Today on the blog, I’m welcoming Dirt Girl from the hit children’s series Dirtgirlworld, to guest post especially for Be A Fun Mum.  Dirtgirlworld is a celebration of life outside, taking children to a world where the real and unreal collide.  I love the show’s focus on loving the outdoors and environmental sustainability.

So, get grubby this winter with 10 gardening tips for kids from Dirt Girl.

Great fun winter gardening ideas

1. Compost

Gather up all the autumn leaves that have fallen and jump in it! I mean, make a big compost pile. Add some manure (sheep, cow, horse or chicken poo), some water and let it heat up! Or add them to the compost pile you already have. You can also use your autumn leaves to mulch your garden beds to help keep your plants’ roots extra warm over the chilly winter. As the leaves rot down they become food for the soil.

2. Garden

Winter is a great time to plant lettuce, beetroot and broccoli. Savoy cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, radish, rocket, rainbow chard, spring onions and turnips can be planted now too. If you plant them at every two weeks, you will get a nice crop all the way through winter. It’s hard to eat 10 heads of broccoli if they all come on at once! Believe me I’ve tried!

Plant in winter garden:

• lettuce
• beetroot
• broccoli
• savoy cabbage
• carrots
• cauliflower
• radish
• rocket
• rainbow chard
• spring onions
• turnips

3. Collect & Paint Pots

Start collecting conatiners & pots for your container garden now. Paint some personalized garden pots that will be used in the spring. Or you can use them now to plant some coriander, rocket, perpetual spinach, and silver beet.

Look at these cute rainbow painted pots from Whimsical Kids Canvas. Click the picture to read the post.

4. Herbs in Pots

You could try some lovely smelling herb pots too with thyme, rosemary and ‘winter savoury’. These herbs are tough and only need watering about every second or third week but the leafy greens will need watering every 4 to 6 days. To pick the herbs for the kitchen simply pinch off the tips with your fingers – doing this also prunes them which will encourage bushier, faster growing plants.

Plant in pots during winter:

• coriander
• rocket
• perpetual spinach
• silver beet
• thyme
• rosemary

5.Window Garden

Try growing an indoor window sill garden with mini flowers.

6.Grow Bags

If planting out in the garden make the most of cool season sun by planting vegies in grow bags which can be moved to where the sun is at any time of day.

7. Make a Bird Feeder

Winter is a great time for helping the birds in your backyard.  You can build a birdhouse from scraps like timber, plastic drain pipes, PVC pipe. With very little alteration, you can repurpose well-cleaned 3.8-litre paint cans, washed plastic milk cartons, coffee cans or the newer plastic containers, old boots, stiff hats, faded wreaths, and fallen branches into bird houses. Even materials that will only last for one season, like cardboard milk cartons, make good shelters for some birds.

You could even use a gourd! All that you need is a gourd and some wire. Find out how to make this on Family Fun Go.

Painted gourds can be used to decorate the garden too.

Materials you can build bird houses from:

• timber
• plastic drain pipes
• PVC pipe
• well-cleaned 3.8-litre paint cans
• washed plastic milk cartons
• coffee cans
• plastic containers
• old boots
• stiff hats
• faded wreaths
• fallen branches
• cardboard milk cartons
• gourds

For more some recycled birdhouse ideas go to Recycled Bird Houses or here: Bird Feeder from Recycled Materials

8. Bird Diary

Set up bird feeders and keep them full. Provide a daily clean water source. Keep a record of all the species of birds that come to the feeder and what date each first was spotted.

9. Plant Bulbs

Plant bulbs in a pot, in a good soil mixture with drainage material in the bottom like broken old bits of terracotta pot. Daffodil bulbs are easy peasy to grow in a pot. Most bulbs can be planted twice as deeply as they are high, and about the same distance apart. Bulbs are usually planted with the pointy end upwards, except ranunculi. If you are unsure, plant the bulb sideways and it will turn the correct way up as it emerges. Place pots outdoors, protected from strong winds and frosts, in a position where they will receive natural rainfalls as much as possible. Bring pots indoors to enjoy when flowering begins.

