June 2021 - PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

What’s Up Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday Everyone! This is my very first link up and I’m linking up with Sheaffer and Shay I’m excited to share a mixture of things from what I’ve been eating, What I’ve been reminiscing about lately and what I’ve been watching etc. So here goes…. What I’m eating… All the soups and comfort food. Yes sir! It’s winter here and SO cold! I’m not a huge fan of the cold weather but I do love the casseroles, soups, and all the carbs! Yum! What I’m reminiscing about… Up until a few weeks ago, we had zero COVID cases here in Sydney Australia. Everything felt “Normal” again. We were mask-free, going about our day-to-day, eating out at restaurants, and having family gatherings. Of course, we still maintained hand sanitizing, QR check-in, and other safe COVID practices. But then we had one COVID case which then rapidly grew to many many more and once again we are in lockdown for two weeks until 9th July. I know we have been incredibly fortunate to have been so safe here and I know that most of the rest of the world has had a terrible time and continues to do so. But it was a huge wake-up call to every single one of us. Just a week before COVID hit us all over again, my Aunty had a party to celebrate her 60th. We ate and danced so much! It was a really fun time. Then two weeks before this we were able to celebrate our beautiful Niece’s Engagement party! What I’m dreading… I’m not really dreading anything thankfully. I’m on two weeks end of term break. My friend from work and I had a list of fun things we wanted to do in the holidays. But instead, because of lockdown we’ve been playing Words With Friends and chatting on Messenger a lot. What I’m working on… This Blog! I’ve only just started and after three months of navigating the whole setup process, I think I might just be getting the hang of it. Whoever said “you can make a blog in three minutes” was clearly deluded. It’s been fun though and something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m still learning and it’s definitely a work in progress. What I’m excited about I’m excited about being on holiday. (even though we can’t go anywhere) I love not having to rush, make school/work lunches, do the housework at 6 am so I can be free on the weekends. It’s pyjamas till 11 am around here at the moment. What I’m watching… Years ago I started watching the show “Parenthood” and I loved it. I wanted to be part of the Braverman Family, it was such a relatable show. I got to the end of season 4 and for some reason, the network that showed it at the time decided to ruin my life and changed the time slot. I completely lost track of the episodes and gave up. This was before catch_up TV etc. Now that it’s online I have been binge-watching it from the beginning and I’ve just finished the end of season 4 again today. So I am excited to finish the last two seasons (I’ll be sad when it’s over). It’s just been the best show! What I’m listening to… Hmmmmm nothing in particular other than the radio. I like listening to Jonesy and Amanda in the morning on 2WSFM they always make me laugh. Other than that I’ve just been listening to Chill Out on Spotify. My husband can’t stand Chill Out, It stresses him hahaha! He’s into Midnight Oil and Neil Diamond. What a combination! What I’m wearing… PYJAMAS at the moment and tracksuit pants! but before this, I was enjoying getting a bit dressed up. What I’m looking forward to… It’s the middle of winter but I’m already looking forward to summer or spring at least! That’s about all I think. It’s definitely, the longest post I’ve done so far. Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a great week xxx…

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Song Lyrics I Got So Wrong

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I was in the kitchen the other day cooking and listening to music on my Google Nest Hub when Michael Jacksons’ “Billie Jean ” came on. I like that song, you know the part where he sings ” She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one, But the kid is not my son.” Well, this is what I heard and gleefully sang for many years ” She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one, the Devil woman’s son.” This song was just confusing to me because I thought he was in love with someone who went around saying nasty things about him. I mean really, why would he be in love with someone calling him a devil woman’s son. Not nice at all. It’s funny, isn’t it? When we hear something it’s so hard to unhear it! and then you find out what the lyrics actually say…..Well….. Boom! what a revelation! You know ABBAs famous song Chiquitita. I read in an article once that the bit where it says “Chiquitita tell me what’s wrong” Some had been singing “Take your teeth out, tell me what’s wrong” Well, that’s just ridiculous! they were clearly singing “Chiquitita” but the part that stumped me was when they sang “You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end” well, this is what I sang “You’ll be dancing once again like a Pengrilen” and I just assumed that a Pengrilen was a very famous Swedish Dancer. Made sense right? I’ve also come to realize that many ’70s and 80’s songs were just…..you know…..really really explicit and I sang these songs. Out loud. Very loud. In front of my family. My mum and I absolutely loved Grease and she took me to see it twice! TWICE! We played the soundtrack over and over. So when my mums’ friends came over with their kids, we all dressed up and put on a concert for them. and sang Grease Lightning. Have you READ the lyrics? Lord knows what we sang that day? but bless our little hearts I’m sure we thankfully got the lyrics wrong. In the Eighties, I just loooved Cyndi Lauper and her song “She Bop” “She Bop, he bop, we bop, I bop, you bop, they bop” I thought she meant she loved to dance. sigh! It’s not about dancing at all. Get my drift? Fast forward to recently and when Despacito (which translates to “slowly” in Spanish) came out, again I thought it was about taking your time and you know dancing real slow so you get all the moves right. Ahem, nope. It’s not about dancing AT ALL. and you know who set me straight? My mum did. Yep, she did. I had downloaded the song for her on her iPod Shuffle and I thought she would enjoy listening to a song in her native tongue. That was a mistake. Well! There you go! So when we hear what our kids are listening to “These days” let’s not forget what we were listening to in “Our days”. And now I’m beginning to think that when I was singing along to “you can ring my bell, ring my bell” It’s not referring to a sweet boy ringing your front doorbell. Right?

