Where'd all the good fences go?

We wander along the streets, glad to be out of the house after a weekend of rain.

"I want to walk up there." She pulls herself up onto the low brick wall and streached out her arms to balance.

I walk along the footpath next to her.

"Ooo - I'm so high!"

"Very high - almost as tall as me."

She pauses, grabs me for balance and stands on her tippy toes. "No, I'm higher."

I smile and decide not to disagree.

I hold her hand as she jumps down and runs to the next fence, it's a picket fence so she runs to the next one. It's a high security fence.

"Erin?"

"hmm?"

"Why doesn't everyone has good fences?"

Water Play

In my opinion there is little that can entertain a toddler quite like water play. I have never met a toddler who doesn't love to splash and pour and scoop.

I look after the children at our churches Mum's bible study. Every Tuesday morning in school term I keep two toddlers and 3 preschoolers entertained so that their mums can meet together and study God's word.

Today I was in the back yard with two screaming toddlers (they do love me - they just don't love me in the moments after their Mums have disappeared). The sand pit had no real effect so I pulled out a tub and the hose and filled it up. We had about an hour of fun with a shovel, two ice cream containers and a water can. We all ended up soaking wet, but also laughing hysterically. Next time I'm pulling the water out first.



(photo credit)

Baby Quilt

The quilt is all finished and gifted; so I can now show it without spoiling the surprise.



Isn't it cute? I'm really happy with it, especially considering I hadn't really done a quilt before (Well, there was a disaster in year 10 textiles when the teacher thought I knew what i was doing, but I didn't). The main problem I had was with the binding, I just sort of winged it :).

I basically just worked out dimensions for a simple square quilt with a simple boarder in between. It ended up being just under a meter squared - perfect for tucking in a cot or laying on the ground for baby to lie on.




I adapted the lion applique from Kim Schaefer's book Quilts, bibs, blankies . . . Oh my! It has lots of cute ideas for boy baby things, or gender neutral which is good because so many baby patterns can be a bit girly.




For the backing I decided to take a short cut (quilting purists stop reading now!), I just laid the quilt top onto a piece of polar fleece and quilted over it (no batting). I wanted the back to be pretty too so I quilted the cross in the squares before I appliqued the lion on. You can see the crosses on the back when you flip it over.






The baby should make an apperance in a few weeks, can't wait!

The Lord is King!

I find it interesting that among Christian children circles (especially in Sydney), you only have to say Colin and people know who you are talking about. No full name needed.

Being a Sunday school teacher I know most Colin songs by heart, and I'm a bit of a fan.

So when a friend from church rang to say she had tickets for her and her kids but had to work and did I want to take them for her, I jumped at the chance.

It was my first Colin concert, I had alot of fun :) - probably as much as the kids; I love being an early childhood teacher! Colin sang a range of songs from across all his albums - and entertained the kids between the songs with crazy clothes changes and silly skits.

I'd defiantly recommend going to one, it's very reasonable compared to alot of other kids concerts I've seen advertised and I felt that Colin interacted well with he kids, getting their input and encouraging them to join in. I'd say that the best age is preschool to early school (4-7 year olds)The almost 3-year-old I took was a little overwhelmed for most of it, but got up and danced towards the end, where as her 4 year old brother loved the whole thing.

I hope Colin is still doing concerts when I have kids.

I knew I had a reason to dislike those shows

This semester one of the subjects I'm doing Advanced Child Development. I love, love, love child development - it's fascinating looking at the ways we develop, especially thinking how what happens when we are very young can impact us later in life.

I was reading through journal articles for an assignment and came across one in the Journal of Infant Behaviour and Development (Possibly the most interesting journal I have discovered during my studies). It looks at the possible link between types of TV shows and delayed language development in toddlers. (Okuma, K. & Tanimura, M. (2009) A preliminary study on the relationship between characteristics of TV content and delayed speech development in young children. Infant Behaviour and Development, 32, 312-321)

And there is a link between 'infant education' shows (like In the night garden, Teletubbies, Baby Einstein) and language delay in young children. The problem is not so much the shows themselves, but responses they evoke in young children. They have few close ups of a person talking to the camera (and consequently the child) which in turn discourages children to interact with the show and the people with them who are watching the show. Children also don't associate what they hear with facial expressions and so some of the information they need to make the connection between speech and communication is getting jumbled.