10. Visit a Garden

Make a day of it and visit a local community garden or even a nursery to see what’s growing.

Now let’s get grubby!  Love dirtgirl!

More

Dirt Girl Word — The Website

Rock Garden

105 Ways to Enjoy Nature With Kids

When I do craft with my kids, I like for it to be an extension of another outing or activity.  For example, making potpourri bags for the drawers was coupled with a trip to the shops, collecting shells at the beach turned into a wall feature and a fun addition to a country drive was to stop and make wild flower wreaths. For me, craft is about connection rather than just something to do.

When the children and I explored a local stream recently, we collected rocks to make rock footprints.

It’s not craft, it’s connection.

Materials

Piece of wood (or use a canvas)

2 x Screw eyes

Rocks (1 sole of foot size and 5 for toes)

Gem glue, like 330 Epoxy (a hot glue gun works too but for best results use expoxy glue)

Instructions

1. Sort, clean and move the rocks around until you get the best foot shape.

2. Lightly sand the piece of wood to help the glue stick. Canvas can also be used instead of the wood.

3. Arrange the rocks on your piece of wood or canvas using gem glue or hot glue gun (the gluing should be done by an adult).

4. Allow to dry as per packet instructions.

5. Press screw eyes and twist on either side of wood to allow for hanging.

6. Hang with a piece of twine or rope.

The Rock Footprint sign hangs on the outdoor cubby. We might add some words to the sign when we think of a good name. I’ll keep you posted.

Connections.

More

Nature Craft

Health and fitness is important to me but it’s a challenge to prioritise amongst the pressures and busyness of parenting.  Fitting it all in is less about time management and more of a journey for me, and I’ve written about this in the posts below.

1. The first step was to make the conscious decision to do something about my health. I wrote about it here: Feeling Fat and Ugly.

2. Secondly, I had to embrace who I was and the changes in my body. I wrote about it here: Weight Gain and Post Baby Body Issues.

3. I jumped those hurdles, and now I have the freedom to work out what fitness/health routine works for me. I shared my fitness routine here: Finding time to excercise.

I’ve achieved so much in terms of health — I’m an active sort of person and I enjoy eating healthy foods — but there is something I really struggle with. It turns my steady healthy life plan in to absolute turmoil…every month.  It’s PMS (Pre-Menstrual Syndrome).

I asked experts in nutrition and exercise from Weight Watchersto answer some questions specific to this topic for me, and the interview is below.  It’s filled with tips and advice about how to utilise diet and exercise in conjunction with family life and lifestyle, to achieve the best health outcome.

Oh, and BONUS!  I have a hamper full of goodies to giveaway from Weight Watchers at the end of the post too.

Interview With

Emma Stirling: Weight Watchers Nutrition Advisor and Nutrition Editor of Weight Watchers Magazine.

Martha Lourey-Bird: Exercise Scientist at Weight Watchers.

Kelly: Why is there a compulsion to eat more right before the menstrual cycle?

Emma Stirling: Pre-Menstrual Syndrome or PMS is a complex condition involving emotional, physical, hormonal and environmental factors, but we certainly know from research that appetite and cravings can increase in the days leading up to a woman’s period with a preference for sweet treats like chocolate topping the list time and time again.

The available studies show that cravings tend to occur more often in women with PMS and that the cravings increase as symptoms worsen. While more research is needed to understand food cravings, the good news is that they do not appear to translate into large increases in kilojoule intake and subsequent weight gain.

Kelly: What are three ways to combat monthly cycle mood swings that can affect food and eating plans?

Emma Stirling: It’s not surprising to hear that an overall healthy lifestyle is more likely to reduce your symptoms of PMS or help you ride the wave of symptoms like mood swings better.

