Do your kids complain enough?

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This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post looks at the way children’s sense of outrage is shaped  For more info about parenting see my book Homemade Kids, or for my website click here.

My wellies don’t fit, I’m hungry, are we nearly there yet? These are all complaints that slightly drive me insane. Sometimes whoever says it has a good point – sometimes their timing is terrible. But this time my daughter Nell, 11, has found a new outlet for injustice – the makers of Walkers cheese and onion crisps.

Let me explain
We went to a friend’s orchard in Kent to help prune the pear trees (see pix above). It was a lovely Sunday trip – the children got to play in the woods and around the camp fire. Everyone else got to play with secateurs and pruning saws. About 6pm we packed up and headed to the train station.

As a treat Nell was allowed to go and buy anything she wanted. This is a big deal for her as she only gets £1 – £2 to spend a week (which she doesn’t always spend, and also I’m not very consistent about offering this sum as pocket money, it’s often just forgotten).  She was first tearful, then enranged to discover her crips weren’t what she’d expected…

I’ll leave the story to her now – as written to the Consumers Service Department of Walkers Snack Foods on the train back home.

Dear Walkers snack foods

Today I bought a grab bag cheese and onion packet of crisps. When I first opened the packed, a smell of plain crisps wafted around my nostrils; I was disgusted. In total only 3 of the crisps were really cheese and onion flavour. This meant that the ingredients were wrong, what would happen if I was allergic to plain crisps? I was incredibly hungry and was looking forward to my cheese and onion crisps, when they were opened I was deeply disappointed to find it was not my favourite flavour. I bought them in mini mart, Marden, Kent.

I would like a new packet in return , or my money back (if you feel very sorry perhaps twice the amount – the bag was 65p!).

Best wishes, Nell (aged 11)

PS I have sent the packet to prove I am not cheating you.

Over to you
What do you think Walkers will do when they get this letter – send her a replacement packet, or a voucher? Or simply ignore it? I love the way Nell feels consumers should have rights. She only wrote the letter because we explained it would be hard to sue!

Win a weeney prize

Win a prize by sharing your views on washing babies and little kids' hair.

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is about what you think about washing little children’s hair – yes or no?  For more info about parenting see my book Homemade Kids, or for my website click here.

Weleda is a fascinating company – providing organic lotions and potions with an ethical story. Would you like to win a PRIZE – a tiny tester tube of Calendula shampoo and body wash? It’s the ideal size for a mini-break (and the school holidays are coming up again…). I’ll post the prize to you  (here’s hoping you live in the UK) if you can share your thoughts about washing children’s hair on the comment form below (don’t forget to make sure I can contact you via email or your blog).

Tonight’s the night
So, do you do it, or not? I figure as babies and little children (under 10s?) don’t sweat there is no reason  – unless they have rubbed food (or worse!) into their hair or have head lice. And if it is head lice you are going to have to brace yourself for days of combing with a fine-toothed comb through a cloud of lather in a bid to interrupt these pesky insects’ life cycle.

I remember hating hair washing when I was little – there were always tears when soap went into my eyes – and I noticed my first baby hated it too, so I just gave up. The result has been fascinating. A lot less time spent soaping and rinsing, perfectly clean hair (more often than not on a protesting child), plus less need for chemical mix nasties in the bathroom.

Over to you
Write a comment so you have a chance to win the little prize – it’s a Weleda potion suitable for babes, so sure to be even more lovely for grown up skin. Deadline 1 March 2012 (end of day).

Reduce, reuse, repair…easy or not?

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is about tackling the 5Rs – reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, refuse. For more info about parenting see my book Homemade Kids, or for my website click here.

No need to feel sorry for me – and the pic is of Nell dressed up as Jessie J by reusing sticky beads that fell off the kitchen lamp shade – but I’ve had a cold over the past few days. For some reason feeling unwell has coincided with a strong desire to repair everything that’s broken in the house.

The opposite of nesting perhaps?

Mending can be expensive, but some things feel worth spending money (or taking time to deal with) to have them back in working order. Especially tried and tested favourite things, and my kids slightly raggedy, but not yet outgrown clothes.

