Your part in a green world…

The fact is that we humans have made a huge impact on our planet, and now is the time to do seomthign to at least reduce that damage. That’s what being green is all about – conserving our resoucres, protecting our planet and keeping Earth a beautiful place for us, our children and our children’s future families.

No matter how little impact you think small actions can have, it is the total of many small actiosn that will make a differene in the end. And that small action of yours may just set the example or be the inspiration for soemone else doing soemthing wonderful for our planet.

So that’s our belief in thigns green

Getting off our soapbox, we’d love to know how green shoppers are – online and offline. We have set up a survey for exactly that purpose and invite you to participate and tell others about it, too.

Please share your opinions on how the environment affects shopping and how green your business is.

School holiday programs

Many schools, councils, YMCAs, community centres and museums run school holiday programs. And then there are places like libraries that run holiday sessions, although parents may need to stay for these ones.

While many parents use these programs as childcare when they work or study, these programs can also be used for other reasons. Usually, kids love these programs and have a lot of fun, and the occasional program day breaks up the monotony of holidays at home.

School holiday programs can be educational and allow children to socialise with other children – children of mixed ages and from various schools are often there so your child is exposed to new people and ideas.

As there is such a variety of programs available, you can avoid any that you aren’t comfortable with. And you can choose which days of the program to send your children to.

All day programs can be registered as childcare organisations which means you may be able to get a child care benefit subsidy on the program fees.

Christmas goodies – get them now!

Christmas is over and the post-Christmas sales have begun. Now is the time to stock up on your wrapping paper, Christmas cards, decorations, and all things Christmassy while they are on special. Often these items are less than half price, so it is worth shopping around and stocking up – and it will save you racing to the shops next December to buy them!

Some online stores also offer discounts on Christmas items so don’t forget to look online, too!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas balls We wish you and your family a very happy and safe Christmas.

Have a wonderful day today, with many laughs and smiles with family and friends whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

Ally & Tash

Holiday boredom busters

I just read a blog entry by Melissa which lists a few boredom busting sites/businesses.

Some additional sites you may find useful are:

Still Christmas shopping?

There is still time to order things online and have them delivered. Just remember to check delivery times listed on the site and allow for distance – a site based near you will need less delivery time than one on the other side of Australia!

Look for sites with quick payment processing too – if you have to send a cheque and wait for it to be cleared, you’ll be lucky if it arrived this year!

And don’t forget you could buy a voucher online and have it delivered by email instantly!

Announced your holiday dates?

Your clients won’t be surprised if you take some time off over the festive season or early January – but they won’t be so happy if it appears you are open for business when you aren’t!

So make sure you have announced when your business will not be available – it can be a note stuck to the door, a message on your website, a notice in your last newsletter, a mention in your blog, a note added to a Christmas card, or a combination of these.

And make the message clear – does closed until 31 December mean you will be working on or after the 31st?

Reading is fun!

A really good use of holiday time is doing some reading – and that applies to parents, too of course!

Reading takes us away from the everyday and lets us experience another world which develops our creativity, understanding of others, sense of wonder and broadens our horizons.

In our article bank, there is an article about encouraging children to read - it includes ideas such as giving challenge books, choosing books about their interests and showing them you reading.

Some ways to have fun with your kids and books over the holidays are:

set up a chart and record each book read by each member of your family. The person who reads the most in a week gets a reward of choosing dinner, buying a new book, not washing dishes for a week or whatever works in your family. If there is a big discrepancy in reading abilities, maybe count pages read instead of entire books
read a book together – take turns reading, each of you read a particular character’s voice or someone reads it out as the others act out the story
set the challenge that everyone must read the book before you can see the movie – and then discuss the differences afterwards
for kids who love the internet or need to build computer skills, get them to search for reviews or information about a book they’re reading
once a week, do something related to a book being read. For example, go a on picnic after reading Teddy Bear’s Picnic, or follow the characters in a story by going on a bike ride, baking a cake, visit a farm, walk to the park, do some craft work, invite friends over, cook a dinner party or…
set up family discussions where you talk about favourite books and characters
join in activities at your local library
choose a book or story and rewrite the ending of it – you could make it a funny ending, sad ending, ridiculous ending or even a cliff-hanger

What other ways are there to bring books to life and enjoy them with your children?

Wild Lavender by Belinda Alexandra

Harper Collins, Sydney 2005

Wild Lavender is a big book – which is great as you really get the chance to know the characters and feel involved in their lives. It covers nearly twenty years of the life of a French woman Simone Fleurier.

Her life covers living on a quiet farm and in cities, the show business world and Nazi-controlled France, so there is a lot of variety in the story.

Simone’s life isn’t a fairy tale, although she has a number of successes, and terrible things do happen to her starting with the death of her beloved father and ending with the loss of friends during the war.

Alexandra weaves her story amongst the real event and people of France so that I almost believed Simone was a real person rather than a fictional character.

It isn’t a story to be categorised – there is a rags to riches element, but it is also a war story; there are three love stories as well as bitterness and jealously causing problems.

Bit it is a story to recommend – I really enjoyed reading Wild Lavender and look forward to reading Alexandra’s work again.

Also by Belinda Alexandra:

White Gardenia

Mercy by Jodi Picoult

Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest 2007

What would you do if the person you loved had low quality of life and little prospect of improvement or even survival? Even if you are adamant you know the answer, Picoult will make you consider your choices.

As always, Picoult’s book covers a number of characters and sub-stories along with the main story of the book. In this case, the main theme would appear to be about mercy killings (or euthanasia) but the book is really more about relationships and the imbalance within relationships.

The central figure is a clan leader and police chief so there is an expectation that he is the all round good guy, yet not all of his actions are admirable. He is a complex man, privately helping his cousin but apparently completely against Jamie’s behaviours.

Personally, I found this to be disappointingly not up to Picoult’s usual standard – which just makes it a good read rather than a great one.

Also by Jodi Picoult:

Nineteen Minutes