Family Fun At Christmas
So the presents have been opened, the food consumed, and everyone is getting a little bored with the endless loop of Christmas movies playing on the tube. Time to shake things up with a little family fun. It doesn’t matter if your family is large or small, old or young, active or full of couch potatoes — we’ve got entertainment ideas that will make everyone jolly. Here are five fun and festive family games to keep folks laughing all day long. 1. Present Scramble: You’ll need to do a bit of prep to pull off this game, but it will pay off 10-fold in family laughs when the time comes to play. Wrap a small gift in a small box. Then wrap that gift in a larger box, and repeat as many times as you can. To play, choose a number and then have everyone in your family take turns rolling the die. The first person to roll the chosen number can begin unwrapping. But there’s a catch: they have to wear oven mitts to do it! The remaining players continue rolling while the player wearing the mitts is unwrapping. The next person to roll the chosen number takes the mitts and continues the unwrapping. The person who unwraps the actual prize gets to keep it. 2. Christmas trivia: Does your family know everything there is to know about Christmas?
Why not challenge the clan to a Christmas trivia showdown? Search on the internet for someSanta trivia, Christmas tree trivia, or trivia about Christmas traditions from around the world — or go for the gold and mix up questions from all three. You can have a dedicated game time where players compete for a prize (extra dessert!) or just ask the questions throughout the day to keep everybody guessing! 3. Christmas Charades: Create your own list of words or go online and print a list, cut out each of the charades and place them in a bucket. Split the group into 2 teams. Team A will pick one player as the actor. This player will draw a charade from the bucket and will then have a specified amount of time to act out the charade and have the other team members guess. If Team A doesn’t guess the right answer before the timer ends, then Team B gets one guess for the correct answer. Remember, in charades there is no talking and no props allowed. Just use your fantastic acting skills! Whatever you do to make Christmas day more fun for the family we hope you enjoy it!
P&C
President’s Report Dear Parents & School community, As we head into the last few weeks of school for 2016, the excitement for the upcoming School musical: Peter Pan Jnr is building! It is a wonderful opportunity for all students at the school to be involved in a musical production. We are very excited to see the show, and very grateful to Miss Arrowsmith and Miss Chapple and all of the teachers for their commitment in bringing the show to life on stage. Term 4 has been a busy one for the community. We held our major fundraiser for the year at The Oak. Nicole Westbury, Emily Smales and their team of volunteers put together a terrific night of fun for all those who were able to attend. The class parents helped by putting together Class Artworks with the students from each class, that were auctioned on the night. There was also a very successful silent auction and raffle prizes. We are very grateful to all the volunteers on the night and to those parents who donated prizes for the auction. The money raised will go towards a number of projects that the school has identified for next year.
The P&C will be discussing the allocation of funds raised during the year, at our final meeting for the year on Tues December 6th, 6pm in the school staffroom. Please come along! Our gardens in the school are looking terrific! Thank you to Amy Vass who has co-ordinated two working bees during the past 6 months, and continues to look after them. Amy also organised the ordering of our new House t-shirts, which were first worn this term at the K-2 Athletics carnival. We also thank Jo Martin, George Argyrous and Neil Gross for their continued commitment to running an outstanding Before & After School Activities program. This program not only provides wonderful opportunities for the students to learn new skills, but its profit goes into the P&C Fundraising account - which is spent directly on enhancing our children’s learning environment at the school. The P&C wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a happy new year, and look forward to seeing you back at DBPS in 2017. Best Wishes, Georgia Powell P&C President
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Delicious Traditional
Mince Pies It’s early afternoon, blood sugar levels are crashing and you’ve got a serious case of the mid-afternoon munchies. But before scrounging for coins and heading to the vending machine, why not take a look at this delicious and healthy snack to get your through the afternoon.
