Episode Six: Ice Excavation

This idea is a bit of a favourite around our ways and for good reason. It combines one of my favourite materials to work with (ice) and the adventure of discovery.

For this idea you will need a freezable container (ice cream containers work best), some sort of child-friendly hammer, some treasure and water.

Get your children to choose out their treasure. In this instance, my middle boy was helping me so he chose two jewels for himself and two for his older brother. We put the treasure in the bottom of the container, filled it up with water and stuck it in the freezer. In about three hours you should have a solid block of ice ready to be hacked away at.

Just a few notes from experience: As you can see in our photos we had no foot or eye protection. This is up to you. In hindsight, when giving my children hammers to swing around a pair of covered shoes would probably be a good idea. Also, with all that ice being struck with the hammer, eye protection might be a good idea - even a pair of sunglasses would do the trick.

The boys had great fun smashing the ice with the hammer. Both the older and middle boy enjoyed the destruction of it all - the treasure was definitely an after thought. They were having so much fun that my baby daughter came out to see what all the fuss was about.

This is a simple, simple idea but hopefully your children will get a lot of joy out of it, as will you. Have a go chipping away at the ice with a screwdriver (or chisel) and a hammer yourself - there's something pretty satisfying about banging away at a piece of ice, flecks spraying everywhere and getting your hands wet. It's the ultimate tactile activity but there's no mess and all of the remains will melt in the sun after a few hours.

My children enjoyed this idea so much that they were still going long after I went inside to get lunch ready. Not only that, they raced back inside to choose new treasure, fill up the containers again and put them in the freezer.That is a huge sign of success in my book.

Have fun!

Friday, Funday II

Hey team,

Some more cool things to show your kids:



Some clever person made a flip book made up of photos of clouds passing across the sky. Hard to explain to press play!



How jeans are made. The machinery in this video is very industrial and cool and fun to look at.



This is a classic that gets a laugh from me every time. Hope it works with you too!


Some cool website action to check out:

Here is Today (A visual representation of time and where we are currently)
The Adventures of Mr Fly (Mr Fly is a very, very, busy and cool guy)
Lego Characters (Bonus points if you can guess all of them)


Have fun!

Episode Five: Scavenger Hunt Walk

There's nothing like a quick stroll around the block after dinner in Autumn; the leaves crunching underfoot. Or perhaps a trek along a windswept beach on a rainy day; sea spray flying about. I use these little excursions to break up the monotony of the week. The children and I walk through our neighbourhood pointing out which houses we like, making up stories about who might live in them. Doing this gave me a great idea for a very easy idea.

For this idea you need a pen, a piece of paper and well-trained eyes. 

During the warmer months our family were doing a walk around the block every night. For some reason my eldest son decided he was going to look out for bits of metal or steel on our way. We all scoured the footpaths and the gutters looking for screws, bolts or anything similar. What was an easy walk around the streets became a scavenger hunt and that's where this idea came from.

On a piece of paper write down sights or objects they might encounter. The premise being that as they spot this item, they tick it off the list. It's a simple idea but it will add another dimension to a walk and possibly encourage the reluctant walkers in your tribe to get out there. 

Knowing the route you will be taking in advance will help. If you're walking down your street you might know of a letterbox that has a number missing. This would be a great item to put on your scavenger hunt list. So have a think about the route you will take and what significant sights your children might encounter. Not only does this encourage them to pay attention to the world around them, it creates that community awareness we talked about in Episode Two. This is a value I think is important to instill in our children: Awareness of their surroundings.

To test drive this idea, the family and I headed over to our local beach about ten minutes away. I created the list ahead of time and knew that we have two visible off-shore islands so I put one of them on the list. I also knew that it is a family tradition to have an ice cream at the end of a beach walk so that went on the list too. I put a few items that would require them to scout around. For example the 'fan shaped' shell on the list meant they really had to look at each pile of shells and see if the right one was to be found. 

 

Another thing I put on the list was a friendly dog. We don't have a dog in our family and our two boys are quite weary of them so I wanted to encourage them to look for them and interact with them. It was a way to show them that dogs can be friendly (but first check with the owners if they are child-friendly). I'm not recommending this as an idea but merely giving you an idea of how you can be creative with your own list.

