A little birdy

We get a bit twitchy at our house from time to time. Miss Curious saw this bird out on the papaya tree at the front of our house, and drew a portrait. Aparently its called 'Hirundo Rustica'- also known as the Barn Swallow. Its the bird responsible for making those fascinating elaborate winter nests on the power-poles around Chiang Mai! Its beak is much shorter than how Htet Htet drew it, and it has black and brown markings on its head too.

How many photographs?

They shot 60.000 pictures, developed 9.600 prints and shot over 1.800 pictures again. No post production. V. clever and what a wonderful way to celebrate a milestone.

The wistful joys of alone time......

my little pink house...

I have been collecting art & craft projects that look fun to make for AGES. Due to a combination of competing work commitments, travel and parenting, none have been tried, UNTIL recently!. See my version of the 'Little Pink House' based on the tutorial from over at Sew, Mama, Sew. Curious helped me choose the colours and arrange the flowers, and it was quickly gifted to grandmother for a special occasion. I think it was a good first effort. I like to be able to make gifts with the kids as I have very fond memories of my own grandmother teaching me to knit and crochet and make stuff. And a gift made is much more special than a gift bought. For Xmas last the kids painted rather cool robot t-shirts, the year before than, hand print tea-towels. Hopefully more time to take on other small projects soon and our friends and family get nicer Xmas presents as we branch out into the great craft beyond.

 

little fish

Curious can swim! We are all feeling very pleased, none more than Curious herself, who has been trying to put all the pieces together for some time. From feeling not very confident in the water, being too short to touch with bottom of the shallow end of the pool, she's transformed into a veritable fish who loves being waterlogged. Hopefully, younger brother, Talkative wont be too far behind her in the fishiness stakes. He has no problem with his water confidence, according to the swim tutor who rescued him from the bottom of the pool the other day when he jumped in without his swim ring.

"I can swim by myself, I love it"

keeping in touch with the kids at home...

Curious really loved her term at an Australian primary school earlier in the year. There were some nice kids, and a great teacher, but she did feel the cultural divide in a small community that was pretty mono-cultural. We tried to bridge it the best we could. One of the ways was by organizing a Buddhist New Year Water Festival for her class. We cut and pasted beautiful paper flags, walked to the beach and made a huge sandcastle to put them in, flung water in the playground, painted cheeks with traditional makeup, and cooked and ate warm rice flour sweets. Curious was very chuffed and loved explaining the activities to little friends and talking about what water festival is really like in our other countries.

So, since we've been back overseas, and have started distance education, Curious has been using Photostory 3 to record some family outings and local experiences. While its great for her new teacher to understand what she is doing and seeing here and hearing her construct original sentences about those experiences, its also a great way for her to keep in touch with her old primary school class. And, as the example below shows, to see lovely Asian elephants doing very amusing, and sometimes, amazing things!

"monsoon star" tutorial...

This activity from Duo Fiberworks, (the photo is theirs) aims to liven up a wintry window, but is also a fun thing to make amid the never-ending monsoon rains...... especially if you are caring for obsessive cutters and pasters, like I am. Big thumbs up from Chiang Mai on this one (you can get art supplies from B2S). We've been learning to sing and read the Sing a Rainbow song, and how to write all the colour words, so its a fitting activity all round.