Jigsaw puzzles


I'm a big fan of jigsaw puzzles.  As a child growing up I remember there often being a big sheet of plywood on the dining room table (that could then be moved at meal times) covered with jigsaw pieces and half finished puzzles.  My parents loved doing puzzles - and still do.

I enjoy the challenge but must admit I don't enjoy when it comes down to the plain blue sky section, or another such plain colour chunk which brings you to the point of trial and error of pieces rather than looking for the right colour, shade or featured piece.


Our daughters took to puzzles at a young age, especially our elder daughter.  She has always amazed us with her jigsaw puzzle skills, particularly since I can't figure out how she does them!  She doesn't appear to look for the pieces in any logical order (as far as I can see) but still finishes the whole puzzle very quickly indeed!

Jigsaws are great for developing hand-eye co-ordination, spatial awareness, logic, analytical and deduction skills.  They are great exercises for your brain, and so long as you stick with a suitable size puzzle for age, they provide a fantastic sense of achievement when completed!

Nowadays there are many different types of jigsaw puzzles - including mosaics and 3D. There are also some great jigsaw puzzle - puzzles, which have an added 'problem' to solve after you complete the jigsaw - the clue being in the completed picture!  An added incentive to finish!

Do you enjoy puzzles?  Do your kids?  And do you have any tips to make those large expanses of one colour easier or more interesting?


Chuck stones / Jack stones



This is a very old game which has many different names; pieces made from a multitude of different materials and a whole manner of different ways to play it.



Many names

I know it as 'chuck stones'  (as it is called in the North-East of England where I grew up) - played with 5 small wooden cubes.  It is also known as 'knucklebones' in Australia, where 5 knuckles from a lamb shank were used to play. It is also known as 'gonggi' in Korea, where 5 weighted plastic 'stones' are used.



Origins

The game originated from the times when children had to 'find' their own toys and games to play in their surroundings - rather than go to the toyshop.  Small stones and bones were easy to find.



How to play

The game is essentially played by throwing the stones (or other objects) up in the air and catching them in different combinations and in different ways.


The most basic one is to start with all five stones in the palm of your hand, throw them up in the air, turn your hand over and try to catch as many of the stones as you can on the back of your hand.  You then throw those you caught up into the air again, and try to pick up those you didn't catch before they fall back down again and you catch them too in the palm of your hand! 
Sometimes it is played with a ball too - which is bounced and used as a kind of 'timer' for throwing and catching the stones.

There are many different variations on this - many of which have names! A good list and description of the variations can be found here, for anyone interested!
There is even a World 'Jacks' Championships! 

Here's a video showing some variations on the game.



Why play?

Chuck stones is a great game for developing dexterity, and as an ancient traditional game that has been played for thousands of years all over the world - also an important piece of human culture to pass on to our children.


I introduced this game to our girls and they really enjoyed it.  Very challenging, but definitely an easy one to come back to again and again, play in different ways and with whatever 5 small objects come to hand, wherever you are.


Do you remember playing this as a child?  What did you call it and what did you play it with?


Hula Hooping - another wonder sport!



When we think of hula hooping, we think of a plastic kid's toy but there is so much more to it than that, as I discovered when I started researching. 
 It is a fabulous form of exercise for both kids and adults, you can spin hoops around your waist, legs, arms or neck; do tricks, roll them and there is even a whole hula hooping community out there in the world - with a full-length documentary movie about them, and have you ever heard of World Hoop day?  I'll get to that soon! But first let's look at where it all began!



The History of the Hula Hoop



Hula hooping is an ancient practice - thought to have been popularised by the ancient Greeks.  Formerly made from wood, metal, vines, bamboo or other natural materials, they were used not only as a children's toy, but also as a fitness device.  Native American Indians and Eskimos used to use hoops to roll along and use as a target to practice for hunting by throwing and shooting arrows through them.   
Hula hooping became popular in Britain in the 14th century as a children's toy.  British sailors first saw Hula dancing in Hawaii around the same time, and with the similarity in movement - the name 'hula hoop' was born.