1. As a Dietitian I recommend regularly including mood boosting foods and nutrients in your eating plan, like omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish with 2-3 fish meals a week a good tally.

2. The second thing you can do during the premenstrual days is to include low glycemic index, nutrient rich carbohydrate foods like oats at breakfast, to maintain steady blood glucose, insulin and energy levels.

3. My last tip would be to see an Accredited Practising Dietitian for advice. There are certain foods and potentially dietary supplements that may help balance your eating plan and relieve symptoms, but it is important to have expert advice.

Kelly: How is it best to utilise diet and exercise in conjunction with family life and lifestyle, to achieve the best health outcome.

Diet

Emma Stirling: This tends to be especially tricky for mums. Striking a healthy balance with a busy family life is sometimes difficult, and made even more complicated if weight loss is a goal. Unfortunately we are very good at looking after other people and multi-tasking, but often fail at looking after our own needs first. The bottom line is that you need to take care of yourself and make sure you are getting the nutrition you need. If a mum is healthy and happy, the whole family will be too. When it comes to health, I’m very pleased to recommend Weight Watchers as their Nutrition Advisor. A comprehensive program that combines healthy eating, activity, behaviour change and a supportive environment is key to long term success. There are some fabulous element to the new ProPoints 2012 like an iphone app and zero ProPoints fruit and most vegetables.

Exercise

Martha Lourey-Bird: Exercise can provide natural pain relief by stimulating a combination of pain-fighting endorphins and increased blood flow which reduces cramping and various other symptoms of PMT.

Although at the time of PMS, you probably don’t feel like exercising at all but it’s likely to make you feel a whole lot better! Exercise releases feel good hormones that lift your mood as well as help reduce that bloated tummy feeling. It doesn’t need to be anything strenuous at all, and can always involve your children – try taking them to the park while making sure that you are active too and don’t spend the whole time just sitting down watching them play, if it is too hard to get out of the house or too cold, simply lay on the floor and do a series of exercises or some gentle stretching (depending on how bad your PMS is) as the kids will love joining in too. Sometimes it can also be a good idea to park your car up the road when you go to pick them up from school, this will not only help you feel better, but will also help them wind down at the end of the day.

Giveaway

I’m giving away this fabulous hamper from Weight Watchers to one reader. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below.

Hamper

The hamper contains Weight Watchers food products like nut and muesli bars, fruit packs, jelly, gravy, Belgian chocolate brownies, delicious chocolate scrolls and mixed forest berry jam. There is also a Weight Watchers cook book, magazine, beach towel and mini speaker phones.

Terms: 1. Australian residents only.  2. Winner will be notified by email.  If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be drawn.  3. Not associated, administered or sponsored by facebook.   4. Winner drawn randomly.

This is a healthy and delicious afternoon tea I made with the children this week. They monstered it!

Ingredients

150 mls mild salsa

1/2 cup tin corn

1/2 cup kidney beans

3-4 wholemeal pitta breads (toasted wholemeal pitta bread tastes the same as white)

Olive oil spray

Method

1. Cut the Pitta bread into bite sizes and place on a tray covered in baking paper.

2. Spray with olive oil.

3. Put in a 200C oven for about 7 minutes until the bread starts to brown slightly.

4. In a bowl, mix together the salsa, beans and corn.  I like  dip chunky so my measurements reflect that. Just adjust the quantities until the consistency is as you like.

5. Serve.

Heathy, easy and yummy.  A great snack for afternoon tea on a winter day. Good for the lunch box too.

More

Lunch Box Ideas

Enjoying the natural beauty of the world is something I do every single day.  The more time I spend admiring nature, the more satisfaction and joy I get out of it.  It helps me slow down. It helps me to be present.  And it’s always there. I find myself, not only wanting to spend time outdoors, I have a desire to protect our natural resources too.

