You Read it Like What?

We Read it Like This have launched a competition which has been the catalyst for recording some audiobooks.

Some beginnings. I love reading to my children and the outcome has been I have children who love to sit and read together. These are recordings from our book time tonight, the fourth book was the Australian 12 days of Christmas but we sing that so I did not include it.



Second night of recording story time.

Bread Rolls

1 cup warm water
1/3 cup oil (canola oil to make it salicylate friendly)
2 tbsp yeast (approx 2 sachets of dried yeast)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cups plain flour (I interchange with finely ground wholemeal flour without needing to alter
quantities)

Heat oven to 200 degrees.

Add the water, oil, yeast and sugar directly into the mixing bowl, stir thoroughly and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.  Mix in the salt, egg and flour.  Knead for a few minutes until well incorporated and dough is soft and smooth.   There are some good youtube videos showing kneading technique.

Divide dough into quarters (use a baking tool if you have one, I just use a butter knife), halve each quarter and halve again.  Form dough into 12 balls and then place in pan lined with baking paper and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with String

I was so excited when my beautiful packages arrived yesterday wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string.  I love special touches like that from some online retailers, Baby's got Style always used to include a little gift, Baby the Stars Shine Bright wrap everything up in pink tissue paper tie them with ribbon and spray sweet perfume on them, and ILOVELINEN, the whole package feels like a special gift.  Constantly reduced prices and amazing products.  I love that they are local and have permanent price reductions of between 50% and 70%.

Rave, rave, rave:

This is a mattress topper that makes you feel like you are sleeping on a cloud.  I had the most awesome nights sleep.  Microcloud Mattress Topper.

Victor

Another victorious morning for yesterdays winning egg.  Back in the fridge with an untarnished record and a new name, Victor the victorious egg.  Today's winner went through to face yesterdays champion with a cracking good chance but Victor smashed it in.

Eggs

They're round all around and they're bigger at the bottom,
 They're small around the top and we're glad we've got 'em.
And they're egg shaped,
coz they're Eggs.

Things with fins and wings and legs,

they lay eggs.

Now the pigeons and the penguins,

and the emu, and the eagle,

and the pea-hen, and the parrot,

and the sparrow and the seagull,

and the pelican too

lay eggs.

Every bird you ever heard

lays eggs.

Egg Fight

Egg tapping, eiertikken, epper, koni-juj, tsougrisma, egg conking, egg jarping, Eiertitschen, egg shackling, egg dumping, eier-spacken or eier doppen, Ostereiertitschen or Eierpecken and now, in my family, EGG FIGHT!  The way to play is to hold your boiled egg and tap it against your opponent egg, the loser gets to eat their egg while the winner goes on to the next round.  The plan was for even the winning egg to be eaten, for the winner gets the spoils, but our lucky winning egg is still sitting preserved in the fridge to fight again tomorrow.  When eggs were ready and textas were at the table, my daughter rushed off and came back in her battle regalia, a pirate hat worn like a gladiator.

I love that so many celebrations have more to them than a story about a goddess descending in an egg or a man coming back to life after his dead body was placed in a cave.  Easter is a celebration that is timed in relation to an astronomical event, like so many other religious celebrations, possibly due to the absorption or take over of Paganism by Christianity and the link between Paganism and nature.

"Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox ."
"At an equinox the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point (RA = 00^h 00^m 00^s and longitude = 0º) and the autumnal point (RA = 12^h 00^m 00^s and longitude = 180º). By extension, the term equinox may denote an equinoctial point."  thank you again Wikipaedia.

Around the Clock Childcare

There will be $5m spent by the Labor government on introducing and trialing new childcare arrangements intended to support parents in shiftwork. 
 

"FAMILY Day Care Australia to provide overnight and weekend care for police and nurses doing shiftwork.
EXTENDED weekday care at six Goodstart Early Learning Centres across the nation.
MORE Out of School Hours Care will be offered, with the Government funding the Network of Out of School Hours Services.
THE NATION'S largest childcare group, Goodstart Early Learning Centres, will also offer extended hours at six sites across Australia under the plan.
In NSW, the scheme will fund family day care for police officers and in Queensland, the scheme will focus on nurses. Expanded childcare centre hours and after-school care will be offered in Victoria, SA and WA to other families enrolled in participating centres."

$5m childcare experiment to help shiftworkers tackle 'tag-team run',

 Samantha Maiden -Sunday Mail (SA), March 17, 2013 12:00AM

 

When I first read this it wreaked of danger and disruption to the life of the child, pressure on the parent who already feels so much guilt and pressure trying to manage a work life balance, provide for their family while getting to spend as much time with their child in these precious early years and not failing their colleagues, employer or ambitions. 

 

It is being sold to the Australian public as a way to support people in these special roles which demand shift work.  Instead I see a system which does the opposite.  To truly support these parents the government would be better off subsidising the employer to add additional personnel for a team that could carry on shift operations whilst supporting team members who can only work during core hours where childcare is safely available and key hours can still be spent connecting parent and child and giving the child the parental nurture and time they need and deserve.  A real incentive to hire parents or support employees about to start a family.

