Virtual Book Club For Kids- Mem Fox

This month's author for The Virtual Book Club For Kids is Mem Fox. She has written so many wonderful books, and Where Is The Green Sheep? has been a firm favourite in our household. However, this month we have had fun reading her book The Magic Hat.

The Magic Hat is a great book for encouraging imagination, and Lucas really liked the idea of having a magic hat of his own. We set out to make his own Magic Hat. First he chose a red base strip, which we measured out around his head and cut down to a 4" width.



I got out a variety of things to stick on his hat, such as stickers, paper scraps and foam shapes. Lucas loved lining up the alphabet stickers!



He also added some other bits and pieces to his hat, and did a bit of colouring.



When Lucas was finished, he had a great decorated strip.


We stapled this together, and Lucas had his very own magic hat!



I am linking up with this moth's Virtual Book Club For Kids Blog Hop- sorry it is a bit late, I had done the activity but forgot to write up the post until today! I hope you still enjoy it and get inspired to make your own magic hat.

Two Ingredient Playdough

With the cooler weather closing in, keeping my two boys entertained indoors is becoming a priority. It is hard for me to find activities that both of them enjoy, but playdough is always a winner at playgroup so I thought I would make some myself. I wanted a quick and easy recipe that did not require a saucepan, cooking or lots of different ingredients.

I came across this idea- two ingredients for Playdoh that everyone should have in their cupboards!



Simply mix 1 cup of flour with three large squirts of dishwashing liquid and knead. Simple and easy to do.



This Playdough smells lovely, leaves hands soft, and behaves just like regular Playdough. Just make sure younger kids have adult supervision, as this Playdough is not designed to be eaten. I used lemon dishwashing liquid and it left the Playdough with a fun yellow swirl effect, but feel free to add some food colouring too.


Two happy boys and lovely smelling hands- that's a win-win situation in my book!

Linking up with Mom's Library and Time for Mom Blog Hop.

Colour in the Cooler Weather

Brrr, winter is definitely settling upon us here in New Zealand. There is currently lots of rain, wind and sleet happening outside my window, so it is definitely time to cozy up in warm pants and snuggly jerseys.

I need to update my Winter Wardrobe, and doing the Style and Shenanigans Print Challenge last week made me realise that I have so much black in my wardrobe.  I need to inject some colour in my closet, so here are some of my top picks for Winter clothing.

My top wishlist keeps getting bigger, I have tried to narrow it down to these.

Winter Tops by laurenmoore-ii featuring a purple top

And my pick for bottoms.

Winter Bottoms by laurenmoore-ii featuring tapered skinny jeans

Time to go shopping- can you guess which tops and bottoms I picked for my Winter Wardrobe?

The top I picked was this stripy jersey from Sammydress. So comfortable, a great length and it has adorable puffed sleeves! I even got a compliment from my husband, so it must be a good pick. I love that I can wear it with a lot of different colours- brown, navy, stone and peacock green pants will all work well.



I do want a couple of the other tops as well, but I am waiting until next month due to my tiny budget. That fox top is next on my shopping list, and the polka dot fleece will be perfect for the preschool run.

Now on to the bottoms. I really struggled with this, as a lot of the pants looked like pajamas on me in real life, and a few of them were too long on me. The skirt fit really well but I did not suit the print in person. In the end, the Cotton On drapey pants won me over for their comfort factor.



These pants are also versatile due to their colour range- I have teamed it with purple but there was also red, black and blue in the pattern so I can play a lot with different looks.

Sorry for the awful tripod camera photos! When my husband gets home it is too dark to take photos, and my four year old is prone to cutting off my head in the photos if I let him take charge of the camera. Otherwise he photobombs me- but I can photobomb him back!



I am happy that I have added some colour to my wardrobe within my budget allowance, and I also have been drawn to patterns a lot more since I have seen other people's photos during the style challenge. It has been good to step out of my comfort zone and also walk past all the black in the shops! The pants do come in some fabulous black and white patterns as well, so if you do still want to stick with black and white then there are plenty of options out there.

I would love to know which top and bottom you would pick- let me know in the comments!

Linking up with Wardrobe Wednesday.

Note: I was not compensated for any of these reviews, these are my own picks from a selection of websites. 

Folktales From New Zealand

It is time for another month's theme at Poppins Book Nook.

This month's theme is Folklore- something that is very prevalent in New Zealand. If you would like a great resource for Folktales, you can get the free Folktales Lapbook from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.

