Christine Knight, Author at Adventure, baby!

Christine Knight

Christine is the editor of Adventure, Baby!

How (and Where) to Teach Your Child to Share

June 1, 2015 / Family, Kids / 0 comment

Sharing has turned into a contentious issue. How do we teach children to take their turn, share and play nicely with others? With reports from schools and the press telling us both arguments—that we should and also shouldn’t be teaching our children to share—it’s hard to know the best way to handle this sensitive topic. Personally, I have different philosophies on the subject, depending on if we are at home (where my preschooler owns all of her toys) or if we are in a space where equipment or toys are communal. Here are three different ways, in three different spaces, I teach my daughter to share.

At home
When my daughter has friends over, the rule is she must share her toys with her guests. This is hard for a three-year-old to do (particularly one who has no siblings). She enjoys playing at other people’s houses with their toys immensely, but can be pretty bad when it comes to letting other people play with her things. Of course, other kids don’t want to come over and not be able to play with toys, so our rule is that if she wants her friends to visit, she has to let them play with her belongings.

We do discuss first, though, if there are any special toys that she doesn’t want anyone to play with, and I put them away for the duration of the play date. (I find that this generally eliminates most sharing friction, although there is the occasional fuss when two kids want the same toy.

As we are the hosts, I remind my daughter that her friend always shares her toys with her, and that she needs to do the same. This reminder is usually enough for her to agree that her friend can play with what she wants to. I also assure my daughter that the toys are still hers, and her friend is just playing with them for a short time—and that she won’t be taking any home with her.

The playground
This is where it’s a bit trickier to deal with sharing issues. If we are at a playground, several kids might want to use the same piece of equipment at the same time. On the slide, for example, I remind my daughter about taking turns. Everyone gets a go and joins the end of the line for another try. When it comes to objects just for one person (say a swing), it requires a different strategy. If my daughter hasn’t been on the swing for long, and another kid has a tantrum about wanting to get on, I let the other child know that my daughter won’t be long—and that they can have a turn when she is finished.

After my daughter has had a fair turn of the swing, I ask her if she is ready to play with something else, which she usually is, and let her know that she has five more swings until it is the other kid’s turn. Giving her a choice and warning that things are changing usually helps stop any meltdowns. It also helps her feel like she has a choice in the matter and I’m treating her fairly.

Play spaces
Play spaces are hard as they involve toys that do not belong to the kids, but the business. My general rule is if my daughter is playing with something, that toy is hers to play with until she is done and ready to move on to the next toy or game. If another kid grabs it from her, I am always on my daughter’s side. I am showing my daughter that I have her back and that her play time is important. If she is the one having a meltdown over a toy someone else is playing with, I let her know that the other child is enjoying playing with it and she can have it when he or she is finished. In this instance, I’m teaching her patience.

This article first appeared on MommyNearest.

MCA Light Show, Light Lab & Family Fun Day: Sydney Best Art Galleries For Kids

June 1, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

The Museum of Contemporary Art has continued to surprise and impress us since we moved back to Sydney. Not only does it have world-class exhibits, it also runs kid-friendly labs as part of the exhibits, and a variety of family programing every week for kids of all ages: from babies to toddlers, preschoolers and school kids. Literally something for kids of every age.

Because of their family-friendly programs, we have been feeling brave enough to venture back into the gallery with Cheese. She is not that into art thus far, being more interested in running and causing chaos instead. With the MCA’s set-up, it means we can see the exhibit we are interested in, as well as having a way to engage Cheese that she enjoys too – win-win for everyone, and we also hope that by doing this, our child will grow up to share our love of art.

The current exhibit at the MCA is Light Show (open until July 5, 2015). Light Show is a spectacular multisensory exhibition by artists all around the world, with the one theme in common – light. The show features a variety of installations and immersive experiences that are suitable for people of all ages – including wiggly preschoolers like our Cheese.

We did see the exhibit at our typical break-neck speed, close on the heels of our speedy preschooler, but this exhibit caught her interest and we doubled back to see rooms and installations repeatedly at her insistence.

