Q. When is a quilt not a quilt?

A. When it’s a tent, a house, a train, a pirate ship, a ferry, an aeroplane, a safari lodge, a flying saucer, a desert island….

When you reach a certain age a quilt, for all its potential, will only ever be useful for keeping you warm in bed – or perhaps for cuddling up on the sofa on those chilly Irish summer nights. You know the ones: the nights when you can’t justify lighting the fire (it’s summer, after all), but you don’t fancy succumbing to the frostbite that’s nipping at your toes.

For adults, the most interesting thing about a quilt is either its Tog rating (for men) or the colour and pattern of the cover (for women). For children though, it’s a completely different story. With the application of a little childhood imagination the humble quilt suddenly burgeons with possibility.

One rainy afternoon over the holidays the girls were running riot… again. In an attempt to restore a bit of sanity my wife grabbed an old quilt from the utility room, tossed it into the middle of the living room floor and told them to “play with that”.
It worked. Silence descended, and when I walked into the room five minutes later they were busy turning the quilt into a tent, complete with surrounding camp site and a pretend camp fire. They even had their dolls sitting around warming their hands in front of the imaginary flames.

“We’re camping,” they announced, before giving me my marching orders. “No adults allowed!”

Since then the quilt has featured heavily in their play – and has been everything from a bed (which is fair enough) to a shark infested tropical lagoon (…?). I made the mistake of inadvertently stepping on it once, and the three year old practically rugby tackled me. “No Dad, the crocodiles will get you,” she screamed, genuine concern etched on her little face.

At six the twins naturally lead these imaginary adventures, but the little one is well able to hold her own in the imagination stakes. She gets really into it, and sometimes the boundaries between the real world and her imaginary one become blurred. Like, for example, when she answers the phone (her most recent obsession) and explains to the perplexed person on the other end that she can’t stay on because the lions are chasing her; then she hangs up.

But back to that quilt. You can forget transformers – the transmuting mechanical marvels that starred in the recent Hollywood blockbuster of the same name – give the kids an old quilt and it can out-transform any of them.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all recapture that childish capacity to imagine. Oh, I know we can still imagine as adults – but as a rule our imagination is tempered by our perceptions and experiences of the real world around us. We imagine ourselves in a better job, or driving a better car, or with more time and money on our hands. We rarely let our imagination transcend the limits of reality – instead we tether it, confining it to a set of pre-defined sub-conscious constraints.

Sometimes I think it would do us all good to lift those constraints – to let our imaginations run riot and join the kids in their bizarre games. So I’m off to join them on the quilt – I mean the Ark: the flood waters are rising, the lions are trying to snack on the zebras, and we’re still missing the blasted unicorns….

Technorati Tags: imagination, children, Evening Echo, parenting

The Australians are brilliant at coming up with slogans. They’re full of unambiguous one-liners that really cut to the chase.
Forget subtlety and nuance – Aussie ads tell it like it is. It’s not so much a case of caressing your sensibilities and appealing to your senses – more of slapping you around the face until you take notice. Years ago, before having the children, we lived in Sydney for a while. At the time the Aussies were running a drink driving awareness campaign; the slogan simply said “If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot”.

This direct approach can be particularly effective – although the Australians are inclined to cross the line. For instance, when we were there the political opposition party’s slogan was “Keep the b*****ds honest” – a phrase referring, of course, to the right honourable members of the government.

While I’m not advocating that Irish organisations should necessarily emulate their Australian counterparts, there is something refreshingly honest about their approach. People see through all the “clever” advertising that’s rife today, they’re sick of it, and I think consumers would welcome a slightly more open and direct approach.

Direct, of course, doesn’t always mean accurate. For instance, another Aussie TV ad of the time proclaimed the banana as “nature’s wonder fruit”. It showed a smoothie maker being filled with an assortment of fruit, which then whizzed together only for a bright yellow banana to emerge from the other end. Simple, direct and effective… but not accurate.

Banana’s are great – but there’s a fruit much more worthy of the “wonder fruit” title.

The humble tomato is something that’s so ubiquitous we’re in danger of taking it for granted, and yet it’s packed with an array of amazing properties that make it a real super-food. For a start, the red skin colour comes from an amazingly powerful anti-oxidant called lycopene. Tomatoes are packed with it, and it does all sorts of good things. What’s more, lycopene absorption actually improves with cooking – so putting tomatoes into your sauces, soups and stews is not just tasty, it’s highly beneficial. The bright red wonder fruit is also high in vitamins A and C, and is packed with fibre – making it an all round winner in the nutrition stakes.

