets.

We are only a week into having them in the house, so we still have some time to go, but so far the new additions have been successful. The smaller two children will spend large chunks of time just watching the Hermit Crabs and the axolotl and all children love watching feeding time of the axolotl.

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Regular readers of Planning With Kids will be familiar with this post. Each term I create a timetable for the children to assist them in being responsible for managing their own tasks.

I photocopy the Children’s Timetable onto A3 sized paper and place it on the wall where it is easy for all children to see. This is the reference point for the children each morning as they pack their bags for school/kinder. It helps them to have their right uniform on for the day and the right belongings required.

For the youngest child Babaganouski, I slot in activities across the week. These act as a reminder for me of the types of things that I need to be doing with him at this stage of his life.

As with the last timetable, the font I have used in the table, is called Victorian Modern Cursive. This is the style of handwriting taught in primary schools through out Victoria. This may not show up on correctly your computer (may look like just a very basic font), but you can download it freely from the Victorian Govt Education website. I like to use this font for the preschoolers and younger school age children, as it helps them become familiar with the way the will need to write the alphabet.

Children’s Timetable Term 4, 2008

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This was the second of our two major outings during the second week of school holidays. For this school holiday activity we went to ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) at Federations Square in Melbourne. We had planned to see a free children’s film “Wind in the Willows” and make our own animation at the free workshop provided.

We have attended these workshops a couple of times before and have learnt from experience that at the end of the movie, we head down to Birrarung Marr to have lunch and a run around. This allows the children to release some energy, take in some sustenance and avoids waiting in queue for the animation workshop,which tends to build straight after the movie.

For this workshop the theme was characters from the computer game Spore. The younger children didn’t really embrace the theme (which was fine) and Babagabouski wanted to stick with one of his current obsessions and make a dinosaur. Possum just wanted to make a dog and had a member of the ACMI team help her create this.

As we had already attended these animation workshops before (twice previously already this year!), I thought the children would like to try a new school holiday activity. I allowed them to go through the list of school holiday activities in Melbourne and agree as a group which other activity they wanted to go to. It was unanimous that the animation was where they wanted to go. I think they love seeing their creations played back and love it even more when I post them on the blog. So here are the latest animation creations from my children:

This one was created by Little Rascal and Babagansouski.

The second animation was the work of Possum, Thinker and their cousin.

On Tuesday, the children return to school and they ensuing after school activities. I have really enjoyed the school holidays and could actually do with one more week I think! What have you been up to these school holidays?

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