The immersive nature of the exhibit was hypnotic – the three of us were mesmerised by the glittering, twinkling lights, and visual illusions that lead us to believe we were moving, or falling, all by means of clever placement and design of light. We spoke with Cheese about the lights. See how if you move this way or that, the image we see changes? What happens if you put your hand here? Or stand there? When you look at these coloured lights, and then look at the white wall, what new colours do you see? She particularly loved anything interactive, like the dark room with the beam of light that she could dance in, jabbing her wand into the light ray to try and capture it.

Outside the Light Show is the free Light Lab for kids. Set up into two rooms, one has a light projected onto a wall which captures movement – perfect for entertaining kids and teaching them about their shadows. The second room had UV lights installed on the ceiling shining down into the art works kids were making with simple white paper and highlighters. Simple but enthralling concept: shine the light on paper and it glows. Cheese wanted more and more paper to keep creating her artworks for us, which were quite Miro in style, I have to say.

Also running when we visited was the monthly Family Fun Day. This free program gives kids activities to perform in the gallery, followed by a craft activity in the National Centre for Creative Learning next to the Light Lab on level 3. The program is aimed at school-aged kids, so around 4 or 5 and up, but there were a lot of younger kids enjoying the activities with their families.

In the main gallery area, kids were lying on the floor with their parents, drawing pictures of the outfits worn in the artwork. The “MCA Sketch” sheet they were given with the Family Fun Day activities on it asked kids to find pictures of outfits in the paintings and then draw a new one on their paper. Upstairs in the learning centre was the craft area part of the day (which had a gorgeous view of the Harbour Bridge, by the way). Friendly staff handed kids a tray filled with craft materials and asked them to create their own superhero wearable artwork, like a badge, headband or the like. The art supplies were basic pipe cleaners, paper, sparkles and so on – perfect materials for letting kids’ imaginations run free.

We helped Cheese with her outfit of crown, wand, necklace and wrist cuff. Her superpower, she decided, was “freezing” (thanks Elsa), and “flying”. After which she proceeded to “fly” through the gallery, stopping now and then to press a “button” on her cuff to power herself up again. Crazy cute. I appreciated the idea from the MCA staff to help fuel her imagination.

Museum of Contemporary Art
140 George St,
The Rocks NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9245 2400
Get Directions

A huge thank you to the MCA for hosting us.

Mummy Make-up: Secrets To Looking Bright-Eyed & Awake

May 29, 2015 / Giveaway / 38 Comments

I’m pretty rubbish at putting on make-up on a day-to-day basis. I always have the best intentions to put on a bit of foundation, but I’m lucky if I remember to slap on sunscreen. Part of the problem is not knowing how to make myself look decent with minimal effort – because, let’s face it, who has the time to fuss with make-up when you’ve got little kids underfoot?

I’ve teamed up with L’Oréal and beauty writer and YouTuber Fadhila Prabu to bring you a simple tutorial on ways to use make-up effectively – and quickly – to give you that bright-eyed and awake look you used to have pre-kids. At the end of the tutorial you can enter my giveaway to win the exact same L’Oréal products for yourself. I love these make-up tips for mums on the go – thank you Fadhila for sharing your secrets with us!

L’Oréal and Adventure, Baby! are giving one lucky Australian reader the opportunity to win a make-up pack valued at $124.75, containing:

L’Oréal Paris True Match Foundation RRP $29.95
L’Oréal Paris Lumi Magique Concealer RRP $27.95
L’Oréal Paris False Lash Butterfly Wings in Black RRP $25.95
L’Oréal Paris Brow Artist Plumper 04 in Dark Brunette RRP $18.95
L’Oréal Paris Colour Riche Made-For-Me in 235 Nude RRP $21.95

Entry open to Australian residents only. The most creative answer will win. This is not a game of chance. Competition is open Saturday May 29th 2015 to 11:59pm Saturday June 6th 2015. For full terms and conditions click here.

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Thank you to L’Oréal for providing the products to create this tutorial. All opinions are by Christine Knight and Fadhila Prabu.

Linking up with Bron.

Tale Of A Lost Dolly

May 28, 2015 / Cheese, Family, Kids / 4 Comments

We’ve had a super sad week over at our house. Cheese’s Dolly, given to her when she was born by my dad, was lost. We can’t quite understand how she was even lost, but the fact remains we can’t find her. My daughter is devastated, as am I, and also my parents since they’re the ones who chose the doll and gave it to her.

