Adventure Playgound

Totally Inspired. 

We have just had the best day and I have to write about it right now.

The Adventure Playground at the Berkeley Marina is a work of genius. The playground encourages children to build their own play equipment; forts, boats, towers, tents.....

Under adult supervision, children are given access to hammers, saws, clamps or paint in exchange for finding discarded nails, litter, large splinters or Mr Dangerous!!! 

Dotted around the playground are large racks of wood to be used in any which way the children want. There are already well established constructions that can be added to and played on or you may just choose to start your own project from scratch - we did a bit of both.

The concept for Adventure Playgrounds apparently originated in Europe after World War II, where a playground designer studied children playing in the "normal" asphalt and cement playgrounds. He found that they preferred playing in dirt and lumber from the post war rubble. He realized that children had the most fun designing and building their own equipment and manipulating their environment.

At first the children didn't quite know how to get involved. They were unsure about the 'rules' and where they could add their own design ideas. But as the hours ticked by they soon got the hang of things and were backwards and forwards to the workshop exchanging tools and collecting nails for the next wooden addition. By the end of the afternoon, Owen had moved on from adding to existing projects for making his own tent using and old windsurf sail.
        
















I'm thinking that this would be a fantastic addition to Southwold, Reydon or Wrentham. It has definitely inspired me to allow the children a little more of a free rain with the tree house when we get home. I see painted rainbows and home made flags, little wooden chairs and a whole host of 'secret camp' things made with scraps of wood and the odd nail.

Liquid or solid?

I have been searching in vain for appropriate activities to do in a wet city with the children. San Francisco is such and 'outdoors' city that most of its attractions and adventures feature being outside. And to top that, ALL the museums are closed on Mondays - and today is monday, and its raining and the girls are on holiday from nursery for a week together with Owen.

Then I found 'Gak'. So much fun......messy, but fun. Defiantly not an activity for when Dave is at home!
There are lots of variations on this theme but this seems to be the easiest and more of a 'store cupboard don't need to leave the house' kind of recipe.

You will need:

• to be calm in body and mind before embarking on this project. Its fun science but be prepared.
• cornstarch
• warm water
• food colouring (optional)
• a plastic container and spoon for mixing
• a BIG plastic tablecloth

Start by measuring 1 cup of cornstarch into the plastic container.

Gradually add up to 1/2 cup of water to the cornstarch. You can mix this with a spoon or hands!

The consistency of the mix will go from a powder to a smooth liquid that is not too runny. It needs to be able to run smoothly but slowly.

Add a few drops of food colouring and mix through.

And then have lots of messy fun!

'Gak' turns from a liquid to a solid when touched and then back into a liquid again.  You can form it into a ball and, if the consistency is right, you can snap it. The photos do not do it justice as it always looks like a liquid but it was amazing.

We could pick it up and mold it into a ball and then when it was dropped on to the mat it turned into liquid again. Apparently the scientific word is a polymer.

Owen has thought of loads of uses for it and games to play in the garden with friends, even tricks for halloween. We have also carried on our science experiment by mixing dyes together and then coloured 'Gak' to see what different colours we can make. We even have a pot in the fridge to see what effect temperature has on the mix.

The mixture will store in an air tight container for up to two weeks. If it dries out then just add a little more water and mix well. If you spill it in unwanted places then just let it dry and brush it away. It returns to a powdered form.

I hope you have enjoyed this and that you try it too. So much fun....

Love Jo

Let's Go Giants

On Saturday 28th of May I dragged Owen into my office at lunch time to watch the Champions League final. Now there's no need for me to go into the details of the horror show that unfolded and that's not really what this post is about. Once the humiliation was complete we spent a bit of time playing guitars and drums on the X-Box and then moved on to Wii Sports and specifically the baseball game. To cut a long story short, Owen had trouble moving his arm the next day (although he was able to pitch at speeds in excess of 95mph) and I'd learned enough of the basics to whet my appetite for the real thing.