Shows which have a person 'talking' to the child encourage the child to imitate the noises the person is making (beginning of talking), they will look to the person who is with them, point and 'comment' about the show. The 'infant education' shows cause a child to stare at the screen and not interact with people around them.

Also, shows which have a positive link to language delays were made up of segments (think Hi-5, Playschool, The Wiggles). The reasoning in this is that the brief pause between segments (as the camera pans, or the people gather different props or change location) allow the child to shift their attention away from the TV and once again interact with people with them.

I'd always been a bit disturbed by 'infant education' shows, I'm pleased I now have a real reason to dislike them :).

(photo credit)

I really have no patience for being sick.

I came home from my absolutely fabulous prac on Wednesday and promptly spend the next day in bed with a bucket beside me and the room spinning in a most unnerving way.

I can understand that, and was thankful that it didn't happen while on prac. And the next day I was able to sit up a bit, but still bearly had the energy to do more than leaf through a book and listen to a CD.

But by the next day I feel like I should be back to normal and forget that I haven't had any food in me for 2 days and wonder why I feel so incredibly tired.

But now it is 3 days since I first came down with it and am very happy that I am able to go about my normal(ish) routine.

I really need to learn that sometimes it's okay to slow down a little.


But in better news prac was absolutely wonderful. I miss my class already - did I ever say I don't want to work in school? Because I've changed my mind - I love the idea of a little class of my own. Which is good because it opens up another set of possibilities for next year . . . will I really be out there teaching this time next year? - it's too unbelievable to be true!

Of Babies and Sunburn

I spent the last week child minding at the Quizworx retreat. 2 almost four year olds and 3 baby/toddlers; I was in my element :). I'm a little unsettled by how happy and content I am when lugging around a baby on my hip.

I also experience for the first time in my life the sleep deprivation that comes from a 10 month old deciding to wake at 2 am and cry for an hour for no apparent reason. But the next morning he crawls up to me and grins, and I reach down for a cuddle and forget to be mad.

I managed to go the whole week without getting sun burnt, despite the numerous trips to the beach, the pool and the park. But I managed to spoil it by getting so sun burnt on the way home I can bearly move. Which wouldn't be so bad, but we have Sunday School dedication today and all the teachers will be prayed for at the front of the church. So I will have to stand in front of the whole congregation looking like a big, red lobster.

One day I will remember to put on sunscreen every single day no matter what and never get burnt again.

Be quick to encourage

Last Sunday was the last Sunday School for the year. There was the annual 'report to the church about what we've been doing' segment during the service.

We also give a small gift to each child in our class.

I had finished the report on what the preschool class had done during the year, complete with photos on the big screen which made one of my little pupils beside herself with excitement.

As I gave each child their gift I thanked them especially for something that they bring to our class.

For example one little boy always makes sure that everyone has a seat at group time, and will always take peoples craft to them if they forget it, so I thanked him for 'being so kind and loving to everyone'.

The little girl who loved seeing her photo is the most happy little thing and will burst into song at any moment (and now she is beginning to talk, I can actually understand some of the words :) ) so I thanked her for 'bringing her happy, bubbly spirit to our class'.

It was a simple thing that I didn't think too much about after I'd given the talk, but the reaction I got from other people in the congregation was amazing. They were so happy to hear positive things about people in our church.

It made me wonder, are we more willing to share the bad with each other than the good? As a church do we complain so much more than we encourage?

It shouldn't be that way, we should be building one another up in love. We should be encouraging people in the little contributions they give to our church family.

It was a definite wake up call for me, to be more positive in the way I talk, and to be more proactive in my encouragement of those around me.

(As a side note, I'm spending Christmas with Mum and Dad, and have decided to spend a few extra days with them to recover from 'life'. While I'm up there I'm planning on taking a blog break, so I'll take the time now to wish everyone a Happy Christmas celebrating our Lords birth, and a fun New Year. I'll be back in 2009!)

