Ant farming

Okay, here is my moral dilemma. My daughter has wanted an ant farm for a while now, and seeing as she has been very well behaved this last week, unlike the previous week when she was doubling as a moody dragon, we decided to get her one. It was nicely packaged and it was great fun making the plaster of Paris mould, it came with gloves and mouth mask, and she looked like a real little scientist. As far as educational goes this rocks! Even I am getting into it, you can watch the ants nesting, feeding and laying eggs and can buy other sets in the range, link them up and create a whole ant world. There is an interconnecting Ant Circus, Ant Mine, Ant Jungle, Worm Farm and Eco Dome. Great! But it was pointed out to me that maybe taking twenty ants out of their natural environment was, well, maybe a tad cruel. What are your thoughts? Is it ant prison or ant utopia?

Beautiful creatures

If you don't own one of these cds yet, you should definitely try and get hold of one. There are 7 cds within the Beautiful Creatures range and they provide hours of fun. I have to admit that sometimes after dropping my daughter off at school, I find myself still singing along to 'Bongi the Boisterous Buffalo' and others. They are proudly South African which is great, and were started by Alan Glass, Ed Jordan and Paul Choritz, who said that they felt there was a need for "Parent Friendly" children’s music. Yes indeed! Some of the children's cd's out their have you wanting to pull your hair out. Well done guys!
You can also join the Beautiful Creatures group on facebook, or listen to a preview of my favourite - Tallulah the Tortoise.

Disco time

A quick and easy disco ball for kids to make, which they can then hang up in their room and admire as all the different colours reflect off it. The idea is courtesy of Jack Hutchison on a great site called kidsmakestuff.com and is perfect for kids from 7 years and up.

You will need:
• about ten cd's
• styrofoam ball
• scissors
• string
• hot glue gun

Here's what to do:
Cut the cd's into squares and attach the string to the ball. Glue the squares to the ball and attach it to something on the ceiling, then sit back and admire and don't forget to turn on the disco music.

P.S. Should only be made under adult supervision.

Growth spurt

Its amazing how quickly kids shoot up, and a mini fashion show is a great way to see which of those clothes are still fitting. We put on some music and my daughter tried on various outfits and did her model walk across the imaginary stage. The incentive was a prize for the best outfit, she was competing against herself but that didn't matter. At the end we had managed to try on nearly all the clothes with not one complaint, normally we won't have made it past outfit 2. The pile of outgrown clothes was by far larger than the clothes that still fit, and she is now wearing 9-10 even though she is only 7. It must be all those vegetables that she so loves that are making her shoot up - yeah right!

Getting kids excited about soccer

With a weekend of soccer having been upon us, it was quite a challenge to convince my daughter that watching the soccer is a lot more fun than watching Hanna Montana on Disney Channel. Her knowledge of soccer is extremely limited, knowing only about Manchester United - which every boy in her class seems to support, much to the irk of my partner who is a die-hard Liverpool fan. She seemed quite interested in the beginning of the Confederations Cup, when I explained about Bafana Bafana and talked about the various players, and she loved the shouting and screaming when someone got a goal, doing her own little victory dance. But after various 90 minute matches her enthusiam was definitely waning. In a last ditch attempt I scoured our area looking desperately to purchase a vuvuzela, but there were none to be found (a missed opportunity for many shops as it did not seem like I was the only one around trying to buy one). In the end she entertained herself by cutting pictures out of The Sunday Times while waiting for something exciting to happen when she could scream and shout and do her celebratory jig.

Image courtesy of makaraba, visit them to buy online.

4 sleeps to go...

Yes school holidays will be soon upon us, for those of you in Jozi check out jozikids.co.za, for some fun holiday ideas.

Adoption option

With the statistics for adoptive parents making up roughly only 1-2% of the overall parents surveyed on the Parent24.com parent survey for 2009. I was wondering why in a country with so many children needing homes, that the rate of adoption is so low. In fact it seems that the rate of adoption in South Africa has decreased, from 2194 in 2003/2004 to a mere 1913 in 2007/2008, view the full stats from the Department of Social Development. This number is minute if you consider that the population of South Africa is over 44 million people. This is indeed worrying with the latest news from the Sunday Times about many childrens organisations facing closure due to the recession, Rowan Philip reported: "Child Welfare South Africa told the Sunday Times it was in “crisis” and that there would be a “catastrophic impact” on half a million children if charities did not receive a bailout from the government." One can't help but wonder what the future holds for many of the most vulnerable of South Africa's children.