Road cones
21 June 11
This morning, the girls decided they wanted to ride around the driveway. But in order to direct the traffic where they wanted it to go, the girls needed to first make traffic cones.

I’m sure 8yo Bethany is skilled in creating three-dimensional shapes from paper, and her guidance directed our girls in cutting a piece of paper and wrapping it into a cone shape. These sort of activities stretch our children’s imaginations — now a piece of paper holds three-dimensional possibilities and not just the flat promise of a not-yet-drawn picture!


The girls enjoyed riding around the driveway — holding up Stop and Go signs and assigning themselves the jobs of road workers or drivers. The paper traffic cones added another dimension to the game — and because they were hand-made, they are treasured beyond their size and longevity.
Later, we walked around the Dargaville neighbourhood to visit some nearby playgrounds. I took a detour with the girls to photograph a traffic cone that has been intriguing me for a couple weeks. From the front window of the house where we’ve been staying, I can see a traffic cone on the very top of a tall Norfolk Island pine.


What do you think? How did the traffic cone get up to the very top?
1 · Cannie · 22 June 2011, 01:45
Perhaps its been there since the tree was little and has been there as the tree has grown. That’s my best guess.
2 · Root and Twig · 23 June 2011, 00:26
My vote, too! It must have been there since the tree was young!
In a book, I read about a man in France who made his own wine, and every spring he would carefully tie an empty wine bottle over a tiny unripe pear on his pear-tree. After the pear had matured, he snipped the pear-in-bottle off the tree, poured in wine and corked the bottle. When he served the wine to guests, it was a show-stopper- a great conversation piece!
3 · Vallere · 24 June 2011, 13:46
Lauren! A friend just pointed me to your blog! I am shocked at how much we have in common, it seems, and I can’t wait to read more of your archives! My family and I moved to Wanganui in January from the East Coast of the USA for my hubby to take a job here. We’re a God loving, homeschooling (very unschooly since we got here), breastfeeding, co-sleeping family. I’d love to chat with you via email if you have time, and if you and your family make it back down to the southern North Island, I’d love to show you some of the gems in Wanganui! I linked my blog of our adventures in Kiwi-land – I think we’ve visited a lot of the same places!