Image by creo que soy yo

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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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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Image by johnpetru82

I read lots of blogs from mums in the northern hemisphere and during our winter this year, I came across the term “staycation”. It is a term many use to describe their holidays when they don’t actually leave and go anywhere. We are having a “staycation” these school holidays and will be in lovely Melbourne for the whole two weeks.

Luckily for us Melbourne has an enormous range of free and cheap children’s activities during the holidays. Here are ten of my favourites:

(1). ACMI Free Kids Flicks
In Federation Square, Melbourne, this school holidays there is a number of kids movies on at ACMI. The stand out for me is the animated adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (free). It screens daily from Mon to Fri of both weeks of the holidays at 10.30am.

EDIT: Other films during the holidays are at a fee of $5 per ticket.

(2). The Melbourne Magic Festival
The Melbourne Magic Festival is being held at Northcote Town Hall from Sept 22 to Oct 4. Depending on the age group of your children there are a variety of magic acts from comedy, to clowns and illusions.

(3). Puss In Boots Pantomime
He’s behind you!!!! The Tivoli Theatre in Malvern has regular children’s productions and this school holidays it is Puss In Boots. Highlight of course would be the fairy bread and lemonade (incl in ticket price) at interval.

(4). Just Macbeth
Running from the 19th Sept to 5th Oct, “Just Macbeth! by Andy Griffiths is a really silly version of Shakespeare’s great big gory tragedy.” Suitable for children from 7 onwards.

(5). State Library of Victoria
The Play Pod is a colourful and kid-friendly space in Experimedia. Children can dip into their favourite picture-books, view children’s digital art, or borrow an activity pack and make their own book, or a replica of Ned Kelly’s helmet! (Young children should be supervised by an adult.)

The Play Pod is open to the standard library hours. No bookings are required and it is free.

(6). Immigration Museum
All About Me - Who are you and where do you come from? Children can take part in our special activities and learn more about yourself, your siblings, parents and grandparents. Then they can design their own family tree using our specially created 3-dimensional template. Entry to the museum is $6 for adults and children are free. Activities are also free.

(7). National Gallery Of Victoria (Australia)
NGV Australia is also located at Federation Square in Melbourne. The theme for Artcart during the first week of the school holidays is Found & Made. From 12pm - 3pm children can see how sculptor Robert Klippel turned toy parts and other found objects into mini-sculptures. Children can then see what they can find at Artcart to create their own mini-sculpture. Free

(8). Melbourne Fringe Festival - The Mermaid’s Daughter
There are a handful of events in the Fringe Festival aimed at families. The pick for me is The Mermaid’s Daughter. It is a shadow puppet play with traditional African music, folklore and storytelling.

(9). CERES
CERES is located on 4.5 hectares (10 acres) on the banks of the Merri Creek, in East Brunswick, close to Melbourne’s centre. CERES runs on renewable energy, is a 55 tonne carbon sink, conserves and recycles its water and waste, grows organic food, and allows visitors to explore environmentally friendly ways of living.

Spring school holidays is the perfect time to take the kids for a tour of this wonderful place. Donation entry.

(10). Gasworks - Swordfighting
Gasworks has an amazing program of workshops for children of all ages during the holidays from acting to media workshops to….Swordfighting. The choice was clear for Little Rascal when he was showed the options!

The workshop is taken by a nationally accredited coach, Chris Jones who teaches the basic skills of fencing and sword fighting in an intensive class. Cost is $18 and see their website for various days and times.

So much to do, so little time! I love to take the kids to fun, new and interesting activities but do try to balance it with days at home pottering as well. We have a great list to choose from here and will be doing only a few of these children’s activities during the school holidays. If you are on school holidays, I hope you have a fun and relaxing time whatever you are up to.

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We had a fair for Possum’s kinder on the week end. There was lots of fun activities for the kids and some great stalls to buy from.

Families were asked to contribute something for the cake stall and Possum wanting to make Tea Cup Biscuits and help me do it. So we spent an hour together on Friday night making these lovely little treats. I have listed below the ingredients and instructions on how to put these together.

Ingredients:

1 packet Tic Toc Biscuits
250 grams Marshmallows
1 packet Freckles
2 packets of Musk Lifesavers
1 cup icing sugar
water

Makes 26 Tea Cups.

