Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

I’ll be honest. Despite my creative nature I’m not really one for craft.  Especially when it involves children. Craft + children = mess. Kin + mess = stressed to the point of rocking in the corner with a glass (or 3) of wine.

Ergo, craft + children + Kin = not happening.

But on Sunday I came up with a brilliant plan. Miss Moo’s formula tins. She’s just finished her first one (long story on the breastfeeding) and rather than throw it out, I got the girls, but M&M specifically, to choose a couple of her favourite pictures from daycare. Daddy cut them to size and Kiki & M&M helped him with the stickytape to stick them to the tin. 5 minutes tops, happy kids, no mess = happy Mum.

As an added bonus this is now a pencil storage tin. Kiki has dibs on the next formula container, and my mother-in-law is also hankering for a couple.

It was time.

I could feel it.

The questions. Oh my the questions. That. Wouldn’t. Go. Away.

“Can I have some money Mum?”
“Why does she have some and I don’t?”
“I want *insert donut/toy/ice cream/lolly of choice here*”

So I caved.

And assigned pocket money. They’re too young to have a real concept of money, so I kept it simple.

“M&M, how old are you?”

“4″

“Here’s 4 coins” (I gave her 4 x 50c pieces)

“Kiki, how old are you?”

“3″

“Here’s 3 coins” (I gave her 3 x 50c pieces).

“Now, here’s the rules. Each Saturday I will give you 4, or 3 coins. You each must put one coin in this bag as savings. I will keep them in my desk until we have enough to bank. With your other coins, you can spend them on donuts, lollies, or whatever. Or you can save it all for a big toy. OR you can save another coin or two, and leave one for spending on lollies at swimming.” Swimming is about the only place they can buy a lolly for 10c each these days.

Kids often surprise us don’t they? M&M put two more coins in her savings bag, and has kept one coin. Kiki “me too” put another coin in her savings bag, and has kept one to spend. We went through their room and found two small coin purses, which live in my handbag with each of their “spending money” in it (they are little after all, we can’t have them losing it all the time - plus at their age I will get to approve all purchases).

I know they don’t get the concept of money, and how much things are worth, but perhaps they do have some good foundations for money practices building already. I mean, of the $3.50 I dished out today, they’ve decided to save $2.50. It won’t be long before they’re ruling the world. Next step - donations and charity.

Pocket money isn’t as scary as I thought.

In case you were unaware, I live in Queensland. This weekend is our local government elections (for international readers, local governments are our small, localised governments who take care of roads, water and development applications).

Due to the middle of nowhere regional nature of the area we live, we only vote in local government elections with a postal vote. So earlier this week, Hubby and I filled in our ballot papers and sent them off.

Being very civic minded, we’ve never hidden elections from the kids. In fact, Redneck Mommy’s post last week (I think) about this very thing is similar to how we approach politics in this house. Right down to Hubby and I being of very different political persuasions, and trying to get the kids on our side. Of course our kids are not nearly old enough for it to be effective yet. But I’m working on it.

So when we voted, we had the inevitable questions. What are you doing? Why? Can I vote? Etc etc. I decided (because I have nothing better to do) to show them the process, and hold an election.

Today is election day. We have made posters. How to vote cards. Shortly they will be each making a speech detailing why we should vote for their food of choice. That’s right, we’re holding a secret ballot to determine what we’re going to have for dinner tonight.

The contenders are: Spaghetti Bolognaise (leftover from last night), Haystacks (vegetarian nachos) or Pumpkin Soup. Amazingly, since neither of them like Pumpkin Soup, Kiki is pushing for that one to be selected. M&M jumped on the Spaghetti Bolognaise bandwagon (apparently it was tasty last night), leaving me to advocate the relative merits of Haystacks.

I’m anticipating dirty tricks, personal attacks and downright bribery. Or maybe not. Either way one thing is for sure, we’re all going to be hungry tonight after spending all day talking about food.

Saturday morning was the first of what I suspsect will become a regular and long term event for our household.  Our first ever dancing lessons.

Being so close in age, we struggle with letting M&M do something while Kiki misses out. M&M could have started ballet a year ago, but because Kiki was not old enough, we held back. I’m not sure if we did the right thing, but I can’t imagine trying to keep a 2 year old happy while her big sister gets to try all these new things. And they’re such good friends that I can imagine some real resentment developing.

