Today is International Internet-Free Day!

“Do you check your inbox every five minutes? Do you lose track of time surfing the online shops? Have you e-mailed a colleague at a desk next to you? Do you podcast your daily thoughts, rather than call your mother? Fear not: hope is at hand. Take a break on this Sunday January 28th: Internet Free Day.” – Global Ideas Bank

I only just found out about this but I am going to turn off my computer right now and go and play with some lego on the carpet before cooking up some chili (via Suburban Bliss) and then hitting the park. What are you up to today?

Happy Australia Day to residents, citizens, visitors and ex-pats of Australia!

For those who don’t know much about Australia Day (and for those who do but might be interested anyway) here’s some information on what it’s all about.

Here are some ideas for how you might like to celebrate:

Read Mem Fox’s Possum Magic (available here) and make lamingtons, Anzac Biscuits or Pavlova (recipes over on Mem’s page).

Play a game of backyard cricket and have a barbeque.

Learn about Australia’s indigenous people and their culture.

And the Australian of the Year is Tim Flannery! Author of We are the Weather Makers – The Story of Global Warming. (via Read Alert)

For those of you who live in the United States, the 23rd of January is National Soup Swap day (via Not Martha).

The idea is simple enough; Invite along everyone you know and ask them to invite everyone they know. Supply nibbles and drinks and ask everyone to bring along 6 single serves of frozen homemade soup, all packaged in cartons of the same size (about 1 litre / 1 quart) and swap them so that everyone goes home with a six different soups.

It’s probably a bit late to organise a soup swapping event for today (or even this weekend) if you haven’t already started simmering, so perhaps we could have a virtual swap. If you feel so inclined, write up your family’s favourite soup recipe on your blog and then leave us a link in the Kiddley comments. If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to post your recipes directly in our comments.

Here’s a recipe of our own devising which I posted about on Loobylu a couple of years ago. Kids seem to love it, mostly because of the extra fun of adding in all the garnishing bits at the end.

South of the Border Soup

Ingredients
blob of butter or olive oil for frying
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 stalk of celery chopped
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 can of 3 bean mix
1 can of chicken consommé (broth)
1 small can of creamed corn
Pinch of cayenne pepper (more if you like it hot)
Pinch of cumin
Pinch of dried oregano
Pinch of dried basil
Slices of avocado, grated cheese, sour cream, squeeze of lemon and tortilla chips (about one cut up per person) fried in olive oil for garnish

Method
Fry the onion, garlic, celery and spices gently in the oil or butter until onion is soft. Add the tin of tomatoes and cook until bubbling. Add the can of beans and the can of creamed corn. Cook until nice and bubbly and then blend with a hand blender. Add chicken consommé and let it heat through.

While this is warming up fry up your tortilla bits in olive oil until they are brown and puffy. Serve in big bowls with slices of avocado, cheese, cream and tortilla chips floating on top. We added a squeeze of lemon juice at the end, but lime would have been better.

You could add some bite sized bits of chicken for extra deliciousness. Alternatively, I am sure a vegetarian style soup would be just as good if you replaced the chicken stock with vegetable stock. Make plenty of the tortilla chips as they are really good to munch on.

On this day in 1882 the creator of Winne The Pooh, A. A. Milne, was born. Here’s what you could do to commemorate:

Read Pooh Bear stories at bedtime.

Make honey cakes – we are making some from Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden – Cooking with Kids.

Find a creek with a bridge and playing Pooh sticks.

Download and print out the Pooh Party info PDF and play games, make delicious smakerels (including honey cake) and entertain one and all with Pooh puppets.

And if you live in New York, why not pay the real Winnie the Pooh a visit at the New York Public Library?

The very first week of November might seem a little early to start thinking about the holiday season (unless you are in retail, where it seems October is the month to start ramping up). But when it comes to crafting, establishing new traditions, fun family activities and starting homemade items it’s better to be prepared earlier than later. Three Christmases in a row now, I have said to myself “if only I had started planning earlier I might have had time to make x, y or z…”.

Now is the time to write a quick and loose list – just jot down 5 to 10 things you would like to make with your kids to help celebrate the holidays and then work out how and when you will need to start them to get them done on time. Things like Christmas cards need to be started soon to get them out to overseas friends and family where as crackers and tree decorations can be left until December.

Here is a list of suggestions for crafts you might like to do with your kids in the next couple of months:

Christmas cards
Presents for teachers
Garland
Paper chains
Paper snowflakes
Mantle scene
Christmas angels
Gift wrap
Simple stocking or santa sack
Cookies

Stay tuned to Kiddley for heaps of tips, ideas, links and advice for when it comes to fun things to do with your kids this season. To start with, next week we will be making a bunch of Christmas cards ready to send around the world.

Thank you to those who uploaded photos for the Kiddley Photo Theme for this week. Pictured above is 6 year old Princess’ muddy photos.

This week’s theme is “Make Like a Tree and Leave”!

Encourage your kids to take photos with the theme in mind and then upload them to the Kiddley Flickr group.

October 7th is 24 Hour Comic Day for 2006.

“What is 24 Hour Comics Day?
It’s an international celebration of comics creation. Cartoonists all over take the challenge of trying to create a 24 page comic story in 24 straight hours. Many gather at special events in comic book shops, schools, and other locations.No sketches, designs, plot summaries or any other kind of direct preparation can precede the 24 hour period. Indirect preparation such as assembling tools, reference materials, food, music etc. is fine.

Your pages can be any size, any material. Carve ‘em in stone; print ‘em with rubber stamps; draw ‘em on your kitchen walls with a magic marker. Anything.”

Making a 24 page comic book in 24 hours is a challenge for even the most seasoned of comic book artists, but even so, I can imagine there might be some keen kids out there ready to rise to the challenge. If your household does manage to produce a comic on 24 Hour Comic Day we would love to see them so please post any scans or photos to the Kiddley Flickr group!

Next Wednesday, October the 4th, is World Animal Day. What started in 1931 as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species has grown to encompass all kinds of animal life and is now widely celebrated alll around the world.

The World Animal Day mission statement is as follows:

“To celebrate animal life in all its forms

To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom

To acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives, from providing food, through being our companions, to supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives

To acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives”

The WAD website has lots of suggestions for how individuals can mark the day including ideas such as donating food and bedding to animal shelters, looking at your garden and thinking about how you could make it more wildlife-friendly or treating your own pet to a special day.

The 15th and 16th of September (this weekend coming!) is Clean up the World Weekend.

“Clean Up the World is a community based environmental program that inspires and empowers individuals and communities from every corner of the globe to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment……Clean Up the World encourages Members to organise a Clean Up event on or around Clean Up the World Weekend and also to think about ways of engaging the community in other long-term environmental initiatives. The needs of each community are different and Members’ campaign activities will vary.”

The Clean up the World website has lots of ideas and information about how you can become a free member, get involved, find or start a project and help clean up. Apart from this, perhaps the simplest thing you can do with your family is start at home – put in a compost bin, a worm farm, a recycling bin or work out your eco-footprint and think about ways of reducing it.