Life with Littles
Exclusive: Reading Readiness Activity for Kids
- November 27, 2017
We love to read in our house and since long before my kids were old enough to understand what I was reading them, books were a big part of their lives. Now my nearly-five-year-old has started showing an interest in reading for herself and loves letters, the challenge of letter formation and the sounds of words. As a first-time school mum – and self-confessed book nerd – it has been a total thrill to get her little workbooks home from school this term, and to sit down with her and go through what she’s been learning in the day.
I’ve heard...
These Days
- November 21, 2017
These are the days. The days of young motherhood.
They are days ruled by fatigue; when “tired” is a sliding scale rather than an occasional visitor. Days we forget to look in the mirror before we leave the house and can’t remember where we put the car keys or the iphone or our sunglasses or our sanity.
These are days of uneaten peanut butter sandwiches and rejected veggie pasta bake and of the guilty 6pm dash to the drive-thru for chicken nuggets because you can’t remember the last time they ate Actual Food.
These are days of falling asleep on the couch watching...
To My Littlest: I’m Sorry I Don’t Love Your Baby Music Class
- November 14, 2017
To my darling second born,
Every Thursday, in the yawning gap between our morning walk and nap time, we pack up your snacks and I bundle you into the car, and off we go to our local mummy and baby music class. We sit in the circle and clap our hands and sing all the songs and you dance under the parachute and pack up all the balls, and you love every moment of it. But, my sweet girl, this is my guilty secret: I do not.
I love that you love it. I love your face as the Grand Old Duke...
Slaying the Thief of Joy
- October 27, 2017
Is there anything more true than the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy”?
Having just written them down, I’m going to read those words again. Slowly.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Call it what you will. Comparison. Competition. Envy. Jealousy. The green-eyed monster. It steals. It takes away joy. It saps happiness. It lessens satisfaction. And yet, comparison is a tool we all use, every day, in every aspect of our lives, whether consciously or not. Is there a more natural instinct than to compare ourselves to others?
I wonder if the tendency to compare has become magnified with all the technology...
Less is More
- September 26, 2017
Do you ever feel the urge to purge?
I do. Every few months. And while we were sorting our house out before Hurricane Irma this month, I realised how much stuff we’ve accumulated in just a year.
Anyone who has experienced a hurricane or similar act of nature’s wrath will tell you how it throws into perfect clarity the things that are most important to you. If we had been in a situation where we had to get out of our house fast, I realised that there was only one material item I would run back for: the books I’ve been writing...
I Miss You Already
- September 01, 2017
At the end of June when we hung up your school uniform and kicked your little black shoes into the corner of the cupboard, I thought the summer would last forever. I saw the unstructured days stretch ahead of us as an unknown quantity and felt just as daunted by them as you were excited.
And then we woke up on day one, and it was 7.30am. And I didn’t have to pack your lunchbox, or chivvy you into your uniform, or make either of us look presentable until we were good and ready for our day, and we had nowhere...
So I Gave Up On Room Sharing
- July 23, 2017
Summer holidays, and with a break in routine and family coming to stay in our three-bedroom house, I thought it would be a perfect time to start transitioning my two girls to a shared bedroom. I imagined lazy evenings of reading bedtime stories with one precious girl in the crook of each arm, goodnight kisses and waking in the morning to find the two of them snuggling together, the picture of Instagramable sisterly affection. The older one has always been a great sleeper, the younger is not – so I thought, now she is 18 months old, she may learn...
The End of the Very Beginning
- June 25, 2017
A September morning and a too-big school dress, a neat little ponytail, knee-high socks and shiny black shoes walking little legs through the school gates for the first time, her tiny hand held tight in mine. The first morning of school, and both of us brand new.
It’s been a year of so many firsts and we’ve navigated them all with a little help from each other and our friends. The first meet and greet with the teachers, now beloved friends and trusted partners; the first choosing of a locker (did I elbow another parent out of the way as I...
Perfect Enough
- April 13, 2017
I’ve been having flashbacks lately. Vivid, intoxicating flashbacks. Memories from a different time.
The smell of jasmine in the morning. The way the sunlight looks from underneath a thick rooftop of bougainvillea. The sound of a speedboat engine revving to pull me out of the water on a pair of skis and the taste of the salt water when it hits my face. The crackling of a wood fire and the smell of lamb chops on a summer night. The brown of the water in forest rock pools. The morning sun slanting through my bedroom window and the insistent scratch of...
