Foods of Fancy

A couple of weeks ago I was all aghast at the 'Party Food' that the parents were providing for the Preschool End of Term Party. There was a list of foods pinned to the noticeboard and each parent had to put their name beside the food that they were bringing. Keep in mind that Ayla and I were new to "mainstream" schooling and had always enjoyed the healthy lifestyle that our Steiner Kindy provided.

So over I go to the list and gradually run my finger down it.....

Party Pies (1 dozen)
Party Pies (1 dozen)
Party Pies (1 dozen)
Sausage Rolls (1 dozen)
Sausage Rolls (1 dozen)
Cheerios (1 dozen)
.....and the list goes on, you get the idea.

All the way at the bottom of the page was Fruit Platter....THAT'S ME!!! So I put my name down beside the fruit platter. And so began my mission. Steven made some passing comment about the possibility of me getting all 'Jamie Oliver' and doing a big cookup and then all the kids not eating it. My response was ..."No no...just doing a really FABULOUS fruit platter". And I did......but then somehow I got all 'Jamie Oliver'...oops.

I nearly cooked myself into an early grave. I just couldn't stop thinking that if you provided healthy party food, the kids would eat it. There's really no need for all of the party pies and cheerios. In any case, I'm not really sure Cheerios could be classed as a food anyway. Just in case you don't know what a cheerio is....cocktail franks, weiners, little boys....whatever you want to call them. Those things that have something resembling meat....with all the added grissle, fat, bone, feathers....bluck!

Anyway, I digress :)

I decided that along with my FABULOUS fruit platter, I would come some other irresistables. We cooked Sesame Buffalo Wings (no buffalos don't have wings...chicken wings) and then I thought I would give a little respect to the new season - SPRING - and cook Devilled Eggs....eggs...spring.....I know your laughing at me!

You can see the FABULOUS fruit platter up the top.....fabulous right??? Right??? Yeah well anyway, I made 2...couldn't help myself.




Dropped it all off at the Preschool in the morning with everyone agape and most likely thinking, "I didn't see that on the list" and Steven hoping that it wasn't going to be a Jamie Oliver Healthy Food Disaster. And you know what? It wasn't :)

Steven did pick up and apparently it was a resounding success with all of Ayla's dishes walking off the table first!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeee. Experimental success! It seems that healthy party foods, presented nicely, really are the Foods of Fancy for Five Year Olds!

In other breaking news....the Luxmoore Family have returned to the world of Broccoli Box Farming......miss my vege patch. See below.

The Merry-Go-Round of My Mind

I'm not sure what I am thinking right now but I do feel that if I just start writing, I'll get my mind around it and sort everything out.

Ayla had her first day at Giralang Preschool today. It was a really nice day for her. The kids are lovely, the parents are lovely and the two teachers are great too. It's a nice small group of kids from a few different backgrounds....Australian, Indian, Serbian etc. We met the most gorgeous little boy who was also there for his first day. He's from Serbia and he's only 3 1/2 years old. Non-English speaking kids can come into preschool a year early for half days to help them pick up the English language ready for preschool the following year. He was super animated and he definitely had the words "scuss me" and "come, come" totally sorted!



Ayla's favourite part of the morning was playing with Lego....which really just involved tipping it all over the place and attempting to eat it....and they played a parachute game. They have this big colourful parachute type thing where half the kids sit underneath it and squeal and giggle while the other half lift it up and down and shake it all about. Ayla did a lot of squealing and giggling.

But halfway through the morning, I kept having this niggling feeling that this wasn't the right place for Ayla. Don't get me wrong, everybody is great with her and they are welcoming and friendly. Just what we wanted. I don't know. It could just be that it is VERY different to what we're used to and we just need to adjust or it could be that my gut instinct is spot on.



I can't help feeling that this environment isn't going to offer the right challenges for Ayla. The other kids love it and you can see how they are challenged with their 'learning'. For instance, today the kids learned the difference between an Author and an Illustrator. And that's great....but perhaps not for Ayla. Ayla needs to be pushed to explore her physical limits....you know.....stepping, standing, clapping, grasping, holding, throwing, pointing, verbalising or learning expression through augmentative communication. All of these kids already have that....now they're being taught to sit still and be quiet! LOL!

Anyway....I guess I was just using this as a sounding board while I order my thoughts. And in any case, tomorrow is Daddy's day at preschool and I think I should wait and see what he thinks. Feel free to make suggestions.....