Be Our Best

Talk with your kids - a book review

2016-05-10T10:39:00.000+10:00

Stuck on a lifeboat

You are stuck on a lifeboat with a group of people after the cruise liner you were on sank. You ran out of food two days ago, and people are starting to talk about eating each other to keep at least some of the survivors alive long enough to be rescued. But who should you eat?

"One of the passengers is a serial killer - you should keep him alive so he can kill those ones you're going to eat!"

"Euww, I don't think I could eat anyone."

"What, even if you were starving to death?"

"Eat the annoying people first."

"Maybe the kids would be softer and easier to eat."

This was one of the craziest discussions we had with our kids using the topics from this book. Some are topics and subjects that really stretch the imagination and some hit a little closer to home; but all manage to get everyone thinking and discussing a lot of differing points of view and suggestions.

Getting kids talking

What parent hasn't been frustrated by kids giving one word answers.

"So what did you do at school today Johnny?

"Nothing."

We're always looking for ways to get our kids talking and discussing things, so when I found this book I just had to get it.

It's a brilliant book that we've found is great to use over dinner with our kids and have had some fun and interesting discussions from it.

This book has 109 conversations about Ethics, topics like bullying, fate, moral responsibilities, cheating, friendship ..the list goes on.

Not only does the book provide topics of conversation, but it also sets up situations, questions and suggestions to lead you through the topic in stages, gradually bringing the discussion from the simple to the more in-depth and complex issues. There are plenty of 'what would you do?' situations, and with no right or wrong answers, it's a great way to get conversations going - especially when you have someone willing to play devil's advocate and suggest outrageous and downright bad things to get a reaction from your kids!

The introduction to the book does provide guidelines and help for parents to use the book, how to encourage your kids without putting words into their mouths.

The topics also mean that kids are not only speaking and practising their skills of conversation, debating and arguing points, but they are also learning about ethics, new situations and developing their own moral values.

Even more discussion topics

Michael Parker has also written another book of conversations to have with your kids with over 100 more ideas to use. This second book is called

Talk with your kids - Big Ideas

We're looking forward to using that book too when we've finished the first one.

Have you seen or used this book?

What other methods do you use to get your kids talking?

The opinions in this post are entirely my own, However, the links to the books are for the Book Depository where I have an affiliate link and do earn a commission for any sales via this website.

Japan with kids

2016-05-09T13:19:00.001+10:00

This year for our family holiday we took our girls to Japan.

Euan and I both lived in Japan while teaching English several years ago. Our girls have been studying the Japanese language at school since they were 5 and have both wanted to visit Japan for some time. We thought it would be good to take them there to show them the country and be able to share our knowledge and experiences of the country with them.

The Language and Trains

Since both girls study Japanese language, the holiday provided a great opportunity for them to try out their skills and continue learning.

The first written script learnt in Japanese is Hiragana. This is a phonetic script, so the letters all have a fixed pronunciation. Both girls know this script and had plenty of practice reading it on signs, in particular at the train stations.

Each station has a sign with the station name in Kanji at the top, then Hiragana underneath and finally under that in Romanji - the English script that we can read. At each station, the girls would practise reading the Hiragana and checking it against the English written version below.

Reading a different alphabet and getting instant confirmation whether you've got it right is like cracking a code - so satisfying! Gradually they both started to recognise some of the more common Kanji too, through repetition of seeing them so often.

The trains were also a great source of Japanese language listening practise. There are endless announcements on the trains, telling you what to be careful of, where the trains are heading, what the next station is called and which side the doors will open on.

There's a lot of Japanese speaking going on, so it was a challenge for the girls to pick out the station names and 'migi' and 'hidari' (right and left) from what they were hearing so they could tell us which side of the train the doors were opening on.

As well as being a great source of language practice, we found all the trains and subways in Japan to be very easy to navigate, always ran on time and were totally safe. We would have been happy to let our girls travel the trains and subways even in the heart of Tokyo without us and felt sure they would be safe. There were always Japanese people willing to help us out buying tickets and finding our platforms and trains.

The Food

Food was an adventure in Japan. It is so different to the food we're used to eating here in Australia and our girls were great - happy to try almost everything. There was plenty to try - and having lived there for a couple of years, we knew several dishes we wanted to share with the girls.

Sukiyaki

Sushi

Shabu Shabu

Ramen

And Okonomiyaki.

Plenty of different tastes and the spectacle of the meals being cooked before you, right at your table at times and sometimes even by yourself was an amazing experience!

Accomodation

We stayed in a variety of accommodation - some hotels, guesthouses, a beautiful youth hostel where we had a small dorm room to ourselves and an indoor and outdoor onsen to enjoy in the evening;

and a traditional Japanese Ryokan where we slept on Futons on a Tatami Mat floor.

Everywhere we stayed, people were friendly, welcoming and so happy when we all tried speaking Japanese, encouraging and helping us in our endeavours!

Sights and Culture

We were travelling in Japan at peak cherry blossom viewing time (end March / beginning April), so everywhere we went had a tinge of pink!

The Big Buddah in Kamakura

Japanese people meet friends and eat and drink under the cherry blossom trees. It always seemed to be blue coloured tarps that were spread under the trees to sit on!

Cherry Blossoms and Temples on Miyajima

The famous, and much photographed Miyajima Tori

We saw endless impressive and beautiful temples,

(Golden Temple, Kyoto)

Some in the most surprising of places!

and just had to visit the money washing temple, as it is said money washed in the shrine's water will be lucky money!

We hiked up lots of stairs,

Saw beautiful views,

and castles.

We saw a Geisha girl in Kyoto,

And the Peace Dome in Hiroshima, where we also visited the Peace Memorial Museum. A sobering experience and a real eye opener for the girls, in particular the personal stories of school kids during time of the Hiroshima bombing.

Going to Japan was an amazing experience for us as a family. For Euan and I to revisit somewhere we used to live and see things that had and hadn't changed, but mostly to see Japan through our girls' eyes. Their wonder at all things Japanese, the differences between the Japanese and Australian culture but most of all their easy acceptance of everything.

They learned and experienced so much in our two short weeks in Japan. It has given them a greater understanding of a country and culture whose language they will continue to study in the coming years.

Have you ever visited Japan?

Recycling Old Toothbrushes - a challenge

2016-03-23T11:23:00.000+10:00

Toothbrushes

Who would have thought we could recycle something like an old toothbrush? And who would have thought they would be such a waste problem - found in the ocean and washed up on beaches worldwide? It's crazy that things like this can end up in the sea and on tropical beaches!

Toothbrushes may be a tiny part of the waste problem facing the world - but every small step helps and this is one step our younger daughter has decided to take through her school.

Recycling the Unrecyclable

A couple of years ago I found a company called Terracycle that recycles things that are normally considered 'unrecyclable' - They started out in the US, but are now also in many other countries worldwide, including Australia.

One of the recycling programmes they have is for recycling used oral care products - such as old toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. You can sign up to collect, and they provide free shipping for you to send them the waste for which you are then rewarded with points and ultimately money and prizes for schools and charities.

2016 Oral Care Recycling Challenge

So this year, our younger daughter has set up a challenge at her school to try and collect as much oral care product waste as possible - keep it out of landfill and send it to Terracycle to be recycled into something useful.

To encourage her fellow students to collect this waste and bring it to school she set up a competition between the school 'houses' to see who could collect the most.

She took 4 large cardboard boxes,

and painted and transformed them into 4 boxes representing large coloured toothpaste tubes - one for each house, with a clear window at the front so you can see the collection progress.

These boxes have now been sitting in the school office for one school term. She has promoted this competition in assembly, to both students and parents, has created a poster and taken the request up to the high school to ask them to collect too, and also sent a collection box to her school's second campus so they can also start collecting.

Today I went in with my daughter to help her weigh each house's collection and prepare the first shipment to be sent to Terracycle.

Overall the total collection was almost 2.5 kg which is pretty good I think, That's 2.5 kg of oral care waste kept out of landfill and that will now be recycled to create something new and useful.

The results have been posted above the boxes and will hopefully spur everyone on to collect more over the holidays and next term to bring their house tally up!

