Sydney Festival 2015 | Family program

January 4, 2015
by Arts Rocket

The 2015 Sydney Festival opens next week and has again another wonderful year for families with young and/or older children. Masquerade will be on the top of most families list  and Tabac Rouge will be magnificent.
Ali McGregor’s Jazzamatazz! will knock the kids socks off and The Luck Child looks like fun.

This year we will be catching The Kitchen – in 2010 we all went as a family for Roysten Abel’s The Manganiyar Seduction and we were all wowed.

There are plenty of free options across the city to keep you busy over the school holidays as well.
The Vegetable Plot – Melodies and vegetables
Hotbed Designs – Blocks prints and fabric paint
Dear Hope Street – A modern day message in a bottle
Australian Museum in the Village – Discover Hyde Park as a scientist
City of Sydney Lawn Library – Books take a holiday outside
Cool down with the Waterfall Swing at Darling Harbour
More free options.

To explore the full family festival program visit: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2015/family

Sydney Festival
8 – 26 Jan 2015

The Nutcracker | The Australian Ballet

December 2, 2014
by Arts Rocket

Last week my daughter (13) and I went along to our first ballet and we were delighted that is was a dress rehearsal for The Australian Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. The dress rehearsal was a wonderful insight into the energy and commitment that it takes to pull off the perfection that flows on stage from opening night.

The Nutcracker is a beautiful Christmas story set on Christmas Eve where the audience joins Claire on her adventures in a world conjured up by the magician, Drosselmeyer.

The evening ended with French lemon and sugar crepes from the Sarazine food truck.

Perfect!

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

November 21, 2014
by Arts Rocket
The Tiger Who Came to Tea was my daughters favourite book growing up. We would read it over and over again – even though she is now 13 we have pulled her old copy out and it has been wonderful to revisit.
Sophie has an unexpected guest and tea-time mayhem ensues. The Tiger Who Came to Tea is based on Judith Kerr’s picture book and includes magic, sing-a-long songs. It is playing at the Sydney Opera House from December 10 to 28. On behalf of the Sydney Opera House, we have one family pass (2 adults, 2 children) to giveaway to the 10.30am performance on December 10. To enter, email info@artsrocket.org and let me know who you would like to invite to tea – the more imaginative the better! Competition closes Wed, December 3. Good Luck! CLOSED
(The winner will be notified by email)

Japanese Film Festival

November 14, 2014
by Arts Rocket

The 2014 Japanese Film Festival has arrived in Sydney. We love this festival and we have put together a list of films that are classified.  The live-action version of Kiki’s Delivery Service will most likely be on top of the list for families but for older children there are some wonderful films/documentaries to catch.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (G)
Lady Maiko (PG)

Thermae Romae (PG)
Thermae Romae II (M)
The God of Ramen (G)
Wood Job (PG)
Short Peace (MA)

Kid at the House 2014

November 7, 2014
by Arts Rocket

The Kids at the House have announced their 2014 program. I was delighted to see some old favourites and performances I have been waiting patiently to arrive in Australia. My kids are getting older now (15, 12 and 9) and we have outgrown the Babies Proms but the 2014 season looks after everyone.

These are our picks:
Illusionists 2.0 – My youngest son is obsessed with magic – as most nine-year-olds are. We have already secured our tickets for his upcoming birthday.
The Magic Flute – This kid-friendly performance of The Magic Flute is a wonderful introduction to opera and worth saving up for. My daughter and I went to this in 2012 and we both loved it.
The Incredible Book Eating Boy  – Everyone in our house eats books and this is also a favourite book when the kids were younger.
Leo  – This looks like fun and physical theatre is wonderful for all ages.
The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly  –  Finnegan Kruckenmeyer  is one of our favourite playwrights – he knows kids theatre!
Hans Christian, You Must Be an Angel – My eldest son and I have seen Gruppe 38’s performance of Hansel and Gretel in 2010 and a reworking of Little Red Riding Hood – A Sonatina and The Little Match Girl in 2007. When I saw that their latest production was featuring  in the Dublin Theatre Festival – I urged our family in Dublin to go.  I am booking our tickets now!

Of course, there is more to explore – but I will leave that up to you.