The Modern Hula Hoop

 The first plastic hula hoop was made in Australia, back in 1957, and sold in Coles department stores.  They couldn't produce enough to keep up with the demand.  A year later plastic hula hoops were marketed in the USA and the craze took off with millions sold.




Banned!


In some countries of the world, hula hooping was banned -  it was offensive to shake your hips in public in Indonesia; Japan banned hula hooping because the hip rotating looked indecent and the Soviet Union saw it as a negative Western practice.



Hooping

For some people, hula hooping is a way of life.  There is a feature film length documentary about people for  whom taking up hula hooping has changed their lives.  
 'The Hooping Life' - 'with a hoop and a dream they changed their worlds'. 
 The trailer is worth a watch!  

Then there's World Hoop Day,  which has been running since 2006 - and is an organisation which distributes hula hoops to disadvantaged and poor children around the world as a simple way of bringing joy to an otherwise devastating situation.



It's great exercise

As a form of exercise, hula hooping has many  benefits.  As with any kind of exercise and movement, it increases the blood flow to your brain, making you more alert, gets your heart rate up and increases your energy levels.  Hooping also increases spinal flexibility, strengthens those all important core muscles, improves co-ordination, balance and even massages your internal organs and intestines as it circles your waist - which is said to work like acupressure on key points, releasing blocked 'chi'!!. 

You can circle the hoop on your arms to tone those muscles, or even lie on your back and use your legs!  The possibilities really are endless when you start to think about it, and see what some people can do with a hoop!

Nowadays you can buy all sorts of hoops - coloured, glow in the dark, glittery, flashing, even weighted ones specifically for exercise purposes, and ones with built in calorie counters!

Just have a look and see for yourself what can be done! My daughters and I spent ages with this video going again and again on the laptop outside while we tried to copy some of the moves! Great fun!




So what are you waiting for - go grab your hula hoop!  I had to re-learn as an adult how to do it! I was surprised to find it's actually a rocking motion rather than a circular motion that you need to keep the hoop rotating.  Oh and the ideal size for a hoop should be - up to somewhere between your stomach and your chest when it's resting on the ground.  I can do it with my kids hoops - but maybe it's easier with one the right size!

Whatever you believe about the benefits of hula hooping - it certainly is a fun form of exercise - what more encouragement do you need??



Word Illusion


I thought I'd post this as another 'illusion' following the spinning girl 3D illusion we posted yesterday.  But this one being more reading based to fit with our regular Friday theme!

You've probably seen this text, or something similar - showing how we can still read words even if the letters are jumbled a little.  The so called 'research at Cambridge University' may or may not have actually happened, but it is still an interesting concept. You can't simply keep the first and last letter the same and mix all other letters, bcsueae lgnoer vlrobacuay bmeeocs dlfiufcit !! So how does it work?

There are different schools of thoughts on what the best way to learn to read is, whether through phonics - the sounds of the letters - or whole word recognition.  Whichever way we start to read - once we can do it - it, we then rely mostly on whole word recognition no longer needing to sound out the words, which is probably why we can read a text like the one above.  The letters have been mixed, but not so much that the words still retain a similar 'shape'.

'Phonics' verses 'Whole Word Recognition' as a method of learning to read deserves a whole other post or more - but for a Friday night - this is a fun one to ponder for now!




Optical illusion girl



 (spinning dancer by Nobuyuki Kayahara)

I had never seen this one before.

Which way does the girl turn when you watch?

Some people believe it depends how your brain works as to which way she spins.

Our youngest can even make her turn at will!

Keep watching, if the direction doesn't change after a while, try looking from the side of the screen.

Our girls loved this and we also looked at lots more optical illusions too. 

Please leave comments on this post especially if you have any knowledge of how your brain interprets this and if it is right brain-left brain or some other brain that controls it!!

Euan

Snakes and Ladders


Did you know that snakes and ladders was originally an Indian game that demonstrated the role of karma or fate?

It is a very simple game that does not require any skill to play and as such is a great starter board game for young children.