So here's the first shipment all packaged up and ready to send off.

Oh No!

It was frustrating to see that even in a small collection like this - with clear posters and instructions about what was being recycled, that all of this non-oral care product waste was also placed into the boxes.

But I guess the whole point is education so this is just another step in my daughter's challenge to encourage more recycling at her school. She now has to work on making people more aware and clearer about what this particular recycling programme involves and can accept.

A Great Learning Experience

I'm very proud of our daughter for taking on this project and doing her part to make a difference. She's not just learning about environmental issues, problems and possible solutions, but she's also learning about managing a large project - dealing with various people, advertising, promotion and ongoing project management. Such a great learning opportunity and experience.

She is learning that you can have a great idea but to put that idea into practice takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and constant learning. She is also learning how a large project needs help from other people - you can't do everything yourself.

It will be interesting to watch the progress and development of this challenge throughout the year.

How about you?

Have your kids ever taken on a large project like this either at school or somewhere else? Do you have any experiences or advice to share?

Please leave a comment below - or on our Facebook page

And do keep coming back for more updates on this recycling challenge - and plenty of other things we're doing to try and

Be Our Best!

That Sugar Film review

2016-02-23T09:57:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I watched this movie and just loved it! I've been wanting to see it for a while and just discovered it was on Beamafilm - an Australian independent movie streaming site for documentaries and real story movies. It has some great films to watch and best of all, we get free access with our library membership!

I've watched a couple of other sugar documentaries before, and this one has basically the same message and information as those, but I felt this one was told in a fun and interesting manner - capturing attention with some great effects, cameo appearances by famous actors and a personal story.

Damon, the star of the film, cut sugar from his diet several years ago, but embarks on a journey to see the effects on his body of eating 40 teaspoons of sugar (160 g) of sugar daily for 60 days. 160 g sounds like a lot - but he ate this daily without having cakes, biscuits, chocolates or fizzy drinks. This was just from added sugars in cereals, bars, yoghurts and basically processed foods!
160 g may sound like a lot in a day, but it really isn't. After the first sugar documentary I watched, I kept a record for just one day for our family to see how much sugar we ate. We each had an average of about 75 g per day, and I think we eat pretty healthily - although we do have cakes and biscuits every day! Just being aware of how much sugar was in our diet has made us think more about the choices we are making when it comes to what to eat!
But back to the film. Over the space of 60 days, Damon did not really change the amount of calories he ate compared to his normal diet, but he put on several kilos in weight, simply by changing the source of a lot of those calories to sugar. But the sugar didn't just have an affect on his weight, it also affected his health; both physical and mental.
It was shocking to see him demonstrate the amount of sugar in some things, by representing it with plain teaspoons of sugar. For example he compared a bowl of packaged cereal to a bowl of a couple of Vita Brits (which have no added sugar) with the equivalent amount of sugar on top - a seemingly huge amount when represented in this way.
Seeing the story of an 18 year old American guy who was about to have all his teeth removed because they were so decayed and dentures put in after years of fizzy drinks, was shocking. Particularly since he said he will continue to drink fizzy drinks!
I believe the movie managed to convey a strong message about the damage that sugar is doing to not just our bodies, but our minds too and our society. It also touched on the fact that the sugar industry is encouraging the consumerism and instant gratification mindset that society has developed over the past few decades which is potentially damaging financially, socially and in terms of health.

I personally really enjoy chocolate, cakes and sweet treats but try to eat them in moderation. Watching these sugar documentaries has made me want to try going sugar free, even just for a short time - perhaps a month. I'm not yet convinced to go sugar free completely, but you never know how I might feel after a short term trial!

Do you eat much sugar? Do your kids?
I would definitely recommend this movie to watch, and I will watch it again with our girls. It is so important to understand what we're eating and putting into our bodies, so we can make our own informed choices for a healthy diet.

How Origami can benefit your body and mind!

2016-02-15T16:04:00.001+10:00

Paper + Imagination = Origami

Many people will have done Origami in some form at school - whether it was just simply making paper planes, or perhaps making a chatterbox like this.

But if you think Origami is simply folding paper, then think again!

Origami can benefit your body and mind in so many ways. It is used in areas as broad as education, science, space technology and therapy. Even in your car - think of your car's safety airbag, all folded up neatly, using the principles of origami to keep it safe and ready to spring into action and unfold when needed!

Origami is a an art form, a creative outlet and a tool for learning that needs minimal supplies. But why is it so good for you?

Do the Maths

Origami can give kids a great introduction to many mathematical concepts. Transforming a flat piece of paper into a three dimensional object helps build spatial awareness and learn about geometry. When the paper is folded, shapes are seen - squares, triangles, rectangles and rhombuses. Fractions and symmetry are also experienced when the paper is folded in half and folds made on one side are repeated on another. Following the instructions to create something teaches sequencing skills. Patterning can also be discovered and learned.
Children learn a lot through play, and playing with origami can let them discover all these mathematical concepts in a fun way, making them prepared for more formal maths lessons as they get older.

Body and mind working together

Origami uses both hands and both sides of your brain. Physically, the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and vice versa. The left side of your brain is the part used for logical, analytical and rational skills, whereas the right side of your brain is used for creativity and imagination. When practising Origami, we use elements from both sides of our brain and since brain is like a muscle, the more we use it the stronger it gets. In doing Origami, we are strengthening our whole brain.

The manipulation of the paper also helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. This is one reason that origami is often used in therapy and rehabilitation of people with hand injuries and also people who have suffered strokes.

Creativity unleashed

You have to get creative to turn a flat piece of paper into a three dimensional structure that resembles a real life object. To be able to imagine the resulting animal or whatever you are creating and to see its growth as you fold the paper stretches imagination and builds creativity. The more you fold, the more patterns you will begin to see and your creativity can take hold as you explore the endless possibilities.

Focus, Resilience and Problem Solving

Through origami, skills of concentration, attention, persistence and self evaluation can be developed. Origami gives you the opportunity to work through a problem, evaluate when things go wrong (this can be easily seen when mistakes are made in folding!) and have the persistence to keep going and work through the frustration of mistakes.

These are more reasons that origami is used in therapy - particularly with things like ADD in kids and also depression and mental illnesses. There are many stories that can be found of people who have found help through Origami for their mental issues.

Try it for yourself

As you can see, the benefits of doing Origami are plentiful, and for kids it is a great opportunity to learn and develop a variety of skills in a fun way.

Origami can be practised alone or with others meaning it can be both a social activity or a solitary one, encouraging interaction with others, or self reflection and calming time.

So are you convinced that Origami is good for you?

Why not try it for yourself and encourage your kids to try.
There are plenty of websites with instructions for making all kinds of things. Here's one to get you started. Or scroll back up to the video at the top and try making a chatterbox.

A different kind of maths learning - Maths Olympiads

2016-02-10T18:06:00.001+10:00

How many people think maths is fun? My guess would be not many; but I believe as with anything, it can be made fun. Maths is all about solving problems right from the basic up to the very complicated. If maths could seen more as doing puzzles and challenges, then perhaps it would have more appeal.

Puzzles and Challenges make Maths fun

I have already written about the Japanese KenKen puzzles which work on that theory that puzzles are fun, and help kids to develop their mathematical skills that way.

Maths can be made fun through games like Yahtzee, Monopoly and Top Trumps, use of numbers in cooking, and fun challenges. I was once looking after a friend's kids and had to take them grocery shopping with us. I set the kids a challenge to keep them occupied while I concentrated on my shopping list! In pairs they had to add up how much the shopping cost in total as we went around. Whichever team was closest to the correct answer at the end won. They loved this challenge and when their mum came to collect them they told her how much fun they'd had food shopping! Who would have thought?

The key to getting kids to like maths, is the same as anything - make it fun, make it different, make it a challenge. Learning maths methodology then doing lots of example problems to practice and drill the method is one way to learn - and I do agree it has its place. Repetition is important in maths to gain skill and to be able to do things more easily, which will in itself make maths more enjoyable (the easier something is, the more likely you are to enjoy it). But there has to be more to maths than endless repetitive sums!