My own attempt proved to be a mixed bag. The three year old loved the idea and was tearing about trying to find each item. The eight year old wasn't keen on sifting through piles of shells to find the right shape. I put this down to age so maybe keep this in mind when doing your own list.

No matter what, every age group would be interested in an ice cream - including Dads.


Have fun!

Dadism: Being A Dad

I had a job interview a few months ago and one of the last questions they asked me was, "What are you most proud of?". My brain didn't even think and I said, "Being a Dad". I took myself by surprise and expanded on the answer.

Being a Dad is a hard thing to do. I've only been doing it for eight years but for the last thirty-odd years I've had a pretty strong idea of how I was going to approach it. What I would do, what I wouldn't do. Cues from my own Dad and father figures in my life. What did they do that I enjoyed? What did they teach me? But most importantly: What did I learn from them?

 

I grew up without a Dad in the house. I was five when my parents divorced and although I got to see him every second school holiday, my Dad wasn't there for the day to day things. My Mother was and she did the best she could raising me.

The way I look at it is this: Any man can be a Father; any man can have a child. Not every man can be a Dad. Being a great Dad is a never-ending journey. Being a Dad means doing a lot of things. It varies from house to house. It might mean taking out the rubbish, teaching your kids to ride their bikes, washing the car. It might not.

On those school holidays with my own Dad, being a Dad meant catching fish. It meant walking through 11 acres of bush looking for the night's bonfire wood. It meant drawing pictures and making up songs about our day. My Dad could build houses, fix cars and chop down trees - but he never showed me how. Instead he showed me how to be creative, what to listen for in music, how to be a gentle man. I used to come home to my every day life and wonder why my Dad didn't show me how to hammer a nail or fix a bike puncture. Now that I look back on it, I realise it's because there are more important things a Dad does: He was showing me how to be.

To be a Dad is to be present. To have the role and own it. To not shy away from that responsibility and to take on the challenge of parenthood. It means getting down on the floor and engaging with your children. It means to just... be.

 

This blog shares a lot of ideas for things to do with your children. Mothers, grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers and other caregivers are welcome to use the ideas. It's not the ideas that are important. Investing time and energy into our tamariki, our children is the big lesson here. Yes, you will find out how to make a marble run with your kids, but that's not the point. The point is doing things with your children.


Ultimately, being a Dad is something to be proud of. Sometimes it's hard; you're at your wits end. Other times it's so easy you feel like a natural. Either way, the more you put in the more you will get out of it. Cliches are cliches for a reason: because most often they are true. If you make your children your world, they will go out and conquer the world.

So please join me as I try out ideas with my children all while trying my hardest to be a Dad.

Have fun!

Episode Four: Lego Ice Skating Rink

This was a big learning experience for me and I'll explain why further on. When I was young Lego put out a themed series of sets based on a fictional ice planet. That year their catalogue featured perfectly orchestrated scenes involving Lego men trapped in ice cubes and full landscapes of glistening ice. It goes without saying that those pages sparked my imagination.

Ice is a cheap, accessible and fascinating material to work with. It is abundant as you want it to be and, as those glossy pages of the catalogue proved, it can be manipulated in many ways. Case in point: The Lego Ice Skating Rink.

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest via this blog post and thought of my Lego-obsessed boys and my own ice fascination straight away.

It's dead simple: Fill a baking dish half full of water and put it in the freezer. Then, put Lego mini figures into a ice cube tray, standing up, fill with water then freeze.

I made a few variations on these instructions and I'm sure you and your children can come up with some others. First, I stored the tray in the freezer with one end propped up on a box of Popsicles. This created an ice ramp that the figurines could use as a jump. Very cool.

Now with these instructions hopefully that's pretty self-explanatory. It does take some prep, typically the night before and this is where I came unstuck.

The lesson I learnt here, and I guess this can be applied to most of the ideas, is: preparation is not a one man job.