Rolling the dice, and counting the squares provides some basic numeracy practice; and the chance of climbing up a ladder or sliding down a snake help the child to learn to accept setbacks and become used to winning and losing.

Any board game that uses dice is a good way to practice some basic numeracy and counting skills with your kids. Quick, easy and good learning fun!

What simple board games do you and your kids like playing? Or did you enjoy as a child?


Play ball games


OK, put down the remote, slowly....., step away from the television.

There is definitely too much screen time happening around the world these days.
I remember the days.....

In all seriousness, it is true.  Between television and computers the kids and 'youth of today' are definitely turning into blobs and vegetables too soon!  We need to get up off our backsides and get into the garden, park, forest or just plain simple outdoors more!

Here in Cairns, the wet season is too good an excuse to stay indoors, but in that lovely twilight or later afternoon time, if it isn't raining, that is the perfect time as the day cools down to be outside.

We recently grabbed the scooter, the cricket bat and a tennis ball and had an impromptu game of backyard cricket or rounders/softball!. The girls loved it- it also really made me realise how much more we need to play ball games as their catching skills at the age of 5 and 7 are NOT up to scratch.  Mental note..... play catch more!

We set up the scooter as stumps or home base and one person batted.  The other two took turns bowling or pitching and fielding as appropriate.  We even hit a few home runs (over the fence and into the road outside).  This lead to some traffic and road awareness discussions too; bonus!

It was great to see the girls developing throwing, catching and hand eye hitting the ball skills.

We had great fun and will do this again.  It was definitely better than sitting on our bums wasting away.
Rant, rant, rave rave- but yes, the kids of today need more exercise.  Get them away from the screens!!!

Do you agree, or am I playing devil's advocate too much?
What do you play with your kids in the garden?

Euan

The Lettermen



Last night our youngest daughter brought home a reading book that had really caught her interest.  She read it to me and spent as much time talking about the pictures and giggling at the "Lettermen" as she did reading the words of the story!


On each page, some of the Lettermen spell out something that is happening on that page...



And at the start of some of the pages, one of the Lettermen represented the first letter of the first sentence!  This particularly amused our daughter!      Although our daughter is reading well herself now, these books would also be great for beginner readers, with an adult reading the main story,  and the child reading the sight words as spelled out by the Lettermen.  


These books are about the same size as the Mr Men books, and there are 12 altogether in the series. 

It's always nice to find new and interesting books - especially kids books .

What new books have you discovered through your child?  Are there any you can recommend?







BINGO


Probably one of the simplest and best known games with numbers is Bingo.  We've all played it at one time or another.

Playing Bingo is not only good practice for those still learning their numbers, but it is also a powerful tool in improving memory skills, has been used in classrooms for hundreds of years!

Bingo can help your mind become more agile and improve your speed and reflexes!  Some people play with several cards - and there is limited time between each number called in which to located the corresponding number on your card.


Another great thing about Bingo is that it does not have to be just played with numbers.  It can be used with whole maths problems - the caller shouting out the questions, and the players marking off the answers. Or you could use it for vocabulary, general knowledge, or, well pretty much anything!

We've used it to practice Japanese numbers too when our girls were learning those.

No special equipment is needed - just a pen and paper. You can make your own boards, and cross off your own numbers as you call  (or alternative themed game topics).

When was the last time you played Bingo?  Have you played other forms than just the basic number version?


Egg and Spoon Race


Ready, Steady......  Go!!!
Stumble.....drop.....shout, restart all over again!

I always remember enjoying the egg and spoon race, or egg and golf ball race as it always was.
How can such a simple activity be marred by brands and 
one-upmanship with the brand of golf ball you had?  Other similar early sports day events were the fancy dress race, obstacle race, sack race and three legged race.  As games for older kids, tug or war, catch with raw eggs and partners get further and further apart are worth a go too.