What we are doing

I started out a few months ago, setting maths problems for our daughters, with a reward in a locked box that could only be opened by the combination number of the solution to the maths problem.

You can read about that here.
The girls enjoyed this, so it grew into a maths advent calendar for Christmas, and now I've had to add an extra box so that they have one each and it's become part of their morning routine to solve a problem and unlock their boxes.

Many of the problems I use for these boxes are from the Maths Olympiad challenge that both girls have participated in at school.

Maths Olympiads

Both our daughters have participated in Maths Olympiads over the past few years at school. It's a 'competition' designed to teach major problem solving strategies and build mathematical intuition in school kids.

The kids get practice at school in lunch times, and then over the year there are 5 Olympiad tests, each of which consists of 5 questions with around half an hour to solve them in.

The best part of this Maths Olympiads for me is the problem solving practice it gives the students. They learn to use trial and error, estimation and logic to find the answers. The questions are more than just maths problems, they are challenges and puzzles.

Yes, they do use their mathematical skills to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and make various calculations; but they also learn some nifty mathematical 'tricks' and shortcuts.

For example..

To add consecutive numbers from 1 upwards, take the final number, multiply it by the next consecutive number and divide your answer by 2.

eg: 1+2+3+4+5= (5 x 6) divided by 2 = 15

Or here's another one my younger daughter taught me:

How to know if any number is divisible by 3:

Add the individual digits and if their sum can be divided by 3, then the original number can be too.

eg 462 4 + 6 + 2 = 12 , which can be divided by 3, so 462 can be too!

There are other divisibility rules which can be found here.

By setting these problems each night I'm learning more myself and also enjoying the challenge of solving the puzzles!

A very tricky problem

When I found this 'viral maths problem' on the internet from last year's Singapore Maths Olympiad, I had to give it a try! It is aimed at Singaporean High School students, and is meant to be a difficult one.

Here is the problem:

Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl marks 10 possible dates: May 15, May 16, May 19, June 17, June 18, July 14, July 16, August 14, August 15, or August 17.

Then Cheryl tells Albert the month of her birthday, but not the day. She tells Bernard the day of her birthday, but not the month. Then she asked if they can figure it out.

Albert: I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn't know either.

Bernard: At first I didn't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but now I know.

Albert: If you know, then I know too!

When is Cheryl's birthday?

Tricky isn't it?

Well if you can't figure it out - here's a video to explain how you get the answer:

I had to listen to this and read other explanations a few times before I really understood how to work out the answer!

Make Maths Different and Fun!
Maths as we think of it traditionally - that is 'numbers' can be found in so many aspects of our daily life from shopping and cooking, to bills and banking. But problem solving is so much more than a maths skill. It's a life skill that will prove a valuable asset to our kids if we get them to practice and enjoy puzzles and problem solving from a young age.

We will continue to look for and take advantage of opportunities to help our kids to develop these skills - whether that be Maths Olympiads or games and puzzles.

Do you know any other ways to make learning maths fun?

A Persuasive Writing Challenge

2016-02-09T14:57:00.000+10:00

At the weekend, Euan decided to try a writing challenge with our girls - but not only for them, he did it with them too, which I think was part of the reason our girls enjoyed it so much! Our kids certainly enjoy when we play games and do things all together - even if it is writing!

He set a writing prompt, then he and the girls had 45 minutes each to write their own opinions and response to the prompt. When they had finished, they read what they had all written together; then came my role. Euan read out all 3 pieces ( so that I didn't know who had written each one as I would have recognised everyone's handwriting).

I had to listen, judge them and give feedback.

As it happened I guessed wrongly as to the two pieces written by our eldest daughter and Euan, which was the source of much amusement! But I was very impressed with all three answers and it provoked much discussion afterwards too, both about the topic itself and the different written responses to it.

This was a great way to get our girls practising their writing skills with no pressure of a 'test' or feeling like they were doing 'school work'. They love challenges, particularly those where they can go up against Mum or Dad and we'll definitely be doing more of these!

So here was the chosen writing prompt for this challenge:

"Handwriting should no longer be taught in schools."

And here are the three responses

(typed up by me, just as they were handwritten, no alterations have been made!).

Handwriting is a vital part of human life. People use it for communication and for spreading ideas. It has been used for centuries and has still worked to people's satisfaction.

Handwriting helps people excel in reading and spell-checking. This can help students in exams and assignments. If students were not taught handwriting, when teachers went to check their students' work it would probably be messy and difficult to read.

Secondly, handwriting helps people develop uniqueness and creativeness. Handwriting does this because even though all students are taught to write the same way, their natural handwriting will show through. That is what makes everyone's handwriting different and special.

People may argue that technology is the 'new way of the future'. This is quite likely but that might still be another decade or two away, so for now there is no need to forget about handwriting. Also, there are still many people in the world that love the art of writing and, in some cases, despise the use of technology.

If people just stopped being taught handwriting the world would be a confusing place. Teachers might not agree with the fonts chosen by the students because they can't read it, this would bring the students grades down. If that student had been taught handwriting, they might have gotten better grades because they would have learned handwriting and practised it for a lot of their life.

When people hand-write, it shows their emotions. They might use quick , scribbly writing or careful, elegant writing. Technology is getting close and closer to taking over, but do we really want that? Handwriting is an essential part of life, which his why it should be taught in schools.

Students have the right to hand-write!

Handwriting should no longer be taught in schools. I do not agree with that. Handwriting is a traditional method used for recording the past and communicating with others.

Firstly, handwriting should be taught in schools because if one day people don't have a computer to type but they do have paper and pen, they can still record stuff; whereas if they hadn't learnt handwriting they couldn't communicate or record stuff.

Secondly, it is vital that handwriting carries on being taught in schools because if it wasn't it would make it easy for students to cheat. They could just copy and paste from the internet into their writing. But with paper and pen, it is extremely hard to cheat.

Finally, handwriting must be taught is schools because if you get a virus on your device which you are writing with, you might lose your work. But with pen and paper, it is very hard to lose your work.

In conclusion, handwriting should still be taught in schools because one day you might only have the devices used for handwriting with you, it makes it hard to cheat and it is unlikely that your work will get lost. And that's why handwriting needs to be taught in schools.

In recent years, as computers have become more and more part of everyday life, many people think handwriting is becoming outdated and antiquated. The ability to write and compose your thoughts and arguments is as important as ever, however, the need to write is less important as computers take over from pencils and pens. Due to the rise of computers, handwriting should no longer be taught in schools.

As soon as you join junior school you are faced with computers. The sooner you can read the sooner you can make the most of computers. When you can understand letters and recognise them it is time to learn to type. Programmes such as Dance Mat Typing and Mavis Beacon provide great ways to have fun and learn the important skill of typing to allow writing to become easier and of higher quality through the use of software on a computer.

When you create a written document on a computer using a programme such as Microsoft Word, you can instantly edit it. the frustration of having to rub out mistakes and have a messy, smudged paper is no longer an issue. Using a clean, crisp screen is the new norm. tools such as spell check and grammar check which can be used to highlight and fix corrections , save time for both the writer and classroom teacher when editing and correcting written work. We cannot 'un-invent' the computer as a tool to help writing, we should embrace it and move forward with the times.

In contrast, people say learning with pen and paper helps develop a deep understanding of letters, spelling and even a love for language, but this is perhaps a dying idea, with phones, tables, i-pads and computers taking over every part of our free time, we should not waste our precious leisure time with old ideas that take away time from fun things like swimming and hockey.

Overall, it is clear that writing is as important as ever but how we do it is changing. We do not need to waste time in school focussing on old ideas such as handwriting when computers can be our paper and 'Word' our assistant. Let's take the technological plunge, get rid of time wasting activities such as handwriting and use computer typing programmes and editing software to write as we move into the 21st century.

Can you guess which was written by a 10 year old, a 12 year old and an adult?

A stronger wooden rubber band car

2016-01-22T19:41:00.001+10:00

After making several different 'cars' a couple of weeks ago, our daughter had one final try at making a stronger faster rubber band car before she goes back to school next week.

She decided to stay with the simple design she'd used before
(you can see her previous creations and how well they worked here).

