It certainly has been sunny days.... and the cicada's have been going crazy.
They are usually up high in the trees, or whatever, and we can't see them. (Well, I can't anyway.)
But yesterday we struck it lucky. This cicada was singing it's little heart out on the fence by playgroup. We were able to get close enough to have a really good look, and I got this photo.
I suppose there's a library book which would answer our questions (my questions...) about cicadas....
I think I'd better blog about the building site across the road from playgroup.
There used to be a scruffy old dairy across the road from our playgroup. Late last year it was knocked down, and developers started building a construction which fills the site, and looks like it's going to be 3 or 4 stories high. Word is (this from the chemist staff) it's going to have two shops on the ground floor and 3 levels of apartments above. We'll see.
They have scaffolding up all round it, which makes it a pain for getting the little girls and the double buggy past, but apart from that slight nuisance it is continually fascinating.
The little girls often ask if we are going to see the diggers. (Actually they have just stopped doing that as there haven't been any diggers for weeks.) We always stop when we are safely behind the fence at the top of the playgroup steps to check on progress. And there are usually interesting things happening to comment on.
I have just spent the weekend in Nelson, at a Playcentre promotions team meeting. A side benefit of being away on 'business' was that I got to visit my friends there for dinner one night.
This was rather serendipitous timing, as Flora has had a significant birthday (one with a '0' on the end) a few days ago. She wasn't planning a party but this was a good opportunity to wish her many happy returns. (Just why you'd want to turn 40 many times over I don't know....)
Anyway, I made this quilt for her.
I bought the fabric with the little pictures of veges and herbs on it last year, thinking I would make something like this for Nick's birthday. (Nick is a serious foodie.) But he didn't have a party either (slack lot really!), so he missed out. This way he gets to look at the quilt too, so not all lost.
I cut out the motifs ('liberated' them, in quilter parlance), bordered each one, and then had the puzzle of fitting the odd sized blocks back together. Once I found a place to start it came together fairly quickly. I made the inner border like that because it was off balance visually before I did.
Flora was delighted!
Happy Birthday Flora.
We are back into the normal routine now, with school in full swing, and the girls settled in again. One thing which has changed this year is the sleeping arrangements.
Up until the end of last year, each of the two year olds had a porta cot in her own room at sleep time. This was very convenient, as it meant that I could settle each child to sleep when she needed it, and one getting up wouldn't disturb the others.
When the children get to be about two years, this system needs to be reviewed. Sometimes a sudden review arises because a child learns to climb out of the cot! As the children get heavier, I have to be realistic about lifting them as well. In the past, two year olds have been settled to sleep on the sofas, or small mattresses, in the living room.
I decided to start that transition a couple of weeks ago, so that, now, all the two (and a half) year olds sleep in sleeping bags in the living room. It's working very well. They are aware of having to be quiet so the others can get to sleep, and it is both social on the one hand (seeing the others go to bed when you do), and peaceful.
I have just received this message from a playcentre friend of mine. She recommended the video clip below, and, having heard it, so do I.
While our education system is moving slightly away from the narrow approach of the 1987 reforms, we still need to keep hearing messages like this to inspire us to give children the benefit of a 'holistic' education (that's 'early childhood speak' !) rather than a limited 'left brain' education.
She writes:
Katie is now the proud owner of a guitar!
We bought it today on Trade Me. We have been looking out for one for a week or two, and placed a bit on this one earlier in the week.
It was due to close at about 5.30, but the last 5 minutes were very exciting. We had been leading the bidding, and then someone passed us, with 20 minutes to go. We upped our bid by $1. In the last 5 minutes the bids were raised about 10 times - including a persistent bidder who had not made any bids up until that time!
Must have been very exciting for the seller.
Anyway, counting down the last few minutes was very nervous. If a bid is placed with less than two minutes to go, the clock reverts to two more minutes. That is, the auction won't finish until there have been no new bids for two minutes. We kept refreshing the screen, watching the time left go down - and the other sod would have placed another bid!
In the end they gave up (obviously). The guitar cost us $72, which we were happy enough with. Here she is playing a chord.
I was making room in the cupboard for the marmalade which we made at the weekend, when I came across a special treat.
Bottled stewed quince and apple, 1996 vintage!
Although I often reuse the seals if they have come off without bending the edge (there's a knack to that), I don't think Mum does. And I have never bottled stewed apple, with or without quinces. So this would certainly have been true to label.
Mum probably gave me a few jars of her (older) bottled fruit to use up, but that would have been some years ago.
We like quinces very much, but you don't see them often. Grandad has a quince tree tangled in with one of the pear trees in the orchard where he lives, but it sometimes only gives 4-8 quinces (and sometimes none) - and his landlady makes sure she gets a few of those. I usually make jam, when I can get them.
