Ninja!

I knew I was saving toilet rolls for something.

In an attempt to do something vaguely educational, yet non-costly, I adopted an idea I'd seen on Journey Into Unschooling. I can't find the exact post on their blog, but they do some very cool home-school things over there, it's well worth checking out.

What small boy can resist ninjas?

First, if you know nothing about ninjas, it would be worth your time to do a little rudimentary research on the net.

Then break out the toilet rolls, and the paints, and get to it:

We learned that real ninjas are unlikely to have dressed in black.

Most would have worn regular civilian clothing (we learned what a civilian is too, hehe)

We gave them shurikens, throwing stars, a tessen, spikes, a katana and someone even has a grappling hook.

We learned that what Daddy knows about ninjas comes from popular movie culture, and that we now know more than Daddy about REAL ninjas.

Meet Donatello, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Snowy, Blueboy, Leonardo, Squinty, Bob, William, Ninja Man and Green Guy. Very inventive, huh??

All in all, a satisfying morning spent learning about ninjadom.

School holiday busy-ness

School holidays are upon us again, which means no pre-school, no swimming lessons and no gymnastics class (which Mr 5 has given up for the next term anyway).

So, what to do?

On day one I broke out some of our crafty supplies so the kids could get jiggy with our new hot glue gun, the old one having cacked itself the weekend before the holidays were due to start, giving me a minor panic attack. 

Ha, just kidding really, though hubby did wonder HOW ON EARTH we managed to break a glue gun, apparently they are too simple to break? This one went with a pop and a wee puff of smoke and set off the safety switch on the electrical switchboard for good measure.

But all that aside, need some frugal craftiness? Buy yourself a hot glue gun, you won't regret it. They're good for everything. Even gluing Batman's leg back on AND Spiderman's head back on.

 Don't ask.

So we set up on the floor. The glue gun always seems in danger of falling off the table, which makes the floor the safest option.

This lot came from a car boot sale, I think it was a craft store closing down, from memory. 

I picked up a few good bags of craft supplies there.

And these guys were part of a Geo-mag set....magnet sticks and balls.....that I picked up at a market. The balls and sticks got added to, then divided in half and gifted in small drawstring pouches to two small boys. These I didn't include in the gift because I couldn't quite see the point of them, they don't have magnets in them, they just seemed like extra....padding. But I did keep them. 

Obviously, right?

So the kids got creative and we took their new creations out to experience the world...

They tested their wings...

Played hide and seek....

And investigated the letter box.

Kept them entertained for a couple of hours at least, and with only one small blister on a thumb from the hot glue. I would have said it's not quite hot enough to burn, but I think Mr 2 1/2 actually glued right onto his thumb, so probably got the hot metal tip on him. Bad mummy, I should have been watching just a tad closer. 

But we're all still alive and smiling, hopefully I can still say that at the end of school holidays....!

On the scrounge again...

It's hard rubbish time again in our area, which means the nature strips are decorated with trash, or treasure, depending on your point of view. 

Last year for the first time I went round purposefully checking out some of these piles and came home with a couple of things, so I thought I'd do the same this year.

Yesterday I went strolling with the kids and brought home a basket:

It should be pretty useful, once I've given it a scrub down, maybe I'll keep it in the car for the farmer's market.

Then today we cruised round for a short while in the car on our way to the library.

Picked up this...

And this fisher price swing seat, which is really too small for my kids but I know they sell on ebay, or at the very least I could freecycle it, rather than it end up in a landfill.

That pole you can see is part of the pole-tennis set I picked up today too, the bottom part of the pole is around somewhere. 

And 3 bats to go with it.

And a little wheelbarrow, good as new.

I also spotted one of those green and yellow bolt-together swing sets that are good for young kids. It was in pieces but on closer inspection there were a few broken bits on it.

So instead, when I got home I put a call out on freecycle for one and got a reply just this evening. Someone in my suburb has one and they want to get rid of it! Woohoo!

(You see, we have school holidays coming up and remembering how unprepared I was last school holidays...the first time I've had both kids home ALL the time....I've been casting about for some things to make our limited outdoor space more enticing.  Mission accomplished.)

On another note, it just about makes me cry to think of the amount of new landfill that will be created  from this hard rubbish collection. And that's just my suburb. You could seriously outfit entire houses from what I've seen out there. Loads of everything and so many big tvs, I'm sure many of them work but they've probably been replaced by their take-up-less-room flat screen cousins.

Hubby suggested I contact the council and ask them to advertise freecycle on their next hard rubbish collection flyer.

 I'm gonna do that and they better have a darn good answer for me if they say no!