 

I am a contractor.  When I became pregnant with my first child I had an employer who appreciated my commitment, expertise and was supportive of my choice to start a family.  He approved extension of my contract after I advised of my pregnancy and agreed to allow me to take a chunk of time off after the birth coming back with reduced onsite hours.  I was blown away.  As a contractor you do not assume any loyalty from your employer.  Six months or so after that he was gone and I was left with a new boss, a lady, who spent the last few weeks I was at work (I worked up til the last month of pregnancy, my boss was getting worried that I shouldn't be allowed in the server room alone)  pressuring me into canceling my contract telling me things like "You won't want to return once you have your child", she knows, it happened to her.  She was in a position where funds constrained her willingness to support me as a new parent.  

 

Paid parental leave should be taken for granted, we should not still be fighting for it.  I was told the other day that my generation wasn't abandoned, our parents made the decision to stay at home and care for us.  No they didn't.  Our mothers did.  They were expected to terminate their employment and stay home and care for us.  We are lucky to have had that care, we should only be so lucky to have the luxury of being able to stay at home and provide that care to our own children.  For many it is not possible.  I was able to share the early years with my partner.  He took nearly two years off with our first child because of the timing of having our second and my not wanting to go back to work with the second before two years.  He had a greater challenge re-entering the workforce than I did and we have almost exactly the same technical background and job history.  There simply isn't the social approval or expectation that a highly skilled man would take time off to care for their child.  A topic for a different rant however.

 

Earlier this year the Labor government passed a bill to transfer sole parents living off  welfare payments onto Newstart allowance upon their youngest child turning eight, costing already disadvantaged parents, predominantly women, between $50 and $120 per week. 

 

"You’re talking about a behavioural initiative to change the behaviour of a single parent trying to raise children. Now, what’s best for children? The best thing for children is to have a parent at home who takes care of them, not one who is pushed out into work simply by poverty. Are you people all crazy?" 

"It’s not a saving. It’s not a saving because those kids will grow up in poverty and what are they going to do?" Tim Ferguson addressing Bill Shorten and Julie Bishop on QandA. 

 

If the government were serious about getting single parents and all parents back into work they would support them and their employers to keep them in the workforce and in their employment through the early years off crucial bonding, nurturing and time away from work.  Keep their employment and skills rather than lose them and try rejoining a workforce that has moved on, up-skilled and carried on without them for five to eight years.  We are entering an age where the traditional office is becoming less and less a necessity for an increasing range of roles.  Research and develop provisions to allow parents to work from virtual offices with flexible hours.  Ensure protection from being shafted off to the side of the role you were trained for and gained through years of hard work.

I will never vote for an Abbott government, the man is a megalomaniac with schizophrenic policy statements and devotion to any agenda that will further his ambition to hold the seat of power.  I have  ethical concerns with voting for any NLA government, admittedly a Turnbull government would win me over ahead of the Labor party we currently have to suffer.  Having said that Malcolm Turnbull has spun a lot of bull about the NBN.  It is painful to watch Labor's lack of social responsibility and compassion in their decision making.  Politics in Australia at the moment is disheartening.

  

Out of the Egg - Woodblock Printing

 Out of the Egg by Tina Matthews
Since first reading to my daughter as a little baby, this book has been a favourite of hers.  She was most likely drawn to it when she was young by the beautiful high contrasting white and black lines and the use of splashes of red and green throughout, as these sorts of images are meant to be stimulating.
Out of the Egg is beautifully illustrated with woodblock prints and has a wonderful story carrying a poignant message in both the words and illustrations.

Throughout the book you have the story of a little red hen and her efforts to help a small green seed become a beautiful tree.  The graphics show a world devoid of green, filled with sloth, waste, smoke and greed.
As the hard working little red hen looks ahead to what can become of the little seed, the dirty rat, the greedy pig and the fat cat are far happier to shop, kick back, drive and watch tv rather than expend any effort helping, so the little red hen does it her self.
There is a very sweet little twist of hope, forgiveness and the potential of a new generation at the end.

There is also some beautiful language in this book and some very memorable lines.

"Through wild days and mild months and slow-turning years, the tree grew bigger.  And one warm spring day the Red Hen found a safe place and laid a perfect white egg."

Reading Out of the Egg over and over again kicked off a really nice day with my daughter who today told me this was her favourite book.  So, having some polystyrene blocks from the packaging of her new big bed we made some block prints inspired by the beautiful works of Tina Matthews and the story of the little red hen. 

Painting the image on the Styrofoam blocks seems to have given the lines more integrity and they do not flake off as easily as the rest of the polystyrene.  Water down some paint to do the prints by first using a paint brush to apply the thinned paint.  Try and get your little person to only paint on the green or coloured lines.