(photo from sxc)

Toddler Rhymes

I always have heaps of projects going on in my mind. I'll remember one suddenly and it becomes an obsession to do lots of work on it, until the next project captures my attention.

Something I've been working on for several years is compileing a collection of simple finger rhymes/songs which you can use with toddlers and preschoolers to explain basic Biblical truths. It's actually hard to find good ones, either the songs are too long and complicated for this age group, or I just don't exactly like the wording.

So I decided to write a bunch of my own, hmm . . . easier said than done!

I'm not exactly musical so I wanted to base most of them on tunes children will already know (like twinkle twinkle little star, or incey wincy spider etc, etc). And it's so hard to try and write little verses without wanting to add too much information!



This is a little action rhyme I've done with my Sunday school children which they enjoyed, I wanted to give an overview of why the Bible is so important. The actions for each line are in italics



The Bible is Gods gift to me and you,

(Make hands into a book, then point to yourself, then others)

God wrote it so we know it's true.

(Motion writing, then point to brain, then gives thumbs up)

It tells how God's son Jesus came,

(Point to 'heaven', then mimic cradling a baby)

To make us friends with God again.

(outstretch arms -signifies the cross and also giving someone a hug;

point to 'heaven', then thumbs up)

This one doesn't have a tune, but after you say it a few times it develops a rhythm. What do you think?

I'd also love to do some which are straight Bible verses, because you can't improve on Gods word :).

Does anyone know of other good rhymes to do with toddlers?

(image from sxc)

Ottobre anyone?

Ottobre. It sounds like an expensive cheese. But its a great magazine full of gorgeous children's clothing patterns.

I discovered them on a sewing forum, while trying to find information about good patterns for boys. I followed the link to their site and was hooked. I carefully went through their back issues before selecting a few to buy.



Ottobre is designed in Finland. The magazine is available in several languages as well as English. And for what it is, it's very reasonably priced. One back issue is about 8.70 Euro which is about $20 Aus (depending on the exchange rate which is going a bit crazy at the moment). That is actually amazing value considering each magazine has about 40 patterns for children between new born to 15 years, and I can pay up to $15 for a single pattern at Spotlight.

On their website you can see a preview of each pattern in each issue [just click on the magazine cover and they pop up in a new window], so if you are after something in particular you could go through the back issues and buy the one you want.

The designs are just lovely - and because they are European it has that stylishness about it which is missing from a lot of USA and Australian clothes patterns. A lot of the patterns are classic, and won't really go out of style (this includes a lot of their baby clothes, the boys pants, girls dresses and an array of coats). And the kids actually dress like kids - not mini adults (i.e. there are no crop tops or mini skirts. Everything is pretty and fun)

When my back issues finally came in the mail (I waited as long as I could after ordering them before I started to check our mail box every single day, some times twice a day) it was so exciting. I sat on the lounge and leafed through the magazines for hours (yes I love patterns). Most of the magazine is beautiful photos of children wearing the clothes made from the patterns in that issue.

I haven't made anything from them yet (but just wait - I'm so itching to get into it) but these are my first impressions;

• There is a wide range of patterns in each issue. By getting a summer issue and a winter issue you have more than enough patterns to clothe your whole family that year.




• The patterns lend themselves to adapting - I can easily see how I could make a few quite different dresses from the same pattern by adding to the pattern, changing a pocket or even just using different fabric.




• Each pattern is available in quite a few sizes. The sizes are European which goes by height rather than age (which actually makes more sense because children develop so differently) but a quick google search showed a general comparison between the height sizes and age. Many of the baby patterns are from newborn/3months to 2 years, most other patterns cover at least 7 ages (4-11, 8-15).




• There seems to be a wide range of sewing levels catered for in each magazine - you could make a lot of the patterns easier by just leaving off the extra decorations like pockets or embellishments.




