Sunday Selections: iPad Art

Hey ho, it's me again - back after another little absence. 

And now, it's time for Sunday Selections! (Although it is now actually Monday morning).

Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented

    

I was sorting through some photos on my hard drive this week and came across these. All of them were created by the kids.

This one's a family portrait: Y with hat and bouzouki, A with music player, M with doll and me with a book.

Not sure what this is, but pretty:

Friends or maybe a girl band:

Wanted, dead or alive!

Photobooth weirdness:

Painter's palette:

Spooky house:

Various:

Until next time: happy Sunday, or rather Monday!

Sunday Selections #174

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at The View From Here

    

Here is this week's collection of orphan photos:

Most evenings the kids spend half an hour or so in their rooms before bedtime, and then I come in and read a chapter of a book to them before they go to sleep.  During the reading, both pets come in to whatever room I'm in and settle themselves somewhere cosy. 

Harry

Tia

After many weeks' dedicated practice, M has mastered the Rainbow Loom, and has learned how to make the more complicated 'charms' via YouTube tutorials:

gymnast

ice-cream sodas

A prefers writing and drawing. After we all watched the Back to the Future movies together last weekend, she drew a picture of "the future".  As you can see, we will have flying cars and hoverboards, but kids will always play with dolls.

The Future

Sunday Selections #167

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad

    

Here is a selection from the last couple of weeks:

School holidays means the girls could have a friend over for a sleepover. Here they are in a completely candid, unposed shot, just delightful:

Here is the fallout from the sleepover the next day, just delightful:

I found a surprise in the veggie bin this week (Y does most of the fruit and veggie shopping): the world's largest tomato. It was twice the size of my palm and my photography skills were not up to the task of showcasing it:

It was a week of mutant edibles.  M. found this grape which I at first thought was a set of conjoined twins and then realised was actually conjoined quadruplet grapes. Again, the photo doesn't capture it, but it was huge and weird, believe me:

Rather full on at Greek school for the Greek national day recently:  the caption on this colouring exercise reads "Freedom or Death".

This week we had four days of rain.  This is how the dog spent most of it:

Cooler, rainy weather also makes Tia more cuddly:

Here is a drawing M. did of Scooby Doo. I found this on a bit of scrap paper and it was so good I got a shock:

And here is A's drawing of a dress-up party: love it:

During the sleepover I moved this lounge chair into the kitchen to make my own little loungeroom so I could watch TV as well. Harry was also pleased to take back "his" chair:

Here's my little personal loungeroom. Sweet ambience:

What did you get up to this week?

Sunday Selections #163

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad

    

A hodge-podge of photos today, most of them old, the first one new.

This was part of a farm drawing by A. done last week. I really liked the shape of this cow.

This one is a "keep calm and carry on" kind of quote that was stuck to my sister-in-law's fridge in Greece, which I really like. It's a little rhyme and it means, basically, "Be strong, hold your head high - good days will come again."  So apt for Greece at this time.

Another one from Greece. Here we are at Y's good friend's taverna in Afissos in the Pelion region of the mainland.  Our girls are sitting at the table, and Y's friend, Y and his brother are standing looking at...something? in the water.

Another rooftop photo from the carpark on my work building's roof. I've taken a lot of photos up here - not that I'm anything but a terrible photographer - because the shapes and reflections are so interesting.

My daughter M's keyring. So pretty, I covet it myself.

Tia, asleep on a chair outside.

Our fridge door. Time for a clean-up, perhaps?!

How was your week?

Sunday Selections #144: Homework Drawings

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. It's a way to showcase some of the photos we take, but don't get shown on our blogs. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad

    

This week I'm posting photos of the illustrations my kids do on their homework books.  I don't know how long their teachers will let them do this, but I love it.

This one M did today, underneath some facts about kookaburras she had to research and write herself.

These ones are from March this year - A's illustrations on a couple of pages of her Greek school homework:

Long-tailed Potoroo research done by A today:

Each week the kids get "DIPL" (literacy) homework that includes two written sentences using spelling rules covered in the week.  A. always illustrates hers:

This was a story M had to write recently, which she was very proud of. (It had to use certain words, which are the ones in colour):

Have I mentioned I love, love, love kids' drawings?