One of the best things about tomatoes is that, unlike bananas (unless you have a humongous greenhouse handy), you can grow your own right here in Ireland. I was reading recently that a pack of seeds costing roughly €3 will produce around 50 plants, which will yield a staggering 2,000 or so home-grown tomatoes. How’s that for value for money?

Growing tomatoes isn’t as difficult as you might think. You don’t need a greenhouse (although if you have one you’ll enjoy ripe fruit earlier). The seeds are easy to germinate in spring on any handy sunny windowsill – then transplanted outside when they’re strong enough. Just make sure you feed and water them regularly and hey presto: tomatoes!

It’s something the children love getting involved with too: they help to transplant the young plants, and throughout the season help with watering, feeding pruning duties. The highlight, of course, is collecting the luscious ripe fruit at the end of the summer.

There’s absolutely no comparison between home-grown tomatoes and the anaemic, watery excuse for the fruit that you pick up at the supermarket. The wonderfully intense, sweet flavour explodes in your mouth – they’re fantastic, raw or cooked. By far the best testament to the superior taste of home-grown tomatoes is the fact that the girls love eating them straight from the vine. When it comes to shop-bought tomatoes they’re indifferent at best.

So all hail the humble tomato – nature’s true wonder fruit!

Technorati Tags: tomato, tomatoes, fruit, grow your own, children, Evening Echo

When they’re born human babies are 100% reliant on their parents for everything short of drawing breath. We feed them, we clothe them, we cater to their every whim. The utter dependency of this tiny bundle of humanity you’ve brought into the world puts incredible demands on you… but it also builds an unbelievably strong bond.

So strong, in fact, that it can be difficult for parents to accept that as our children grow up they need us less and less. Young children develop at an astonishing rate; before long they’re holding their heads up without our support, then rolling over onto their tummies. In no time at all they’re crawling, tearing around the place with abandon and generally getting into mischief. Of course they still need us, they rely on us, but not quite to the same degree as they used to.

Certain milestones in a child’s life highlight this inexorable fact more than others. Their first steps, for example, or the first time they tie their own shoelaces. But perhaps the most heart rending of them all, for parents and for children, is when they go to school for the very first time.

The girls are going into their third year of school this September. I still can’t believe how quickly Junior Infants and Senior Infants flew by. Now they’re heading into First Class – when they’ll start tackling the curriculum proper – another milestone.

I remember their first day at school like it was yesterday… the excitement, the anticipation, the trepidation – and naturally the occasional tear. There’s something very final about that moment when they cross the school threshold for the first time: they’re moving into a new era of their lives, and for the first time it doesn’t directly involve you.

While we can’t go to school with them, there are plenty of things we can do to help prepare them for their big day, and to make the transition from home to school and back again a smooth one. Perhaps the most important of these is a positive attitude. You may well be worried sick about little Joe’s first day in the classroom – but the last thing you want to do is let him sense that.

Engaging with children is a vital skill for any parent – and by the time school comes around most of us have had plenty of practice. Children are generally thrilled at the prospect of finally going to “Big School”, and chances are they’ve already been talking about it for weeks. If not, try introducing school into your daily conversation. Remember to be up-beat and positive about it all, and you’ll be amazed how quickly they pick up your vibe.

It’s important to involve children in every facet of the preparation for school. Make a point of taking them with you to shop for their new school uniform, or to pick out their school books and stationary. Instead of turning into a parental chore, covering books can become a special “art project” the week before school. The more you involve them, the more children will start thinking about school in a positive way.

Another good idea before school starts is to give your little tearaway plenty of opportunity to interact with other children. When starting school one of the biggest challenges children face is getting to grips with a whole new set of social rules, and learning to get along with other children. You can help them to develop their social graces by encouraging things like sitting quietly, listening and asking politely – but when it comes to dealing with other kids the best preparation is plenty of practice.

When the big day arrives, you’ll probably be more nervous than your son or daughter is at the prospect. Just remember it’s all part of growing up: an important stepping stone for them… and for you.

Technorati Tags: starting school, parenting, children