• That said I wouldn't recommend the magazine for beginning sewers, unless they had an experience seamstress with them to help them out. Just looking at the pattern sheet is a bit overwhelming - all the sizes are printed on each page and several patterns overlap each other on the same page. Each one is colour coded, but it does take a bit of concentration to try and work out exactly which line you should be tracing (I've traced a few patterns so I can get sewing as soon as my last assessment is handed in).




• Also while each pattern has instructions included in the magazine they are basic and to the point. I've been sewing for a quite a while and I had to look up a few terms they used to work out what it meant. But I imagine if you make each pattern in cheap fabric first you will work out most of the kinks quite easily.

All in all I am so excited to have found this magazine. For someone who loves sewing and children's clothes as much as I do it really is so much fun. My friends kids are going to be so well dress this summer :).

And so, she returns

As you may (or may not) have noticed I haven't been around on the web the last 2 weeks. I've been at prac all day everyday, and when I was at home I was either preparing lessons, writing up observations or finishing an essay (yes, I had an essay due during prac). Or I sleeping - because working everyday with kids is tiring.

But I loved every minute of it. I honestly didn't want to leave - it was a beautiful haven in the midst of my crazy life. And it came right when I needed it.

I know now, more than ever that my calling is for children. To teach them about the world, to watch them discover new things, to comfort them when they are sad, to celebrate with them when they accomplish something.

Of course there were moments when I wanted to cry (especially after having a conversation with a little girl whose mother died of cancer 2 years ago) and moments when I was frustrated if a lesson didn't go as planned. But most of the time I had a peace which is so often missing from my daily life.

It had to do with alot of things, not just from doing the job I am gifted to do, but also being in a place where God is honoured in everything we do.

I would love to show you lots of pics of my gorgeous class, but you will have to suffice with a picture of me holding a turtle. We had 'Snake Express' come to visit - a zoo keeper brings snakes and lizards and turtles for the kids to loved hold and touch. I did touch a snake - but there was no way I was going to put it around my neck - I don't care if it is harmless.

Thanks God

It hasn't been a great couple of weeks. On top of everything eles going on I've been panicking about my prac coming up. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to cope with the work load - not only being at a preschool 8 til 3, but also all the assignments, observations and lesson plans I have to do at night. And all the normal everyday life stuff.

Today was my first observation day. And it reminded me again how great God is! I am at a Church preschool, where all the staff are christian. They all get along so well (unfortunately a rarity in early childhood), were so friendly and helpful to me. I felt at home straight away.

The centre has great resources, the areas are set out really well, the place is clean and organised. The staff are so nice to the kids, and treat them with respect and obvious love. They have a great mix of group and individual activies and a nice balance between structured activites and free play.

In a nutshell it is the type of preschool I want to work in once I graduate. I've gone from dreading this prac to looking forward to it. It will still be a lot of work, and I expect to be tired and stressed at times, but it will be a good experience.

Life with a three year old

Last week I decided to give a friend of mine a break while her husband was away for a few weeks by taking her 3 year old for the day. Here are some of my random observations.

Playschool is lot more technological than when I was a kid.

They made 'computers' out of cardboard boxes and egg cartons, sent 'emails' to each other and sang a song about driving in their 4-wheel-drive. At least there was still Little Ted (though looking a bit worse for wear) and Jemima.

Doing anything with a three year old takes three times the time.

I didn't mind that we had to stop and examine every flower, jump on every Wiggles car at the shops, talk to every baby that we passed because I had all day. But I can see how frustrating this could be for mothers with lots of things to get done.

Kids can make friends so easily.

We went to a park to have a picnic and within 2 minutes of Elijah running to play on the equipment he had made a friend who he played happily with for 45 minutes. I wish adults could be like that "You like the slide? Me too! - lets be friends."

Sunday School Preparations

Each Sunday morning, at morning church I take the creche class for Sunday school. I have 6 gorgeous little people from 18months to 5 years, who I get to teach every week.

Early on in the week I will read through the lesson for next Sunday. The lesson material we are using is aimed at a slightly older age group so through the week it's always at the back of my mind as I think about how to change it a bit so the story is not so wordy, and their are opportunities for the children to participate (like little songs to reinforce the message, or having actions to go with the story).

