Found in Better Homes and Gardens - September 2002
Children love to have a secret place to be alone with their imaginations. We at our home had many places to build a cubby house, in the bush, under trees or down the next paddock. These days our privileged sons and daughters may have great nutrition aren't quite so lucky in this area.
However, 'We can create a colourful private retreat the kids will love......Having their own space is essential to children. But not many homes these days have enough room for the kids to have their own area indoors, or back gardens big enough for a cubby house.' You can make a portable tent, with a coordinating play mate, a fantastic idea.
It's a mini circus tent, and it's just the thing to keep the kids occupied for hours on end. Set up indoors if the weather is bad or move it outside in fine weather, suspended from a clothesline or tree branch. While the children may call it their very own 'big top', the quiet imaginative play this tent will generate may have you calling it 'the cone of silence'. Just....bliss.
Using a hula hoop, make a cone out of colourful material, which will hang down from a hook in the ceiling. Striped blue and white material attached by ties, hangs down from the hula hoop forming a cylinder which then forms a lovely secret place. Leave an opening in the material hanging down for the opening (door). A colourful round mat is on the floor under the tent and we have a place to hide. There can even be windows and roll-up blinds attached on the walls (striped material).
Children need plenty of creative ways for their imagination to explore their surroundings. Mannatech Inc. has produced glyconutrients to give opportunity for children to have plenty of energy and important vitamins and minerals. These Manna Bears, the children's glyconutrients, are made with natural gums and natural colours, containing no artificial preservatives.
