Fifty Things To Do Before You’re 12

I was inspired after reading the following list from Nature Play & National Trust WA in the Weekend West:

1. Climb a tree
2. Sleep under the stars
3. Fall off a bike
4. Learn to swim
5. Build a cubby or tree house
6. Find a geocache in your neighbourhood
7. Go beach combing after a storm
8. Cook damper in a campfire
9. Go on a school camp in the bush
10. Catch a wave
11. Play chasey in the rain
12. Catch a prawn in a river (or at least have fun trying)
13. Make a water slide with builder’s plastic and a hose
14. Find a cave
15. Make something with things you find
16. Play in a creek
17. Do something you’re scared of
18. Watch kangaroos in the wild
19. Slide down a sand/grass hill on cardboard
20. Yell “cooee!” in a gorge or valley
21. Camp on a beach
22. Build a sandcastle city
23. Skim a stone
24. Plant something, watch it grow
25. Play spotlight
26. Ride your bike on a bush trail
27. Visit an island
28. Go for a two-day hike
29. Snorkel at the beach or on a reef
30. Ride a flying fox
31. Play under a sprinkler
32. Climb a big rock
33. Play in the bush for a whole day
34. Visit a waterhole
35. Meet kids in a park and invent a game
36. Paddle a kayak
37. Dig for worms in your backyard
38. Catch a crab
39. Learn the Aboriginal names for five plants and five animals
40. Visit a national park
41. Go fishing
42. Play on a rope swing
43. Eat bush tucker
44. Make a kite and fly it
45. Jump off a jetty (check water depth first)
46. Identify the birds in your backyard
47. Go abseiling
48. Catch a tadpole (and release it)
49. Make a mud pie
50. Find a lake/puddle/pond; use a magnifying glass to spot the living creatures in it
51. Play beach cricket
52. Visit a farm; help move a mob of sheep

I know that’s a bit more than fifty things, but who’s counting? Also, I added that last one. Our kids are very lucky to have one set of grandparents who own a wheat-and-sheep farm, and we visit them many times over the year – so the kids get lots of opportunities to enjoy the country air, the country animals, the country smells, and the country way of life.

I fully intend to provide my kids opportunities to do all of them. I can tick 11 items off this list for our eldest two so far.

What do you think should be added to the list?

New web site: www.myhomecontents.com.au

Have you ever thought about all the contents of your home – all the big purchases you’ve made over the years? Do you know when the warranty will expire on that big screen TV – was it 9 months ago when you bought it, or is it already out of warranty?

Have you ever wanted to start keeping track of your growing home library? Do you know how many books you have? When you’re at the shops, do you wonder whether to buy that classic movie on DVD, thinking, “didn’t I buy this a few years ago?”

Read more about it here: myhomecontentsau.wordpress.com

Twenty things about school my son will tell his kids

In May my son will be 5 years old. In the year 2043 he will be my age as it is now, and quite possibly by then he will have kids, perhaps even a 5-year-old of his own. When he reminisces about school, with what stories will he bore his unbelieving kids?

1. “My parents had to drive me to school themselves. Both ways!”

2. “My parents had to hold our hands when we crossed the road – otherwise we’d get run over by a car or bus. Yes, cars and buses would routinely kill kids!”

3. “School was always in the local neighbourhood – I never remember getting to go to another country for school. Or the moon, for that matter.”

4. “We had to gather in a classroom together with a random bunch of other kids – the only reason we were together was because we shared the same birth year.”

5. “We had one teacher and one assistant for a class of 20 kids. Only the ‘special’ kids got one-on-one teachers.”

6. “The teachers had to do a lot of training before they could teach. They had to go to school for 12 years, and then university for at least 3 years!”

7. “Yes, we had computers. But, your grandfather – at your age, he didn’t even know what a computer was!”

8. “I was required to learn to use a mousepad. No, it was just a smooth piece of plastic that knew where your fingers were.”

9. “Not all the screens could be touched.”

10. “No, the computers didn’t know how to teach us. We had to work it out for ourselves.”

11. “I was required to draw letters, words and numbers with a pencil, on paper.”

12. “The paper was dumb – it didn’t have autocorrect, couldn’t upload, and to re-use it we’d either scrape the pencil marks off with an eraser, or throw it in the recyclebin.”

13. “The recyclebin was just a container, it didn’t do anything – they had to send all the rubbish away to special recycling centers.”

14. “We had to memorize the spelling of each and every word! (Mind you, it was only for one language – English – but there were literally thousands of words to memorize!)”

15. “We only had to learn one language other than English: Japanese. And we called it a ‘foreign language’.”

16. “Almost all the kids at school had white skin. See this photo? This is how light my skin was when I was your age. We had to wear hats and sunscreen, otherwise we’d get skin cancer.”

17. “No, we didn’t usually tease the white kids.”

18. ”We didn’t go to school until we were at least 3 years old – they called it ‘Kindy’. Before we started school, my mum and dad taught your aunts and I at home.”

19. “When I was your age, I had no idea that I’d go to school for 10 years, then another 10 years of internship.”

20. “My dad wrote a whole article about this stuff when he was my age. Oh, I see your Helper has found the archive already. Don’t laugh – back then they had strange ideas about the future. They thought we’d own flying cars and have computers everywhere.”

What do you think your kids will reminisce about when they grow up to be your age?

Organisation? Movement? Philosophy?

What is the Church? An organisation, movement, or philosophy? Or something else?

Read this, then consider.

Certainly, the Church should not merely be an organisation. The body does do a lot of the things that an organisation does (e.g. hire people, build buildings, do things) but it’s got to be more than that, otherwise it’s no better than a club.

The Church is a bit like a movement. It has an emotional heart. It has a purpose greater than just being somewhere to go on Sunday. It requires leaders, not managers – but it is not owned or defined by its leaders.

The Church is, in some ways, like a philosophy. Despite two millenia of attempts to snuff it out, it persists. It morphs and changes, but always there remains a core that does not deviate from its original purpose and ideals.

I think a fourth category needs to be added to this list – Organism. The Church is a living, breathing thing, composed of many people in a single body. It will last forever, because it has its life in the head, Jesus Christ. It has many parts, expressed as local gatherings, with local leaders, but not one of these represents the whole.

Spinning to Cure Diabetes?

Well, indirectly, anyway. The doctors and researchers looking for a cure for this widespread condition need funds to continue their work.

I’m going to do my little bit – on 25 March I will be “Spinning” in Central Park – ride as fast as I can on a stationary bike for eight minutes with no resistance. Believe me, it’s harder than it sounds … I’ll be part of a five man team from the Bonds Team.

I’ve started training for it. On Wednesday I went 5km in eight minutes, and my legs felt a bit wobbly afterwards. Today I managed 5.3km in the same time.

If you would like to support me, please follow this link: http://spin.jdrf.org.au/WA/JeffreyKemp/ and click “Donate”. None of the money goes to me, it all goes straight to JDRF. Thank you!