Step 1

Mix icing sugar and a small amount of water to make a thick paste like texture. Using a small spoon or knife, spread icing on the smallest end of the marshmallow.

Step 2

Place marshmallow in the middle of the biscuit and press down lightly.

Step 3

Spread icing on to the flat side of the freckle.

Step 4

Place freckle on top of marshmallow and press lightly.

Step 5

Cut a life saver in half. I find it easiest to use a small knife and start with one side only. (I also go through and do the full packets at once.)

Step 6

Spread icing on each end of the halved life saver.

Step 7

Place handle on to the side of the marshmallow. (Sometimes you need to hold it for little to bit to make sure it adheres properly.)

Step 8

You then have your finished product!

Tip: I make a bit of a process of it and go through and do each step for the entire batch, for example, stick all the marshmallows on, then all the freckles and so on. We actually made nearly two packets worth this time.

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New term and new timetable. There were just a few minor changes that I needed to make to the Children’s Timetable from Term 2.

I have been creating these timetables for a couple of years now and find them to be very helpful in assisting the children to organise themselves and their belongings for the school day.

I photocopy the document onto A3 sized paper and place it on the wall where it is easy for all children to see.

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, 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.

2008 Term 3 Children’s Timetable.

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Today myself and all four children plus a friend of the Thinker’s, caught the train into the city to Federation Square.

Our first activity was to see the free kids flicks. They were screening a collection of animated stories about monsters from as far away as Japan and France, at ACMI. This started at 11.00am and went for approximately an hour.

The animation activity that we had also planned to do, started at 12.00pm immediately after the flicks. There tends to be a rush at the opening time and lots of queuing involved for these fantastic free activities, so I opted to find some seats for the children so we could eat the lunch that I had packed for us before we moved on.

The queue was still quite long, so I then let the children explore the Memory Grid for some time. The older children settled comfortably playing some computer games, while the smaller children and myself relaxed in some bean bags, while we watched animations made by school children.

At around 1.00pm we made our way to the free animation activity, where we only had a short wait before being allocated a table to begin colouring in our monsters.

The children then had to cut out and assemble their monsters, which was a task completed with great team work by the children. Some monsters involved more detail in the cutting process, so when one child finished they would help out the other who was not yet finished. (I did the cutting for the two younger children. There was only large scissors left to make small cuts!)

When this was completed, split into two groups the children had the opportunity to place their monsters on a back drop and then start the very slow task of small movement - photos taken, small movement - photos taken etc.

Possum had created the story line for her and Babaganouski’s animation and she also made the movements very gently, something that the little one could not quite do.

Setting up for and taking the shots took Possum about 10 minutes and it goes for only approximately 3 seconds. The second group (Thinker, his friend and Little Rascal) took about 15 minutes as they had a more detailed story line and their animation goes for about 7 seconds. (They looped it for the kids, so the could just watch it over and over.)

Then with click of a few buttons, the children were able to see their animation on the big screen. The videos below were taken by me videoing the laptop, so although not perfect, you can get to see the wonderful animations the children created.

This monster mania animation activity runs until this Friday, 11th July from 12pm. If you are in the wonderful city of Melbourne I can highly recommend it. It has been the highlight of the school holidays for my children so far.

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On this week’s Menu Plan Monday Post I linked to a terrific biscuit recipe from Kate at Picklebums that I planned to cook this week.

The recipe stated that it made approx 120 biscuits, so the first week of school holidays was the perfect opportunity to test run the recipe. With the children home and friends dropping by, it would assure a sweet treat was always available.

Cold and windy on Monday afternoon, I took the opportunity to bake the biscuits with the children as an activity. They loved it. I helped them with some of the initial steps, but once we were at the dough stage, they cut it up into four and each child could then add what extra ingredients they wanted to their base dough.

Each child chose different extras to add to their dough as follows:
Thinker - cocoa and choc chips
Little Rascal - cocoa and 100s and 1000s
Possum - 100s and 1000s
Babaganouski - white choc chips.

