frottage

Or leaf rubbings as the kids preferred. We are lucky in that we live next to a great park that we spend lots of time in. On the way back from our picnic lunch today the kids collected all manner of things including lots of gorgeous autumn leaves- I love the colours. In the gorgeous light coming through our window, I showed them how to do leaf rubbings but adapted the technique to suit them. I used a small mount of blue tack to stick the leaf to the table and then sellotaped the paper to the table so it didn't slide around for them. We used oil pastels- they're great for kids are they produce lovely bright colours, can be blended and respond in different ways depending on how much pressure you apply while drawing.

fairy house

It's ANZAC day today so we're at home spending time together as a family. We have been outside all day feeding the ducks at the park and now at home in the front garden. There's a tree stump that I will one day have the energy to remove but in the meantime I thought it might be a good place to 'display' something. M love Tinkerbell so I asked them f they'd like to build a fairy house, we went through my cupboard of things and they chose what they liked the look of, we also added to our collection of leaves we'd started at the park. It took about half an hour to make and I enjoyed being guided by their answers to my prompts ( eg...how do you think the roof should look?) or from their ideas...M wanted to be able to see in from the top so she came up with the idea of an open roof covered my leaves. T wanted a BIG front door but also wanted it hidden by leaves. I love doing this kind of thing with them. I love hearing their reasons for their ideas and watching them experiment with how they can bring them about. I had to take odd pictures as we still have a very ugly plastic temporary water pipe going across our front garden- it's been there since the Sept 2010 earthquakes and I imagine it will be there for some time yet!

Here's a link to a gorrrrrrgeous fairy house  dream fairy house

supplies

M wanted a sign

young at art

I've just finished reading a book called Young at Art by Susan Striker. It's a bit prescriptive in parts for my liking ( like introducing kids to one colour crayon at a time) but there are some really inspiring parts too and I had lots of "ahhhh, yes" moments reading it. The core belief behind the book is that " Manipulative work with responsive materials with which the child has direct physical contact, such as finger paint and clay, in addition to crayons and paint are significant and contribute to the child's intellectual and creative development". It stresses that art materials need to always be available in order to encourage self - motivated creations. It also talks about the language parents sometimes use when talking to children about their art, for example, rather than asking "what is that?" it's better to say something about the tools they're using, the shapes/ lines they're making or how your child is feeling about what they're doing, for example,  " I can see you're covering your whole page with lines"- makes sense I think. My teaching training has taught me how to speak to children about what they're doing creatively but I really liked the  idea of a designated art area which we didn't have until today. This morning I bought and set up a trolley with pencils, felts, crayons, paper, glue and collage supplies on it. I like that if I had to I could hide it away easily but until then everything's well within their reach. As soon as we got home today they were busy creating. M made me a fan and T experimented with the glue stick. It was a bit messy but nothing a quick wipe over didn't fix. I will add things to it ( leaves, sticks, buttons etc) so I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll come up with in future.

yes they eat some of their meals at that table- but it's a start!

a fan

Anzac biscuits

More baking! This time it's my mum's never fail recipe and I've just proved this to be the case. They're yummy and the kids will be pleased to have one each after pre school.

Anzac biscuits

An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. 

My mum found the recipe in the Sunday Times Magazine and it's Olivia Tully's.

1 cup flour
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup coconut
2cups rolled oats
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp boiling water

Mix flour, sugar, coconut and oats and make a well in the centre.

Melt butter and golden syrup together, dissolve baking soda in water.

Combine all, roll into balls and press onto greased baking trays.

Bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

Space them evenly as they spread a bit- reduce the temperature to 170 C  in a fan oven, they may cook before 15 minutes too so you need to watch that they don't burn.

chewy choc chip biscuits

 I made these for the kids this afternoon because I know they (we!) love chocolate buttons- YUM

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
50g butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chocolate buttons

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 180°C.
Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Beat, gradually adding flour mixture, until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Shape dough into golf ball size portions, place them 4cm apart, onto baking paper, press them lightly. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown. (Do not overbake.) Let stand 1 to 2 minutes.

embroidery for beginners

I came up with this idea my self based on some pre school sewing things I've seen. My mother in law also gave me a box of wooden frames and I wanted to do something with them. First, I used a staple gun to attach some tulle to the back of three of the frames. I had a bit of an accident with one and it split on the side but I figured I could use that to demonstrate. I then asked the children to choose a colour thread they liked then tied the thread to the ( blunt) needle and a knot at the other end. They just went up and down and didn't seem to want to make a picture of anything in particular. I think this is an activity we'll come back to as it was fun and would be interesting to see what happens as their hand- eye co ordination develops- I also still have heaps of frames left over. Typically the boy insisted on using the broken frame.. sigh- not sure why but I went with it. Next time I think I'll use white muslin and I need to think of a way to hang them without seeing anything through it.