New Materials

This time she used a thin piece of plywood for the base instead of cardboard. The reason she did this was because she wanted to add more rubber band 'engines' to her car after a discussion and suggestion from Granddad! She had tried adding more rubber bands to her previous cardboard car, but the card just bent with the force of the wound up rubber bands!

So - wooden it was - and we found some wooden dowel rods to make the axles stronger too. We used cut up sections from an old board marker pen casing to slot the dowel rods through so they would run smoothly.

Here is her completed final rubber band, wood and CD car. If you can see on the back axle there are three small screws to attach the rubber bands to and notches on the front of the car to loop the other ends around. So this is her '3 cylinder' car! More engines, more power!

Test run

Here is how far it managed to travel, carrying a tuna can, up a slope we had built from cardboard.

Although the car didn't make it quite to the top of the slope as we'd hoped, we'd spent enough time on the cars and so decided to stop there and take stock of what we've learned. Maybe we'll revisit making cars after a few weeks break!

What we learned
So what did we learn (and I say we because I've never made cars before and learned just as much as our daughter did!)?

We learned how to make a rubber band car and how it works with potential and then kinetic energy.

We learned how different sized wheels affect the movement of the car.

We learned about friction - adding sections cut from rubber gloves to the CD wheels to allow them to grip the tiles.

We saw the difference when putting the car on different surfaces, and with different weights on the car.

We also learned about the strength needed in the construction materials and tested various different types.

We had to use lots of creativity to make these cars - choosing materials and learning how best to cut, shape and attach them together.

We made lots of mistakes and persisted with trial and error, making the successes and achievements so much more exciting and satisfying!

Give it a go yourself!
I would highly recommend spending time with your kids learning how to make something like a rubber band car. I watched several you tube videos myself first to get the basic idea of what to do, so that I could help as best I could. We also did things in small stages so that neither of us got too fed up or frustrated. Building up the project over 3 weeks was also definitely a good thing to do, as it gave us time to process each step and everything we had learned before trying to apply and build upon that when we tried again. We used materials we found in the house so it didn't cost us anything other than a little time, but it was time well spent, learning and experiencing something new with my daughter - and not only that, it was great fun!

Inspired by
This project was inspired, partly by a balloon car kit our daughter got for Christmas, and partly by the Opti-minds challenge our daughter took part in last year. She and her friends did the Language Literature Challenge last year but are considering doing the Science Engineering Challenge this year and so I thought it would be fun to have a go at last year's Science Engineering Challenge together in these summer holidays to give her an idea of what to expect. They had to move a tuna can at least 1.5 metres in distance and upwards at least 0.5 metres. Although we didn't quite manage this, I think our daughter learned enough in terms of science principles and also the need for persistence and trial and error, so that if her team chooses the Science and Engineering challenge this year, they will have at least some ideas on where to start!
Have your kids ever done a challenge like this before? I think Opti-minds, or other challenges like this are a great thing for kids to do to learn all kinds of skills. I will be interested to see which challenge our daughter's team chooses this year.

Origami and following instructions - Transforming Ninja Star

2016-01-21T16:34:00.000+10:00

In this week's newsletter, I included a link to these instructions for making origami transforming ninja stars. My girls, who I gear the newsletter for, asked me to include things to make, and I thought these looked pretty cool!

We all sat down together to try making them a couple of days ago.

The instructions were very clear and easy to follow for making the 8 basic parallelograms that the stars are made from.

Then when it came to putting them together, we were fine up until the last two pieces - where it took us a while and some trial and error before we finally got it right!

I then made one more using squares cut from some of our junk mail.

This worked pretty well, but the thinner paper didn't slide and pull apart and together quite as easily as the sturdier origami paper.

Still, they were neat to make and play with, transforming them from stars....

........

...to rings

Both of which we found flew pretty well across the room when we threw them like Frisbees!

Making these origami stars, has me want to find more cool origami projects to try with my girls.

Having to read the instructions carefully, look at the diagrams and orient your paper in the correct way can provide quite a challenge.

This has to be helping them improve their spatial awareness, logical thinking, basic geometry and who knows what other skills.

Making more cars - propeller and rubber bands

2016-01-11T21:20:00.003+10:00

After our younger daughter's success last week making her own Balloon Car Racer, we decided to try making some more different cars powered by other means.

The first we tried was a plastic bottle propeller car, made following this video. Our daughter made it herself, figuring out the best way to punch holes and cut the various materials.

Here it is all finished - looking good!

Unfortunately when we wound up the propeller, the car didn't race forward as we'd hoped!

We asked for help on Facebook, and were given plenty of suggestions like adding weight, cutting more holes and rubber bands on the wheels. We tried a lot of the suggestions and persisted for a long time until the rubber bands snapped and we put it aside for the day, frustrated!

A couple of days later, we decided to try again with another rubber band powered car.
We found a great YouTube channel called 'GrandadIsAnOldMan' and watched several of his videos for inspiration and ideas.

First - and now I'm going to stop writing 'we' as our daughter well and truly made these ones by herself!
She made a cereal box car with rubber bands that wound around the back axle to power it. The wheels were milk bottle tops and the axles were kebab sticks. This car worked but only ran slowly and couldn't carry any weight inside it.

Next she tried with larger mayonnaise jar lids for wheels - and rubber bands around them to gain traction on the tiled floor. This worked much better! The car was faster, but unfortunately still couldn't carry any weight!

Finally, she tried a flat bed car just made with cardboard, drinking straws to push the kebab stick axles through and CDs for wheels. This worked REALLY well and was strong enough to carry a small tuna can! Success!!

The cars our daughter made over the past week have provided lots of fun, entertainment and learning experiences. Seeing and sharing the joy of success when she has made something that works as expected is amazing.
She has learned some physics principles, for example kinetic and stored energy, friction and traction.
She's learned persistence and perseverance to not give in when things didn't work - instead to look at why they aren't working and how can she improve it.
She has also learnt to make things for herself from materials we had on hand in the house - enjoying this and gaining far more satisfaction than from the initial plastic car kit she started with a week ago.

But the challenge isn't complete. There is a motive for making this car and transporting a tuna can. The next step being to make it go up a slope! For that we'll be revisiting the propeller car to see if we can add more force to power the car.

I will post on the progress of this project again in a few days!

Have you ever made a small DIY car like any of these?

Balloon Car Racer - a kit and a DIY!

2016-01-05T09:24:00.000+10:00

A few days ago, our elder daughter made a solar helicopter from a kit she received for Christmas. Yesterday was our younger daughter's turn to try her Christmas kit - a Balloon Car Racer.

It was fairly simple to construct using the instruction booklet - just a few plastic pieces to fit together, and the balloon on top.

Pump up the balloon with the pump provided and let it go!

It worked really well, as you can see on this short video clip.

Since this car was such a simple concept, my daughter decided to see if she could make one herself.

She used the box that the kit came in for the body of the car. For the axles and wheels she tried wooden kebab sticks and buttons first of all.

The car did move, but as the holes in the buttons aren't in the centre of each button, the car kind of bounced up and down and the force of the air from the balloon wasn't strong enough to move the car in this bouncing motion.

The balloon was attached to the end of an old ballpoint pen casing, taped to the box with duct tape.

Cardboard circle wheels were tried next, but worked no better - then we thought of plastic lids. They were easy to punch holes in the centre to push the kebab sticks through and were much sturdier than the previous 'wheels'.
Finally, the new DIY balloon racer worked!

The excitement we both felt when the car actually moved after blowing up the balloon was brilliant! Such a sense of satisfaction having constructed the car from scratch - and far better than simply constructing a pre-prepared kit!

My daughter then tried putting things in the box car to see what it could hold, but it's not strong enough to move when carrying anything of noticeable weight.

This has piqued an interest in my daughter though - and next we're going to try a different way to propel her newly built car and how to make it stronger.

Have you ever made your own model car?
Do you have any tips or suggestions for us?

Building a Solar Helicopter

2016-01-03T14:01:00.002+10:00

For Christmas our eldest daughter got a kit to make a solar powered helicopter. Today she constructed it.

