The road to China

Ni Hao!

With my son's love of All things Chinese we have embark on a family adventure in learning Mandarin. Today was our first lesson. DS went to his class DH and I went off to ours. Tomorrow is Mid Autumn festival or Moon festival. We Celebrated by hearing the story of  Houyi and Chang'e and how the mooncake festival came to be.
DS's class is making a play of  Houyi and Chang'e. He really wants to play the archer!
You can read more about the moon festival here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

Learning a language together i think will be a wonderful thing. I'm really proud and excited we are taking this journey together.

The Journey of Following your Bliss

I started this blog to document fun things for my son, seeing as i am embarking on a new journey of following my bliss i have decided to give use this blog to document my successes, failures and fun on this journey.

Im a list person so my journey will start with a list of things i want to do/see/experience before i die.
I hope to cross them off and explore the planning, fun and execution along the way.
Mostly i want to be able to use this blong as a reminder of what i am capable of and what i can achive if i put my mind to it and dont over think it too much!

How to make a jet pack

You will need
A box ( a shoe box a little smaller or bigger will do depending on the size of the child)
scissors
alfoil
paste
paint
string
coloured construction paper

How you make it
* Paint the box and let dry
* While drying cut out shapes out of carboard we chose stars to go with the moon theme but go with what ever you like.
* Rip shreds of alfoil both you and your child can do this then when painted area is dry paste the alfoil to the non painted areas.
* Then decorate with stars or whatever you have chosen
make holes in the non lidded side of the box to pull through your string straps
* Measure the string to you child making sure they are a bit bigger rather than smaller
make loops through the holes and then knot
Now your jet pack is ready to go

Activities to do with the jet pack
* Have a tea party on the moon
* Catch stars
* Do a moon dance
* Do a moon walk
* Put out your wings ( Arms) and fly around the moon

Songs to sing

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,
When there's nothing he shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, through the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

In the dark blue sky so deep
Through my curtains often peep
For you never close your eyes
’Til the morning sun does rise
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

Catch a falling star
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day

Have lots of fun!

Frogs in a pond

You will need:
An egg carton
paints/ crayon or texta ( pencils generally wont draw on the egg carton)
Plain white paper x2

Cut out one egg holder part of the egg carton and paint or colour
Draw some eyes and cut out
Draw some legs and cut out
Stick eyes and legs to coloured/pained egg cup
Draw a pond and some lilly leaves on plain white paper

Now you have your frog in a pond.
Great for imagination games

Frog songs

Mister Frog

Mister frog jumped put of his pond one day,

And found himself in the rain, Said he I’ll get wet and I might catch a cold ( sneezing sound loudly) Achoooo

So he jumped in the pond a gain.

Der Glumph

Der Glumph went the little green frog one day, d.er Glumph went the little green frog

Der Glumph went the little green frog one day, And the frog went glumph, glumph, glumph! But we all know frogs go (clap) La de da de dah,(clap) La de da de dah,(clap)

La de da de dah.We alll know frogs go La de da de dah,(clap), They don’t go glumph glumph glumph!

Coloured Sugar fun

Colored sugar: Give the child a clear plastic container like a peanut butter jar or a soft drink bottle ( if using something like a soft drink bottle make sure you have a funnle to pour the sugar in there or you will have sugar everywhere) and put a cup or so of sugar in it. Add a few drops of food coloring and let them shake and shake to turn the sugar blue. Later, make something like biscuits with their special magic sugar.
We used green colouring and it turned out like this


Then we made delicious coconut green biscuits


http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Easy-Biscuits-L924.html

The Wheels on the bus

This is a simple craft for preschool children about to begin school or for young siblings of school age kids.
school bus craft
Materials:

* lid (TOP) of an egg carton
* yellow paint or markers
* black construction paper or 2 lids from milk jugs (for wheels)
* black marker
* OPTIONAL: small cutouts of people from magazines, coloring books or hand drawn

Instructions:

* cut the lid off an egg carton

* Paint (or color with marker) the lid yellow. We only used one coat, but you could do two.

* While the paint is drying, cut 2 circles out of black construction paper
o (you can have the children trace the lid from a baby food jar or orange juice container -- preschool kids enjoy tracing). Use white crayon, chalk or pencil crayon for tracing.
o Allow the children to cut out their circles with safety scissors (or supervise them closely while they use regular scissors).
o The wheels don't have to be perfectly round -- let them have fun.
* OR
o use the lids from milk jugs as an alternative to construction paper wheels

* OPTIONAL: Also while the paint is drying, have the children cut small images of people from magazines or coloring books or let them draw their own.
o once again, let the children roughly cut out the images with safety scissors.

* Once the paint is dry, glue on the wheels.

* OPTIONAL: Glue the images of people onto the bus. The carton we used had holes down the center, so we glued the people into the holes.
o If yours doesn't have holes, just glue the people onto the bus... you can draw "windows" around them with a black marker.

* Write SCHOOL along the top of the bus (or if your child is beginning to write on their own, let them write it out).

Thank you to http://www.dltk-kids.com/school/egg_cart...ol_bus.htm for instructions

Songs to sing

The Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

round and round, round and round,

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

All the way to town.

The driver on the bus goes steer, steer, steer,....

The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep,......

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish,..........

The people on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down.......

The babies on the bus go wah, wah, wah...........

Lets start at the very begining a very good place to start

This is a spot for kids craft and activity ideas.
A place to try new things and continue on the journey of fun, learning, and creativity for both my son and i and our family as a whole.

My goals are to
*Try a new activity each week
*Entertain DS and myself
*Keep a record of our triumphs and failures and everything in between