An egg and spoon race is simple.  You need a start and finish line, a group of kids, (hard boiled) eggs or golf balls and long handled spoons.  After the race commences the children should run with the spoon and balanced egg held out in front of them.  If the egg drops, you must stop and restart from that point.  No fingers holding the egg on the spoon!!  The first person to cross the finish line with the egg on the spoon is the winner!  The prize is either to eat the hard boiled egg or could be a treat of some sort.

We have recently played with ping pong balls, stones, real eggs and even my trusty old rubber egg to practice the old egg and spoon race.
The girls loved it.  It really is a great way  to run around outside with a purpose.  It also takes some of the competitiveness out of the 'race' as being older or bigger doesn't make such a difference.
The egg and spoon race is good for hand eye coordination as well as balance and concentration and is lots of fun!

You can even buy coloured plastic versions of the game.
I think I'll stick to the old fashioned home made version though.
Are there any other simple outdoor 'races' that you enjoyed as a kid?  Which ones am I missing?

Euan

The Famous Five


One thing I'm really enjoying about the age and stage of our kids now, is that we're getting to read 'chapter books' to them and rediscover some of our childhood favourites.

For me, the Famous Five has wonderful memories.  I remember my Dad reading the stories to me when I was a child - and the different voices he used for each character.

I don't use different voices and accents, but I have to admit to feeling the need to reading in a posh English accent when I read these books to our girls!

The Famous Five series, of which there are 21 in total, are one of the best selling children's book series of all time.  They tell of Julian, Dick, Anne, Georgina (who wants to be a boy and is known as George) and her dog Timmy. In the books the children enjoy a large degree of independence - going off camping alone - with Timmy as their guard, and always finding adventures.

Reading them now, I chuckle at the food they're eating - lashings of ginger beer, cold tongue sandwiches, home made fruit cake - and all wrapped in a damp cloth and kept for days when camping!  Funny thinking of food keeping so well outside in the cooler climate of England, now that we live in tropical Cairns, and have to keep so much more of our food in the fridge than we ever had to back in the UK.  But I digress.

Another thing that is amusing, is the older style expressions and language used.  As I said, I do feel the need to read in a posh English accent - particularly when Anne says something like, "Oh Julian, you are a brick!"   Also funny is when our daughters come out with these old words and expressions themselves!

For me, I feel the Famous Five books are so well written, that although they aren't all fast paced action, every page is enjoyable.  The descriptions are fantastic and the characters are so well developed, even Timmy the dog, that it's entertaining enough just reading about their daily activities, and the thoughts, sights and sounds that are vividly brought to life around them.

How about you?  What was your favourite childhood book or series?  Have you rediscovered any with your own kids?  How much do you think our book preferences influence those of our children?




The pain of learning




When is pain bad, when is it good?

Yesterday 'the adults' (Euan and I) both went for a run.  It was one of our usual circuits, and we went one after the other (the kids were home), and timed ourselves to see who was fastest.
We are both very competitive, and so both wanted to be faster than the other.  I pushed myself hard, and in doing so, thought about our kids, and how much they push themselves when things get tough.
I know I had a stitch, my legs hurt and my breathing was getting harder, but even though there was pain, I know what my body can do, and I pushed through it.

This must be a hard thing to learn - what pain is good and what is bad.  What can you push through, and when should you stop?

I remember when our youngest daughter moved up a level in swimming a year or so ago.  She moved from a 30 minute class where they just learned the strokes, and never swam more than about 10 metres, into a 45 minute class, where they were swimming lengths of the pool for most of the lesson - up to 50 metres in one go.  Now this was a big jump, and our daughter did find it tough.  She is very determined though, and 'trained' all week in our pool at home, swimming laps to prepare for the class again.  Within a couple of weeks she was coping fine. 
In this case, her desire to be in the next level (with her older sister) was enough to get her to push through the pain of being tired, and having sore muscles at working them harder than she ever had before in the pool.



Pain makes us stronger

I suppose then, that we learn by experience, but we need the motivation to push ourselves. We need a reason to go through that pain and hurt.