It was fairly straightforward to construct with clear diagrams for putting the pieces together - reminding me lots of lego instructions and how great it is for kids to learn to follow these kinds of instructions with the 3D diagrams, rotating them the right way around to fit each piece correctly - a valuable skill they may use when they grow up and buy flat packed furniture!

The helicopter didn't take long to construct and once in the sun, the blades spun perfectly!

This, together with the solar bugs

and solar lights we have in the garden,

led us to question how solar power actually works. With a little help from Google we found a great explanation here.

In short - solar cells have two layers of silicone, one treated to remove some electrons, the other treated to add electrons. As the sun hits the layers, the electrons move from the crowded layer to the one with more space, then bumping into other electrons and causing them to move and flow, so creating an electric current! So simple.

Silicone is special in this way as most materials just heat when the sun hits them (the electrons vibrate) but in silicone the electrons actually move when the sun hits them which is why it is used in solar panels.

For such a simple and straightforward clean energy source, it is crazy that we aren't using it more. Especially considering these trivia facts that we found (source):

The Earth receives more energy from the sun in an hour than is used in the entire world in one year

It would take less than 1% of the Earth's land area covered in solar panels to supply all of the world's electricity needs.

For a simple kit, it created a lot of interest and discussion about solar power, which we will definitely be exploring more! It also led to interest in plants using solar power too - in the form of photosynthesis, which I'm sure will lead to more experiments and learning too!

In 2016, we are aiming to 'try something new' every week. This is our new thing for week 1 of the year.

Will you join us and try something new each week? It could be a food you've never tried, a game you've never played or perhaps a place you've never visited. Each week we'll share here what new thing we try.

We'd love to hear what new thing you've tried this week - leave us a comment here or on our Facebook page.

Solving maths problems can be fun!

2015-05-18T19:00:00.000+10:00

I'm a big believer that there is fun to be found in any task, and as a teacher and a parent - I'm always looking for fun ways to teach and get my girls to practice things.

Just now, we're doing practice with maths problems written in words. To improve a skill, it is important to practice that skill regularly - just like exercising a muscle.

Practice makes perfect.

Just doing written maths problems isn't that much fun - but I decided to add in a purpose to solving the problems to make my kids want to practice.

I remembered we had a spare combination padlock, which has sat unused in a drawer for a couple of years!

This is one of those padlocks that you can change the combination to whatever number you want, as many times as you want.

So I decided to use this padlock and change the combination to be the answer to maths problems.

As I love sewing and creating new things, I decided to make a little fabric box with loops at the top, that I can loop the padlock through to 'lock' it.

You could use any kind of container that you can add a lock to. Even an old cereal box with holes punched in could be adapted!

Each day, I plan to put some kind of reward inside the box, perhaps a treat, or a 'voucher' with a reward on like 'get out of stacking the dishwasher today'.

Then I'll lock it up with the padlock (having set the code for the day) - and leave a word number puzzle for the girls to solve to find the code to unlock the padlock.

The only way they will be able to unlock the box is if they get the maths puzzle answer correct!

I think sometimes I'll give them a puzzle to work out together, and sometimes individual ones. Using this 'unlock the prize' I can give them problems to solve each day - maybe even one in the mornings and the evenings, giving them regular 'exercise' for those problem solving muscles.

Here's what I left for them today when they came home from school. I baked some gingernut cookies - so their reward when they solved the problem was one of those each!

Success! They both did the puzzle and managed to unlock their prize!

What do you think of this idea?

What ways have you found to make maths fun for your kids?

Sweet sushi

2015-05-05T19:30:00.000+10:00

In the recent school holidays our girls made some fun sweet sushi to share with their friends when they came to visit.

It was a very messy and sticky process to make, and our second batch made with the aircon on turned out much better. The heat and humidity made things melt a little and so construction was a bit tricky!

Basically, the 'rice' is rice crispie cereal mixed together with melted butter and marshmallows. The 'seaweed' to wrap around the rice is fruit roll ups (we could only find multicoloured, no plain green), and the fillings are various jelly sweets.

The result did look pretty good - after it had been refrigerated and presented on a nice dish.

Our guests were super impressed and the kids certainly enjoyed eating the sweet sushi treats!

(they were a little too sweet for the adults!)

This was another fun activity to do, and was part of a challenge we set ourselves in the holidays to do a little something Japanese each day!

Have you ever tried sweet sushi?

Jianzi - Featherball or Chinese Hacky Sack

2015-04-28T11:25:00.000+10:00

On our recent trip to Asia we found these 'shuttlecocks' in Vietnam, where they are used to play a version of Hacky Sack. We saw people using them playing in the streets, but also discovered that there is an official game played with them. The game is called "da cau" and means "kick shuttlecock". The game is similar to Badminton, played on a rectangular court divided by a net, and is in fact the national sport of Vietnam!

The game is believed to have originated in Vietnam in the 5th century BC, when it was used as a military training exercise.

(Source - Wikipedia)

We saw many people playing this game in the streets in Hanoi - like this:

We have been trying to play it with the featherball we bought in Vietnam, but we aren't quite this skilled yet.
It's a great way to practice and improve hand-eye and foot-eye co-ordination. It's good for your eye-muscles, agility, body control and balance. Practising this is a great fun way to improve all sorts of physical skills that can be transferred to other sports. Our girls both play hockey - so any practice watching and reacting to a ball of any kind should help them in that. Euan and I both do a lot of trail running where agility is really important as you run over plenty of roots and rocks, so it should prove beneficial to us too.
Looks like we've found a new family game to play in the garden!
Have you ever played any kind of 'hacky sack'? or even the Vietnamese version?

How to practice Japanese numbers in a fun way

2015-04-27T17:14:00.000+10:00

Our girls learn Japanese at school. They started in prep (aged 4) and have had 2 lessons each week throughout junior school.

Both girls enjoy learning a new language.

Our eldest moved up to high school this year and for the first half of the year she doesn't have any Japanese lessons - instead she is studying French. Although she enjoys the challenge of learning a third language, she doesn't want to forget the Japanese she has learnt so far.

In the recent school holidays we found some time to practice Japanese together. One game we played to do this was Bingo!

It was a nice simple game to play and a great way to practice both listening to and speaking the numbers in Japanese.

We played mostly with 3 of us, sometimes 4, and all helped each other with the numbers. It was definitely a great way to practice the numbers - it was more about playing a fun game than 'studying'. Perhaps we might use it for French too in the future!

Have you ever played bingo in another language?

Global Food Education - Jamie Oliver's crusade

2015-04-01T06:00:00.000+10:00

Last weekend we took our elder daughter on a bush walk. It was an 11 km walk and was quite challenging. We spent 3 and a half hours walking, admiring the beautiful views, looking at the interesting plants and enjoying some family time spent out in the fresh air. On our drive home afterwards, we used some free vouchers we had to get McDonalds burgers, chips and coke.

Did we just spoil all that good exercise we just did? Are we sending the wrong message to our kids - rewarding them for exercise with fast food? I don't believe so - I think balance is the key, if you have that, then kids can have treats and fast food so long as it's the exception rather than the rule.

I've had conversations with other mums who won't let their kids drink coke, or have thing like chocolate cereal. Our kids do get sweet treats, drink coke and eat fast food, but they have an overall healthy balanced diet and plenty of exercise and fresh air.

However it's not just about what we do and don't let our kids eat, it's about an understanding of what our bodies need, and educating our kids to make the right choices in terms of their health.

The obesity epidemic

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,

1 in 4 Australian children are overweight or obese.

Shocking statistic isn't it?

We really need to take care of our children and educate them to ensure the best possible future for all of us.

Overfed and Undernourished

I recently read about a documentary film - Overfed and Undernourished, which follows an 11 year boy from Brisbane who was battling obesity. He moved in with his aunt and uncle who helped him to change his diet and lifestyle. In 3 months he lost 20 kg and became more active and and confident. It's not so much a story of weight loss and diet, but of showing a lifestyle change that it is possible for others to make to fight, in particular, childhood obesity. Learning about the food we eat, taking control by learning how to cook it ourselves, and in addition becoming active. In short, how to lead a healthy active lifestyle.

Jamie Oliver's crusade

Jamie Oliver is well known for trying to educate people on healthy eating having made many TV shows helping people learn how to cook, and also trying to change school meals to become healthier.