Taking it back to the scene of the lost doll. My husband and Cheese took Dolly in the car with her to school. Usually the rule is Dolly doesn’t leave the house just because we’ve been scared of this happening, but on that fateful day, we’d all had a shocking night’s sleep, and when Cheese begged to take her “just in the car!” I relented through pure exhaustion. “How much harm can she come to in the car?” I thought. Alec was equally tired and doesn’t remember much about what happened to the doll after this, other than that when I asked him about where the doll was later on, that he didn’t know. “She must be in the car”, he said, and went off to look. Nope. Dolly was not in the car. We started to panic as Cheese also noticed Dolly was gone and asked for her at bed time. The next day we drove back to where Dolly might have fallen out of the car and looked around the area. We door knocked the surrounding businesses to see if they’d found her. Nothing.

My mum made up posters in hope someone might have seen Dolly, which we plastered around the area we thought she was lost, as well as in the bottom of our building just in case.

It’s been several days and there has been no word of Dolly. Just one very sad child who, every night for the past week now, has asked for Dolly several times a night as she goes to bed, wakes up reaching for her doll, and then again in the morning, when she would usually bring Dolly with her into our room. I am hoping beyond hope that the doll is tucked away somewhere in the car in a secret hole we haven’t yet discovered.

Why is Dolly so special? My dad gave me my first doll when I was a new baby, and I still have the doll today. It was a special gift that he wanted to repeat for my daughter. Cheese took to Dolly and after a few months wouldn’t go to sleep without her. Dolly has travelled around with world with us – between Australia and New York several times, to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico and more. Dolly had been a constant for my daughter in our life of travel. And now, Dolly is gone and we are so sad.

I found a few pictures of Dolly’s (short) life to commemorate her special place in our lives. Goodbye Dolly, you were well loved!

24 Hours Kid-Free In Canberra

May 27, 2015 / ACT, Australia, NSW, Travel / 5 Comments

Canberra is often overlooked as a quick weekend away from Sydney and surrounds. Once known as the place you visit on school excursions, Canberra has come along way and is now alive with innovative art exhibitions, hip restaurants and spectacular scenery.

I usually make trips like this as a family, but on this occasion I was desperate to see an exhibit that I knew my preschooler wouldn’t be keen on, so my parents kindly watched her for a night so the husband and I could skip on down to Canberra and check out the James Turrell exhibit at the National Gallery of Australia. We only had 24 hours to spend in the city, we had a tight itinerary that allowed us good food, nature and culture.

Lunch: Silo Bakery
This little bakery is so popular that bookings for lunch are advised, and if you’re dropping by for one of their famous pastries, get there early or you’ll go home empty handed. The bakery is on the pricey side (our meal of two dishes, two tarts, two coffees and a tea came to $66), but the food is absolutely delicious – making it worth the money especially if you’re not in Canberra very often.

We ordered: Jamon, squid ink salami & tomato bread ($24), Tarte Flamiche ($20 Flemish-style leek & cheese pastry on an endive salad), Rhubarb pastry, Banana Carmel Tart.
Silo Bakery: 36 Giles St Kingston ACT 2604. Hours: 7am to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday

Afternoon stroll: Walk around Lake Burley Griffin
We stayed in a central hotel, just a short walk from Lake Burley Griffin. Our hotel also had free bikes for customers to use during their stay, which would have been perfect to ride around the lake. We walked instead, and enjoyed the late autumn colours, the swans and generally peaceful stroll around the lake as we walked towards the National Art Gallery.