Filling Ingredients •
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2 cups of dried mixed fruit 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup slivered almonds (chopped finely) 1 apple (preferably Granny Smith) peeled, cored, quartered and finely grated 50g butter, melted 2-3 tablespoons brandy
Pastry Ingredients • • • • • •
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Method
Divide the mixed fruit into two halves and finely chop one half. Place chopped fruit in a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, almond, apple, lemon rind, butter, lemon juice, brandy, mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir ingredients to combine and then add remaining fruit and mix again until all ingredients are well combined. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave overnight, stirring occasionally. Transfer the fruit mixture to a fine sieve over a bowl and stir to remove excess liquid. Set fruit mix aside. To make the pastry place flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and process until the ingredients resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the water and egg yolk and process until the ingredients begin to come together. Turn the contents of the processor onto a clean work bench and shape the dough mix into a disc. Cover the
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2 cups plain flour 1/3 cup caster sugar 160g chilled butter, chopped Method 11⁄2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon mixed spice 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind Pinch of ground cinnamon 1 egg, lightly whisked Icing sugar (to dust) 1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons chilled water
dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly dust your work bench with flour and roll out your pastry until it is approximately 5mm thick. Use a 8.5cm diameter round pastry cutter to cut 20 discs from the pastry. Use a 5cm star-shaped pastry cutter to cut 20 stars from the pastry. Line twenty 80ml capacity muffin pans (lightly spray pan with olive oil spray to avoid sticking) with pastry discs. Divide the fruit mix between the pastry cases and top with pastry stars. Brush the stars lightly with the egg and sprinkle with white sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden and then remove from the oven. Let the pies cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
How To Find Your Child’s SPARK: What Every Parent Needs To Know As a school teacher, I have the absolute privilege of looking for and finding the SPARK of 26 children every day. I get to see what the children I teach love, what lights them up, what fires their bellies and what they are passionate about. I observe how they interact with literature, numbers, history, geography and science and how they use their own personal filters to explore more deeply or just brush the surface of a topic.
I have front row seats to how their little brains grow and develop and every day it is exciting to see the SPARK learning creates for them. There is nothing more exciting that seeing a child so excited about their learning that they are jumping out of their seat – that is when I know I have found their SPARK. Sadly, as a mum to my own three children I find it much harder to find their SPARK. Why? I am so caught up in the process of life with my own kids – trying to get them ready for school, doing their washing, cooking, cleaning, keeping them safe, driving them from place to place – that I lose the moments to really find their SPARK. I am on the treadmill of this busy life and don’t make the time for the social and emotional understanding to really dig deep and find what they love, what they are passionate about or what strategies they use to find their ‘happy place’. I know I am not alone here. I talk to other parents who are living in this ‘hurry up’ culture who are moving
through their child’s life at a rapid pace and they have a similar story to me. Well known parenting educator and author of Raising Boys and Raising Girls books, Steve Biddulph talks about the importance of finding a child’s SPARK. It was a lightbulb moment for me when I attended a talk with Steve Biddulph a few weeks ago and he was talking about the importance of parents (and teachers) to find our kids SPARK so they can ‘burst into full flame’. Of course we need to and while we might be doing it subconsciously, it needs to be a conscious action. “SPARK is the name given by researcher Peter Benson to the fact that in every girl, and boy, there is an interest or passion waiting to burst into full flame. It could be animals, music, art, science, saving the earth, healing, sport or creativity of any kind. It’s what makes a young person want to get up in the morning. Your daughter and son has a SPARK, somewhere inside them, and its up to you and them to find it and give it wings,” Steve Biddulph said. Children will generally find their SPARK between the ages of ten to fourteen and this will allow them to become the person they were born to be. Finding their SPARK will allow children to “withstand the growing up years of the opposite sex, school pressures, peer groups and separating away from you, already strong in what they thinks is right and wrong, important and trivial, wise and stupid,” according to Steve Biddulph. It is school holidays in Australia right now and thankfully I have had time to reconnect with my own children. I have had time to really see again what makes them tick. I lose touch during the term and the school holidays gives me that chance to listen to their conversations, create our own conversations, delve deeper into their emotions rather than just the ‘hurry up and get in the car’ conversations.
I want to share with you today a few ways to help you find your child’s SPARK. Once you know it, you will have an insight into what lights them up and what will help them to follow their dreams and also help them have extra strategies to bounce back from struggles.
open-ended questions and prompts, and a separate “secrets” section to help you connect deeply with your kids so you can easily find their SPARK and nurture it.
Here are 4 ways to help find your child’s SPARK:
Get outside and see new things, often. Children are little sponges constantly filling their schema with new and exciting things. Getting out and exploring is exciting. Even if it is going for a walk down the same path you walked down yesterday, kids will see something new. It will SPARK their imagination and they will be excited. Or it may be going on a family holiday and really exploring the new place you find yourselves in.
1. Write a Gratitude Journal Together Research shows that when you can say often what you are grateful for in your life you are happier. Creating this positive mindset for children is important for them to be able to look at the big picture of life and know they are lucky. When you do it together, you have an insight into their day. My daughter and I use the Awesome Inc gratitude journals. I have the adult version and she has the kid’s version. We sit up on her bed, use all her smelly, sparkly pens and write what we are grateful for that day. We then trade them and compare notes.