Every challenge we face - be it mental or physical, makes us stronger and we learn from it.  From pushing shaped blocks through shaped holes as a baby/toddler - to exams at school, everything teaches us how to do something better, and not to give up.
The more we fail, the more we learn, and so long as we keep on getting up and trying again, we will continue to grow.

I admire determination - and believe it is one of the greatest qualities in a person.  To not give up when you continually fail, fall down in front of your friends, get laughed at, lose the game, get the answer wrong - whatever.  To be able to push through the pain of failing, losing, struggling, makes you overall, a stronger person.

Recently I learned of work done by Ilya Prigogine - a nobel prize winner in chemistry in 1977, who believed that stress was a factor in growth of intelligence.  I liked this particular quote:

"We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate"

Growth is a result of learning new things, gaining new experiences, and going through pain.
We must constantly challenge ourselves to continue growing.
Try something new, create new pathways in your brain, broaden your horizons. 



Try something new

Here's an example of a fun new thing we tried with our daughters over the recent summer holidays:
Wipeout at the local swimming pool:
All you had to do was clamber across, over and under the obstacles on this course to get to the slide at the end.  Some kids got it straight away, and basically never fell off.  Larger kids and adults (like me) struggled, falling off endlessly, getting laughed at, having water up my nose, and generally not being much good at it!  Still I persisted, along with many others, and eventually made it to the end.

It's satisfying to know I can still learn something new.  It was good for my kids to see me try something over and over again until I finally got it! (they were amongst those who could do it almost immediately and almost never fell off!) 
It is important to lead by example - and in doing so, we can help not only our kids improve themselves, but also improve our own bodies and minds too. 

We should never stop learning, always keep our mind and bodies active, and most of all, find the fun in things like kids do!
Never give up - and push through the pain!



What 'pain' have you or your children pushed through to learn something new or improve on something?





Can learning your times tables be fun?


Apparently learning your times tables can be a lot of fun!  Our daughters are currently learning theirs, and we've found they actually enjoy reciting them and trying to remember them if we use rhythm.

Combining saying your times tables with some kind of rhythm and exercise seems to be the most fun combination.

A few weeks ago, I was walking up a local hilly walking track with the girls, while Dad ran around a bigger track.  They started to get tired, and began to drag their feet and want to stop, so in an attempt to take their mind of walking, I suggested brightly we see if we could remember our 2 times tables.  To my delight, they took up the challenge, and as we walked up endless steps, we chanted the tables to the rhythm of our stepping.  Everyone we passed noticed our strange 'walking song' and smiled and encouraged the girls on.

I've since taken to 'challenging' the girls to see if they can tell me their times tables on the swings when we go to the park - in the rhythm of swinging backwards and forwards, and also while bouncing on our mini trampoline.  They mix their times tables in with other rhymes and songs they have learnt.

Of course this is great, but they do need more practice than just reciting them in order.  So I've been looking online for some multiplication games and have found a fantastic site called Multiplication.com
It has lots of different multiplication games, like for example the fashion girls game, where you
'win' more clothes for the girls each time you get a multiplication right.  There are so many more too - detective games,  multi- player races, granny racing!! I do recommend having a look. 



How have you made times tables fun for your kids?  How do you remember learning them when you were a kid?





NB:  The recommendation for the website games is just my own personal opinion - I've not been paid or rewarded in any way for it!

Top 10 tongue twisters



Our kids love tongue twisters and as they often lead to tripping over words, funny phrases and always gales of laughter, this is a great opportunity to share my top 10!

I also think they are good to see which sounds children (or foreign language learners) struggle with or can't make or pronounce.
Tongue twisters are also used for warming up the voice before choir and are also useful for creating clear tones later!

1.  Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
     If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
    Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

2.  She sells sea shells on the sea shore.

3.  How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
     If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

4.  Girl gargoyle, guy gargoyle.

5   One-one was a race horse.
    Two-two was one too.
    One-one won one race.
    Two-two won one too.


6.  I'm not a pheasant plucker
    I'm a pheasant plucker's son
    I'm only plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucker comes.