Cultural visit: National Gallery of Australia
I love art, so it never seems like an odd thing to do to drive down to Canberra just to see an exhibition. The National Gallery of Australia gets a lot of spectacular exhibitions that don’t come up to Sydney, such as the current one, James Turrell. The National Gallery also has a great permanent collection worth seeing, with an impressive Sidney Nolan collection, as well as modern art works by masters like Degas, Monet and Dali. The permanent collection is free to see, as is the sculpture garden outside. The Turrell exhibition we saw, his retrospective, was nothing short of spectacular.
National Gallery of Australia: Parkes Pl, Canberra ACT 2600

Dinner: eightysix
This little restaurant is so hot right now that by 6:30pm it was jam packed (highly suggest you make a reservation). The food is upscale modern Australia, with innovative dishes like the Daffinois & Dukkah Wafer, $6, Steak Tartare with Wasabi, $24, Duck Bun (with hoisin & hot sauce $8), Pumpkin Tortellini with Rocket, $30. Delicious food, excellent service. Not cheap, but high quality and worth the splurge. The cocktails were magnificent – my $30 Honey Blossom i had was so potent I had a slight buzz the following morning. We stayed for dessert and had the Margarita, $14, (which was a sour sorbet and meringue piles on top), and the Banoffie Pie, $17, which was the perfect mix of sweet pie crust, caramel and whipped cream, interestingly topped with pretzels.
eightysix: 11 Elouera St, Braddon ACT 2612. Hours: Mon 6pm-10pm, Tue-Sat 12pm-2:30pm, 6pm-11pm, Sun 9am-3pm, 6pm-11pm

Accommodation: East Hotel
We stayed at the East Hotel in Kingston. It was very well located, modern and clean. The hotel had fun touches like complimentary bikes, refreshing lemon water and jelly snakes in the lobby, and a variety of family-friendly amenities like Xboxes and boardgames – it was unfortunate we were travelling minus the child and didn’t need to use them. Each room at a small but functional kitchen area, so you could stay here longer and buy groceries to cut down the cost of eating out.
East Hotel: 69 Canberra Avenue, Kingston ACT Australia 2604

Breakfast: East hotel
We were going to head to a different cafe for breakfast, but were short on time so had breakfast at hour hotel. It turned out to be a good deal. As guests of the hotel it cost us $15pp to have a hot breakfast including made-to-order eggs, baked beans, hash browns, bacon, sourdough, coffee, tea, pancakes. The food was fresh and delicious, and it was so easy that we were happy with our decision.

7 Friendship Lessons For My Daughter

May 27, 2015 / Family, Kids / 0 comment

I’ve been blessed to have some of the most wonderful friends a person could hope for. Coming from a very small family, friends were essential to my life at an early age from being my playmates to later, my confidants. I pretty much consider several of my close friends to be family now—that’s how important they are in my life. As my daughter starts to form friendships of her own, and comes home from preschool with tails of “Emma isn’t speaking to me today!”, or “Jack wouldn’t play with me!”, I realized that it’s time for me to start teaching my daughter how to be a good friend, so that she might be lucky enough to enjoy some wonderful friendships in her life too.

Listen up
Everyone wants to be heard. Listening to your friends and asking them questions about themselves is just as important as you telling your friend all of your news and woes. Listening is essential to ensuring your friendship works both ways.

Practice forgiveness
We all make mistakes, say things we don’t mean and do stupid things. Often it’s not intentional, it’s just a momentary lack of judgement that is regretted straight away. Accept an apology with grace and don’t hold a grudge—a good friend is worth more than a few slip ups.

Don’t take it personally
It can feel very personal when you’re not invited to a party or a movie outing. Maybe the lack of invitation was deliberate, but you don’t know the reason why. With a party, maybe they were only allowed a few friends, or, with a movie date, it might be that your friend just wanted to spend time with another friend one-on-one. What’s important to remember is that it’s nothing to do with you, it’s likely you have done nothing wrong, so please don’t beat yourself up over it.

You can’t be friends with everyone
Just like you don’t want to be friends with every single person that you meet, the same will be for how people feel about you. Sometimes, you’ll really want someone to be your friend and they won’t be interested—and it will be really upsetting. Try not to take it personally, because it’s nothing to do with you. People like and don’t like people often for no fathomable reason. You can’t force a friendship, so if someone doesn’t want to be your friend, remind yourself that it’s their loss and move on.

Be kind
This is something you should remember with everyone you encounter in life and especially with those you care about. Don’t laugh at a friend when they fall over or do something embarrassing in front of others. Be a shoulder for friends to cry on when they’re sad and pick them up when they fall down. If you’re kind to other people they will, in turn, be kind to you.

