"Yes, You can!...." series

Home learning from birth isn't just for my children. I am learning from THEM every single day. I have to say when i first started this blog, Tara was a toddler who enjoyed matching, sorting, craft and role playing. I followed her lead and we spend hours each day exploring prepared activities that i spend hours researching and creating but when Mason came along he invited me into this whole world of unfamiliar yet enjoyable learning.

Mason is the boy who needs to be outside, touching, moving and learning through different pathways than his sister. While I'm not as "at home" with Masons style of learning I'm looking forward to investigating all it has to bring for him and i.

So all this explaining brings me to my plan for this month....No researching sight words, matching animals to words or looking at countries but simply changing my way of looking at education.

Giving children extra opportunities to learn from their environment.

This means just expanding your comfort zone a little for the sake of learning. It doesn't have to be a huge leap of faith, by no means am i saying let your children do whatever they ask even if its not safe but just think of what works for your family.You may not like your kids to touch worms, to dance in the rain, or to sleep with their shoes on but i guess we need to ask ourselves why? Are we too busy, too worried about what others think or are we passing on our own fears of things?

Next time your child asks..."Can i..."

Try replying with a "Yes, you can!....." and you both might enjoy the learning experience-I am!

Let me know how you go, you know your child best but sometimes they may surprise you by what they can do!

  Day 1-

"Yes, You can!......make mud pies in the mud"

Day 2-

"Yes, you can!....use your custard as hair gel!"

Day 3-

"Yes, you can!....play in the sandpit with the chickens!"

Day 4-

"Yes, we can!....stop the car so you can play in the leaves!"

Day 5-

"Yes, you can!....bring the frog you just found inside for

 a quick cuddle!"

Day 6-

"Yes, you can!....climb to the top of the slide while i watch from a distance because i see the satisfaction you get when you master something alone"

Day 7-

"Yes, you can!....draw your hopscotch inside because it's too windy outside"

Day 8-

"Yes, you can!....do some gardening in your pyjamas"

Day 9-

"Yes, you can!....swing in the rain"

Day 9-

"Yes, you can!....butter your own toast"

Day 10-

Day 11-

"Yes, you can!....make wormy a cosy bed"

Day 12-

"Yes, you can!....separate the eggs for me"

Day 13-

"Yes, you can!....practice your long jump inside"

Day 14-

"Yes, you can!....pick our strawberries and taste"

Day 15-

"Yes, you can!....give your guinea pig a bath"

Day 16-

"Yes, you can!....help take the bins out"

Day 17-

"Yes, you can!....have morning tea in the aviary"

Day 18-

"Yes, you can!....follow your sister up the wall"

Day 19-

"Yes, you can!....use chalk on the trampoline"

Day 20-

"Yes, you can!....explore water in the washing basket"

Day 21-

"Yes, you can!....help me mop the floor"

Day 22-

"Yes, you can!....wear your tights as a scarf"

Day 23-

"Yes, you can!....read books to the chicken"

Day 24-

"Yes, you can!....use scissors"

Day 25-

"Yes, you can!....play with coloured rice"

Day 26-

"Yes, you can!....have fun with the hose"

Day 27-

"Yes, you can!....peel your own fruit"

Day 28-

"Yes, you can!....build a lego house for your quail"

Day 29-

"Yes, you can!....help cook dinner on the stove"

Day 30-

"Yes, you can!....brush daddy's teeth"

Day 31-

"Yes, you can!....catch the lizard"

Picture blocks

Mason is forever playing with his Duplo/Megabloks so to add a little challenge for him i found some photos and images that i cut in half and sticky taped over to secure onto the blocks.
He was thrilled to see faces he knew and animals he could make the sound of. i showed him how to pull them apart and then mix them up and find the correct match.
I decided to use the same colours to help him find the correct match but for older children different coloured pairs would make it even more challenging.
Stack away!!!

Homemade Car wash

You will have to excuse the blurry photos in this one, we got lost in all the excitement and realised after the photos didn't do justice to the day of fun we had!
I had seen some ideas of PVC pipe made into a car wash and it looked amazing but seriously we dont have PVC pipes spare laying around and i wouldn't know where to start searching for them so on a hot afternoon we whipped up this little beauty.....
One clothes hanger plus orange bag netting,plastic bags,sponges,water balloons,garbage bags,string and a towel mixed with a sprinkler made our own handmade CAR WASH!

The kids had a blast! Taking each of their bikes through the car wash to get clean

The sprinkler cooled them off and the racing around on bikes wore them both out!

The towel at the end dried them off ready to go through again...These cars were SUPER clean by the end of the day!

Zoku product wrap

The Zoku pop maker had been on my wishlist for a while but i wasn't prepared to splash out $60 on an ice-block maker when we had a perfectly fine plastic one that had latest us years but in the end.... I am sure glad i did!
Possibly the best kitchen gadget i have purchased so far!
Not only does the Zoku freeze ice-blocks while you watch in 7 mins, it gives you the control of what goes into it.
For us ice-blocks are a treat but the kids don't have to know that they aren't filled with palm sugar, artificial colourings and preservatives. hehe!
The variety is endless and once the kids are asleep the Zoku can turn into mummy and daddy's vodka lemon lime ice-blocks treats
All that leftover soggy cereal in the kids bowl at breakfast time goes right into the Zoku and makes for a milky energy boost in the afternoon.
Greek yogurt,strawberries and Cheerios made Tara smile here
Bit cold for Mason at the start

YUM!! Homemade chocolate magic shell to top it off

This is Tara's favourite. In the morning when making our fresh juice in the juicer i add some to the zoku and freeze then its ready for an afternoon treat. Pure beetroot juice layered with carrot juice underneath. Good way to increase those extra vitamins while pretending its a treat!

Zoku do make a holder for your ice-blocks to store them in the freezer but we find a snap lock bag works for us and really who wants to store them when they look this good!

Celery flower stamping

How beautiful is this celery stalk? We just couldn't throw it out before Tara got her hands onto it with some paint and made some lovely celery flower stamps

It was still dark outside and we were having our morning juice with celery but hey never too early to get the paint out in our house!

Lovely celery flower stamping to start off the day!

Clear contact collage

Want an easy home activity that you may already have in the house? Clear contact attached to the wall with tape makes a great collage base. use whatever you have around to decorate your contact.
The sky is the limit, use coloured paper,newspaper,magazines,feathers, or stickers. Tara enjoyed cutting out her items from magazines first then puttng them on while i made a box ull of coloured shapes that mason stuck on himself. Tara's was of course a little higher than Mason's so he couldnt "help" work on hers. Who needs famous paintings up in their house when we have budding artists willing to do the job!

Upside down drawing

Ever tried drawing from a different perspective?
Tara was getting frustrated by her little brother who loves to be into anything she is doing so she grabbed her paper and used some blu-tak to stick it to the underneath of her train table.
She was "hiding" under there for hours without the distraction of her little shadow.
Crayons are best to use for this as most pens will not work from that angle.

Pancake shapes

With Shrove Tuesday last month we celebrated with our usual round pancakes but i had noticed a few products on the market that could help you make shaped pancakes. The products looked great but they were way overpriced so i searched my local Coles and found a Decor brand sauce bottle http://www.decor.com.au/usage/viewproducts.aspx?id=577
to try and replicate my own.

It worked perfectly. The mixture was thin enough to get out easily but thick enough to make delicious heart shaped pancakes that surprised Tara in her lunchbox for morning tea!