Now, Jamie Oliver has just launched a global petition to fight for better food education in schools. This petition is starting in Australia, and yes I have signed it, but is, as its title suggests, it is a worldwide petition. His aim is to create a large enough movement to make G20 governments take action to combat the obesity epidemic the western world is facing.

Education is the key to better, healthier lifestyles for our kids. And Jamie Oliver is providing a great platform for this to start and continue to grow.

Food Revolution Day 2015

On May 15th this year, Food Revolution Day will take place around the world. This event started in 2012 and is growing each year. Last year's Food Revolution Day saw over 9000 events held in over 121 countries! People get together to hold cooking classes, events and dinners aiming to encourage good and healthy eating for all.

If you still need convincing of the need for this food revolution - please watch Jaime Oliver's TED talk from 2010. It's just 20 minutes long, but very powerful and clearly explains the problem and what needs to be done, can be done and is already being done!

I'm certainly going to get our girls aware of and involved in Food Revolution Day this year. Perhaps we can get their school involved, but at the very least they will be cooking and learning more about healthy food with me at home.
Visit Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Site to see how you can get involved in this great movement - by signing the petition, educating your own kids, or something bigger!
What will you do?

Top 10 Riddles for kids

2015-03-31T06:00:00.000+10:00

Riddles are questions posed so you have to actually think, perhaps use deduction and certainly think logically and laterally to find a solution.

As a kid, I could never remember riddles or jokes but loved the idea of them and whenever someone had memorised a bunch of them, I used to love guessing. There are two main kinds of riddles, the more serious kind, using logic and intelligence and the other that force you to be ‘street smart.’

This is one of my favourites from the latter category.

If a plane is flying from Venezuela to Columbia and disaster befalls it. There is a terrible crash and the plane lands exactly on the border between the two countries. In which country do they bury the survivors?

(Answers to all riddles are found at the bottom of this post.)

The rest of my Top 10 for kids would be:

You are a bus driver. At the first stop on your bus route, 4 people get on, at the second stop 8 people get on, at the third stop 2 people get off and at the fourth stop everyone got off. The question is, what colour are the bus driver’s eyes?

One day, a father went to his three sons and told them that he would die soon and he needed to decide which one of them to give his property to. He decided to give them all a test. He said,

"Go to the market my sons, and purchase something that is large enough to fill my bedroom, but small enough to fit in your pocket. From this I will decide which of you is the wisest and worthy enough to inherit my land."

So they all went to the market and bought something that they thought would fill the room, yet was still small enough that they could fit into their pockets. Each son came back with a different item. The father told his sons to come into his bedroom one at a time and try to fill up his bedroom with whatever they had purchased.

The first son came in and put some pieces of cloth that he had bought and laid them end to end across the room, but it barely covered any of the floor.

Then the second son came in and laid some hay, that he had purchased, on the floor but there was only enough to cover half of the floor.

The third son came in and showed his father what he had purchased and how it could fill the entire room yet still fit into his pocket. The father replied,

"You are truly the wisest of all and you shall receive my property." What was it that the son had showed to his father?

If there are three oranges and you take away two, how many will you have?

What gets wetter the more it dries?

If you drop a yellow hat in the Red sea, what does it become?

A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

What can run but never walks,

Has a mouth but never talks,

Has a bed but never sleeps

And has a head but never weeps?

Each morning I appear

To lie at your feet

All day I will follow you

No matter how fast you run

Yet I nearly perish in the mid day sun.

What am I?

Three guesses, What have I got in my pocket?

Do you have any favourite riddles? Feel free to leave them in the comments and see if anyone can guess the answers!

Euan

Solutions:

10. Silly- they don’t bury the survivors.

9. You are the bus driver- the same colour as yours!

8. The son had showed his father a match. Whenever he lit the match, it filled the entire room with light, yet it was still small enough to fit into his pocket.

7. Two (you took two)

6. A towel

5. Wet

4. An egg

3. A river

2. Your shadow

1. Good question- a magic ring? - from The Hobbit

Elephant Nature Park - Chiang Mai, Thailand

2015-03-30T06:00:00.000+10:00

In January, as part of our trip Backpacking in Asia with our kids, we visited the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a day.

On past trips to Thailand we have had elephant rides, but this was totally different and opened our eyes to elephants in Thailand.

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre where you can visit and volunteer to help the plight of the animals - elephants, dogs, cats and even buffaloes and other animals.

Lel Chailert founded the park in 1996 as a sanctuary for rescued elephants. Visitors come to the park to see the elephants in their natural environment rather than in a show or for rides. You can feed the elephants,

help bathe them in the river

and observe and learn about them.

We learned about how elephants are a part of Thailand's culture, economy and history. Elephants were used heavily in the logging industry until 1989 when logging was banned in Thailand. Many families who owned elephants to help with their logging work, suddenly found themselves with a huge burden of an elephant to take care of and feed, but no income to do so with. Many people sold their elephants into tourism as a result or the elephants were neglected and suffered accordingly.

Lek has dedicated her life to helping elephants and this sanctuary is an amazing ongoing achievement and a shining example of what one person can achieve.

During our visit to the park, we also watched a video that showed what elephants in Thailand go through to become trained for rides and tourist shows. We saw a video of "the training crush" where elephants are forced into a cage a tied there so they cannot even sit down. They remain there for days, sometimes being beaten or stabbed to 'break' them and make them more obedient. It was horrific and heartbreaking to see the way these animals are treated, and made us re-think our views on elephant rides, no matter how well the animals appear to be treated.

We also heard and saw the stories of the elephants at the sanctuary and why they are there. Stories of elephants being forced to work when heavily pregnant and losing their babies as a result, also terrible cases of abuse and beatings.

But being at the sanctuary for the day and seeing the great work that is being done to care for these amazing animals, seeing all the volunteers who are helping to feed and care for them and the tourists who are happy to pay their money just to be close to the elephants, and feed and bathe them; gave us hope for the future of elephant 'tourism' in Thailand.

Lek is leading the way in a change in elephant tourism in Thailand. Other elephant parks are beginning to follow suit and change their practices after seeing the success of the Elephant Nature Park as a tourism venture.

When we went, it was booked out a week in advance and we were just lucky to get in thanks to a last minute cancellation.

Our girls loved being around all the animals - not just the elephants but also the many dogs and cats around the park.

It was a great experience for them to be so close to the animals, but to also learn about the reality of animal tourism.

We spent the day getting close to the elephants but at the same time learning to respect them and be safe around them. The steel hook that many mahout use to control the elephants when tourists ride them or have photos taken with them are not used at the Elephant Nature Park. Instead the elephants are treated with respect and love and there is no need to stab or prod them into submission.

I would highly recommend a visit to the Elephant Nature Park if you ever head to Chiang Mai in Thailand. A great place for the elephants and such a rich experience for the tourists. There is also an option to go and stay there for a week as a volunteer to help take care of the animals. Our girls have their eye on this possibility when they're older and it is certainly something we could encourage.

Have you ever had any experience of animal tourism?

We'd love to hear of any similar places in other parts of the world.

News programmes for kids - Behind the News

2015-03-27T06:00:00.000+10:00

(Image source)

Do your kids watch the news or read the newspapers? How do they start out? Diving straight into adult news reports can be difficult, intimidating or just downright boring for kids. So how do you get them interested and learning about what is happening in the world around them?

The News when I was a kid

Growing up in the UK in the 1980s I used to watch John Craven's Newsround. This was the world's first TV news programme aimed specifically at children. It was shown at the end of the children's programmes each weekday afternoon. This programme still runs today, although John Craven himself has retired from the show which is now just called "Newsround". I used to look forward to watching this show. It was interesting and I learned a lot that then enabled me to watch the news with my mum and dad and understand more about what was going on.

Australian TV News for kids

Here in Australia, the ABC has a children's news programme on each day, "3 News" which is aimed at younger children. There is then a weekly news programme aimed at upper primary and secondary children, called BTN (Behind the News).

I first came across BTN when I was teaching English as a foreign language and used it for listening exercises with my students. Our girls then began to watch it sometimes at their primary school, and recently we've rediscovered it via their website where you can watch all the stories, take quizzes and polls, and even learn how to become a reporter yourself.