Be loyal
If your friend tells you something personal, regardless of whether they said it was a secret or not, keep it to yourself. Absolutely never spread rumors or comment on silly gossip. Never, ever talk about a friend behind his/her back. A good rule is: if you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it—period. If you’re known to be a loyal friend, your friends will behave the same way towards you.

Move on
Some friendships go sour. People change and so do their friendship needs. Know when a friendship is over and acknowledge the good times you had, while focussing on your real friends who are going to last.

This article first appeared on MommyNearest.

Disney Into The Woods Movie Blu-ray Giveaway

May 21, 2015 / Disney Travel, Giveaway / 10 Comments

I love a good movie night. If you do, too, then you’ll love this giveaway I’m running with Disney this week. FIVE readers will have the opportunity to win a blu-ray copy of the Disney movie Into The Woods. This giveaway is open to Australian residents only (sorry US peeps!).

Into the Woods is a funny and warm musical that follows classic fairy tales with a twist – they’re all tied together by an original story about a baker and his wife. Some big names star (and sing!) including my personal favourite actresses Emily Blunt and Anna Kendrick. I really enjoyed the new additions to traditional tales, and the wonderful singing.

A big thanks to Disney for giving me FIVE copies of Into The Woods for this giveaway (RRP $49.95). To enter, fill in the form below and tell me what your favourite fairytale is.

Entry open to Australian residents only. The most creative answer will win. This is not a game of chance. Competition is open Friday May 22nd 2015 to 11:59pm Thursday May 28st 2015. For full terms and conditions click here.

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The Vogue Cafe, Macquarie Centre: Kid-Friendly Cafes, Sydney

May 21, 2015 / Macquarie Park, North-West Sydney, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

Rainy days in Sydney just destroy me. Especially when the rain has set in for weeks and we are all getting a serious case of cabin fever. On one such rainy day we head over to the Macquarie Centre for lunch and shopping (along with half of Sydney, it seemed). After the stress of finding a car park was over, we head straight to The Vogue Cafe for lunch.

The Vogue Cafe is such an interesting little place. It sits inside the shopping centre, and even has a seating area that is pretty much in the car park, but it’s an adorable, whimsical place, and it’s hard to remember that you’re actually in a shopping centre.

The staff are all very sweet and assure me that they are very kid-friendly. There are a lot of families having lunch when we arrive, as well as lots of young couples who are possibly big kids at heart.

The Vogue Cafe feels a bit like something out of Wonderland. While the menu is pretty straightforward, they are known for their fantastical shakes. Called “Magical Milkshakes”, they are topped with things like whipped cream, rice bubbles, pop corn and jelly snakes, with a chocolate and sprinkles rim. The weekly specials are even fancier.

The cafe is popular and we have to wait about 10 minutes for a table. The service is fast, and after we order, everything starts to arrive quickly. The kids milkshake arrives first, which is perfect for wriggly kids.

We ordered the TVC Mix Up (scrambled eggs tossed with feta and basil, served with soy and linseed toast, $12.50), sides of grilled tomato ($2) and avocado ($2), Benny Dict (salmon, two poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, chives, served in chiabatta bread, $16.50), BEB (egg and bacon baguette served with BBQ sauce ($8), Kids Sourdough Soldiers (with vegemite, $4), Hot Chips ($7), Kids Magic Milkshake (chocolate, $4), Magic Milkshakes (vanilla and strawberry, $7 each), Nutella Milkshake (8).

The food is great. While they are known for their milkshakes, their food is really delicious and also very well priced. My eggs are a huge serving that I can’t finish. Probably because I also drank that giant Nutella milkshake first.

The Nutella milkshake is what The Vogue Cafe is well known for, and it did not disappoint. The milkshake was creamy and delicious, and I really enjoyed the quirky waffle cone filled with gummy snakes on top.

In early 2018 the Vogue Cafe added a little enclosed play area for small kids, perfect for toddlers or preschoolers.

The Vogue Cafe is a great dining outing, even if you’re not planning on shopping at the Macquarie Centre.

Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Yes.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: Yes.
Kids’ menu: Yes.

