Drama class at home - movie transcripts

Here's a handy site for finding transcripts of your kids' favourite movies. If you want to study the script with your kids or put on a little play at home check out www.scifiscripts.com.

Among others, the sites has the complete scripts for: Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Anastasia, Antz, Aristocats, Finding Nemo, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Iron Giant, The Jungle Book, The Last Unicorn, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, Never Ending Story, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pokemon, Shrek, Sleeping Beauty and Toy Story.

Check it out and turn the living room into a stage!

Enjoy

-Stefan

Christmas baking daddy style - 10 unusual cookie cutters

In many countries Christmas is a traditional time for cooking and baking. Cooking and baking with kids is of course a top activity and so here's some inspirations to liven up the cookie cutting (see below for a super simple recipe that you can use to make cookie cutter cookies).

Make your own Advent Calendar for Kids (2)

Now that we are well and truly in the pre Christmas season here's some more instructions on making your own Advent Calendar for kids. This one is just as simple as the "Icicle Advent Calendar".

What you need:

• a piece of cloth / fabric (you can reuse an old table cloth or similar) approx. 80cm x 30cm (25 x 9 inches)
• two wooden sticks (need to be longer than your fabric is wide)
• piece of cord
• little pieces of colourful fabric (anything will work)
• stick on numbers (1 - 25) or you can simply cut them out yourself (made out of paper or fabric)
• glue

Riding with dad

Here's how to do a roller coaster ride with your son (perhaps when he's a bit older than 5!):

Here's how not to do an inverse bungee jump with your son:

Make sure you're up to the task when you go on rides with your kids ... or show them that it's cool to freak out and throw up on rides.

Enjoy

-Stef

Beach crafts and activities

Many people have been asking me about crafts and activities for the beach, so I thought I’d do a little beach roundup post. Below are three crafts, as well as a couple of beach inspired coloring sheets. And we would love to hear about your favorite beach activities too, so feel free to share them in the comments!
Driftwood Fish - Have fun gathering drift wood and rocks, then easily decorate them with some non-toxic paint pens.

Parents aren't any better

This is currently doing the rounds on email - parents absentee messages. Let's not be too harsh on our little ones with spelling mistakes and all ... turns out parents aren't any better at writing :-) The following is a collection of absentee messages from schools around the world.

(don't know who to credit this for - just got it by email)

My son is under a doctors care and should not take PE. Please execute him.

Please excuse Promise for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.

Dear School: Please excuse Sipho being absent on Juneuary 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33.

Please excuse Glorious from Jim today. She is administrating.

Please excuse Blessing for a few days from PE. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.

Edwed has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.

Moses was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.

The wander monster

Rob Kimmel, one of our readers just told us about a really cool project he is doing with his son. "Every day of school, from kindergarten through second grade, I have sent my son off with a sticky note fixed to the inside lid of his lunchbox. Each of these little pieces of colored paper bears a half-completed drawing and a half-written story. I anxiously await picking him up after school to see how he finishes these miniature comics" explains Rob.

What a fantastic way to get some secret notes dialogue going with your kids. Awesome idea we think! Check out wandermonster.com, getdadsomegin.com, and ohdeedoh.com.

Thanks,

Rob Kimmel

Honey we're wrecking the kids

Every parent should watch this ... brilliant stuff about how we (the parents) and our education system is wrecking our kids ...

Enjoy,

Stef

World Oceans Day 2011

Hey, did you know it's World Oceans Day today? Yup it is and so today is a day to celebrate all the amazing things that the oceans provide to life on earth. Perfect opportunity to amaze your kids with some fun facts about oceans and marine life - here's our list of 20 things you didn't know about oceans:

• Some fish can walk on land.


• Some fish can change from female to male.


• You can tell the age of some fish by counting the rings on their scales.


• Fish can't close their eyes.


• The Arctic Ocean produces up to 50,000 icebergs a year.
  


• Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived-they're even bigger than dinosaurs!


• A blue whale's heart weighs up to 2,000 pounds.


• A blue whale's tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.


• The male orca whale's dorsal (back) fin is almost six feet high-the height of a tall man.


• A baby orca is usually born tail-first.
  

It gets better

Very cool project to inspire children and help kids who are being bullied or feel suicidal - the Trevor Project and "it gets better" check it out at itgetsbetter.org. Check it out:

Share with your kids and other parents!

Enjoy,

Stef