Anyway, Saturday was the first lesson. And if you want to see cute, find a “tots” ballet lesson to watch. 12 little 3 and 4 year old girls in varying degrees of fairy costumes, ballet costumes and dance pants prancing around the floor. I can’t remember laughing so hard in ages.

Both the girls seemed to really enjoy it, M&M more so than Kiki, although I think Kiki is taking the whole “ballet” thing a bit more seriously than M&M. I will say this though, 30 minutes of jumping and dancing around certainly wears them out we had a nice quiet afternoon here. Kiki even had a sleep (unheard of!).

While this is just a start, I hope they continue with dance in some form or another. I did Calisthenics as a child, and then ballroom dancing as a teenager, which, incidentally, is where I met my Hubby. And the best part (from Mummy’s perspective) is that these classes are all “just for fun” and run through the PCYC - so $5 a lesson is a great bargain for me. Especially when I pay more than 4 times that a week for swimming lessons.

Well, today was the first swimming lesson of the season. Despite the hideous cost I was rather impressed. Class sizes are limited to 6, and in the girls class today there were 3 in Kiki’s class, and 2 in M&M’s class. I got in with Kiki, but M&M was a big girl and went in on her own. Granted the pool is very shallow, and they can both stand up on their own, but that was quite an achievement. And hopefully in a couple of weeks Kiki will be happy with going in without me.

The teacher, Karen, is lovely, and the kids just love her. Already.

The best part was I was able to shower with Kiki while M&M had her lesson. The further away from her I am, the happier M&M seems to be. Although once again we need more practice at putting our heads under the water. Looks like a few more trips to the Lagoon will be planned over the coming weeks.

Ah well, we’ll see how they go on Saturday.

In this country, especially this part of the country, swimming is a life skill. Like walking, drinking, eating or talking. Both houses either side of us have a pool. We live a mere 20 minute walk from the beach. The summer heat dictates that we do whatever it takes to stay cool. And yet finding swimming lessons isn’t as easy as it sounds. The local pool, a couple of minutes drive away, does not offer ‘learn to swim’ classes. Either there is a lack of private, local swimming teachers, or marketing is not their strong point (although I did hear of one last week – the first one I’ve heard of in 4.5 years living here). So, we look elsewhere. International visitors staying with family this week couldn’t believe that living so close to the spectacular calm waters of the Great Barrier Reef, we would take our children on a 20 minute drive inland for swimming lessons. Well, apparently a tourist area isn’t necessarily family friendly.

Finding swimming lessons for babies, toddlers and pre-school aged children is notoriously difficult in town here. Each week there is a mass migration to the next town where lessons are held. The other problem was the timing. When I was first looking for my eldest, when she was 6 months old (and I had just found out I was pregnant with #2) I discovered that a) there is no such thing as swimming lessons in “winter” (winter is a joke here, we basically have two – three months of autumn then spring arrives again) and b) swimming lessons on a weekend, or at a time when parents who worked could actually bring their children? Not likely. I was working full-time at that point, and read with mounting jealousy of people taking their children to swimming lessons on a Saturday. In June (“winter”).

When my youngest was 6 months, I tried again. The times were a little more flexible (two days a week!) but still difficult to manage with a 9 month old, and a nearly 2 year old (having to get in the water with both of them). By the time the youngest turned one, my mother in law put her foot down, came with us to swimming lessons, paid for half of them, and watched one child while I dealt with the other. After a while we realised that while we’d gotten in early enough with the little one, the big one wasn’t that keen on the water. Discussions with the teacher followed, and two lessons a week were planned.

Over time (well, the ten week sessions in which lessons are held for half an hour a week) she improved, and the following year began going in without me, and learning things like floating and strokes. I had hoped she would be allowed into the beginners class this year, which teaches actual swimming, rather than just survival. However as I began my research in early September, I soon discovered the previous owners of the swimming school had left, and the new owners were planning an open day for this past Sunday. Desperate for my children to finally master this skill, I packed up the family for the 20 minute drive to check out the new people and find out what classes they were doing.

Of course all the classes have changed, and now my eldest will have to repeat the class she did last season, because she’s “not quite ready” for the beginners class. Added to this the 140% price increase and I’m wondering if the effort is worth it? I mean for two (or three, depending on luck) days a week to pack the bags, snacks and traipse across the countryside, to share my ever increasing pregnancy body with the unsuspecting world, swim for an hour with the kids, feed them, shower them, dress them (again!) and scurry home to do an extra load of washing (so everything’s clean for next time) and deal with the exhausted kids on top of the regular housework, study, moving preparation and general pregnancy exhaustion. I’m tired just thinking about it.