Leaf Art

Half the time we back the car out the driveway the kids follow a little ritual accompanied by hushed giggles whereby M tells A to wind down her window and grab a handful of leaves from the bushes and trees our car brushes past. I pretend not to notice, then when we come back home they quietly gather up the leaves they've harvested and then I tell them no leaves inside the house, and they either leave them in the car or toss them on the front lawn.

Mostly this is all to no further end, but sometimes the leaves are used in a game where they become money or fairy dust or counters or confetti, and sometimes I find them stashed in a cup or a bowl inside a cupboard for later play, or carefully piled on the table outside until the wind or the cat swats them away.

Today they were put to another use, with the help of some extra bits gathered from the backyard and some paper and sticky tape:

"Leaf Garden"

"Leaf Dog and Cat"

Hot or Not?

My 6-year-old drew these pictures recently. Should I be worried?

My initial reaction I admit, was to be a bit alarmed. I mean she's six. WTF??

I mulled over it for a day and then I asked her about them. She's always drawing and I'm always into her drawings so it was pretty natural for me to say "Oh, hey, new drawings! What's happening in these ones?"

The first one depicts her school friend V. and her "boyfriend" N., who is breaking up with her. The "boyfriend" is telling V. he is breaking up with her, and she is upset and hugging herself. 

"But V doesn't have a boyfriend," I said.

"Yes she does," said my daughter, "N is her boyfriend, he likes her and they're friends."

"Ah," I said. "So... what's this breaking up thing, did that really happen?"

"No," said my daughter, "it's just a story, mum."

"Ah," I said. "And what's the other drawing?"

"Well," said my daughter, smiling her embarassed smile, "that boy is a cool rock star and he's looking at this beautiful girl, and he likes her. Because she's all, you know, sexy and stuff."

Ohhhkaaaay...

Once I got over the surprise, I decided I was not too concerned, at least about the boyfriend/breaking up thing. Dating, romance, break-ups, marriage and kissing are in EVERY single show ever, as well as every song, every ad on TV, and every movie. Even the kids' stuff. It's incredible once you notice it - it's in everything. So the kids are seeing it all the time. 

The "hot" thing is a little dismaying, but one again, it's everywhere. I know my daughter doesn't see herself as "pretty" (even though others do). She sees her sister as "pretty" and herself as "cool". 

It doesn't matter how often (or not often - you can't overdo these things, it's a tightrope walk I tell you) I try to tell or show the girls they are many things, not just "pretty" or "cool", or that you can be both, or that you don't have to be either, or that people are sometimes one and sometimes the other and sometimes something else - she's not buying it. 

As it happens my little girl was having some social, confidence and anxiety issues that were becoming a real problem *, so I saw the student welfare officer at school and after talking through everything else I showed her the drawings. "I'm not really too concerned, and I don't want to read too much into these," I said apologetically, "but I wouldn't mind your thoughts. Do you think these are a worry?"

She thought not. She had a little chuckle over them and said this was my daughter's way of processing all the stuff she is seeing and hearing, and that yes, it was perfectly normal for Grade 1 kids to talk about boyfriends and girlfriends and boys and girls "liking" each other. 

In fact one reason I hadn't been too worried was I remember this happening when I was in Grade 1. Although I don't think it was quite so relentless back then... but I may be wrong. We don't truly remember our childhoods as they really were after all, do we?

There is a lot of concern these days about the "sexualisation" of children. It's an easy thing to buy into, but I'm not totally convinced. Children are, in fact, "sexual" in as much as they are human animals, and at this age they are discovering more and more about themselves, their bodies and how boys and girls relate to each other. And in matters of sex and relationships children/kids of all ages have always been ahead of where their parents want them to be.

What do you think? Are kids growing up too fast?

Are you concerned about the sexualisation of children?

Or are some people worrying about perfectly normal stuff?

* (She is fine now).