I see this happening in my children too.  Kids are educated these days to protect the environment, but I believe unless you really experience the wonder of it, the passion isn’t really there.

Value

It starts by the way we value nature as a family.  At some undefinable point, we decided enjoying nature was important to us as a family.

Enjoy

The more you enjoy nature, the more you want to look after it. They have to go hand in hand.

Educate

One of the ways we place value on nature is by educating ourselves about how to take care of it and then making slow sustainable changes to this effect.

Notice

We notice nature as we live life and get excited about it. “Wow! There’s a bird!” It sounds a bit strange but it really rubs off on the kids and they enjoy sharing what they see around them too. Sharing. I like that.

Live

Like most things, once you start noticing a particular thing, it quickly becomes a natural part of the framework for living and opportunities arise effortlessly as you live life.

105 Ways to Enjoy Nature With Kids

I’ve put together a list of 105 ways our family enjoys nature.  Some are teeny tiny things that take a few second and some full-on activities to emerse yourself in the wonder. I guess the big message here is just to notice nature as you live life, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.  Enjoy it, because it’s there, and it’s wonderful.

1. Look at the stars.
2. Go outside and feel the sun on your face for 1 minute.
3. Go on a bushwalk.
4. Collect shells, put into a glass and display in the home.
5. Write on a dark rock with a lighter coloured rock.
6. Look at the clouds.
7. Run on the grass.
8. Go on a picnic.
9. Throw pebbles into water.
10. Listen to the birds for 2 minutes.
11. Swim in the ocean.
12. Pick up rubbish.
13. Make a wild flower hair wreath or a daisy chain.
14. Draw pictures in the dirt with a stick. And guess.
15. Make a sand castle.
16. Look for butterflies.
17. Walk through a shallow stream. Watch the water dance over the rocks.
18. Watch where the wind moves for 2 minutes.
19. Visit a flower show.
20. Take photographs of nature and make them into a photo book.
21. Go on a road trip.
22. Bird watching.
23. Watch water drops slide down a glass window.
24. Notice the reflection of the sun on water.
25. Smell flowers.
26. Look up on the internet or in a book, some of the places or things seen in nature.
27. Listen to natural running water for 5 minutes. Concentrate on how it sings.
28. Climb a tree.
29. Do a nature scavenger hunt. (Use something like an empty egg carton to collect things).
30. Find a pet rock.
31. Set toys up outside in a shady spot on a mat.
32. Eat outside.
33. Watch a sunset.
34. Visit an environmental centre.
35. Walk along the beach at dusk.
36. Press flowers between a book.
37. Go camping.
38. Walk across a fallen log.
39. Fly a kite or blow a pinwheel.
40. Play in the backyard.
41. Lay on the grass for 1 minute.
42. Chase a rainbow in the car.
43. Go outside and sketch something with a pencil.
44. Look outside the window for 5 minutes.
45. Sit under a big tree and look up into the branches.
46. Read a book outside.
47. Visit a national park.
48. Look at the full moon.
49. Feel the bark of 5 different trees.
50. Arrange flowers inside the home.
51. Take a deep breath. Do it again.
52. Colour sand and display layers in an empty jam jar.
53. Create a colour pallet with pencils from items you can see in front of you in nature.
54. Play in the rain.
55. Notice how the raindrops look on a flower, leaf or go outside in the early morning and look at dew on grass.
56. Visit a natural waterfall.
57. Go Geocaching.
58. Visit an aquarium.
59. Watch how a beetle moves for 2 minutes.
60. When leaving a special destination, look at it like it’s the last time you’ll see it. Drink it in.
61. Rip a leaf (like a eucalyptus) and smell it.
62. Go for a walk outside.
63. Grow herbs in a small pot.
64. Climb on rocks.
65. Count birds.
66. Buy a landscape photography coffee table book.
67. Rake autumn leaves in a pile and jump in them.
68. Skim a rock on water.
69. Write names in the sand of every one in your family.
70. Go for a drive and to look at the scenery.
71. Strawberry picking.
72. Slide down a grassy hill on a cardboard box.
73. Visit a farm. Milk a cow. Collect eggs from a chicken.
74. Make craft from something you collected from nature.  Stick leaves on a piece of paper, decorate pine cones, create a collage from sticks, add nature items to a drawing.  More ideas here.
75. Get the kids involved in backyard maintenance and make it a family fun day.
76. Squeeze your own orange juice. Or make lemonade.
77. Visit a nature museum.
78. Browse the internet for pictures of the wonders of the world or current environmental issues. Great dinner conversation.
79. Collect rocks, gem stones or crystals. Keep in a special tin.
80. Pan for gold.
81. Google the oldest tree in the world today.
82. Watch silk worms.
83. Borrow books about nature and wildlife from the library.
84. Go for a walk in the rain with umbrellas.
85. Visit a planetarium.
86. Cook on an open fire.
87. Look for crabs.
88. Make a nature inspired imaginative play scene.
89. Watch ants carry food to their nest.
90. Visit glow worms.
91. Visit a wildlife sanctuary.
92. Go for a family night walk with a torch.
93. Watch a wildlife documentary.
94. Look for a bird’s nest in spring.
95. Go for a hay ride.
96. Visit the snow and make a snowman.
97. Go fishing.
98. Listen to nature sounds on a CD.
99. Bike riding.
100. Sailing or boating.
101. Grow your own vegetable garden.
102. Make an outdoor cubby house with sticks.
103. Look for animal tracks in the ground.
104. Snorkel on a reef.
105. Slow down.