You see, I thought that I would save my children the wait and freeze the tray and figurines the night before. Then I could show it to them using a 'Here are some I prepared earlier' scenario. I was worried that if I showed them the idea, then told them we had to wait overnight while the water froze, they would lose interest.

In business terms I had no buy in. The kids were not interested and had no investment in the idea. In bloke terms the idea died on its arse. Here's why: the night before I had gone through their mountain of Lego choosing out various Lego figurines who I thought would feature in the ice scape. Apparently I chose wrong. That makes sense. There is no way Zurg could have happily skated next to Woody and the Octan truck driver - I should have known that.

Children don't like things sprung on them. This is why we tell them that we're leaving in ten minutes. Or let them know how long they have to play until bed time. We know that if we drop something like that on them, they start to act up. These kids were put out by the fact that this awesome activity was thrust upon them. They wanted more say in how this idea was laid out and I can't fault them for it.

Now I'm not saying you have to run every single thing you do together past them. But, when its a cool idea that will inspire play, their input can really help secure their participation.I'll be keeping this in mind moving forward.

Have fun!

Friday, Funday I

Hey Team,

A few quick things to show the kids:


Buskers from around the world singing 'Stand By Me' together. Incredibly moving and pretty funky.

How ink is made. This might be a bit long for the littlies but pretty cool with great industrial and gooey footage.

Some crazy Kiwis made an awesome tree hut complete with a motorised drawbridge, Pink Batts insulation and an outdoor bath. Take a look at their blog here.

Awesome Buzz Light Year costume made of balloons!

Have fun!

Episode Three: Activity Cards

This is a really easy and effective way to spend time with your children. If you’re like me, you get home from work, the baby is shoved in your arms and from then on until the children’s bed time you’re in constant demand. You end up like with a chook with no head and spread yourself too thin. It makes it hard to spend time focused on your kids - but I’ve found a solution that seems to work: Activity Cards.

On a Sunday, with your children, make five cards or scraps of paper. On these cards you’ll write one activity that can be done after dinner and before bed time each week night. Each activity has a time limit of 30 mins. It sounds like such a simple idea but it really is a great way of letting your children direct your time. One of my boys can write so I give him two cards to write his two ideas on. My middle boy isn’t writing yet so I ask him what activity he wants written on the two cards. Everything has to be fair in my house with two competitive boys so I take the fifth card. I’m sure you’ll find a democratic way to divvy up the cards at your house.

 

I’m always amazed by the simplicity of the ideas the children come up with, and I hope you will too. Instead of elaborate games and expensive activities, you’ll probably find they want to do things that just involve being with you. “Draw with me”, “Play Lego with me”, “Watch a DVD with me”. These are all simple and easy things to do and they were all suggested by my boys. Looking at each of them I realised that it’s not about what you do, it’s about the time you spend with them. 

The next step is to put all of the cards into a hat or a jar and mix them up. Each night after dinner and after all the chores have been done, get the jar out and get them to pick out one card at random. For the next 30 minutes you’ll be doing whatever is on the card with all of your children. Once a card has been used, take it out of rotation. Over five nights you’ll have done every one of the ideas, spent time with your children and hopefully feel like you’ve made the most out of a little bit of time.

Don’t be surprised if the 30 minutes turns into an hour as you’ll find doing the things they love to do is lots of fun. The cards can be reused the next week, or you may want to come up with new ideas the next Sunday. If you do it often enough, you’ll notice the suggestions will become more elaborate or demanding. That’s fine, it’s up to you to decide whether that idea goes into the jar or not. 

 

The two take aways from this ideas are 1) You don’t need to put together a big production to spend time with your children. We try and make up for the time we don’t spend by overplaying our hand when we do end up playing with our kids. Children don’t want a big day out with all the trappings once in a while. They want regular, quality time with their parents. It only takes a little amount of time to make a big difference. 2) focus 100% on the activity. Don’t let distractions interrupt your time - no cell phone, no pressing appointments, nothing. It’s hard, but your children will notice your full focus and thrive on it.

It’s a simple idea but it’s one that should make everyone happy. Just don’t get tempted to write “do the dishes” on one of the cards.

Have fun!