Of course I’ll do it, and pay the extra money, because knowing how to swim is not a luxury, but a necessary survival skill.

It does help that the new swimming coach is a bit of a hottie.

For ages now I’ve been bemoaning the kids in our lounge room! I clean it up and 10 minutes later it’s covered in toys and crap. SO I came up with the idea to set up a little lounge room in the dining room for them. I study and work on the computer in the dining room, and like most mothers spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This way they’re supervised all the time, and have their own space (and we get our space back!)

So while this was planned for Saturday - other things happened, and it finally happened last night. Here is the before shot:

As you can see there’s a lot of wasted space there (and it’s well used). Here’s the after shot:

They had two massive boxes of toys which I sorted into musical instruments, tea set and “other” and along with their lego that makes up the 4 boxes on the shelf. Under the table with the tv will be boxes with their DVD’s when I finish decluttering the lounge room. Those pictures are taken from the kitchen room, so you can see they’re well supervised while I’m there. Past the clock on the wall is the laundry, so I’m never far away now.

It was quite a big job, and I’m glad it’s done now. 1 room down, 10 to go

Well, it’s getting to be that time of the year again, in October will start the great end of year birthday rush, which will now follow through until February when the little bean (ok, not so little bean now I guess) makes his/her entrance.

First up is Miss nearly 4! I can’t believe my baby is so big. While cleaning out the garage on the weekend we found all the pictures of my assorted birthday parties, and let me tell you, this kid is the image of me, if not in looks, then obviously in personality and style. Even the same tragic obsession with Strawberry Shortcake I had at her age. As I looked further back I found photos of me that prove I’m not insane when I look at Miss 2.5 and feel like I’m looking in a mirror. I might even share them one day.

But back to the important aspect of planning birthday parties for little people. We have a rule which hopefully will only last until their 12th birthday, that states however old you turn, you can have that many friends to your party. This year that makes it 4 kids, plus my two, plus parents, grandparents and assorted other family friends. I’m thinking about 20-24 people. Can you imagine if I said she could have 6 people??

Anyway, we’re thinking 2 hours was enough last year, maybe 2 or 2.5 again this year. With a theme. Oh I’m going to love this. Both my girls, and apparently any other girl I know between the ages of 2 and 6, are obsessed with Dora the Explorer, and Miss nearly 4 has asked for a Dora cake. Soooo, I’m thinking of planning a Dora expidition. I’ve watched enough DVD’s to know the format. Problem, someone hands them the solution, they check the map, remember the things to do on the way, then off they go to face 3 challenges along the way - but don’t forget Swiper the Fox! I figure that could take them a good 20 minutes. Which only leaves 1 hour and 40 minutes to fill. Last year we did some great activities like beading (even the token male got into it making jewellery for his sister and mother), dancing (freeze), pass the parcel, decorating cupcakes, before the culmination of the party and presentation of the cake. Dead on 2 hours. Anyone would think I’d planned it.

Of course plenty of food in there as well, although not too many lollies, which I think the parents were greatful for.

Well, only one of the kids who was here last year will be here again this year, so I guess I can recycle the same old activities as well! Unless someone can come up with other activities to do….?

First off let me say, I will not be homeschooling my children. Period. But after SIX MONTHS of my eldest genius daughter nagging me senseless asking me to teach her how to read and write, I couldn’t really put her off for the eighteen months until she starts school.

So I went searching over the dozens of sites I have in my favourites, and found a few useful things. I’m starting slow. About 4 x 5-10 minutes a day on various things, initially: letter recognition, number recognition, pre-writing readiness tracing, shapes, patterns and cutting and pasting.

Because she and the other little miss go to daycare on Friday (where I’m assured she is also getting pre-writing and pre-reading small group work) and the fact she was bored very enthusiastic today, I decided we would do 5 days a week, Sunday through Thursday. Sunday is a very quiet day here, and something to focus her might mean she’ll leave her little sister alone. Hey, let me dream all right?

Meanwhile I haven’t forgotten the little miss, who no doubt will want to be involved as well. Dozens of sites provide free printables for colouring, and as the left handed toad little miss seems rather creative, I plan to involve her further in things such as colour recognition, and cutting and pasting. I have also planned a couple of “fun” sessions a week, with craft, music and cooking varying our days.

Now, if I could just find the motivation apart from the constant nagging to stick with it, and stay on top of the house, washing and my own study, I’d be set.