We opened this jar with a bit of caution, smelling and tasting the contents carefully, but all seemed well. Those of us who appreciate this sort of thing had them cold with vanilla ice cream for pudding, and then finished off the jar with muesli for breakfast this morning.
Delicious!
I am currently in the process of writing a book on block play in early childhood centres (and homes of course). It is for the Playcentre Publications 'area of play' series, and I got to choose my subject from the short list that hasn't been done yet.
I chose blocks because they are so cool. (As some younger members of the house might say.)
The tricky part is saying, in about 7000 words, exactly WHY they are so cool, and HOW playing with blocks develops learning of all sorts in young children.
Hmmm.
I've discovered it's really easy to have lots of good ideas - when you're working to the park, or lying in bed, and so on. It's quite a lot harder to keep having those good ideas when you have a blank page in front of you! Hence, I am using blogging as a procrastination tool.
When I talk about blocks, I mostly mean the multi unit wooden blocks you find in almost every playcentre, kindergarten and childcare centre (though some childcare centres have funny ideas). They range in size from 'palm of your hand' to 1/2 metre long. A lot of the point of this equipment is that they are carefully cut to be in exact multiples and fractions of a unit block. The unit is a rectangular brick twice as long as it is wide, and twice as wide as it is thick - often about 12.5cm long.
Part of the richness of these blocks is that they can be combined in literally an infinate number of ways. (I think I can prove that mathematically.) And it seems to be really important to have the range of sizes, including the bigger blocks - for reasons I haven't quite nailed down yet. Kids can build things which are of the order of their own bodies, which is important when young children learn concepts about how the world works through interacting with it with their bodies.
(Ask me someday about the connection between musical ability and mathematics/algebra - and walking.)
Anyway, it keeps me out of trouble. Back to work.
On our last morning in Tauranga (after packing up) Bern took Elanor and Sophie for a last swim at Main Beach, and I took Rowena and Katie out to a cafe.
We ended up having a 1/2 hour walk to find a cafe that looked 'just right'. (There was a bit of a 'goldylocks syndrome' operating there!) Either cafes were too crowded, or no chance of a table outside, or not a good enough range of slices to choose from, or coffee too expensive, and so on.
We finally settled on the Captain's Table Cafe. It opens into a courtyard off the street and I think the name derives from a nautical these in the shops around the courtyard.
I would recommend it because:
We spent a week in Taurange during the early part of January. We had a holiday house - a two bedroom suburban unit - on the west side of the city, and every day we drove over the bridge to Mt Maunganui to swim.
(Before you ask, no, there's no toll on the bridge anymore.)
Fabulous swimming, by the way. Perhaps it always is, but it was hot hot weather, and not the wind we are used to here. We tried several points on Long Beach, but settled on a favourite some 5 minutes drive from the Mount.
One day I took the girls on the ferry from the Mount to Tauranga. It's about 25 minutes I think, and gave a different view of the city and port.
I like this view of the mount (above), with the series of pine trees as a counterpoint to the mount itself.
And one of the older three girls (a good one of Katie) to show they were really there.
Bern took the car round and met us at the end. That's him leaning on the wharf.
(Actually, better not to imagine too much.....!)
But, yesterday it was so hot (and we'd been invited to a beach BBQ by friends) that I swam in the harbour for possibly the very first time.
I'm a bit of a wuss as regards getting into cold water. We have swum every day at Mt Maunganui and Rotorua lakes since my last post (not Lk Rotorua itself), but I have always only paddled at the beaches round here, due to the Antarctic currents that tend to swirl round te Upuko o te Ika.
But, on a very hot day round about 6pm, the water at Hataitai Beach was lovely.
One acquaintance I met there says she doesn't put her head under (just in case), and another lady swimming recommended sandals (rocky bottom might have glass....). But the friends who invited us for the BBQ have swum there often for years with no mis-haps. So it must be all right.
The picture is from Google Images. We swam to the left of the changing sheds.
Happy new year to anyone reading this.
And it has been a happy one so far. It was such a great day yesterday that we took a picnic to Lyall Bay Beach and Elanor had a swim. The rest of us only paddled or read or dug in the sand.
The beach (any beach) is colloquially known as the 'big sandpit, by the big bath'. Can't remember whose toddler comment led to that phrase. May not have been one of ours. Anyway, Elanor has a new (serious!) spade from one of her sisters for Christmas, and Bern is writing a book on sand play, so I can see lots of serious research is going to be required this Summer!
(I keep forgetting my camera. Must collect photos....)