Rather than go through the painful process of organising a trip for the entire office, I grabbed a "baseball friendly" colleague of mine who likes answering questions and suggested a trip to the AT&T park on Friday night. Thankfully he accepted and, come Friday, we picked up some bargain tickets from StubHub and off we went. What a great evening! The Giants won 3-1 (although we were buying hotdogs and garlic fries during the innings they scored their 3 runs) and I got a real feel for the game. It's really quite simple when you have someone to explain the terminology. At the top of the ninth the Giants brought on their closing pitcher Brian Wilson aka "The Beard" with all the screens around the ground flashing "Fear the Beard" - they do know how to put on a show!

The next morning I told Jo and the children all about it and, as the weather was looking decidedly dodgy for the weekend and we had no real plans, Jo suggested that I try and get some tickets to go that afternoon with Owen and Rosie. So that's what we did. I planned it as a bit of a surprise but nothing gets past Rose. The moment I mentioned that we were doing something secret that afternoon she asked "are we going to see the Giants?" Why do I bother? Anyway, we headed off with a bag packed full of snacks and a scribbled map of bus stops near the ground.

Rose was beside herself with excitement for at least the first ten minutes of the when she began asking what Isla was doing with Mummy. Fortunately the wide array of snacks and the regular advert breaks in the game were enough to relieve the boredom of the game itself and she made it through. I loved it again and Owen was happy as usual watching the proceedings and asking questions.

I'm not sure Rose will come again but Owen and I will be looking for good deals from StubHub when we have nothing much planned at the weekend.....

The Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Owen and I were going on the hunt for parrots. The wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. Dave has read the book, I have seen the movie and Owen wanted to see the real thing....

Do you know the story? Mark Bittner lived in North Beach in the 1970's, he never had a job but managed to get by. While living on the eastern slope of Telegraph Hill, he discovered a flock of wild parrots. Although these birds were wild, Bittner developed a fascination and relationship with them that no other human has managed. He developed a friendship with them over 6 years, gave them all names, fed them and tended to the sick when they needed him. Some people questioned whether they were still wild if they came to him for food and attention but Bittner never claimed them as his own as they maintained their freedom to fly freely in the city.

So, Tuesday morning after dropping the girls off, that's what we decided to do. It was raining, so we were not off to a good start but we smiled and carried on, hoping that the weather would clear up as the morning went on. Unlike other parts of the city, Telegraph Hill has one road that curls up and around the hill with steep stairways cutting their way through the greenery and housing. It is quite a beautiful part of the city with glimpses out through the trees to the Bay and surrounding streets. At the top of the Hill stands the majestic Coit Tower. This concrete column raises 180 feet above Telegraph Hill and was designed by Henry Howard in 1933 on a budget of $125,000 donated to the City by Lily Hitchcock Coit. She has a funny little history with the city and the fire brigade and "Coit Tower is the tangible result of her flamboyant love affair with the city."



Once inside the Tower we faced some incredible murals. These frescoes were commissioned by the U.S Government with the idea of covering the bland concrete walls of the lower part of the tower. 25 artists took part in the project, each creating their own social criticism. What struck me about the works was that although each section was painted by a different artist, their styles were so similar that it was hard to tell each section apart. Social Realism is a style connected with the 1930's and combines everyday living with gritty social comment. Some of the images on the walls were so controversial of the time that the government were unsure about putting them on view to the public in 1934. Owen and I were fascinated by the images and spent a long time observing the details and reading the interpretations on each on. My particular favorites was No.11 Department Store and No.13 California.

The lift up to the top of Coit Tower was the original 1933 elevator with a lovely little man who spouted off loads of facts and numbers that neither Owen or I could understand.... It was still raining when we got to the top so, although the view was spectacular, there was a grey dampness about everything. We took a few photos and spotted a few land marks but hurried back down again quite quickly.

We never did see the parrots.... Maybe another day.