2. Create a list together of what your child loves doing (more than once) My son was going through a hard time a little while ago and while he was upset we got a piece of paper out and a pen. He wrote down all the things he was grateful for on one side (some amazed me!) and on the other side he wrote down all the things he loves to do. These are the things that make him want to get out of bed in the morning. We had tapped back into his SPARK and he was again on a positive path.
3. Make time to write, read, paint, draw and create Giving kids time to create helps them find their SPARK. It might be what they are doing or they might come up with the idea while they are creating. Writing or journaling is a good place to start. Fellow parent blogger, Sumitha Bhandarkar from A Positive Parent has created a beautiful, parent-child journal called the Connected Hearts Journal. It uses the power of stories, beautiful coloring pages,
4. Go out and explore
Once you find your child’s SPARK you will give your child the wings they were born with to fly and you can sit on the sidelines and watch them grow and develop, with encouragement.
Anna Partridge is a Parent Education, School Teacher and Mother to 3 kids. She is passionate about working with families to help them raise confident and resilient children. http://www.annapartridge.com
About Anna: Anna Partridge is a certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator, a school teacher and a mother to three highly spirited, beautiful children. She loves nothing more than helping parents raise resilient and confident children, build strong and connected family relationships and strive for calm, fun and happy families. http://annapartridge.com/
With all the stress that comes with the mad end of year rush and festive season mayhem its good to take a moment to have a good laugh.
Q. What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Clause? A. Claustrophobic. Q. Why was Santa’s little helper depressed? A. Because he had low elf esteem. Q. What do you get if you cross mistletoe with a duck? A. A Christmas Quacker.
Q. Why do mummies like Christmas so much? A. Because of all the wrapping! Q. Why does Santa have 3 gardens? A. So he can ho-ho-ho. Q. Who delivers presents to cats? A. Santa Paws. Q. What do you call Father Christmas at the beach? A. Sandy Clause! Q. What does Santa do with fat elves? A. He sends them to an Elf Farm! Q. Why does Santa go down the chimney on Christmas Eve? A. Because it ‘soots’ him! Q. Who is Santa married to? A. Mary Christmas!
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Life can be a bit of a minefield at times, especially at Christmas. We get distracted and do or say things we normally wouldn’t. We toss aside our normal mindful spending habits and give into the holiday hype of buy, buy, buy. We shop until we drop, eat whatever we want and do whatever we please. After we bid farewell to the Holidays, we are left cleaning up the mess — financially, emotionally and physically. So here are four tips that will help you make the most of this Christmas.
1. Remember Not To Confuse Love with Gifts
There is nothing we love more than giving gifts to my loved ones, especially at Christmas. Watching their eyes light up on Christmas morning and hearing their cries of joy as they open their gifts warms my heart. Sometimes our love and generosity extends further than our pocketbooks allow. We need to be mindful of what we can spend without creating pain for ourselves after Christmas. Sohonour your gift-giving budget. Buy your loved ones the best gift you CAN afford. Give it to them with your love and it well be received with love too.
2. The Gift-Giving Competition
Sadly, in some families Christmas has become a competition, where we constantly compare notes with one another. Many feel compelled to outspend others or give more gifts to their kids. In other words, Christmas has turned into a game of “Keep Up”. And it’s a game you can never win. That’s why it’s important to remember that Christmas was never intended to be a competition, regardless of your beliefs. It is intended to be a time of love, giving and community. When you find yourself comparing how much you spend at Christmas with others, stop and remind yourself what Christmas truly means to you.
3. Don’t Overstuff The Holidays
Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year and it is equally the busiest time of the year. It seems like we are constantly running from one thing to another and it is exhausting, not to mention stressful. There are obviously some festivities that we don’t want to miss, but we don’t have to accept every party invitation or run ourselves ragged either. It is okay to decline an invitation. It is okay if we realise that we don’t have the time or energy to bake five different kinds of holiday treats so we buy some instead. Christmas is a special time of the year, but it loses its power when we don’t give ourselves time to enjoy it. So review the calendar and set aside enough quiet time where the family can relax together. Those are great nights to watch holiday movies or read a holiday book.
4. Teachable Moments
The holidays offer many great teachable moments about family, traditions, giving, patience and love. Kids typically focus on receiving gifts, so we need to do our part to make sure they understand Christmas means more than Santa Claus. Christmas is about bringing families together, celebrating the year that was and hopefully sharing the love (although this can be challenging at times). So this year pause and chat to your family and share your joy of Christmas, without thinking about the presents.
