This gorgeous fantail found its way through my kitchen door, up the stairs and into my daughter’s bedroom. She loves nature and was enchanted by our little visitor. We often have birds coming into our home, living surrounded by trees and native bush, but they usually stay in the living room and don’t venture as […]
writing
Dear Love… #AprilLove2016 & Day 3 of #NaPoWriMo
Dear Love, I need to ramble, hand in hand with you, through the woodlands and over hills, snatching tingling kisses on frosty days, warming up in your embrace. Time to plan, wish and dream, seemed endless then. Those thoughts have now become our life – marriage, children, a home to call our own. We’ve travelled […]
After the Wellington winds, the stillness… a poem
Wellington is known for its wind and it’s something that I have a love / hate relationship with. It can make me feel alive and refreshed, or knocked down and eroded like a well worn cliff-face. It takes stamina to live in Wellington and a mental strength that I don’t always have. Before we had […]
Mini Creations
A tweet reminded me of this lovely ‘Linky’ (‘Mini Creations‘ by Kid GL loves), run by a couple of great kids, in the UK, to celebrate the creations our children produce. All too often I wish I’d taken a photograph of a particular creation – but then the moment has passed, the item has been […]
Write to Read iPad App – Perfect for recording those special memories
I was delighted to be asked to review a ground-breaking new iPad app, which has just launched on the App Store in the UK, called WriteReader. It is aimed at 3 to 10 year olds (and I have three children in that age bracket!). My children are absolute technology lovers, which I am okay with […]
Prose For Thought – The Bond
A poem about the bond that many people feel across a lifetime for special people they meet. They may not realise the depth of their bond till much later – but to recognise it, is still powerful in itself. They may not get to journey together in life, side by side, but their connection lives […]
Things I’m Loving – Friendships of long ago connected via warp speed
Facebook – love it or hate it – has changed the way we communicate more than any of my childhood friends and I could have ever anticipated. I was always a letter writer, so managed to keep in touch with many friends after leaving school and university – despite moving to live on the other […]
Things I’m Loving – Technology & Nature
This week, we’ve embraced both technology and nature in our learning and play. There has been plenty to love in the mix… ⤠Nature putting on a show, a stone’s throw from Wellington city, with Stingrays in the lagoon on the waterfront…. ⤠Technology keeping Shakespeare in vogue and making it all the easier to […]
Thoughts on gravity on a Monday from my 6 year old
Last night, as I was getting Alice off to sleep, I was vaguely aware of Charlotte and Sophie telling their Daddy (at 8pm) they were going to write up some science (they frequently do unexpected things at unusual times of day!). So, this morning, when I came downstairs (at 4am something with Alice) it made […]
A love letter to a much cherished inanimate object
My dearest coffee machine, You’ve been faithful to me for seven years without a splutter. You’ve rescued me from dire sleep deprivation with your sensitive touch. The sound of you getting all steamed up – in readiness for me – makes my heart pump and my hands shake in anticipation. Some mornings I see your […]
Exceptional, enabling, ever ready…
It’s all about ‘E’ on the home-schooling front this week. Whilst Sophie’s busy drawing extraordinary elephants, and exploring the earth with Alice, I am focusing on enhancing my energy levels to ensure I am enabled to entertain, educate and endure. How? Coffee (note the LONG ‘e’ sound there)… There’s nothing better than grinding up fresh […]
What made today mean something?
I knew how it was going to end before they even began. I wished for a moment the grown up in me, lurking somewhere, would step forward and declare the activity ill-timed. But the child in me wanted to aid their spontaneous creativity; even though the adult knew we’d be forced to clean up the […]
Courage
When I think of the word ‘Courage’ I think of the ‘Lion’ in the ‘Wizard of Oz’. He spends the story looking for courage, only to find it was there, deep inside. Courage is often something we wish for, want or desperately need. Finding it and keeping a hand on it whilst we walk over […]
New Year’s Day 2011: Starting the Year on a Positive Foot
This morning we made the most of a cooler day, with cloudy shade, and set off on a local walk at Te Raekaikau Point: Te Ranga a Hiwi Track. The last time we did this walk we hoped to find our way through the bush and come out at Princess Bay – but got completely lost and […]