Archives: December, 2007

WebUrbanist has an interesting post on urban adventure playgrounds. The following certainly struck a chord.

In a sense, you and I have always played in “adventure playgrounds.” We created a fort in the kitchen cabinets, jumped from couch to couch across oceans; we snuck out through a hole in the fence to a new world. We climbed trees and hid in bushes. We played in the mud and the rain. We chased each other, made secret worlds with our own language. We created spaces with whatever we could find around us. Some of us played in abandoned buildings, or barns, or vacant lots between buildings, used what we found and made up stories of our lives to be. We looked everywhere to find our space.

I stumbled across Kids Republic last night. As Billy T says, it’s a

“a children’s bookstore that transports its pint sized customers into a delightful fairytale world full of color and fantasy - complete with massive story telling screens and play areas.”

It looks fantastic, and no doubt is a great way of making reading seem cooler. But I wonder whether it actually encourages children to read (as opposed to playing in a space where there are books)? There’s a stick-in-the-mud part of me that however glam the bookshop, if a child doesn’t find a book that grips them, they won’t find reading fun. (Bah humbug)

• How to Create a Calmer Household - wikiHow
  WikiHow is the “how-to manual that anyone can edit”. And these are the collaboratively written steps for creating a little bit of peace …
  Tags: family lifehacks calm howto home
• Your community building counts: helping community buildings lead the way to a better future.
  outlines ways in which the use and management of community buildings can be seen as part of sustainable development, taking account of energy use, travel, shopping and caring for the local environment
  Tags: community buildings reports

Mum thought this was funny, and Dad thought it was public information advert.

We’re upgrading our blog engine, so if things stop working here for a while, that’ll be why. Back soon!

[Update 1: OK, so it’s basically working. Some things are looking a little weird, and the tags need to be upgraded, but service is resumed.]

[Update 2: Tags are now working.]

These are my links for December 2nd through December 25th:

• Kids Company Sponsor a child’s Christmas
  Kids Company helps look after children whose parents can’t look after them. 10 will get a child a Christmas dinner. London based
  Tags: charity Christmas children giving London
• Geek to Live: How to fix Mom and Dad’s computer
  You’re headed home next week to a turkey feast with all the trimmings - and Mom and Dad’s computer. You know what’s going to happen. The annual Family Computer Fixing event is upon us.
  Tags: family holidays computer maintenance

When I was growing up, Val Doonican was a key part of Christmas. Not a great part, but a key part none the less. He always seemed to be on TV just before Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Morecambe and Wise. Is there an equivalent of Big Val nowadays?

Happy Christmas everyone, and best wishes for the New Year!

• BBC/ICM Poll suggests families’ future ‘looks brighter’
  “‘Three-quarters of people in Britain are optimistic about the future for their families. Despite dire political warnings about family breakdown, that figure is 24% higher than when the same question was asked in 1964.’ Sounds good to me!
• Working Families
  a campaigning charity which helps children, working parents, carers and employers benefit from a better balance between home and work … lobby government, work with the media and advise parents and employers on current law, rights and best practice.