Last year AJ told us that what she really wanted for Christmas was a ‘blueberry rollercoaster.’ Additional information wasn’t really forthcoming, so she got some other things for Christmas, along with a letter from Santa telling her that his elves were busy researching the blueberry rollercoaster, and he hoped to have it finished for next year. Claire and I assumed that she’d forget about it after Christmas, but of course she hasn’t forgotten and mentions it occasionally, along with the fact that she’ll be getting one next Christmas.

Fastforward to a couple of weeks ago, when AJ was given a bag of marbles. I think marbles are an almost perfect toy; you can build endless variations of games around them, and kids can play with them in a group or by themselves. After playing a few different kind of marble games, I decided it would be fun to create some impromptu marble runs out of bits of cardboard that we had handy. I cut some edges off of an ikea box, and folded them in half so that they were V-shaped. These ended up making a pretty good run, and they were easily taped together. Then we took the flat part of the box and propped it up so that it was on a nice slope for the incoming marbles. Sometimes they rolled back down and sometimes they went over the edge and into the castle on the other side. Fun!

Once we had set this up AJ immediately proclaimed, ‘Hey! this is just like the blueberry rollercoaster!’ Ah ha! So now Santa’s elves have a crucial piece of information.

We played around with a few variations, and AJ continued to move things around and add bits of sticky tape at random to the contraption.

There are plenty of marble machines that you can purchase, but I think it’s pretty fun to be able to build something yourself. Given that the first trial of this using cardboard was pretty successful, I’m going to try making something more elaborate next time. My main criteria are that the materials must be inexpensive and must pack away easily. Stay tuned.

Kiddley visitor Kathryn sent us her brilliant ideas for ways to entertain a toddler who can’t get enough of trucks, tractors, cars, trains and earth moving machines that go beyond singing “The wheels on the bus go round and round” time and again.

“1. Visit a train station

If you and your child travel most of the time by car, there’s very little opportunity for him or her to see a train close up. See if you can get to a train station that is out in the open; then it’s more likely you can walk to the front and see the engine cars and the driver, and more likely you will be able to see those wonderful wheels under the carriages!!! A local bound train, of course, won’t stay at the station long enough for much of a look, so try to find a long distance train which will be at the station loading and unloading for some time before taking off.
I took Jack to Cairns central station recently to see the Kuranda Train. We walked all the way up to see the drivers’ carriage. The drivers were very sweet to him and allowed Jack to sit in one of the driving seats, which I’m sure is not generally possible, but it is certainly worth it for you to at least see the head carriage. If finances permit, buy a ticket and go for a local train ride, even just to the next station and back. (or walk back).

2. Catch a bus to town!

Buses may seem duller than dishwater to us ‘jaded’ adults but to children buses are a rich source of vitamin fun. Make sure you let your son or daughter get to press the buzzer for the stop you want to get off at! Big thrills when they realise they can control when the bus will stop.

3. Find a construction site

Somewhere close to you in this age of the building boom, there is a construction site just begging for a toddler to marvel over it. There may be cement trucks, diggers, forklifts, graders, dump trucks, bob cats……it’s all happening, it’s all fabulous.

4. Go watch the planes land, load and take off

This one may not be for every toddler’s parent, especially if you live in a city where the airport parking costs are extreme, but much, much fun-apalooza can be had sitting in a domestic airport that affords you a good view of the main tarmac events. Never mind you don’t have a ticket to fly, your wheely-mad child will have a hoot watching not only the planes moving about, taking off and landing, but also watching the little airport buses, tractors, fuel trucks, catering trucks and luggage wagons whizz around. It’s wheel mania.

5. Pay a visit to your local car yard/ tractor dealership/ ride-on mower vendor

Sure, you might have to let on a bit like you’re interested in purchasing a car/tractor/ride-on mower, but most outlets are happy enough to have you look around.

There are other wheel-associated games and activities you might not have thought of yet: playing Spot the Transport… make up a simple card listing or illustrate all the different types of trucks, emergency vehicles, transport haulers, etc, you know the stuff. Go for a walk to the closest main highway and tick off each as you see them. Good to have this same game going in the car for just driving around. If your child is old enough he or she can tick them off for themselves, or if they are a bit too young for knowing how to use the list, make a mental list of the ones you see, ticking them off together when you get home.”

Thank you Kathryn! We love it!

Tuxpaint is a popular free drawing program designed especially for kids. It features quirky sound effects and a simplified interface that is ideal for younger children. All the basics that you’d expect in a drawing package are available, including brushes of various sizes and styles, shape tools, and a collection of ‘magic’ effects that can be applied to a drawing.

The best feature is a great set of stamps that lets kids plonk down fully formed cut-outs (animals, coins, hats, spacemen, food, symbols etc) into their work of art. Here’s one that AJ prepared earlier:

I think that’s Air Force One cruising past a meat pie.

Tuxpaint is available for most operating systems including Windows and OSX, and it’s also well suited to being run on older computers. If you download it, be sure to also download any additional stamp packs that have been made for your operating system’s version.

The last time we had a family vacation, AJ, who was just 3 at the time, asked if she could take some photos with our digital camera. After exchanging some concerned looks, Claire and I decided to let her take some photos under close supervision.

Our camera is a Sony Cybershot, which is perfect for this kind of experimentation because it’s just got a point-and-shoot operation with automatic focus and a good-sized digital display. There’s also little or no cost associated with it. If your camera is an expensive digital SLR, you might want to consider holding off until your child is older, or you might want to opt for a cheapo digital camera just for them instead. Alternatively, if your kids are a bit older and don’t need the instant gratification of seeing their photos on the preview display, all of these ideas can be applied to traditional film cameras or cheap disposables.

And yes, the thought of letting a 3 or 4 year old commandeer the camera that you paid a lot of money for can be nerve-wracking! We ended up making sure that the camera’s wrist strap was securely looped around her wrist while she was using it; we also made sure that she understood that she should not touch the lens. After a little while we were confident enough with the way she was using the camera to let her wander around and take photos on her own.

One of the amazing things about the photographs that little people will produce is that they are unencumbered by the kind of critical thinking that often inhibits adults. They have a genuine “beginner’s mind” approach to photography. The flip-side of this is that they will take plenty of photos that you won’t want to keep (definitely an advantage of digital cameras over traditional film cameras).

If you have the patience to let them experiment though, you’ll find that their perspective will produce some unique and interesting images. AJ went through stages of taking closeups (including some alarming foreshortening of her sleeping grandfather):

and images of things she really liked:

(this also yielded numerous photos of the cover of the Cinderella dvd). Then she shifted to taking photos of herself:

She even took a great portrait of me, in spite of my refusal to close my eyes and pretend to be asleep.

The key to making this fun and successful is to relax and let them explore photography while at the same time providing adequate supervision to ensure that nothing goes awry. It’s also fun to spend some time with them afterwards, reviewing the photos they’ve taken, and finding out which are their favorites and why.

Finally, we’ve created a photo group at flickr for Kiddley readers. If you decide to try this with your kids, please add your favorites to the group pool!