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Tag: dance

  • FEATURE: Activities for preschoolers

    FEATURE: Activities for preschoolers

    DURING the week, tweets kept popping into my @ThreeLil Twitter account by northern-based mums battling 30C-plus heat. Here we were rugged up like Eskimos as we toasted our toes by the heater.

    With summer momentarily disappearing, it enabled Princess Ella and I to rediscover our list of fun indoor activities. Today I thought I’d share some of our absolute favourites (even though the warm weather seems to have returned).

    Ella painting her toe nails

     Fingernail painting and pedicure:

    Ella constantly asks to have her nails painted. She also likes to take over and paint mine. Of course, there’s usually more colour on my feet than my nails. My three-year-old nephew loves this activity too, so don’t exclude the boys.

     

    Craft at the little table

    Craft table:

    The craft table, set up in the corner of the dining room, is constantly filled with pencils, crayons, paper, glue, sticky tape, pipe cleaners, pom poms and well, crafty items. Since Baby Holly came along, it’s been my saviour during breastfeeding. A fellow mum also set up a craft table, but had her house redecorated when the phone rang and her three-year-old ran, glitter in hand.

    Messy craft at the big table

    Sometimes Ella gets to play at the “big’’ table.

    Hair in a braid after playing hairdressers

     Hairdressing:

    Aided with hair brushes, combs, bands and clips, the conversations usually goes something like this: Ella: “How would you like your hair done today?’’. Mum: “Ah, a cut and colour, thanks Ella’’. Ella: “No, I’m not Ella, I’m a hairdresser. Would you like a pink and purple colour today?’’ Mum: “Yes please, hairdresser. That’s exactly what I was thinking’’.

     

    Cooking with Dad in her MasterChef outfit

    Cooking:

    Donning her MasterChef apron, Ella’s requests are usually M&M Biscuits (recipe to come soon), birthday cake (even when it’s not her birthday) and ABC muffins (Apple, Banana and … chocolate, of course).

     Knitting:

    This week Ella asked me to teach her to knit. Sound impossible? Quite the contary. She was thoroughly entertained with her needles and yarn, creating a beautiful big…

    …ending up in knots

    …knot! Our next step may be sewing (with glue, instead of needle and thread). She may just be the next international fashion designer.

    We also enjoy Play Doh, dancing to music, doing household duties (she loves finding the sock’ “mates’’ and using her vacuum), taking photos with her Dora camera (see some photos we took together for Sunday Selection), tea parties, babies (although Ella likes to be the baby more often than not), reading books (particularly from the library), singing songs (with pretend microphones), puzzles and playing cards (I taught her to play Fish, but accidentally called it Snap Now she refuses to let me teach her Snap “No mum, that’s not how you play Snap’’).

    Has this left you inspired? Please share some of your favourite activities with your preschoolers.

    Visit Be A Fun Mum’s Activity Ideas for Children 2-5 or check out her list for Activity Ideas for Children Under 2.

  • FEATURE: Li’l elephant takes to the dance floor

    FEATURE: Li’l elephant takes to the dance floor

    Dancing diva Ella after her first dance lesson

    PRINCESS Ella is not the most graceful of dancers.

    In fact, she inherited her dad’s flat feet, which means she struggles to grasp the concept of “dancing on toes’’ – she’s more like Babar the Elephant than Angelina Ballerina.

    However, she reached the stage where she knew all the moves on every dance-related DVD she had, so we decided it was time to start dance lessons.

    Many regular readers will have already seen the bloke in The Shed’s account of gearing up to take Ella to her very first dance lesson in The Beginning of the End.

    So what happened?

    Well, there’s always that fear that maybe she’ll just stand there, too shy to participate.

    The instructor obviously knew this to be the case for many so offered for mums to take part in the class too. Fat chance. The last time I danced in public was under the influence of a bottle of wine and Lionel Ritchie. Hmmm.

    Thankfully, my dancing wasn’t required. Ella took to the class like Victoria Beckham to dieting. It may have helped that she had a li’l friend along with her, which gave them both the confidence to stand right up the front.  She likes the spotlight (check out her diva moment in the video from two years ago).

    These are some of the golden moments from her first lesson:

    • When asked to twinkle her fingers in the air, she responded loudly with: “Look, my mummy painted my fingernails with nail polish. See?’’ The dancing had to be halted while everyone looked at her fingernails.

    • Each dancer had to choose an imaginary horse. Ella’s friend decided to bring her horse over to her mummy to “show’’ her. When the dance instructor later queried Ella’s friend as to whether she’d already chosen her horse, she replied: “yes, I left it over there near mum’s chair’’.

    • Ella’s eyes lit up when she was asked to “jump like a kangaroo’’. Earlier that morning we’d discovered a frog in the house (not something we’ve ever encountered before), to which Ella responded with “look dad, he’s jumping like a kangaroo’’. Needless to say, she was proud to show off her kangaroo skills for the second time that day.

    • Accidentally chest bumping another dancer footy style and then pretending like nothing happened. Ella barely moved; the other girl bounced and hit the floor.

    • Half the class being named Sienna and hearing an echo of:.“that’s my name, too’’.

    So, how did your little one adapt to their first dance lesson (or footy match)? What moments made you laugh?

  • SHED: The beginning of the end

    SHED: The beginning of the end

    Ella's very first dance lesson
    By Julian O’Brien

    A SIBLING of mine described it best when he labeled it “the beginning of the end’’. He’s right you know.

    His remark was in response to me noting that Princess Kellie and I were about to take Princess Ella to her first dancing lesson.

    As a dad with two older children of his own, my bro’ prophetically noted my life now was set to be completely dominated by running Princess Ella (and eventually Princess Holly) to an endless stream of dancing lessons, music lessons, sport and social events.

    My life flashed before my eyes  … or was it Ella and Holly’s life, because a lot of it featured me sitting behind the bloody wheel of a car?

    It was easy for my brother to say this, of course, as he sat behind the wheel of his own car in the pouring rain waiting for his boy to finish his footy training.

    The real dilemma came at the end of our conversation when said boy returned and my brother was forced to somehow negotiate a way the boy could get in the car without leaving mud all over it and incurring the wrath of the “boss” of the household.

    Don’t get me wrong, I want my girls to have a myriad of life experiences. I want them to learn an instrument or find something they are passionate about. It would be sensational if one of them turned into a professional athlete – maybe even the next Lauren Jackson (although, given the title of this website, that last one is highly unlikely).

    As long as my girls are happy and healthy I’m fully prepared to pay the price of sitting on my backside waiting for them.

    So, Ella and Holly, bring on the dance lessons, bring on the basketball training and bring on the parties, but don’t think for one minute either of you are going to choose the violin!

    Read how that first lesson went…