Perth Royal Show is on 25th September to 2nd October 2010 at the Claremont Show Grounds.
Perth Royal Show has a rich history spanning 170 years, and is an iconic event that showcases WA agriculture, small business and entertainment. The show hosts competitions, animals, food, games, events for the family, and of course the infamous Perth Royal Show showbags. The following is a list of some of the events I think children and animal lovers will get into:
Pat-a-Pig
Name the THree Little Pigs
Brownes Milking Demonstration
Sheep Dog Trials
Animal Nursery Feeding Time
Equestrial Events
Camel Display
This is Perth’s biggest event attracting 400,000 visitors regionally every year. Before you go, make sure to download a Perth Royal Show map and to figure out where you’re going to park.
When our little boy Wills was 12 months old, we knew that he’d be starting full time Montessori school here in Perth at the age of three. So we started to look for child care close to us where Wills could go for half a day or so, once or twice a week. We didn’t need long term child care as I was a stay-at-home parent doing my Master’s studies, and had my MIL close by.
Family Day Care seemed to be in line with what we wanted for our family – Family Day Carers are child care providers who would take care of up to four wards in their own homes, and are governed by policies set forth by Family Day Care WA. The choice of child care provider of course was up to us, and this was very much what we wanted.
We picked a family day care lady who was absolutely gorgeous. She was five minutes from us, had a lovely granny flat converted to a play house, and had four absolutely lovely teenage children. Of course, William, who was then 18 months old, was unimpressed and bawled bitterly when I left him for a short play that first day. I was devastated – and felt awful that morning. But I knew the experience was good for young William, and he needed to get used to a larger circle of people.
With his time at Family Day Care, he was exposed to other children, a new carer, stories, toys, games (he got really good at T-ball), art, and craft. What I thought was really cool was that he was exposed to different lunchtime food provided by the family day care provider. It’s not that we eat Asian food exclusively, to the contrary we don’t. But our lunches then were different to what they’d be served, and it would be nice to know he developed a taste of pumpkin soup outside our family. A new story to tell, son.
Family Day Care turned out to be just fantastic for him. His carer was better than we expected, and I still have very fond memories of her and her children to this day.
Families face child care choices is a recent article on WAtoday which revisits my issue of a dearth in parental support in Perth and the rest of Australia. I touched on this in my About page mentioning my fantasy non-profit organisation with a range of child care services, satellite office facilities and other amenities.
The article mentions that economists propose new parents “clarify their family’s priorities” with the arrival of a baby but then mention the hard fact that these child care services would decimate wages. That’s the punch line isn’t it? With an average daily charge of “$72.20 per day for care,” this means working parents with newborns would have to earn an additional $26,000 in wages to afford child care services in Sydney – a little less if you needed child care in Perth.
I’m afraid despite the choices mentioned in the article, most parents, especially those lower income wage earners would have fewer choices in child care than is alluded to.
The following are some child care links that provide information to parents seeking support in child rearing.
Given I’m trying to increase the prominence of Perth family and parenting bloggers (see the separate section on my blog roll), I thought to list down posts that have recently mentioned Perth. Some of them are from visiting bloggers, but most are from bloggers who live here.
Business Mums Daily features websites and blogs by Aussie Business Mums every week day. Last week 29 July 2010, the SuperParents Blog was picked and featured as one of their daily blogs. It was great to get complimentary feedback on the ‘wide variety of topics’ and the ‘many articles on parenting.’ What I liked was they noticed many of our posts ‘included links to related topics.’
We generally don’t have enough representation from Perth-based family and parenting blogs amongst Australia bloggers. I’m very happy that SuperParents – a wholly Western Australian resource for parents and care-givers is steadily increasing in prominence.
Isn’t that title a bit of a throwback to when I first started the SuperParents Family blog?
Keywords certainly are important to gaining the right search engine traffic, but to really excel as a parent blog in Perth, what is more important than SEO is the networking amongst other parent bloggers that will draw traffic your way and making sure that you are able to maintain output as the author of your blog. Of course I had no illusions that there was any other way – except of course my mind was only obsessed with seeding those keywords properly through my text and titles.
I expected a general reluctance to SEO and thinking that was contrary to my own. But a comment about ‘being true to oneself’ appearing early on in an email dialog kept popping up in my thought clouds. My previous clients didn’t really care about ‘being true to themselves.’ So what is the issue here?
As I worked more on SuperParents and bonded more with my new online family, I realised that it isn’t so much about quality of posts; ‘being true’ is all about using ensuring your voice comes through clearly. While it really isn’t mutually exclusive, it hasn’t got anything to do SEO! Confused?