Print the List

Print the list by clicking the picture below.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

– Lou Holtz

How do you enjoy nature as a family?  Do you have any more to add to the list?

More Links

100 Ways to Love the Moment

100 School Holiday Ideas

I woke this morning to the news of author Maurice Sendak’s death at age 83 (June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012).  His signature book, Where the Wild Things Are, is well know and loved at our house.  How amazingly fitting that I have a guest post from Fi today, showing how to create a special activity for children (and adults!) inspired by the book.

Guest Post from Fi from Destination Bali

This week I said to the children, “I love the illustrations in this book.” Apparently I say this every time I read Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak…and we read it a lot.

We decided to draw monsters in the same style as the book.  This made the kids really look at how the illustrations were done. The cross hatching, washes and final colouring, the lack of straight line and the interesting textures.

The children kept going back and really, really looking. The idea was to draw monsters the same way and then try and do a completely unrelated object but in the same style a few days later.

Materials

Watercolour paper

Watercolour paints

Pencil

Fine point black pen

Water colour pencils

Instructions

1. Initially it was a sketch in pencil.

2. A watercolour wash in the areas we needed it.

3.  Added lot of fine detail in a thin black pen. The artworks were left out and the children went back to them and added more detail.

4. Then more colouring with watercolour pencils for stronger colour.

Make sure the grown ups in your household have a go too.  You can do this with any illustrator you love!   Next up for us is The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss.

***********************

This series of posts follows Fi and her family as they experience a 6 month family getaway to Uluwatu, Bali. If you want to know more or catch up on previous entries, visit the first post in the series here: Family Tropical Adventure in Bali.

Posts in the series

1. Family Tropical Adventure in Bali

2. A Walk: 6 Months on a Tropical Island

3. A Tree: The Journey Begins

4. A Place: The How and The Why

5. A Scare: The Highs and the Lows

6. A Drama: Lemonade from Lemons

7. A Mistake: Why not easily fixed?

8. A Preview: Of things to come

9. A Penny: Economics 101

10. An Escape: And a Special Moment

11. A Box: Small, Smaller, Smallest

12. A Chat: It’s All in the Timing

13. A Reality: Living in Bali

14. A Nest: What you can do with plenty of time

15. A Colour: Green

16. A Book: Where the Wild Things Are