painting Archives

Kids Biz – Getting Messy, Creating Art & Visits from The Dummy Fairy

posted by saltybug.com 03/07/2015 1 Comment

Walking through Shangrila Mall I was feeling content and confident. I could swear I could hear the Bee Gee’s ‘Stayin Alive’ playing in the background as I strutted my stuff. The children were happily walking beside me chatting away and I was looking around, taking it all in. I was feeling good this day because as my eyes fell onto the window of True Value I realised I am finally in that space of familiarity. You know, where you know stuff. I realised that if I was looking for an item, now I would know where to go to get it. I get how things work here. A sense of comfort and confidence came over me. Oh yeah! We are in a happy place! For now anyway and I was going with it.

These last few weeks have been about re-establishing new routines. Finding opportunities in the moments that create frustration. I kind of like where we are at now. I know how to negotiate my way around our days when we are needing quick trips here and there. I actually look forward to quiet moments I can be still and recoup some of the energy the days just leach out of you. I don’t feel the sense of urgency now to fill up our days with a multitude of outings and activities.

Getting Messy in Manila

Potato Stamps

These last few weeks have been a pretty good balance of our day to day activities and a few new things to report on. Earlier this week we missed school. There were issues catching a taxi – which I won’t bore anyone with now. By seven thirty in the morning we were up, dressed, fed, cleaned up and packed up with nowhere to go. After my initial shock at how early the day still was I realized this was the perfect opportunity to get back into getting messy with the children. I announced we would do craft and the house filled will squeals of delights and talk of glitter and glue.

On this day we did a combination – a compromise you could say. I wanted to do potato stamping, a wonderful childhood memory of mine. The children wanted to incorporate glitter and tinsel. So we did both. I have a large pad of butchers paper I lay out on the floor for drawing. We sat around with plates of paint, stamps and our craft container with all things sparkly and shiny.

Potato stamps are so easy to make. Cut your potato in half and using a cookie cutter, press it into the potato flesh a short way. Then using a knife cut the flesh away from the outside of the shape. Easy. I love the mottled look the potato gives the paint on the paper. I did think to put the dog outside this time so I did not have a repeat of purple footprints across my floor.

Once we had finished our craft I gave the kids their snack packs I had packed up for school. Another delight for the children who exclaimed it was just like we were at school!

Art in Island

Art in Island – Watch that Step!

Art in Island – Surfin’ Dude

The other week a friend and I took the children to a wonderful place called Art in Island. This place is fabulous. It is an interactive art museum where three dimensional paintings cover the walls and floors. Apparently it is the biggest 3D Museum in Asia and at 3800 sqm there is a lot of room to move around. This place is so much fun because you become part of the art as you pose and take photos. This place really surprised me by its high quality and professionalism. The photos created look

Art in Island

amazing. Well when done well they do. My children just ran around in excited hysterics. So getting them to stand still and pose was just not happening. I aimed my camera and clicked in the hopes something good turned out. I did get a few great pictures.

The Dummy Fairy

This week saw a very exciting visitor grace our home. The Dummy Fairy paid us a visit! FB has been very attached to her dummy since birth and it has been very difficult to get her to wean off it. I was at my wits end really as I found it embarrassing being out in public and then there were the meltdowns she would have if there was no dummy for when she was tired and overwrought. I was over it.

Last year I made a call to The Dummy Fairy to chat about our situation. She agreed the time was coming but as we were about to leave and move overseas that perhaps we should wait until things had settled down nicely.

Finally, the time had come. When we were out with friends the previous week FB had really loved a toy camera her little friend had. FB talked nonstop about this camera and I thought this was a great opportunity to empower FB to get rid of her dummies. I mentioned to FB that The Dummy Fairy had contacted me to discuss getting rid of the dummies as she had been watching over FB to make sure the time was right. FB’s eyes widened with curiosity. You could see her little mind ticking over ‘Fairy!’ you could hear her exclaim in her head. I explained that The Dummy Fairy came when the child was ready and collected up all of the dummies and turned them into toys for boys and girls. In exchange she would leave FB a special gift. If FB told me what sort of toys she liked, I would pass that information on to The Dummy Fairy so she knew what to make with all her old dummies. Well, FB thought this was a delightful idea and agreed that while ‘I will be sad sometimes and miss my dummies, I will be alright’. FB said she wanted a pink camera and excitedly told her brother about it at her first opportunity. I explained that I would let The Dummy Fairy know that now was a good time and she would travel from Australia so to keep an eye out for her over the coming days.

Sure enough, one morning we found a special letter on the window sill in the children’s room from The Dummy Fairy. She said in three days FB was to collect all her dummies and put them in a bag on the front door mat. The Dummy Fairy would pick them up and leave a gift.

On the third day, before bed, FB ran around the house searching every nook and cranny to find all of her dummy’s, including her secret stashes she didn’t think I knew about. Very thoughtfully she found the best place on the door mat to sit the bag. A tender ‘good-bye’ was made and it was off to bed for a long and quiet sleep.

On the morning FB found her gift at the front door, the dummies long gone. The house was filled with excitement as FB exclaimed ‘The Dummies are INSIDE my CAMERA!’ With that, the attachment to her dummies was broken.

Just some feedback for the Fairy. She probably should have sourced the fairy dust to turn the dummies into a pink camera before leaving the letter. I guess she didn’t realise that shopping for toys, sorry fairy dust supplies here in Manila is just not as easy as back in Australia. The Fairy was very very exhausted after two days of strategically running around various shops to find the required item. It was amazing though, that a pink camera meeting FB’s specifications was actually ‘created’. Interestingly it was the only camera that could be ‘created’. I, sorry The Dummy Fairy was trying to ‘create’ a Frozen camera like FB’s little friend had, because it was really awesome, but alas it was not possible. Funny how things work out in the end.