Inspiring repair to a rake seen at Tetepare, in Solomon Islands. I want to teach my kids to mend stuff as well as this.

10 attempts at repair and reuse over the past few days

1. REPAIR My 10 year old Dubarry riding/welly boots that would cost £300 to replace. I’m not stupid, there are lots of cheaper look-a-likes on the net, but discovered Dubarry could repair these boots for a total of £60 (including postage two-ways). So they’re mended and I avoided the need to purchase another pair of £100 plus riding boots (in my defence – teaching riding is one of my jobs!).
2. REPAIR The Windsor chair I found in a skip back in the 1980s suffered a little break. It’s not mendable with glue. Luckily there’s Dominic at Bennet and Brown nearby who specialises in mending chairs. He reckoned this would be £25. I’m very forgiving of the cost as this is the perfect chair for sharing with the dog – we sit together by the window in the morning (me with coffee) while everyone else in the house wakes up.
3. REUSE Two tetra-pak juice cartons were washed out and turned into purses. Cost: £0. They will make nice gifts for someone…
4. REPAIR My carboot sale fake Uggs, found by Nell, have detached from their sole. Copydex costs £4.55 and not only repaired them, but also repaired…
5. REPAIR The Ikea cultery drawer divider that I found in the street – presumably because it was warped and so all the cutlery swarms under the dividers and muddles up. With some bits of dowling/wood and the copydex I think I’ve sorted it out.
6. REPAIR I met my husband, Pete, in 1643. That’s his joke, but I made a vast cushion for him one Christmas. Unfortunately when the dog was a puppy he attacked it. This week I finally mended the cushion and put it back on the chair it belongs to. Cost £0 as there were plenty of red scraps in the bit bag.
7. REPAIR Nell’s school trousers had to be patched. Technically the school disproves of this practice, but cross-fingers they (and her friends) won’t notice a minor uniform transgression.
8. REPAIR Two pairs of Lola’s school tights needed darns.
9. REPAIR One coat, one hand towel and a fleece all needed hooks to make it easier to hang them up after use.
10. REUSE Lots of Nell’s toys were put in the attic around Christmas time because we had guests. Two months on Nell wants her doll’s house (bought in a secondhand shop three years ago) back for a giant play session. Hiding toys is the best win-win; they’re out of the way (so easy to pass on or pack up) or if they are requested get another big burst of use.

Over to you
Out of this list, what would you have recommended me to bin (or compost, whatever) rather than repair? Or better still, what things do you always repair, and what criteria do you use to know something has to go into the recycling bin?

Half-term: for relaxing or revising?

Trampoline party over, next excitement is half-term...

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is about what to do at half-term. Tune out or brain up? For more info about parenting see my book Homemade Kids, or for my website click here.

Half-term may mean less morning panic this week, but I’m still shocked by the amount of work my primary school aged daughter Nell, just 11, has come back home with. Teachers say she must revise for SATS (a test I’d wrongly assumed was a snapshot of progress). I reckon she will need to do an hour of study each day to get through her task list. But there are also 20 plus thank you letters to write from her birthday, and a bit of music practice (that’s another half an hour if she is willing to work on piano and cello). And time made for reading.

Imagine what the pressure must be for those students running into GCSEs, AS or A levels? Perhaps it’s no wonder that so many of the university Year 1 and Year 2 students I teach need stress counselling (and not because of me!). They’ve been in a pressure-cooker environment for too long to take.

Work harder?
Given Nell’s age this has to be about the last chance she’ll get to play with toys, but there’s no sympathy. It seems that school demons are pushing for her to be educationally hot housed. Worse for mums like me, it gives Nell little time to get competent at the sort of life-useful skills that also need to be learnt – opening things, sewing, dealing with animals, cooking well seasonal items (eg, brussel sprout tops, beetroot chocolate cake, acorn pate?), balancing or even running around outside in the frost and snow.

Over to you
What do you think: if you are in charge of a child should half term be for relaxing or revising? And it’s no good saying a bit of both because I’m not sure that the two function well together.

5 ideas for party bags please!

How about a lucky feather as your party bag gift? Yes? No?