Then I think about my favourite part - the craft. I like to have something fun at the beginning of the lesson when the children come in to help the separation from Mum and Dad, and it's normally a prop which we use in the story. After the story we make something which reinforces the main idea.

I love making the craft, but it does take up alot of time to get them ready. Often I have to buy extra bits and pieces. Then I have to get the materials ready for 6 replicas of each craft (and 2 extra in case we have visitors).

If the Sunday school lesson goes well; the kids are engaged, they seem to get the main point, they have fun, I go home pretty happy.

But then I go back to church for the night service, and when we go down to the hall for supper I see our crafts abandoned all around the hall.

And that hurts.

To see all the parts of the lesson which I worked so hard on just left around like rubbish. I feel like all the work I do is for nothing, and I feel unapreciated

It makes me think that maybe I shouldn't bother coming up with fun crafts because it doesn't matter what I do, they'll just be left behind.

But then I remembered that the craft is not the most important part of what I am doing. What is more important is the foundations I am helping to build within the children for their faith.

Chances are the kids won't remember the puppets we made, or the paintings we did, or the collages we made. But I hope they will remember the things I taught them about God; His power, His love, His judgement, His grace and His mercy.

How will I use my degree?

For a while I have been wondering what I will use my teaching degree for. The more I spend time with children and doing prac I realise I am more suited to working one-on-one with children or in small groups. I wonder how I will cope with a whole class.

My small Sunday school class, which is 5 children, is as large as I can teach comfortably. I had always said that I would like to work in Preschool but that is always because I don’t agree with the educational philosophy in most schools and I don’t want to work in child care.

What I would like to do is run small playgroups or MOPS type groups in a church especially to reach out to young mothers or new immigrants. Or I would like to be a house mother in missionary boarding school somewhere.

But these always seemed to be far fetched ideas, and not really careers. And unless God means for me to marry, I do need some way of supporting myself. (Unless my little business takes off and I can support myself through that a few days a week and spend the other days on Gods work. A girl can dream right?)

All these thoughts keep swirling around my mind while I sit day after day in class. Learning good and interesting things but wondering if it is worth while.
Then one day we had a visiting lecturer from the government who is a case worker for young children with disabilities. She works with the family; coordinating support, helping the family learn new skills, finding good day care and preschools. Even though it looked like hard work it looks like something I would be interested in doing.

And then at Bible study at church while I was talking with Felicity about what I had learnt, her husband (who works for Quiz Worx) stepped in and said that they had been thinking about creating an early childhood type Sunday school thing and he thinks I would might be able to help them with that after I graduate. (I teach their son in my toddler/preschool Sunday school class).

And it reminded me that in the back of my mind I have been toying with the idea of creating an easy English Sunday School curriculum that doesn’t require fancy equipment like paper and glue and stickers, (which we take for granted in our western churches, but which for many parts of the world are too expensive to be used without thought). I wanted to write a curriculum that could be easily translated to be used in Indigenous communities in the out back, or in the islands of a Certain Pacific Nation, or anywhere else it’s needed.

It was a lovely reminder that while I may not have the same aspirations as the other students beside me, He will be able to use my degree to serve Him in the future.

The memory of a book

Have you ever read a book and then never seen it again, yet the memory of that book impacts you for the rest of your life?

In my first year Sydney Uni I picked up a book that was in the recommended reading list for educational psychology. It was a book which covered research in two of my favourite areas; infant development and how different cultures work in the everyday. It looked at how cultures impacted on infant development, not judging, just stating the facts.

The authors had researched ways different cultures raised babies (first few years of life) and how the way different cultures raise children to develop different skills, often ones that are important in that culture.

Some things I remember were things like;
Western culture is one of the only cultures who let babies sleep in separate rooms and western cultures value children who are independent beings.
There is a tribe in South America who carry their children until they are about 3 and as such their children have an average age of walking much higher than the rest of the world – about 2 ½. This same tribe live in an area where there are many very poisonous snakes, and so having a child which is less mobile means they are less likely to wander off and be bitten.