Don’t forget to drink and warm up before you exercise Dehydration affects performance and work out levels and when working out, you lose water – both through your breath and by sweating. To keep hydrated and to get the best out of your work out, have a few glasses of water in the hours before you exercise. Another tip is to have 1–2 glasses of water about 15 minutes before your work out. Also important is a gradual warm up which goes a long way
to preventing injuries. A good warm up increases blood flow to the working muscles which results in decreased muscle stiffness and therefore less risk of injury. Your warm up can consist of stretching, walking, jogging or simply doing your regular workout activity at a slower pace.
On-the-go work out Try this great on-the-go work out that can be followed outdoors, on the beach or even in your lounge room. All you need is some open space and a skipping rope:
• Burpees x 10 • Jump squats x 10 • Push ups (full or legs grounded) x 10 • Ab crunches x 10 • Skipping x 100 normal skips (or for a challenge 25 x double-unders, which are two rotations of the rope per jump) Repeat this for 30 minutes
*If you are unsure of how to correctly complete any of these exercises talk qualified personal trainer
Fun summer games to play Summer = daylight savings, which gives you, your friends and family, a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy fun games and exercise together. Here are some simple and fun ideas to get you started: • Have a game of backyard cricket or play ‘kick to kick’ in the park after dinner. • As parents, don’t just watch from the sidelines. Surfing, footy, cycling, hiking, or whatever you’re into– get actively involved. • Coordinate water gun fights with your kids, this is a great way to run around and is lots of fun.
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Your summer destination for luxurious Limited edition resortwear and accesso for the beach and beyond. Visit our pop up shops located:
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Visit our pop up shops located: 125 Manning Road Woollahra (open until Christmas 2016)
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1118 Barrenjoey Road Karyn & the team from [et cetera] WO Palm Beach withinwww.etceterawoman.com.au The Contemporary Hotels store -next to Barrenjoey House and facebook Follow us on Instagram @etceteraWOMAN #etceteraWOMAN (open every Thurs, Fri & Sat throughout January)
Mention you are a Double Bay Public School parent to receive 10% off your purchase. A further 10% of the purchase price will be donated to DBPS P&C to help acquire much needed resources for the school. We look forward to seeing you in store.
Karyn & the team from [et cetera] WOMAN www.etceterawoman.com.au Follow us on Instagram and facebook @etceteraWOMAN#etceteraWOMAN
Visit our pop up shops located: 125 Manning Road Woollahra
(open until Christmas 2016) 1118 Barrenjoey Road Palm Beach within The Contemporary Hotels store - next to Barrenjoey House
(open every Thurs, Fri & Sat throughout January)
1888 Certified
Mention you are a Double Bay Public School parent to receive 10% off your purchase.
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A further 10% of the purchase price will be donated to DBPS P&C hehelp founders “1888 Certified”, are school. committed to sustainable and to acquire of much needed resourcesWe for the
Charlie
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Tim
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We look forward seeingover you in store.to live openly and stress free on open White, are bothto from four
generations graziers. With WOMAN pastures. Only the highest MSA graded Karyn of & farmers the team&from [et cetera] more than 33 years of friendship under meat is sold in store. Unlike nearly any www.etceterawoman.com.au their belts, they realised that their beliefs other butcher in NSW all of our meat Follow us on Instagram and facebook regarding success and sustainability in comes DIRECTLY from the farms. The @etceteraWOMAN #etceteraWOMAN farming were the same, beliefs that their carcasses are transported to our Double pioneering forefathers committed to in Bay store and broken down daily on site to the generations before them. When you ensure our customers are buying the very visit 1888 Certified you are sure to be freshest and healthiest product available. served by one of Tim or Charlie’s wives, children, nieces or nephews - they breed All 1888 Certified product can be traced to the farms and farmers that raised it. well in the country :) We believe in only producing the highest 1888 Certified was born out of a belief quality produce that is sustainable and that everyone should be concerned with ethical. This takes a lot of hard work but the health benefits of eating healthy foods the results speak for themselves. We invite ... when eating meat we are literally eating all our customers to question us, meet the what that animal ate. This is a question farmers producing the products instore deserving a transparent and truthful and even come and visit our farms to answer. We are farmers that want to experience for themselves. The phrases ensure our customers have the ability to “paddock to plate”, “field to fork” etc are make an informed choice on the food that thrown around so frequently these days they are serving family and friends. and so often it is nothing more than marketing bluff - our business model is a 1888 Certified meat is sourced from the hard one but one that we are passionate founder’s farms and a few select properties about and will not sway from in ensuring that are certified to the same standard. our customers only the healthiest and The meat is 100% grass fed and finished, tastiest meat products available. preservative,hormone& antibiotic free.
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