Traditionally, folk tales were used to explain something happening, such as the rising of the sun or why the tide goes in and out, as we learnt in the book Parata the Taniwha.

Taniwha are water spirits of Maori legend. They may live in rivers, lakes or the sea, and can take many forms; logs, eels, reptiles or whales. They are often regarded by local people as guardians of that stretch of water, but some are evil monsters.

In the folktale of Parata the Taniwha, when Parata breathes in the tide goes out, and when he breathes out the tide comes back in. This was a great introduction to teach Lucas about tides. and how they actually work.

We did a simple activity to show how the tide goes in and out. Please note that this activity is aimed at preschool level, so it is a very basic overview!

You will need:
Brown sugar, 1 cup water, blue food colouring, a rectangular glass dish, a cup to pour the water, and a ball to represent the moon.



Lucas started off by making a beach at one end of the dish using the brown sugar to represent sand.



We then coloured the water blue to represent the sea, and poured it into the dish.




We placed the moon at the beach end of the dish, and made the tide go in. I explained to Lucas that the moon's pull controls the tide and so where the moon is in relation to earth is what influences the tide.



We then moved the moon and made the tide go out.



Lucas was very excited to make the tide go in and out, and seemed to understand the concept of the moon influencing the tide as well. He also had great fun mixing the brown sugar into the water!

I wanted to teach Lucas a song I remembered from my childhood about a taniwha. Lucas and I discovered a great website with this song, where Lucas could even put his himself into the video clip! Please click here to see the video and hear the song. You can even use your own child's photo to recreate the video clip- Lucas had so much fun on this website.

One day a taniwha (water spirit)
Went swimming in the moana (sea)
He whispered in my taringa (ear)
"Won't you come along with me
There such a lot to see
Underneath the deep blue sea."
 I said "Oh, no, no, no!
You'd better go, go, go,
Although I know we could be friends.
My Mama's waiting for me
Underneath the kowhai tree (yellow- the kowhai tree is a native plant)
Taniwha, haere ra!" (goodbye)

We had great fun learning some Maori words, doing water play and singing a song. I would love to see how you are inspired by Folktales this month, please share your ideas over at Poppins Book Nook with us!

Clip art by Melon Headz

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21/52

Week 21 already- this year seems to be going by so fast! I am glad to have had some quiet moments with my boys this week, practicing ball skills, making scones and making friends with new babies.

Lucas took a self-portrait for this week!



Adam loves his pajamas- he would stay in them all day if I let him.



Joining in here.

Print Challenge Recap

This week, I have been taking part in the Style and Shenanigans Print Challenge- wearing a different type of print each day.

This has been great fun and has taken me out of my comfort zone on a couple of occasions.

Stripes- I wore my new batwing top from Sammydress with my comfortable black pants.


Leopard/Animal- I got this cardigan from an op-shop for $3 so finally dragged it out of my closet. I teamed it with pearls and a black skirt to tone down the print a bit, as I always feel that animal print is very intense!


Floral- one of my favourite KMart tees, perfect for going to Playgroup and getting covered in Play-Doh.


Spots- an entirely op-shopped outfit apart from the shoes! This skirt is one of my go-tos, and I usually team it with a black shirt, but today I brightened things up with a pink jersey.


Check- I actually have other check and geo print items in my closet, but the weather was being funny today and so it was too warm for my check wool skirt and too cold for my geo tank top. I compromised by wearing these adorable Miss Sixty shoes, which were a present from my sister.


Print Clash- once again, I stuck with black! Floral, swirls and stripes all go together quite well as they are in the same colour family. A touch of red brought out the colour in the tunic, and some fun black and white accessories completed my outfit. Perfect for a Saturday at home!


I would love to know which day was your favourite outfit- Floral was my pick for the week.

I have discovered that a lot of prints in my wardrobe are black based, so I have decided it is time to add some more colourful patterns to my wardrobe. Come back on Tuesday when I will share some of my colourful pattern picks for Winter!

20/52

Life has been very busy this week, with a three day scrapbooking retreat taking up most of my time. Not a lot of photos this week but there is always time for breakfast!



Joining in here.

19/52

I hope all the Mothers have been spoilt this weekend! I was woken at 6:30am and got breakfast in bed, a lovely cup of coffee and lots of snuggles plus some beautiful artwork.

This week involved more colouring, shopping and some scheduled family photos.

Lucas getting too close to the camera when we were trying to take a group photo.



Adam has so many toys but he loves his bucket.



Joining in here.