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is asking for party bag tips. For more info about gifts – giving and receiving – see my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

Looking at yesterday’s Evening Standard I noticed a photo of Gwyneth Paltrow walking out of an event with a goody bag. It made me think again about the sketchy plans for Nell’s big 11 birthday.

I’ve got a good track record of making interesting and good value party bags. But this weekend’s birthday is making me nervous: the other children will by now have expectations of originality or largesse. Actually, they probably won’t but that’s how the birthday child’s mum often feels. And then ends up swooping around the aisles spending more than they’d ever planned.

 

 

So here are five ideas that may be put to the test on Sunday:

1. It’s a trampoline party – organised to ensure the kids all get a go at doing something fun, that’s sporty and is almost a skill – so surely leaving with memories, and maybe a photo of them in action. Plus a gummy snake or two (on special at a supermarket, but chosen because they will remind Nell of her 2011 antipodean travels).
2. I’ve got enough paper bags stored up that can be emblazoned with the guest children’s name and then filled with spring bulbs. Lovely, but pricey.
3. Organise a huge bunch of sweet-smelling narcissi and then divide between the guests. Brilliant if I’m still not sure who is coming. The only hitch is that I like to buy British grown flowers and I’ve left it a bit late this year.
4. Go to a second hand book shop, or charity shop, and scoop up all the books I recognise that Nell has read and enjoyed – and then give each guest a goodbye gift of a recommended read. I love this idea, but fear that in my bit of London the books will be around £1 each. You could say it is going for a good cause, but with 16 children that’s out of my party bag budget.
5. Thinking it through like this is working well! I’m going to put their name on a paper bag (easy to do for latecomers at the party) and then divide out the gummy snakes and add a fairy cake to enjoy on the way home. Sorted. Now, where’s the Domestic Goddess recipe book?

Over to you
Any ideas for simple, quick, fun party bags that everyone will enjoy? Remember to spell out what age you think it works for.

Is a birthday present necessary?

Here's a fairy-sized pipe or bubble blower - perhaps not the right gift for a soon-to-be 11 year old?

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is a plea for help – do I really have to buy a birthday present for a child who inherits her big sister’s everything, and doesn’t even know what she wants for her 11th birthday? For more info about gifts – giving and receiving – see my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

I know, this post’s title “is a birthday present necessary” sounds a cruel question, but my 10 year old, Nell, isn’t sure what she wants for her fast approaching 11th birthday. My feeling is that this will be the last birthday she has when she isn’t clamouring for things – and we should take advantage of that.  After all, the moment a child goes to secondary school there’s a sudden leap in acquisitiveness. Next birthday I’m certain that she’ll be wanting a particular type of shoe, outfit or gadget.

Her dad thinks we should get Nell something. I’m not so sure.

Our sitting room is full of toys, many bought at car boot sales, or given to her. And she still plays with them, just. Although Nell’s current favourite is a round slice from a Christmas tree base, found in the road where it had been put out for the dustman. I rescued it for the log burner, but Nell reckons it makes a perfect theatre for her collection of plastic toy dogs. That’s creative, often buying toys seems to stop the creativity.

As ever with children, it’s not always toys that they want. It’s just that us adults often fail to understand this. We buy, because we know how to do it.

Interestingly the Frugal Dad blog in the US published a piece on the strange rise in toy buying. And it’s all thanks to the economic recession… it makes us spoil our kids with new toys. Here is the post.

Back to the dilemma: the choices are darts board (why???), pogo stick (hard to use) or more Sylvanians (this girl has enough). I’m tempted to give her riding lessons (her Christmas present), or another skill developer (like skating lessons), but first have to battle with dad Pete about what he thinks is appropriate. He’s big on unwrapping... To be honest, Nell is too.

Over to you
What would you do? Get a gift or wrap up a chocolate bar knowing there’s some money saved up for when the birthday girl really needs something (rather than has a seasonal want).

How do you know when it’s spring?

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post asks how do you know when it’s spring… For more info about my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

On 12 January 2012 one of our family’s three pet hens laid the first egg of the year. The hens have been looking gorgeous for the past week – gleaming feathers, red combs, plump bodies – and now they’ve done what they are supposed to do. This blue egg (on the crumby plate) is from one of our two Aracuana hens (a Chilean breed). I love the way it has a lumpy, non oval shell. It amazes me how eggs for sale in shops look so perfect. Cross fingers another is laid soon, because it’s a sure sign at Mayhem Corner that it is nearly the end of winter.