Bloggers who have improved their SEO knowledge know that “small sustainable changes” are quite easy to do. You can have a search-friendly family blog without ‘compromising your content.’ But if you’re thinking only in keywords and only appealing to a search engine, you’re missing the entire point of having a blog. For instance, an SEO company would never understand why anyone would put shoes on a blogroll, upload a random video of their daughter rock climbing, or post a Pregnancy FAQs joke on a site that has commercial aspirations.
I had to have this chat with my wife in front of my children, given we thought it important as an Australian Chinese family to have them aware of these issues. It all started last week when a young relative of mine cried foul on FaceBook when Alvin was evicted.
Essentially, the FaceBook rant chalked up the elimination to Masterchef being racist. What does that mean? Did he not see the state of the Adrianno Zombo’s cake Alvin put up? Even Alvin himself described his cake as being a “monstrosity.” Now, I think I know what racism is but when poor performance by a person of Asian descent is labelled as racism, then I’ve have to say I think the real issue isn’t about racism.
… when poor performance by a person of Asian descent is labelled as racism, then I’ve have to say I think the real issue isn’t about racism.
Do you really want to know what I think?
I think this kind of thinking sows the real seeds of racism.
Entertain your kids at the Little Day Out biggest indoor fun park in the West
Escape the winter blues by attending WA’s biggest indoor fun park without blowing the budget. The Sunday Times Little Day Out is located inside 3 huge inter-connecting pavilions, the one low entry price gives you unlimited rides, entertainment and activities.
The Little Day Out has over 40 rides including laser skirmish, rocking tub, mini-twisters, traffic jam, storm, cup & saucer, baja buggy, dragon wagon roller coaster, big truck convoy, taxi jets, dumbo the elephant, sama balloon ride merry-go-rounds, mini ferris wheels, red barron, simulators, climbing wall, trampolines, bouncy castles, slides and more!
For younger kids there animal nurseries, pony rides, gymbus, balloon twisters, face painters and displays.
Come along and meet SpongeBob SquarePants plus enjoy stage performances by The Lulus, ABBR, Kangaroo Creek Gang, Scitech, Drippy the Dragon and Zap Circus.
Little Day Out
Claremont Showgrounds Pavilions
Sunday July 11 2010
9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm
Tickets at $25 each, which includes all rides
The event, sponsored by The Sunday Times and supported by Toyworld, will raise much needed funds for Variety WA, which is celebrating 30 years of caring for WA kids.
Limited tickets are available so parents are being urged to book online.
When you were born, we registered you a place in a reputable private school here in Perth for entry in year four. Time has whizzed by, and walking through their campus leaves me excited about your future. Private school has much to offer someone with your ability. A wide variety of sports and interest groups. Lots of peers; more than a few from a similar background and culture to your own. And what appears to be a strong focus on academic progress.
Your current school however, has not dropped the ball. As a Montessori institution, they promise a nurturing environment and a holistic approach to education. Their one-on-one approach to growth is fantastic for one as curious, as capable, and as driven as you are. Time and time again I have been impressed with their system and their passion.
I am encouraging you to stay with Montessori. You have prospered with their generosity of spirit, and I foresee you flourishing intellectually whilst enjoying your childhood. I am advising you to enjoy your youth – which other Asian parent will tell you the same thing?
Whether private school or Montessori, whether now or later, it is your decision. We will support you.
Aussie Mummy Bloggers is an online parenting community started up by local mummy bloggers Veronica from somedaywewillsleep.com and Brenda from mummy-time.com. Hosted as a Ning Network, the site has a collection of 43 interest groups, a forum with 116 topics, a blog directory, and 285 members.
A quick run down of the discussion forum shows the variegated nature and diversity of interests from members. There are those trying to navigate their way around technologies, figuring out content writing approach, and then there is the organising applied to help direct this group of bloggers.
Anyone getting frustrated by people commented on your posts on Twitter and FB but NOT on your actual blog!!!
Top 50 maybe 100 Aussie Mummy Bloggers
Members participating on forums and groups use Aussie Mummy Bloggers as a platform to help solidify blogging alliances, collaborations on posts, and friendships. Activity from which is not only restricted to members. A few top-of-mind initiatives recently like Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival and the Comp/Giveaway group bring value to the internet as a whole.
Joining the Parent Blogs
I was referred to Aussie Mummy Bloggers by parent blogger Catherine from Adventures with Kids a scant two months ago. Since then, I’ve gained immensely from my interactions with other members. As it stands, I’ve posted 70 responses in discussions, entered 2 blog posts, and have 8 friends! Not bad for the token dad.
Traffic from Blogging Network
I get more traffic from my participation in Aussie Mummy Bloggers than I do from my FaceBook account. It’s a surprise given I have 400+ FaceBook friends. Perhaps Aussie Mummy Bloggers know that there is a synergy when you network online. FaceBook friends are perhaps more mercurial and respond only to edgy messages and the occasional ’social’ interchange and status updates.
Parenting posts from Aussie Mummy Bloggers members
