We've just returned from a fabulous trip to sunny Port Douglas. It's one of my most favourite places to visit and this year we hired a house so that we could have a bit of space for just lounging around. I packed quite a few toys and things to do. I wanted the kids to be able to keep themselves busy so I could do some important things (like reading and sitting and looking at mountains and rainforest!).

One of the best things I packed (well actually, I didn't, my husband did) was a deck of cards. I spent many hours playing with cards as a kid; there are really a lot of fun things to do with them.

Here's a few:

Sorting the cards

It's fun to sort and classify the cards in many different ways. You can put all the reds in one pile and all the blacks in another. You can put all the hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs together. You can put all the numbers together and you can even put the cards in numerical order from lowest to highest or highest to lowest. Each time the cards are sorted in a different way, it builds on important maths skills and sorting and classifying is just as important as counting and ordering.

Playing Card Games

Good old “Snap” is a great game for kids to start with and children as young as 2 can often get the hang - even if you start by just matching...

I love to arm my kids with information about things, especially food. I think it's important for kids to know that we don't just eat for taste - food is to nourish our bodies to help us stay healthy and strong.

I remember the first time I taught about food in my Kinder program. I was amazed at the level of interest and just how much ownership the kids took of what went into their bodies after they knew how food effected it's functioning....

I read an article today (and the many comments afterwards) that reminded me of how simple a happy life can be. It’s so easy to try to complicate things with career aspirations, mortgages, a constant barrage of info from the media on how to look better, feel better, have more and do more …