Let's explore outer space!

Geekling has been loving stars and the moon for a while now, so I put up some of those old style Glow-Zone glow in the dark star stickers and a set of planets in his room.  I bought them second hand (but in unopened packets) ages ago and had planned to wait til Geekling was older and we could plot out constellations together, but I just felt in my heart it was suddenly the right time - and I'm so glad I put them up!  Geekling is enthralled by them!  I made sure to put the solar system up in the right order and put up a few of my favourite constellations so we will hopefully have fun finding them a few years down the track.

Since the stickers went up he's requested "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a lullaby book of his talking about catching stars, so I think I'll nip down to the library in my lunch break tomorrow and borrow some kids books featuring stories about space and maybe a couple of simple reference books.

So the next question is - what other space-themed activities should I gather up to feed my son's new obsession?

Counting Coconuts did a whole month's theme on it and have some amazing ideas - matching planets, a space sensory box, practical life activities pouring star-shaped pasta and sweeping star sequins, counting with star stickers, punching stars with a small punch... a fantastic resource!

Fairy Dust Teaching has a gorgeous looking Galaxy Playdoh - I must hunt down some black food colouring to make some!

First Schools has some printables and activities in a space theme.

Now... is it too soon to introduce him to Star Wars & Star Trek?

Stay tuned for our space adventures!

Insta-snow sensory tub

Geekling has never seen snow, having lived only in the tropics.  I've only seen it on the ground when we travelled to Russia in Winter, it was hard and dirty.  I've still yet to see fresh snow falling.

This was such a fun tub, although very messy!  Next time we play with it, we'll set it up outside I think.  I am hoping to let the insta-snow dry out and reuse it, next time with ice cold water, and perhaps coloured water.

Excuse the poor lighting.

Free family day out - Southbank

A couple of weeks ago during the Brisbane Festival we took a lovely family trip to the city and South Bank.  Aside from dinner, all our activities were free!

We parked at my work in the CBD and walked over the Victoria Bridge to South Bank.

... where visited the museum...

 The touch parts had seen better days but Geekling still loved them

One Cute-a-sauras and Daddy-rex

Geekling loved the ocean room, and the taxidermied animals.  There was a possum at the enquiries counter that the attendant even took out of the perspex box to let him pet until he tried to pull its tail!  He declared it was a "cat" and was thoroughly delighted to touch it.

We then had another look at the Liquid Interactive Light Scope, before taking a Citycat back over the river.

We went to dinner at Little Singapore, where Geekling enjoyed eating noodles from chopsticks and more or less inhaled my roti.

Then it was back over the river to South Bank for gelato followed by the Santos City of Lights show.  Geekling was absolutely enthralled at the start of the light show but had lost interest by the end.

Sadly, the Liquid Interactive Light Scope and Santos Light Show are both over (I just hadn't gotten around to posting this earlier as I had to find my camera cable to upload the photos), but I am sure there will be another festival or cultural celebration soon that we can make a day or an evening of.

Water Beads

After being inspired by Play At Home Mom, I purchased a heap of these cool water beads on ebay.  They are made of non-toxic polymer gel and start off a little smaller than mustard seeds but when immersed in water will swell to the size of large marbles.  They feel jelly like and last forever - if they start to shrink I just immerse them in some more water for a couple of hours.

Showing various stages of growth/absorption

Water bead sensory tub and sorting into ice mould 

Water beads in the bath - trying to 'catch' them with slotted spoons and a seive

On our recent trip to our local market I saw many stalls selling these water beads for a couple of dollars a packet (which makes about 1 cup of beads) - I bought ours for $2 for 10 packs including postage, and they're the same brand!

I am saving the packs of clear beads to do an upcoming experiment by colouring the water they grow in to see if they take on the colour.

Brisbane Festival Liquid Interactive Light Scope Tunnel

As part of the Brisbane Festival running at the moment, a psychadelic liquid interactive light scope tunnel has been set up at South Bank near the Cultural Centre and QPAC.  It uses a number of xbox Kinect devices, mirrored roof and floor and is rather like being inside a kalidescope!  Geekling and his friend Lumpy visited recently during a play-date at South Bank and absolutely loved it!

Special thank you to Lumpy's mum for allowing me to use her photographs - they are a refreshing change from the phone camera photos I usually post!

Its free to visit but if you want to catch it you had better hurry - its last day is this Sunday 24 September 2011!  It is open from 9am - 9:30pm.

Update: Lumpy's mum has started her own blog - visit her at http://mylumpydays.blogspot.com/ for fun and frugal toddler activities

Queensland Science Centre

Yesterday Hubby and I took Geekling to the Queensland Science Centre at Southbank.  We thought perhaps it would be a bit too old/advanced for him, but I think you're never too young to start visiting museums and while there were a few things that held little interest for Geekling, and obviously he's too young to grasp the science behind the exhibits, he truly enjoyed the trip and there was plenty he could play with.

We've taken lots of photos, but due to the nature of many of the exhibits being in motion and the photos being taken on a phone, they're not wonderful quality.  But enjoy!

Geekling loved the spinning chair.  Its probably against all the parenting rules ever written, but I spin him around like this in the glider in his nursery sometimes, he thinks its the best :)

Geekling riding the noisy suction device!

A pulley exhibit to lift an 80kg fridge.  Hubby would lift it from another pulley when Geekling would reach for the rope, but I just couldn't capture a photo showing it.

Geekling's absolute favourite - a fan that blows to suspend a beach ball in the air.  He threw a bit of a tanty when we finally moved on!  I'd have let him play for hours but there were other children waiting by then!

He loved the taxidermied birds and bugs (like his Mumma loved as a kid).  Some were set up on a perch, but a few were displayed belly up which I found quite creepy.

Geekling found a friend in the infinity mirror.  It was probably his second favourite after the balloon and took a lot of convincing to get him to move on!

He was so excited to see this table of wooden blocks and loved wrecking the gorgeous pictures the previous visitors had made.  He also kept trying to put them in his mouth so Mumma has made a mental note that things this small are still a no-no.

Geekling *LOVED* Mumma lifting him to peek out of the hole in the box.  He's a bit little to get his head clear out though.

 And lastly:  the result of so much stimulation on the way home :)