D is for Ducks

E's latest letter focus was the letter D. She did a Dd 'dot' painting that I'd drawn up for her and made a collage of things beginning with D. We made a dice using a wooden cube and a permanent marker. We did some dancing. And we did this duck craft:

To make your own ducks, you will need:

• 2 cardboard tubes (empty toilet paper rolls)
• yellow crepe paper
• glue (we used a simple homemade paste)
• orange card
• white card
• pencil
• black marker
• clear sticky tape

Here's how to do it:

• Cut one of the tubes in half so that you'll have one tall duck and 2 shorter ones.
• Smother the outside of each tube in glue.
• Paste on some yellow crepe paper.
• Cut some smaller pieces of crepe paper and glue a few to each duck for tail feathers.
• Let the paste dry.
• On the orange card, draw 3 pairs of feet and 3 duck bills.
• Cut them out and draw some nostrils with the black marker.
• Tape feet and bills onto your ducks.
• On the white card, draw 3 pairs of eyes (using black marker).
• Cut them out and glue them onto your ducks.
• On the white card, draw 3 pairs of wings.
• Cut them out and tape them onto your ducks.

All done!

E enjoyed this craft. She loves gluing things and she loves ducks. She even got to practice cutting with scissors. She later drew a pond for her ducks to play in.

-Polly

Duck Park

There is a park not far from our house that E refers to as the "duck park" because there are always lots of ducks on the lake there. E likes to pretend to be a duck, waddling around and saying "QUACK!"

We have been spending a lot of time at that park lately. It's a nice place for a picnic. There are benches, tables and gazebos, as well as plenty of lawn, for a choice of where to sit.

E loves the play equipment. Here she is posing on the slide:

There's even a flying fox that is "not scary, it's fun". I think perhaps it's just a little scary.

The duck park is also a great place to go for a walk around the lake or to kick a ball around. It's quite a popular spot, so it's good for some socialising, too.

I love this time of year. I sit at the park, with the baby all rugged up, watching E play and looking up at the pretty deciduous trees.

-Polly

PS. Happy Solstice :)

From My Back Door

From my back door I can see...

E inspecting the garden in a tutu:

Galahs (and often other birds, too) sitting on the back fence:

And after dark, some fun with sparklers:

I also see our little fruit trees, a garden full of bright orange marigolds and nasturtiums, E's self-made sand-play area and each evening's sunset.

What do you see when you look out your back door?

-Polly