They then all rolled and forked their dough into biscuit shapes and took turns baking them in the oven. The children were very excited when we counted them all up (they insisted upon doing this) and we had indeed made exactly 120 biscuits. I think we could have made more than that, given that Babaganouski kept eating large junks of his raw dough! The process took about an hour and we then had a delightful afternoon tea with warm biscuits.

Next time we make this recipe I will freeze some dough, a tip that I learnt from Marita who commented on my post 10 Quick Ways to Feed Unexpected Lovely Visitors. This will be really helpful to have stored in the freezer for those times when we run low on items for lunch boxes or friends drop in.

Thanks again Kate for sharing this recipe.

Technorati Tags: Children's Activities, cooking, Recipes, School holidays

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It is only a bit over two weeks until we have school holidays here in Victoria. It has been a very long term and I have to say that I am looking very much forward to the school holidays arriving.

During the term breaks I aim to have a balance of rest, relaxation and organised activities. I have found to get the most out of the school holidays, a little bit of pre-planning works a treat!

SWIMMIMNG LESSONS
My children do not do swimming lessons after school. This is by their choice, as they have selected other activities to do. I try to keep the number of extra curricular activities to no more than two a week.

I do however want them to learn to swim, so we have agreed on the compromise that a number of times a year they participate in a school holiday intensive program for a week (Mon - Fri).

As I wish to have three of the four children to have their lessons at the same time, I need to get in early to secure a convenient time for us. I booked these a couple of weeks ago and managed to get a 9.30am class for all three. This is a preferred time for the younger ones and still leaves us, with the afternoons free.

LIBRARY SESSIONS
Our local library runs a number of school holiday sessions ranging from puppet shows to story writing. As they are free and very popular they have a strict booking process. I have scheduled into my diary to make it to the library early on the day the tickets are released.

FEDERATION SQUARE
I do talk about Fed Square a bit on my blog, but it is such a fantastic source of entertainment for the kids. This upcoming school holidays they are having a Puppet-Palooza. Some of the activities are free, but some have a minimal cost and require booking, so I will get on to that this week.

I intend to combine this activity with one of my goals for June and invite some friends along who haven’t seen for a while.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA - INTERNATIONAL
The National Gallery of Victoria always has a holiday program and this school holidays it is centred around their Art Deco 1910–1939 exhibition. They have a free showing of the gorgeous film The Wizard of Oz and an Art Deco inspired craft activity that they can do afterwards.

That will probably do us for planned activities for these holidays. I like to make sure that the children have time to rest, explore, create, (squabble!) and invent for themselves as well.

What do you have planned for the upcoming school holidays?

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Possum is in four year old kinder this year and has now become very interested in writing. She is writing her name everywhere possible (thankfully only on paper though) and trying to write other things.

To foster this interest I have put together a writing box for Possum, so she can take it off the toy shelf when she wants and practice as much as she likes. At this stage of the writing process the most important skill for her to master is pencil control.

Once a child can make straight and curved marks, he/she may be able to move on to making some symbols. All symbols, both letters and numbers, are made up of straights, curves or a combination of both.

So the writing box doesn’t consist of letter sheets, but sheets with shapes to trace and copy so Possum can practice her curved and straight lines. This will help then to form the letters that she is trying to write. I won’t discourage her from writing letters at the moment, but will simply try and complement this with pencil control practice.

I found some fantastic pre writing sheets at KidZone. I have combined some that I think Possum will like and packaged them into the word document below. This allows me to print out more sheets when she has finished easily and also to print double sided.

Pre-writing Practice Worksheets

Other items to include in a Preschool Writing Box are:

Large Triangular HB Pencils - This style of pencils are easier for preschoolers to hold and encourage the correct pencil grip.

Large Coloured Triangular Pencils - As above

Blank paper - For free writing and drawing

Scissors - Using scissors helps to strengthen fingers and hands which are helpful to fine motor control. Many of the shapes on these sheets can be cut out once traced and coloured.

Paste - Of course once you cut something, you need to paste it somewhere! We are out at the moment. Will see if ALDI have it cheap when I go shopping there tomorrow .

Coloured paper - for practicing cutting and pasting.

By having this box prepared and available, I find that Possum will do this much more frequently. It is also an activity that she will apply herself to for long periods of time, without any involvement from me!

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