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Dinosaur Small World Play

Leave a Comment / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

I’d like to show you a fun and simple Dinosaur small world play idea, but before I do let me tell you a little bit about my work as an educator in a small local preschool. I have been working with children as an educator for many years and I really enjoy it! It can be exhausting demanding, and stressful (Term one. I’m referring to you) BUT I do love it. The best part about working in a small preschool is that I have been fortunate enough to meet so many beautiful families over the years. The team I work with is fantastic and very dedicated. I am also lucky enough to call them my friends and a couple of them have even become my besties! oh yes, and did I mention I also live super close, like a three-minute drive away! My days are never dull as children say the funniest things. Over the years I have heard some hilarious stories! and a little word of warning. The kids tell us everything! I love decorating and making learning areas inviting and interesting. It’s very rewarding when the children are engaged in the activities that are set up for them. The best days at preschool are when the children are really enjoying themselves and playing well. After all, PLAY is what it’s all about isn’t it? It’s how they learn! Over time I’ll be sharing some photos of things I’ve set up for the kids. I really think it will be fun to take a peek into an everyday preschool setup. Here is a Dinosaur Small World I set up a couple of weeks ago. The laminator has become one of my best friends. I printed off some Jurassic-looking background images and laminated them. I then stuck this background around the blue trough we use for water/sand play. I also used some leftover fake grass we had from when the playground got a makeover. I grabbed some rocks we have in the playground. And pulled off some small tree branches to stick around the edges of the trough. I found some plastic lilies and mossy rocks in the cupboard. And of course the dinosaurs! There you have it! A simple Dinosaur small world play idea. It was fun to look around the preschool, find resources and put this little world together.

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Healthy Granola Recipe

Forever Fighting The Frizz

1 Comment / Fashion Files

Luscious, Bouncy, shiny, sleek hair! That’s always been my goal. Growing up I had dreams of having side-swept cool hair like this. (I also wanted Belinda Carlisle’s face, lips, and earrings) but not wanting to be too greedy I would have just happily settled for her hair. I spent hours in front of the mirror with my hairdryer desperately trying to tame my wiry thick frizzy black hair. If by some miracle the weather was on my side and it was a blowy dry day, I kind of had a semi tamed style and on those days I would document this event on my calendar. Today 4th August 1987 Ruth had a good hair day. There weren’t many of these days. My reality was more like this. Sigh! When it came time for my school formal, my desperation for sleek hair hit an all-time high. How was I going to go looking like a frizz ball? I ended up going to the hairdressers and pinned all my hopes on her performing a miracle. What happened was, I came out looking like a bad version of 1984 Madonna. I ran home, washed my hair, and started all over again. I pulled out the iron and ironed it. This was before the days of hair straighteners and as it was January and summer in Australia I was fighting a losing battle. The humidity got me. Anyway fast forward many decades later and I will admit I have spent a lot of money on hair products. I blow dry my hair AND use a straightener. I have even spent a small fortune on Keratin treatment, which at first I thought was my miracle answer but soon realized that while my hair was not frizzy anymore, It was now super flat. Recently I discovered this Schwarzkopf Extra Care Normal Balance leave-in treatment. It’s about $9.00 at Chemist Warehouse. Not a bad price at all! And so far so good! I do add quite a bit, maybe double what it recommends but I must say, I’m impressed. We had a super rainy week last week and while I did not have my dream sleek look, I didn’t look too scary either. My hair was, let’s say ummmmmm what’s the word? It was ok. Yep. It was more than ok, it was pretty acceptable! So there you go. If you are fighting the frizz, maybe give this a go. It’s a better alternative than a paper bag over your head.

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