Monday, December 12, 2011

Inspiration: Helping Kids to Fly

I really like this excerpt from How to help your child fly through life by Andrew Martin:

"...life is a lot like flying (in the aeroplane sense).  Some people love it. Some people fear it. Some people are bored by it. Some people just ride it out neither bored nor enthused by it. Our aim as parents (and teachers) is to nurture children who love to fly.

To help kids fly and enjoy the ride, there is a need for a good pilot (i.e. good parents or caregivers and teachers) and a sound plane (i.e. a safe and supportive home and an effective class and school). Both pilot and plane need to function effectively to get the plane safely in the air and to safely land it on time and at the right destination (i.e. effectively guiding children into adulthood). There is often anticipated and unanticipated turbulence that needs to be weathered (just as there are tough times in life that must be endured). It is also important to have all of one's luggage arrive on time and in the right place (i.e. reaching adulthood with all the appropriate skills to function well in life).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Kai's Birthday

We celebrated Kai's birthday on Wednesday last week, and then her party at the weekend.

We decided to have her party at home with lots of games and activities for the 12 girls.
It was a really wonderful morning and the girls were well behaved and they all played together nice. We kept them busy with musical hearts (instead of musical chairs), pass the parcel, decorating wand biscuits, making masks with glitter and other decorations, a treasure hunt, and a couple of other games.

To go with the 'pink' theme, Kai's cake (which she chose from a cake book) was a pink Cadillac. Phillip and I had great fun decorating it, and Kai really enjoyed the surprise of finding it in the kitchen when she woke up on the day of her party.
 I also had fun the day before the party makes lots of pink food, including these cute tea cups and strawberry tarts.