-Their turn, to build their toys.-

April 1, 2017 By {Alice} in Uncategorized Tags: activity, build it, children, DIY, handmade, light saber, Star wars, toys, woodwork 2 Comments

After so many years building, sewing, painting, carving, tinkling toys and games for my children, they now do it themselves! The rule under our roof is; -start with what you have-. Having enough bits of timber in the shed, my son (11) decided to cut out some lightsabers for himself, his sister and his friends! I let you imagine the number of sabre fight we had at our house, at the park, in the bush, at the beach… in only a few weeks.

I love to see him draw and cut the shapes and drilling for the ”light blade”. My suggestion of carving each handle and sanding them till it’s cylindrical didn’t have much success…so here it is, raw and already well used:

“May the force be with you.” 😉

Circus Party -Part 3-

March 30, 2015 By {Alice} in Decoration Tags: anniversaire, birthday, children, circus party, clown, DIY, fete, games, garden, home Leave a comment

For this last part of the Circus party posts, let’s play with some good old games:

“Le Chamboultou” (with some pompoms and goggle eyes):

chamboule tout

The spy cage:

spy cage

The photo booth (clowning around highly encouraged):

Photo booth

The Rings of Fire:

Rings of fire

Spinning some crayons on a potter’s wheel: (that was the biggest hit among the little guests!)

Color Spinning

And the Grand Final: Skate Boarding to go thought a bridge of cardboard boxes!…that was really fun!

circus skate And here is the very tired dad-clown at the end:

(Note to self: 1/-take a picture of the cake before eating it. 2/-packing away is the easy part – do not complain for messy rooms anymore.)

Enjoy your day, and thanks to Pinterest for a few ideas!

Circus Party -Part2-

March 17, 2015 By {Alice} in Decoration Tags: anniversaire, children, circus, cirque, decor, DIY, enfants, fete, party 1 Comment

Let’s play with a bit of decorations for the party:

Ballons de couleurs

Sign Circus Warning Clown cut out

Circus party

Animal Cirus deco

And next week, the lawn games will make the show!

Old Time Game: The Thaumatrope

January 16, 2015 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: a imprimer, activity, bricolage, children, DIY, enfants, illusion, jeux anciens, kangaroo, kangourou, old game, que faire, thaumatrope, to print 1 Comment

Thaumatrope Kangaroo

After reading a book about optical illusions, we made a Thaumatrope with a kangaroo wearing boots and a top hat. And who wants a bit of wikipedia to start the day? 😉

“A Thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in the 19th century. A disk with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to blend into one.”

If you want to make the same one, here is the PDF to print: (you will then need to attach a loop of string (40cm )to each side and twist them before pulling them appart.) Thaumatrope Paris-Bourke <- Click to see PDF I couldn’t make the video go faster to be able to see the illusion on screen, but you will get the idea:

– La cabane amovible – The renter’s cubby house –

January 2, 2015 By {Alice} in Chantournage/ScrollSawing Tags: activities, bois, bricolage, cabane, children, cubby house, DIY, drill, enfants, planche, rent with children 9 Comments

We had a few plank of timber in the shed sitting there waiting to be used. So we used the drill, the saw and sanded them to make material for a very special cubby house. You can built it in different shapes and pack it away for easy storage. If you want to make one, don’t use any timber (as us…) the better the material, the better looking and the more solid it will be. But don’t forget it has to be light for the children to build it themselves.

Avec des planches de pin qui traînaient dans le garage, nous avons scié, percé et poncé pour fabriquer une cabane amovible. Bon si vous souhaitez en faire une, utilisez un bois de qualité (pas comme nous…) mais n’oubliez pas d’en prendre un léger pour que les enfants construisent leur cabane eux-mêmes.
Hand Drilling

Work in progress:

cabane amovible

Building time:

cabane amovible

cabane amovible run Play time! Have a good day and a Very Good New Year!

Bonne Année 2015!

Le Jeu de l’Australie, The Map Game -Australia-

November 15, 2014 By {Alice} in Australia Tags: Australia, board game of australia, cadeau, children, cute, drawing, enfants, french, game made in Australia, gift, Jeu, jeu de l'oie australie, jouet, le jeu d'australie, le jeu de l'australie, map game, story of the map game, the map game, the map game australia, the original map game, video the map game, voice 8 Comments

That’s it, the game is in the shop! We made a little video with the children to show you what we have been working on:

A force d’y travailler le voici enfin dans la boutique!Nous avons fait une petite video, avec les enfants, pour vous le présenter:

The Map Game Australia.

So, do you think the children still have a french accent?

Alors, les enfants ont-ils toujours un petit accent français?

On your marks, set paper ball, fire!

August 8, 2014 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: activité, cannon, children, DIY, enfants, que faire, rubber band, shouter 2 Comments

La découverte du site internet -Royal Institution- nous inspire tellement sur les activités du moment, qu’il faut absolument qu’on partage ce lien: http://rigb.org/experimental/rubber-band-cannons

Nous avons fabriqué des cannons à élastiques très simple et parfait pour jouer au chamboule-tout.

We just discovered a great website from the Royal Institution of Great Britain. We’ve made their Rubber band cannons and had so much fun. Here is the link: http://rigb.org/experimental/rubber-band-cannons

-Puzzle Magnet-

June 21, 2014 By {Alice} in Decoration, Things and Tips for Children Tags: aimant, bois, children, DIY, lettres, Magnet, puzzle, What to do 1 Comment

Un petit project facile à faire avec les enfants: mettre des aimants derriere des puzzles, des cartes ou des lettres en bois. (il faut juste trouver des feuilles d’aimant souples et adhésives)

An easy project to do with the children: glue magnets behind puzzles or wooden letters.