I drank that book up. I read it non stop for days and talked about what I had learnt to anyone who was willing to listen.
But then the subject finished and I had other things I had to read. I returned the book and the rest of my time at Sydney was not happy, even though I meant to go back and find it again I never did.
I left uni abruptly and I don’t have the unit outline with the title of the book. I have tried so many searches to find it again, but never have.

But it still stays in my mind. I have often picked essay topics that look at different culture's perspectives on an issue. I am so interested to hear people talk about how the same things are done in different parts of the world. I would love to read it again, but maybe the magic of my memory is more enjoyable than the book will be in real life.

Photo by takomabibelot

WFMW - Easy stamps

Works for me Wednesday this week is a whole lot of ideas for keeping kids entertained during the summer holidays. Hmm, well for all of us in the Southern Hemisphere (Yay!) this can be an idea to keep kids entertained during the winter months.

I have been experimenting with making stamps that kids can use in craft that are cheap, easy and can be in any shape or size. And I used suff I would normally throw out so it's environmentally frendly too :).

1. You will need; ice cream container lids (or any thin flat plastic), sponges, something for handles (I used thread spools and drink bottle lids), siccors, pens and glue (I used hot glue gun but PVA is just as good but you'll have to wait over night before you can use them)

2. Work out what shape you want to make your stamp - let your (and your kids) imagination go wild. Draw them on the sponge.

3. Cut out the shapes.

4. Glue the shapes onto the ice cream lids, and when dry cut around the shapes.

5. Glue the handles onto the back of the stamps. make sure they are really dry before you use them.

6. Let the kids have fun. They can make wrapping paper with matching cards. Little kids will spend hours just stamping paper over and over.

And the best bit is they are reusable. Just run the stamps under water to rinse them and let them dry. You'll probably need to dampen the stamps before you use them again.

For more ideas head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Review - Preschool Art by MaryAnn Khol

I might as well get my bias for this out of the way and say I ADORE this book.
It embraces the philosophy about early childhood creative arts that I believe; i.e. the process of creating, experimenting and discovering is more important than the finished product.

It has hundreds of great visual arts activities that cover a range of material from collage to painting to model making. Some of them will turn out to be beautiful artworks, others with just look like a big mess, but all of them will be fun to do and inspire young children to be creative with art materials.

Each activity has clear instructions which sets out what materials are needed, approximately how long each activity will take and also an approximate age range. There are variations for many of the activities so that you have even more activities to enjoy with young children and also hints to help the art experience run more smoothly (possibly from previous experience). Most of the materials used are around your house already or they can easily be bought (e.g. foil, detergent, chalk, paper, paint, crayons, wool)

I bought this book because it looked like a fabulous resource for an early childhood teacher – and it is. It is written so the activities can be done by a small group of children with a teacher which translates well to using the activities at home. You don’t need any art experience or expertise to implement the activities. I’ve been able to adapt many of the ideas for my Sunday school class, or use them when babysitting.

The book is a little expensive ( I bought it from an early childhood book store so it was more expensive than on Amazon), but is actually a few books published as one so you could consider buying the painting or drawing one to start off with. (However it works out cheaper to buy the one volume rather than all the books individually). If you are part of a playgroup or know a place that lends out books to parents of young children I’d encourage you to recommend it to them to buy and then share around. Or buy it for yourself - it is well worth the investment.

New little Man (edited to add photo)

Praise God, another new little life came into the world yesterday.
Benjamin Emmanuel, brother to Elijah.
I spent the night/morning with Elijah yesterday while his Mum and Dad were at the hospital. We made cards for the new baby, played drums and made little cakes. Elijah informed me that he wanted a boy baby called Esther.

Then I got to go and visit the little sweetheart today - and he is beautiful!

Priase God for little Miracles

Announcing the Birth of little Esther Grace, born on 23rd December 2007.
The daughter of friends of mine, who have waited patiently through many heart breaking years for this day.
Mother and daughter are doing well, the family is enjoying their early Christmas gift.

(Sorry, no photos yet because Esther decided to come into the world the day I left for a week at my parents! But that will be my first stop when I get home.)