I reckon it’s on the way to spring when:

• I’m used to being cold so know where all my woollies are located and my bike lights are all working
• Christmas is over (duh!)
• The hens are laying again
• There’s a hedgehog early end of hibernation story on Radio 4 (see more here)
• It’s daylight when I get up (not yet then on 18 Jan)
• I’ve seen snowdrops on the walk to school (tick)

A slight aside
As you can see from the pix Pete has moved into the pond. Joking! A truly happy spring would see him get his shed back. We replaced the shed with a chicken house a few years back much to his irritation. He used to hide in it during any too-noisy breakfasts, or for a secret beer. Indeed his whole life would be improved by a shed, but he claims that the water feature is a reasonably good substitute…

Over to you – what makes you and the kids think it is nearly spring?

Can kids look after pets well?

Terriers are like oven-warmed cushions or hot water bottles.

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is all about kids and animals with an extra focus on children with special needs… For more info about my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

Baby it’s cold outside
My favourite joke is from an ancient copy of Country Life I read waiting for the dentist, a long time ago. It depicts a posh tweedy woman looking at her guest room and saying “It’s so cold I put another dog on the bed.” As you can see from the photo, my dog Vulcan – with his friend Daisy – understand their role as eiderdowns and were quick to cuddle up to me on the sofa. Just like holding a new born it is hard – pointless even – to move when a terrier insists that they will be your hot water bottle. I think the Country Life cartoonist may have it spot on as the Royal Household’s website seems to have more info about the Queen and dogs, than anything else. Turns out she has a dog with the same name as our dog, Vulcan. To think that I thought Pete was naming the dog after Mr Spock in Star Trek, but it turns out he’s a closet Royalist. Here are the details:

“For her eighteenth birthday, The Queen was given a Corgi named Susan from whom numerous successive dogs were bred. Some Corgis were mated with dachsunds (most notably Pipkin, who belonged to Princess Margaret) to create ‘Dorgis’.

At present, The Queen owns three Corgis: Monty, Willow and Holly and three Dorgis: Cider, Candy and Vulcan.”

A dog may not be for Christmas, but clearly they can be for birthdays or because your home has a dog-shaped hole in it.

What dog to get
Dogs are also a top choice for children with special needs. The families I know who have got a dog often decided to do so because their child was frightened by dogs. In each case bringing a dog home has been a huge success, although it’s mum or dad who’s had to do the looking after. And with a dog this doesn’t just mean cuddling on the sofa or walkies. There’s also flea checking, grooming, and teeth cleaning! It’s a lot of extra work, some of which you wouldn’t want any child to do (eg, poo-picking).

Alex, mum of two children and two labradors (let’s hope she forgives me for calling her “bitch”) has this to say about introducing a dog into your family -

“We had been thinking about getting a dog for a while but the issues of what to do with the dog when we wanted to go on holiday kept putting us off. Dariusz, now 14, was pretty dog phobic and we were worried how he might adapt to having a dog at home.

My husband Mark was adamant that he did not want to get “a Paris Hilton dog’ ie a small bijou one. A big dog was not an option (no space at home!)  so we were thinking of a spaniel type dog. Always a pup rather than a rescue dog ,as a pup would come to us with no history and rescue dogs do come with issues. So after my mum’s funeral we had a week in Dorset and then on the way back to London we stopped off at a friend’s house in Somerset. I was looking in the pet section of the Blackmore Vale mag and rang the second advert which was for lab pups as they were only 10 mins drive away. We went to have a look at the only pup (Lucy) that was left for sale and the rest is history as they say.

We did not conciously set out to get a lab we just loved Lucy when we saw her. We also met Lucy’s mum and saw that she was a nice calm friendly dog. Lucy is quite small for a lab as she is from a working strain and these tend to be leaner and not so broad and squat as regular labs.