De quoi décorer (ou cacher) le réfrigérateur…

Good to decorate (or hide) the fridge…;-)

Let it go.

May 28, 2014 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: children, enfant, graine, Helicopter seeds, paint 1 Comment

We are letting the last colours of Autumn go…

Nous laissons partir les dernières couleurs de l’automne…

Painted Helicopter Seeds, Landing Video:

Like Magic!

March 21, 2014 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: borax, children, colour, crisal, crystals, DIY, experience, experiment, infants 3 Comments

In our house, when you lose a baby tooth, the tiny french mouse (or tooth fairy) comes and a little crystal is left behind. Now that the collection is growing quite quickly, we decided to ”build”our own crystals! (thanks to my friend and the website Scope for the idea.)

Chez nous, quand la petite souris passe, elle laisse derrière elle une petite pierre semi-precieuse. Maintenant que la collection est déjà bien grande, nous avons décidé de “fabriquer” nos propres cristaux! (Merci à mon amie et au site web Scope pour la bonne idée.)

You will need: Hot Water, Borax, Pipe Cleaners, 1 plastic container, 1 wooden spoon and some string. (and 24h of patience.)

Vous avez besoin de: Borax, Eau chaude, 1 pot en plastique, 1 cuillère en bois et de la ficelle.(et 24h de patience.)

-Une tasse d’eau pour 3 cuillères à soupe de Borax-

-One cup of water for 3 large spoons of Borax-

Laisser suspendre les formes de chenille dans la solution et attendre le lendemain.

Let the pipe cleaner hang in the liquid and wait for tomorrow.

Et voilà!

Tadaam!

-All I want is Pizza-

February 11, 2014 By {Alice} in Couture/Sewing, Things and Tips for Children Tags: children, felt, feutrine, infant, pizza, play 2 Comments

Pizza: This is what my daughter wants to make for dinner every single night…well, let me tell you, she is disappointed most of the time. (6 days out of 7 more exactly.) It took me a long time to find a solution to her frustration, but one day I opened my scrap of felt box and gave it to her with just one sentence:”maybe you can make a pizza for your doll with that?” Off she went in her bedroom while I could cook something else.

30 minutes later, here is what she made: a pizza Margarita with ham, cheese, thyme, sesame seeds and mozzarella. It looked as beautiful as her smile!

Pizza:Voici le menu que ma fille veut cuisiner chaque soir…laissez moi vous dire qu’elle est déçue la plupart du temps. J’ai mis du temps a trouver une solution à sa frustration: l’autre jour j’ai ouvert ma boite à coupons de feutrine, le lui ai donné en lui proposant de fabriquer une pizza pour sa poupée pendant la préparation du dîner.

Une demi-heure plus tard, voici le résultat: une pizza Margarita avec du jambon, du fromage, du thym, des graines de sésame et de la mozzarelle. C’était aussi beau que son sourire!

from this:

to this:

Now we have a lot of felted sesame seed and thyme around the house but hey that’s worth it!

Bon la vérité c’est que nous avons plein de graines de sésame e de thym en feutrine un peu partout dans la maison mais bon, ça vaut le coup!

-With them or not with them ?-

January 19, 2014 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: busy, children, cooking 3 Comments

The other day, a lady at the park was complaining about the holidays and how she found it difficult to entertain her children, asking about ideas. Well, you know, I might have one or two activities for you, but the best for us is to do the thing that we want and let the children join in, and yes, it will get messy. But even with the cleaning, they will help! Yes, it will take you about 2 hours to make that tart, but you wanted to keep them busy no? 😉

Mes chères lectrices francophones, voulez-vous que je continue à traduire en français ?

But last night, while the children were asleep, I made a cake…alone…. just by myself…without helpers around….without questions to answer…just with my music, calm and absolutely no flour or sugar on the floor! Oh that was so fast! Dear Sanity, I love you!

-The Pink and Red this time-

November 11, 2013 By {Alice} in Couture/Sewing, Things and Tips for Children Tags: ailes, children, couture, deguisement, dress up, felt, feutrine, infants, pink, Red, rose, rouge, sewing, wings 1 Comment

Maintenant mes deux enfants peuvent s’envoler en même temps, avec cette paire d’ailes rose et rouge.

Now my children will be able to fly at the same time with those pink and red wings.

I need to replace my camera and I will show you both of them at the same time, maybe flying over the ocean.;-)

-Let’s them fly-

August 1, 2013 By {Alice} in Couture/Sewing, Things and Tips for Children Tags: bird, children, DIY, felt, sewing, wings, yellow 5 Comments

Hello world, I know this blog has been on a slow motion mode for quite a while, but I have a big project going on and I am trying to enjoy every step of it!

It does not mean that I am not doing anything else…the sewing machine has still been running a long way every month. And because my children love the idea of flying on their own around the world, I needed to help them build their wings.

Materials: Felt, fabric, ribbon, sewing material, a good pair of scissors and a lot of patience!

Labyrinthe

March 14, 2013 By {Alice} in Things and Tips for Children Tags: children, inside, labyrinthe, play, things to do 4 Comments

When it’s too hot to go outside and to early to go to the beach why not try to lost the children in a labyrinthe made with Kapla or Pencils ? Who knows, you may have some time for yourself while they are stuck…;-)