The Vogue Cafe
109 Waterloo Road,
Macquarie Park NSW 2113
Phone: (02) 9887 2570
Prices: $
Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30am-6pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-6pm
Get Directions

Jungle Buddies Play Centre: Indoor Play Centres Inner West

May 16, 2015 / Indoor Play, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

With a super active 3.5 year old, I’m a frequent visitor to play centres, particularly on rainy days. Even on days when the weather is clear, it’s still great to have somewhere safe for Cheese to burn her energy off.

Jungle Buddies at Five Dock is a huge, clean and bright play centre. The climbing structure is massive, with plenty of nocks and crannies and levels to keep kids entertained for hours. The equipment is all extremely clean and new, which is an added bonus for me and my hatred of dirty sticky things.

The cafe area in Jungle Buddies is quite unique in that they have made a big effort to create a menu that delivers guests delicious, healthy food choices. We were at Jungle Buddies for a party and were extremely happy with our menu of sliders, pizza and fruit.

If you’re dining in, there are even more choices on the menu such as salads, Serendipity ice-cream, and a range of locally-made cakes from Sweetness The Patisserie, and biscuits from Rowie’s Cakes. The ingredients for the meals are all from local producers, too, like Bowan island Bakery. It’s a real pleasure to take the kid to a play centre and not just watch her have a good time, but to be able to have some really good food myself while I’m watching her play.

For kids under 3 there is a separate soft play area.

Jungle Buddies is very light and bright, with natural light streaming in through the windows. It has clean bathrooms and baby change facilities, and a large parking area downstairs, where it’s easy to walk a few steps to the elevator which takes you right to the front door of the play centre. Very easy to navigate with a stroller.

The staff were very friendly, and were especially great with the birthday girl and her guests.

We really enjoyed our time at Jungle Buddies and will be back to play again.

Jungle Buddies Play Centre
2/97 Queens Road,
Five Dock NSW 2046
Phone: 1300 883 819
Hours: Daily 9:30am-5pm
Get Directions

Pitching Made Easy: How To Ask For Freelance Work

May 16, 2015 / Writing / 12 Comments

Pitching for freelance writing can be a scary thing to do. No one likes being rejected. After giving this freelance writing thing a good go for the best part of a year and a half now, I can tell you that it does get easier. All of it. The cold emailing. The pitching. And even the rejection. Somewhere along the way of sending out too many introduction emails and pitches to count, I suddenly stopped taking it personally if I didn’t land a job.

The thing is, working for yourself is a very personal thing to do. When you pitch stories and ideas, you’re also pitching your skills and experience, so it can feel like a very personal rejection if you’re turned down. What you have to remember is the person you’re pitching to is usually a paid employee of a large company, and they are juggling many freelancers and staff, as well as deadlines and articles of their own, plus reporting to their bosses. To them, your pitch is just a tiny cog in their daily wheel – something they are used to dealing with day in and day out. To them, it’s just work. It’s not personal. If they don’t reply to your email, or dismiss your ideas, it’s not personal. They’re just doing their job.

The lesson for me in this was to not let rejection destroy my self confidence. After being rejected or not hearing from a potential client, I will still go back and try again if I think it’s worth the business. Even if my idea has been shot down, I will still do it, because it’s through perseverance that we succeed.

So this how I approach business for work with a cold email (yes, you can also call an editor on the phone, but I’m a wimp and I prefer emails to basically ever picking up the phone):

Hello Judy,

Lovely to e-meet you. I love “Mum Business Magazine” and am interested in freelance writing for you.

I am a professional writer based in Sydney, Australia. My articles on parenting are regularly published on sites such as the Huffington Post and by businesses such as Fisher Price. You can see my published work portfolio and resume for more information about my work history.

I would love to pitch ideas for articles at “Mum Business Magazine”. Can you please send me your submission guidelines.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to your response.

Christine Knight

Key things to note:

1. Keep it short and to the point
No one has time for long emails. Keep it brief.

2. What can you offer?
What experience do you have? Why are you right for their publication?

3. Hyperlink to resources
Make it easy for the person to find your most important work examples, resume and work portfolio.

4. What do you want?
Submission guidelines will include what topics they accept work for, the word count, if they want photos, if they pay and what the pay rate is. If they don’t have an official guidelines document usually your reply will include at least a few lines that will cover this.

Hope this helps you work up the courage to pitch for paid freelance work. Let me know what you would like me to write about next.