There are also teacher resources available - with new ones being produced weekly based on two current news stories.

BTN is the perfect fit for our two girls, currently aged 9 and 11. They do have an interest in the news, but watching adult news programmes is a little too much for them - too detailed and long, and their background general knowledge isn't sufficient for them to understand many of the stories.

BTN simplifies the stories and provides the background information necessary to understand them. There are also a lot of fun stories to help hold their interest.

This is one website our girls will be returning to a lot and gaining plenty of information and knowledge from as well as having fun with it. I would definitely recommend it as a fun introduction to news stories for children.

Do your kids like to watch the news? Do they watch children's news programmes or the regular news reports with you?

The Lemonade Stall - encouraging entrepreneurship in kids

2015-03-26T06:00:00.000+10:00

Last year we had a garage sale at our house, and our girls decided to make and sell some lemonade and cookies too. They had great fun making the lemonade, cookies and the sign; and planning the whole thing. They worked out the cost of the ingredients and made a little bit of money, but saw how much effort and time went into the whole thing and the relatively small profit that resulted.

However, they are both still keen to make and sell something. As a start, they have their own on-line Junior Madeit shop
(Little Lightbulbs) selling upcycled jeans inspirational bag tags.

They've sold a few, but as yet haven't really pushed and put a lot of time into their small 'business'.

We're trying to find ways to help and encourage them in their endeavours, and the following story was a good place to start.

Make a Stand Lemon Aid

Last year I heard about the organisation, 'Make a Stand' when I saw a trailer for a documentary movie about the little girl who decided to sell lemonade to end slavery. At the age of 8, she saw a picture (initially seen by her parents in a gallery) of 2 little boys with slabs of rock tied to their backs.

(to see the picture go here).

The picture upset this little girl - Vivienne who wanted to stop child slavery. Her idea to make money to stop child slavery was to set up a lemonade stall.

With her parents help she did this, and in less than a year reached her goal of $100,000 raised. How did she raise this huge amount of money just by selling lemonade? Well, she got noticed by the right people, had the support and help of her parents, and she was dedicated to her cause and set up her stall every single day.

To read more of the whole story and see how far this little girl has come since then, you can visit her website - here.

One thing that really interested me about this story, was what it was that motivated this little girl to take this cause on and be so focussed and determined to help others?

When, as a parent, you are telling your kids to stop fighting over things and hearing the cries of "It's not fair! That's mine! She took my... They got more than me.", how does an 8 year old see things so differently, and want to devote all of her time and energy into helping others?

Is this something instilled in her by her parents?

Had she ever done anything like this before?

Is she just a particularly caring and giving child?

What tipped the scales for her?

Was it the image itself, or perhaps the way her parents told her about it?

I think it's truly amazing what this little girl has done and is still doing and I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary movie.

A different kind of motivation

When our girls heard this story, it did inspire them to want to raise money to help a cause too.

For them, they both love animals, and like the idea of raising funds to sponsor an endangered animal through the WWF. This is something I myself do through sales of my own e-book, so the girls can see an example of it working too.

I think they find this a better incentive than just selling things to simply make money for themselves. There is more of a why - a clear focus and reason for selling things and making money.

The girls are currently working on more things to make and sell in their Madeit shop

and ways to promote their shop and make some regular sales to be able to support their own cause, and sponsor an endangered animal.

I think having a cause will give them more motivation and more of a reason to put some more time and thought into their little 'business' .

Making and selling things is such a great thing for kids to do and learn through and we shall encourage and help wherever we can.

Have your kids ever taken a stand against anything? Or set up their own shop or stall selling their creations? Any stories, tips or ideas would be very much appreciated!

Angkor Wat with kids

2015-03-25T06:00:00.000+10:00

When I think of the most wonderful man-made places in the world, I certainly do not automatically think the kids would be interested in them.

I think of the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Easter Island monuments, the Coliseum, Machu Pichu, other South American or Mayan ruins and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Do kids even know about them or even care about them?

Certainly, until they reach a degree of self awareness and study the topic, probably in early teens, kids are not even aware of other cities and certainly not countries or historical buildings. This is a generalisation, but dinosaurs brought to life in action movies probably trump most kids list of things to see and do. Do they care about ancient things in general? Probably not.

Anticipation
Before our trip backpacking in Asia with our girls, the things we were looking forward to and those that the girls were looking forward to were certainly different. They were most excited about Universal Studios in Singapore, Legoland in Malasia and seeing Elephants in Thailand. Angkor Wat barely registered as an exciting prospect.

Going to Cambodia, I was so excited about seeing the ancient city of Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples. I wasn’t so sure that the kids would be enamoured with the idea or reality. For me, seeing how people used to live, imagining their daily life, the pomp, the circumstance and the grandiosity of the ruling classes is what it is all about. Imagining the organisation and the vision of getting hundreds or thousands of workers to plan, physically lift and create a vision of a temple, pyramid or even city is a wonder to me. The time it took, often in years to complete is amazing, the ability to build a lasting monument or creation for eternity was the driving force among many of the great kings and rulers.

Arriving in Siem Reap

When we arrived in Siem Reap, the whole experience rather than just the temples was what stood out for all of us. Finding ‘Radar’ our Tuk Tuk driver was a great help. Him allowing the girls to take photos on the motorbike was a highlight for them as was his happy face as he dropped and picked us up after our adventures. He was very good value!

Sunset

After buying our tickets at the gate (the 3 day pass) we rushed to the elephant station to take a trip up the hill for the sunset over Angkor. In retrospect this was a mistake. The sun does not set over Angkor but in another direction entirely and the crowds were truly unbelievable.

Whilst I would go back to Angkor, I would certainly never do this sunset hill experience again!

An Elephant Ride
The elephant trip too was probably a bad idea. At the time, it was a reward for the girls for having done so well in the 8 hour bus journey back from seeing the Irrawaddy dolphins inKratie. The elephants seemed well cared for and were being looked after as working elephants rather than living in town, which is a good thing.

Contrasting this with our later trip to Elephant Heaven, or Lek’s Elephant Sanctuary near Chang Mai in Thailand put this experience in perspective. We enjoyed it at the time but, I don’t think I would take a commercial elephant ride again after knowing what most have gone through in the ‘crusher’.

At the top of the hill, we joined the queue to get to the temple at the top of the hill- a bad idea. There were hundreds of people and also hundreds of Chinese tourists who were not so keen to stand in a queue and pushed past us, over walls and directly contradicted every rule of politeness that has been written, and not written, in the western world. Jill politely walked to the front of the ‘queue’ to see what was going on and managed to get a mouthful from a guard who obviously found someone that would actually listen to him for her troubles. We gave up after watching people push past us for 25 minutes and walked back down the hill and had a lovely sunset at the bottom of the hill with less people and Angkor Wat just next to us.

Sunrise

The next day we were up super early and got to Angkor Wat for sunrise.

This was definitely worth it. I think we took a thousand photos that day. Although there were still large crowds of people, the sheer scale of Angkor Wat meant there were plenty of quieter places to watch the sunrise from and explore - you just had to leave the reflective lake pictures until the crowds had cleared later!

But it was worth the wait!

The girls played at being tour guides and we looked at guidebooks, listened in on tours and generally climbed through the under restoration ruins.

Every different temple had it’s own character. The bass reliefs were cool, the worn down steps that you could clamber up and down and the endless ‘jigsaw puzzle’ blocks scattered around awaiting a puzzle master to assemble were awesome.

Each temple was unique, matching the vision of the ruler who was adding his vision towards his perpetuality. A standing vision through the passing of time.

Tomb Raider

We finally reached Ta Promh, the place famous for the setting of Tomb Raider and Angelina Jolie coming out from below the famous tree which is growing out and from the stones is a great spot and as we had managed to be going in the opposite direction to the tour groups, it wasn’t even busy.

We had lots of time to take pictures and marvel at the size, age and complexity of the root systems and the enormity of the trees and time that lead to this wonder. The next step will be for us to get the girls to watch the movie Tomb Raider- a definite gap in their pop culture knowledge!!