So the choice of breed was determined by size and temperament. Labs have got a good reputation as family dogs so that was reassuring for us to know that she would get along with Dariusz. When Lucy arrived she was 8 weeks old and Dariusz was absolutely fine with her. He had met her before we got her so he knew that she was coming and he was very excited. There was lots of biting and scratching as there is with new pups but the memory of this soon goes once the pup grows out of these habits.

Dariusz is very interested in Lucy’s social life ie the dogs she meets in our local park. We are lucky as there is a real dog walking community and dog walkers are on the whole very friendly and we tend to walk around in 2′s or 3s so there are packs of dogs and dog owners walking around together. We have made friends with other dog owners particularly one family with a dog similar in age to Lucy.

Having  dogs has been very beneficial to Dariusz. He loves stroking and cuddling our two dogs (we have a younger black Labrador now too) although he cannot cope with scooping up the dog mess. He loves going out with them and seeing them play with other dogs. So far we have not had any bad experiences with nasty dogs attacking our dogs but I guess that could always happen.

I would advise families thinking about getting a dog to think very carefully about the breed and their own circumstances. There are breeds that do not need much exercise like miniature Schnauzers, spaniels are quite nervy and springers especially need a lot of exercise. Always go and see the dog and the mum if getting a pup.

I cannot think of any special advice for families that have got special needs kids other than what you would normally think about when deciding whether or not to get a dog. There is a dog show in November at Earls Court which is a good place to go to if you are thinking about getting a dog but are unsure what breed to go for.They have lots of breeds on display and owners are on hand to give you the pros and cons of each breed.

There is also www.dogsforthedisabled.com which is worth looking at.

Pigs in blankets
I’ve been following a fabulous blog called Beneath the Rowan Tree. The American writer, and craft guru, has just brought two guinea pigs into her home “for the children”. Curiously she’s using cut-to-fit fleece for her guinea pigs bedding. I think you shake off the poos (into the compost) and then hand or machine wash the fleece (just like a cloth nappy) when the wee-smell builds up. Maybe every week, perhaps more often. If you are interested have a look here.

Riding for the disabled
If you’ve got children embarking on the Duke of Edinburgh award, they have to do a stint of volunteering. One idea for pet lovers might be to give Riding for the Disabled a go. It’s meant to be especially good if you already like horses and know how to handle them – there’s usually enough people to support the child, not so many to be good leaders. If you go to this website and tap in your postcode loads of groups spring up. Considering I live in central London it’s amazing to know there are 15 groups within reach (by tube).

Over to you
I know animals are expensive, often caged, definitely smelly and sometimes gross (my dog really can be). But they are also lovely to have around, apparently reduce stress and can give children practical caring skills. What’s not to like?

Should kids send thank you notes?

Every one is a thank you note for an xmas present.

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post is all about thank you notes… For more info about my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

Stuff all the worries Michael Gove gives us about synthetic phonics and THAT test when the poor little mites are six years old. I want to know if my children are being turned into 19th century dinosaurs by forcing them to write thank you letters for things I’d often wish they hadn’t had (that make up kit!) or hadn’t done (a sleepover which didn’t include any sleep). The reasoning dates back a long way…

About 10am one damp Christmas Eve (back in the ’70s) my Granny, by then in her early 60s, rang up my dad to say how disappointed she was with his family’s manners. After a brief chat it turned out that she’d posted our Christmas presents from the local Suffolk post office, but not one of his three children had sent a thank you letter yet!  It was hard to convince her that we hadn’t actually opened her presents.

Perhaps letter writing is a family obsession? My own mum recently wrote me a six-sided letter of which half was telling me off (unfairly I think, but there you go!). The point is that ever since my children were small I’ve encouraged them to send thank you notes for any gifts they are sent. When they were younger this was a picture or a scrawl – now it’s meant to be a letter that makes it on to the second side. But writing letters is a dying art. Lola,13, is a swift texter though. Often my requests are met by a nano-second reply that says “k”, obviously meaning OK I’ll do that. It saves us all a lot of worry, and time.

It’s for Mr Manners
I also try and insist my children send thank you notes if they do an overnight stay.  It’s not just that old habits die hard, but also because it seems like a good opportunity to get them writing at home on something other than SMS or Facebook. But it is rare that their city-living friends do the same - and no surprise in this crazy time-stressed world which would simply pile more pressure on their mums and dads.