Our School holidays

October 7, 2014
by Arts Rocket
  • The Walking Neighbourhood at Art and About Sydney.
  • The Witches at Griffin Theatre – the marvellous Guy Edmonds made this Roald Dahl adaptation his own.
  • Stop Making Sense – My youngest son and I celebrated the 30th anniversary of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense at Golden Age Cinema
  • Paper Planes film preview – which inspired paper planes being made throughout the holidays. If you walk past our house you will spot the paper planes left scattered along our street (our review will be out closer to the film’s release).

Sydney Children’s Festival

September 24, 2014
by Arts Rocket
Our friends over at BIG will be at the Sydney Children’s Festival today….. say hi to them at the Lawn library from 12pm.  Join them in making a tiny inside/outside portrait or create a response on a side by side postcard.

Also on today’s list of fun things to do at the festival includes Hula hooping, KAPOW!, Paper, Torch Torch! workshop, Disco – Au Go Go  ++

The festival runs until the 28 September at the Seymour Centre.

Art and About Sydney | Walking tour

September 22, 2014
by Arts Rocket
The Walking Neighbourhood is a concept that premiered in Brisbane in 2012 and involved children leading tours in their own neighbourhood – giving people a rare insight into the world of kids living in inner city suburbs.
 

Today we took The Walking Neighbourhood tour in Kings Cross that is running within the Art and About program. We all met in the Departure Lounge in the Rex Centre and selected which tour we wanted to take.  The departure lounge is an interactive waiting station where you can view the gallery of found items from previous tours, draw on the large map of Kings Cross, learn more out the tour guides and share what you love about Kings Cross. We all decided that the Underground Mystery tour was the one for us. (There were many other tours to choose from) Our tour guides Finn and Nick (aged 11) were confident and proud of their neighbourhood as they lead us around their underground hangouts.

The Walking Neighbourhood moves to Redfern next week. To  book tickets (free) or to get more information visit: Art and About Sydney.

Thanks Finn and Nick for sharing your world.

 

Friday Finds | July 2014

July 4, 2014
by Arts Rocket

I found some time last night to put together a small selection of our Friday Finds…….

Here is my official list of Friday Finds for Friday 4 July 2014:

  • Expose your kids to cinema…. Last month I re-watched DO THE RIGHT THING with my eldest son (now 16) and as it celebrates the 25th anniversary – the messages are still very clear.  It was wonderful to share this film with him for the first time. Search out films in your local dvd store that show them the world but are also age appropriate.
  • Let your kids have their own space in your garden – let them dig it up and go crazy. If you don’t have space for a garden – get a herb box
  • Lastly – have fun over the school holidays and enjoy your time together.

Kids in the garden

July 3, 2014
by Arts Rocket

Kids in the garden

We asked Sarah from Grow Eat Enjoy for some tips on how to get creative outside over the school holidays……..

Ok, so we’re nearly through the first week of school holidays, the weather is great, hopefully your children are too and I’m sure we’re all having fun.  But there’s another whole week to go so here’s some garden ideas to keep up your sleeves in case you find yourself lying in bed at night wondering how you’re going to fill another day.

Make butterflies out of used milk bottles. This is a little tricky to cut but a good tracing exercise if your kids haven’t fully mastered scissors yet.  Cut out the shape of a butterfly from the sides of your milk bottle.  When you have 5 or more you can thread them with fishing line and hang them in your garden.  They look sweet, flutter in the breeze and may even signal to cabbage moths that these plants are taken thus saving you that annoying task of picking caterpillars off your brassicas.
Make birds out of used milk bottles.  This is like a magic trick and children of 8 or over love it.  You can paint them afterwards and string them up in a similar way to the butterflies.  Instructions here.  Persist, with practise these get easier and better.

Plant peas.  Big seeds for little fingers.  Even if they sit on the surface they’ll still often germinate so hard to go wrong.  And they grow quick, and taste sweet.  You can eat the tips or wait for the pods.  You can even grow chick peas at this time of year which are a pretty alternative.  Soak your store bought chick peas in water and watch them sprout.  Plant them out or keep them in damp cotton wool and watch the plant unfold before your eyes.

If nothing else just get them outside observing.  Dig a hole, climb a tree, pick your neighbours rosemary, smell it, taste it, stick it in a jar of water and pretty soon it will sprout roots and you’ll have a rosemary of your own.