Finishing the day with tired legs from all the walking also made us feel we had got our money’s worth. It was truly a great day and experience, and although the girls perhaps did not appreciate the historical significance, they thoroughly enjoyed the active and physical hands on nature of the site which is both enormous and accessible. Seeing the monkeys around the site was also a bonus for the girls - especially the cheeky ones who knew where to pinch their breakfast from!

On return to Australia, our eldest daughter also appreciated the experience as she had to make a project, brochure and speech on an ancient civilisation- this trip certainly made the task easier for her!

This was definitely a highlight of our trip and a memory for a lifetime for all of us.

Euan

How to make a fabric bracelet - upcycled from a jeans waistband

2015-03-24T06:00:00.000+10:00

I sew and upcycle a lot, especially from old jeans and I wanted to find something that our girls could upcycle and sew for themselves and get a bit creative.

These bracelets are super simple and allow for plenty of decoration and creativity!

Here's how to make a fabric bracelet from a jeans waistband:

First of all cut the waistband from an old pair of jeans.

Unpick the belt loops and remove.

Fasten the button on the waistband and wrap it around your wrist for size. Remember to overlap the two pieces!

Cut the waistband the size you would like and lay if flat.

Then unfasten the button and overlap the two raw edges where you just cut and pin together.

Stitch using a zig zig stitch for strength in a box shape where the two pieces overlap. Use a denim or larger needle on your machine for this as the layers are quite thick. You could also hand stitch this if you don't have a sewing machine!

And that is your basic fabric bracelet finished!

Now comes the fun part - adding the embellishments.

For this one I added a fabric flower - just simple circles of varying sizes cut from denim and other scrap fabric.

Place the circles on top of each other and stitch through the centre with a button to hold in place. Then snip around each circle to make the 'petals'.

Then scrunch the flower up and roll between your hands to make it look more like a flower!

And stitch it to the bracelet - hiding your previous stitching!

One finished flower fabric bracelet!

You can embellish these bracelets with anything you choose.

My girls chose beads, an old kids plastic necklace and some ribbon. They are all just hand stitched into place in designs they chose.

I want our girls to learn to create with upcycled materials, and these bracelets are simple enough for them to make by themselves, and flexible enough to make them with endless different designs!

What have you or your kids created with upcycled materials? Maybe you have an old pair of jeans you could try one of these bracelets with?

KenKen - fun puzzle arithmetic practice

2015-03-23T06:00:00.000+10:00

Ken means Wisdom in Japanese, but the original name for this puzzle was,

"The Kashikoku Naru Puzzle"

which means

"The It Makes you Smarter Puzzle"

(source)

I first heard of these puzzles when my dad brought these KenKen books out from the UK for our girls. KenKen are a kind of sudoku type puzzle that works on arithmetic and logic. They were invented by a Japanese maths teacher as a way to train young brains in arithmetic in a fun puzzle type manner. In the foreword to each book, the creator, Tetsuya Miyamoto says,

"It's important that the learning process is enjoyable. KenKen is ideal for making the learning process enjoyable and is perfect for all ages."

How to play

The logic part

Each puzzle has a grid, and like in sudoku and each square in the grid contains a number. If the grid has 3 squares across then those numbers will be 1,2 and 3. If it has 4 squares the numbers will be 1,2,3 and 4; and so on. No number can be repeated in any column or any row.

Now for the arithmetic part

The small numbers found at the top left corner of a square is the answer to the particular maths function of the numbers in that block. The top of the puzzle will tell you if you are adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.

Here's an example of a small multiplication puzzle. In the top right of the page you see a 'x' sign telling you this is a multiplication puzzle.

If you look at the top left corner of each block - this tells you the answer of the numbers in that block multiplied together. So in the top left block there is a 2 which tells us the two numbers in that block must be 1 and 2, the order of those numbers must then be determined.

If we look at the block on the left below, the number 3 tells us the two numbers in that block must be 1 and 3, so the number in the top left must then be 2, so that the left column has all three numbers present. In the centre of the square that block has a 2, so that one is simple - place a 2 in that box!

The puzzle is worked out using each block in turn.

Here's an example of another puzzle:

You can see at the top right of this page there is a '+' and a"-" symbol, telling us it's an addition and subtraction puzzle. There are 5 squares across so each row and column must contain the numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5.

The top left block has 2 numbers that added together make 9. Of the numbers we can use, these must be 4 and 5. Then again the order must be determined.

Each block must be worked through to work out the numbers and positions,

Fun and educational

These puzzles really are fun to do. They help practice basic arithmetic skills, develop concentration, perseverance and logical thinking, and there are varying levels for all abilities.

You can find KenKen in newspapers, magazines, books and also online and in downloadable apps.

The official KenKen website has daily puzzles, customizable puzzles and free weekly printable email puzzles for teachers to use in classrooms.

Mr Miyamoto developed these puzzles based on his philosophy of 'Teaching without teaching".

Kids will far prefer doing puzzles and games to maths problems and worksheets - but if you find the right puzzles and games they teach the same things!

Have you or your kids ever tried KenKen?

I would definitely recommend giving them a try!

A taste of Vietnam with kids

2015-03-20T06:00:00.000+10:00

Some more highlights from our trip Backpacking in Asia with our kids.

(Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Hanoi)

Vietnam

Vietnam is a socialist oriented market economy, a country with 90 million people and growing prosperity.

In saying this, the inequality is really stark when you arrive and it certainly feels you are in a poorer country.

Our arrival in Vietnam was really a step into the unknown. With two young blonde haired girls (9 and 11) we were both apprehensive and a little worried. As soon as we arrived our minds were set at ease, the people were helpful and friendly. Even in the capital city, Hanoi is scrupulously clean (thank you socialism) and easy to get around. We heard Ho Chi Min city in the south was busier and had some big city problems such as bag grabbing but we certainly had no experiences like this.

The traffic in Hanoi was interesting. There appeared to be no road rules other than don't crash. Everyone seemed to drive, ride and walk where they wanted to. Nobody went very fast, and it all seemed to somehow work!

The girls found it interesting to see really old people working in the streets- cleaning the pavement near their business, sorting newspapers, preparing fruit and carrying it (heavy!!!) to little restaurants on foot or bicycle. It was a real contrast from everyday life in Australia.

Food

Hanoi was very much a culinary experience, with the option to add your own garlic or chilli (rather than have the dish really hot).

The girls found themselves experimenting with food.

Pho- a noodle soup with pork was a favourite...

..as was Bun cha,

which we experienced a climb through the five level, tiny building to find the last available seats. And saw our food being cooked out on the tiny balcony!

Still it was worth it- Yum!

Coffee

Coffee was another revelation for the girls. By adding condensed milk to coffee the girls discovered a new pleasure that has followed us back to Australia.

I had no idea how the French influence on Vietnam has allowed baguettes and coffee to become so readily available on every street corner. With a small glass coffee cup, a large teaspoonful of condensed milk at the bottom, you were always ready to enjoy the strong bitter black coffee on top. We never mixed it, enjoying the contrast and sweet reward at the bottom of the cup- something like a coffee caramel rather than crème caramel in flavour! Some people mixed the sweetness through but we did not succumb.

We also tried a unique north Vietnamese delicacy- egg coffee. Whilst the idea is odd, trying to request it and order one in a café where nobody had any English was a hilarious challenge. Miming chickens- with full noises to accompany and drawing eggs (fried!?) finally lead to me being taken to the kitchen and asked to show what I hoped to order. This worked and within a few minutes my egg coffee appeared. It looks kind of like a black espresso with a cappuccino style head. The head is not milk though, it is beaten egg that stays in a sweet liquidy state and is really nice. The effort to order it was worth every moment and the laughter in the girls eyes was priceless!

We visited Hanoi,

Halong Bay

and Hoi An.

A taste of a big city, beautiful World Heritage Listed bays, and a small town surrounded by rice paddy fields. In just 10 days, we had a fabulous taste of Vietnam.

Given the safety, ease of travel and transport and the delicious food available around northern Vietnam, I would strongly recommend a visit for any family. Vietnam got a big thumbs up from the girls and us as parents.

Euan