7.  A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
     but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

8.  Betty Botter had some butter,
    "But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
    If I bake this bitter butter,
    it would make my batter bitter.
    But a bit of better butter--
    that would make my batter better."

9.  A tooter who taught on the flute
    Tried to tutor two tooters to toot
    Said the two to the tutor
    Is it harder to toot or
    To tutor two tutors to toot?

10. Round and round the rugged rock
     the ragged rascal ran.

The girls are still laughing, go on read them, you know you want to!!!!

Have you heard all these?  Do you have a favourite or an alternative to add?

Euan

How much did I weigh when I was born?



This week our youngest daughter needed a photo of herself as a baby to take to school for a project.  The photo she chose was the one we sent out with her birth notices.
When I was scanning the photo, she was busy  reading her own birth notice!

Our elder daughter has recently been studying weights (kg and g) at school, and so these two circumstances together led to an interesting activity with my kitchen scales.


First, the girls happily weighed various items they found lying around; then we moved onto their own birth weights and how we could reproduce that.

My pantry was searched and various foodpackets showing their weights were pulled out - sugar, custard powder and pasta.  We then weighed each item (to check the weight stated on the packet was correct!) - we found a few grams variance but basically they were right.  Then I piled up the various food packets into the girls arms until they were each holding the equivalent weight to themselves as newborn babies! 

They both thought this was great fun, especially when I showed them the difference between the two of them at birth was a packet of bow pasta!!

Since our eldest is learning about weights, I had thought that helping me with some baking would be a great way to  get some real-life and useful practice of weighing.  Today's 'newborn weight' activity was not something I had thought of - it just happened naturally.

It just goes to show that sometimes the best ways to help our children learn and practice things occur spontaneously; it's just a matter of being aware of the potential value of everyday situations and activities.

The girls practising weights measurement through relating it to their own weight as a baby was fun, and more likely to stick with them than say a worksheet full of numbers and weights.

Do you have any stories like this, where real life and circumstance provided a surprising opportunity to learn and practice something -either for yourself or your children?




Cat's Cradle



At the weekend, I had some one-to-one time with our youngest daughter, while the eldest went off to yet another birthday party! 

We played some card games, then went on to Kerplunk (a game where you pull out sticks that hold up marbles but try not to let the marbles fall). This game then evolved into my daughter giving me a cooking lesson using the game pieces.  The marbles were various fruits, and the sticks either cooking implements or ingredients depending on what was needed.  She spent a good 45mins 'teaching' me how to cook all sorts of things! Then asked me to teach her something real!  Something that I knew how to do but she didn't!

For some reason, the first thing that popped into my head was Cat's Cradle - the string game.  I don't know what prompted it as I haven't played this since my own childhood, and all I know how to do is the basic cat's cradle.

This is where the wonderful internet comes into play.  We got out some wool, cut and tied some loops and sat down with the computer and Googled "Cat's Cradle". We found several picture instructions, and I used those and my own memory to teach her the basic cat's cradle.  Then we found a you-tube video which shows you how to do more! There are many videos, but here's the one we used:



This string game - is found in many different cultures all over the world and wikipedia tells me that
Cat's cradle is probably one of humanity's oldest games! In Japan it's called 'ayatori' and in some parts of the US  it's called "Jack in the Pulpit".  Whatever it's name, it is an incredible game of fine motor skills and dexterity.  Some of the shapes made have names like 'Jacob's ladder' and 'The Witch's Broom'.

There is even an International String Figure Association which was founded by a Japanese man around 30 years ago, to gather, preserve, and distribute string figure knowledge so that future generations will continue to enjoy this ancient pastime.

As I look into each activity we do with our children - mostly well known games and activities, I am fascinated by the history and meaning of these games, and I'm proud to be introducing these games to my children as pieces of culture, meaningful educational activities, but above all fun things to do.

My daughter has been playing around with the 'cat's cradle' string ever since, and even made up her own word document on the computer about it, complete with pictures and photos, to take to school for show and tell!

Have you ever played cat's cradle? Do you call it by that name?  Do you think it's important to preserve our old traditional games like this?