Make it easy
Re-use is meant to be better than recycling, so our thank you letters are often on a well-enjoyed card. You can get post-card and xmas/birthday card self-adhesive (or just use a glue stick) sheets. I order envelope re-use labels from Friends of the Earth shop at £2.50 for 100, see here. Nell, 10, would rather draw an individual comic strip for everyone, but it takes so much time that I meanly discourage her. I do wonder though if the people getting notes from Lola and Nell on pre-used cards, in re-used envelopes do sometimes wonder if our family isn’t just eccentric, it’s also rather mean. I hope not.

Now, got to go. Guess what’s on my to do list? Yes, thank you notes.

Over to you
Do you get your children to send thank you notes for gifts and sleepovers? Do you think this is a bit outdated? Or a good habit to retain?

The one about kids and gadgets…

3 oldie parents plus a 17yo, 13yo, 12yo, 10yo, three dogs and a pony go wild in the countryside...

This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. This post hopes to give us all a happy new year – once we’ve sorted out how much time the kids can spend on their new gadgets… For more info about my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.

• In Homemade Kids there are loads of ideas and options looking at all sorts of ways to bring up children in a thrifty, and creative ways. But there are two assumptions about child-care:
• One is that by loving our kids (and looking out for all children, in the sense that every child matters) things will be OK (pretty much whatever we do).
• Two is that being outside – or having access and the clothing/skills to go outside – is vital for children. And their parents and carers.

Give them what they want
After Christmas – and the New Year sales – many readers of this blog will have seen new gadgets arriving into their homes. In the past few days I’ve already met a five-year-old boy who got a Wii (apparently all his friends had one!) and a 16-year-old who used his xmas money to buy  a reconditioned DS. Another eco-writer admitted she couldn’t do any green interviews for radio at the end of 2011 because she’d “succumbed to a Wii”… (again for a boy).

Tainted gifts
Why is it that parents of boys are so keen to give them gadgets? Or for that matter why were both my daughters given make-up by adult relatives? I feel if a child wants something then they should save up or borrow or have a taster over at a friend’s house. I am mystified (and angered if I’m honest) by grown-ups pushing unnecessary, not always age appropriate gadgets and lipsticks on to children. Mind you I’m a grouch and also hated people saying to my baby, “Oh what lovely blue eyes you have, you’ll be a heart breaker someday!” or – even worse – to my pre-schooler “Do you have a boyfriend yet?”

Rationing on the battlefield
Back to gadgets. Even if you haven’t thought about it yet, you will soon probably be thinking about how much time children (and teens) should be spending inside on little square boxes. The Wii, the Nintendo, the laptop, the notebook, the kindle, the smart phone, the TV… My 13-year-old Lola adores catch-up TV for Miranda, Merlin, The Big Bang and Friends – and she has literally years of catch-up to watch all these series. Nell, 10, is a fan of BuildaBear as well as Horrible Histories, Deadly 60 and, bizarrely, Escape to the Country. She’s even recently suggested she’d like to be an estate agent when she grows up…

Although we have some gadgets in our house (ie, no Wii, no Nintendo and I’d be loathe to have them too), modern life ensures there are plenty of opportunities for the girls to be goggle-eyed screen watchers rather than say read a book, get absorbed in a creative project or go outside.

Same problems down under
As I’m writing this in the worst weather – violently windy and wet – on the last day of Lola’s winter school holidays I thought you might enjoy finding out how an ecologist in Australia tries to use logic and adventure to tempt kids outside. It’s a good read – not least because you get to see pix of giant salamander survey hunting and duck-billed platypuses in the creek. Enjoy her piece about “Off the couch and out the door” here. Not surprisingly the American writer Richard Louv is quoted too. Louv’s the author of the best-seller Last Child in the Woods, and his more recent book – for adults – is The Nature Principle, again about solutions to nature-defecit disorder.

Over to you
Do you have limits for how long your kids can enjoy TV or screen games, or is it an all-you-want diet? And more to the point – what’s fun to do when the weather is really awful and you don’t live in Oz?