September 14, 2025 • 27 mins
It's another egg-citing day at Happy Pants Headquarters as Geraldine and Kate egg-splore what's in their pockets. Lots of wriggly, fluffy and crawly creatures are about!
They chat about what an emu, spider, echidna, frog and gecko all have in common, as well as playing some fun songs to dance along to and listen to a story about Evie's special friend. We also hear some funny yolks about termites and solve some tricky maths problems.
Join Geraldine and Kate as they whisk it all in this eggs-straordinary new episode!
If you'd like to participate in the challenge and show us what you think the Happy Pants Headquarters looks like, you can send a letter to Vision Australia 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong Victoria 3144. Or email us at radio@visionaustralia.org
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:13):
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:30):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially
for kids and especially for you. I'm Geraldine and I'm Kate.
And together we're your happy pants team for today. Before
we see what is in our happy pants today, we
thought we'd let you know that you just might need
(00:50):
a pen and paper at the end of the show.
Are you wearing your happy pants today? We are. Today
my happy pants feel soft like kittens fur. If I
stroke them downwards, they feel silky and smooth. Like when
you eat honey.
S3 (01:10):
Mine feel like fur too, but when I stroke them upwards,
they feel like honey with coconut in it, sort of
silky and rough at the same time.
S2 (01:20):
EpiPens have lots of pockets, but I can't feel anything
in there this morning. Perhaps Happy Pants head office is
taking the morning off.
S3 (01:30):
Head office never takes the morning off. There will be
something there. So have another feel. I have a big
lump of something in mine. It has a handle and
what feels like a lot of stiff bristles. Oh, it's
a hairbrush. And it has a golden ribbon tied around
the handle in a big bow. Oh, there's something else
(01:53):
in here. It's cold and it's moving. It's a big
green frog.
S2 (02:03):
Well, I can't feel anything in mine, but I can
hear something.
S3 (02:07):
That sounds like a very small and very yappy dog.
You aren't carrying a puppy around with you, are you?
S2 (02:14):
Not that I know about. This thing is velvety smooth
and I can feel a little fat body and a
velvety tail. Oh.
S3 (02:24):
Oh! Did it bite? What is it?
S2 (02:27):
Well, it did bite. And it held on to. But
it didn't hurt. I don't think it has that kind
of teeth. It just gave me a bit of a surprise.
It's a bit wriggly, and I can feel little legs
trying to run away. If I'm very gentle, I think
I can get it out of my pocket without hurting it.
S3 (02:47):
Oh, it's a gecko. Isn't it pretty? Big dark eyes.
And those pads on its toes are specially made for gripping.
So it can even run upside down across the ceiling.
You wouldn't think such a little reptile could make such
a big yap.
S2 (03:04):
Its skin is covered with tiny scales, but it feels
as soft as velvet.
S3 (03:11):
There's something else in here. A couple of silver coins.
A five cent and a 20 cent or. And a
bunch of emu feathers. I'm glad it wasn't the whole emu.
S2 (03:28):
I just found this in my pocket, and I know
what it is.
S3 (03:32):
What a neat little case. It's made of white silk.
It's round and flat. A bit like a ten cent piece,
only thicker.
S2 (03:43):
Well, I think it might be an egg case made
by a huntsman spider. There were probably about 200 eggs
in there before they all hatched.
S3 (03:52):
Oh, you mean one of those giant spiders that sometimes
come inside and hang out on the wall?
S2 (04:00):
Well, huntsman spiders aren't dangerous. You'd have to try and
grab one before it bit you. They'd much rather run
away than attack. Anyway, that's just the egg case. All
the spiderlings have packed up and left home.
S3 (04:16):
What a strange lot of things were in our pockets today.
A bristly brush, a frog, a barking gecko, emu feathers
and a spider's egg sac, for starters.
S2 (04:29):
And, Kate, can I have a look at those coins, please?
I thought so. If you run your fingers over the
five cent coin, you can feel the outline of an echidna.
And there's a platypus on the 20 cent coin.
S3 (04:47):
Now all we have to do is work out how
all these different things fit together.
S2 (04:53):
Okay. Thinking caps on and some music to get our
brains working.
S3 (04:58):
I reckon a wobbly walk would get everything moving. Brains
and bodies. Everybody up and we'll wobbly walk together.
S2 (06:35):
Oh, why did you take my brain still wobbling? Oh,
well that's better. I was all shook up for a bit.
S3 (06:44):
Me too. Nothing like a good wobbly walk to get
things loosened up. Now, let's work out what we're supposed
to talk about today. First the hairbrush. Mm. That's for
brushing hair.
S2 (06:59):
Well, the platypus has hair, but geckos, spiders, frogs and
emus don't. At least not the brushing kind of hair.
Echidnas do have hair underneath their spiny overcoats, though. Now
what do all these creatures have? That is the same then.
S3 (07:19):
Hmm. Geckos are reptiles. Frogs are amphibians. That's a big word.
It just means they spend part of their lives in water.
EMUs are birds and spiders are arachnids, which is just
Old Greek for webspinners. Echidnas are in a special group
(07:39):
with platypuses, and I'll remember what that group is called
in a minute.
S2 (07:46):
Well, maybe that's it. They're all different kinds of animal. Um. Ah.
S3 (07:53):
Got it. They all lay eggs. Frogs lay their eggs
in water. Geckos slip theirs into a crack. They can
find spiders, spin a silk purse. Echidnas keep theirs in
a pouch. EMUs make a nest on the ground, and
the platypus lays hers in a burrow in a river bank.
S2 (08:15):
Well, that's true for most of our pocket things, but
what about the hairbrush? Hairbrushes do not lay eggs.
S3 (08:24):
The brush had a golden ribbon round the handle. Mm.
That means there's something special about it, which we're supposed
to notice.
S2 (08:33):
Nah, it's just a hairbrush. Well, although it does have
much stiffer bristles than your usual everyday brush.
S3 (08:41):
Ah. That's it. That's the clue.
S2 (08:44):
Well, what what bristles?
S3 (08:47):
What creature is it that has bristles and lays eggs?
S2 (08:52):
Of course. Our friend the echidna. She has a whole
overcoat of spiky bristles which she wears over her soft,
hairy undies.
S3 (09:03):
The echidna is a mammal, and the echidna and the
platypus are the only mammals in the whole world which
lay eggs and then feed their young on milk. They
have a special name. Monotremes. See? I knew I'd remember.
S2 (09:23):
Big word alert. Monotreme is the name for a special
sort of mammal which lays eggs. See? A kookaburra. Friend
is laughing at us because it took us so long
(09:44):
to work out what the pocket clues were about.
S3 (09:47):
I heard on the grapevine that our kookaburra has had
quite a lot to laugh about just lately.
S4 (11:55):
Nothing can stop me when I'm wearing my happy pants.
S2 (12:00):
Well, lucky to have all that bush on the other
side of our fence. So we often have bushland visitors.
We should have worked out those pocket clues much sooner.
After all, we do have our friendly neighbourhood echidna coming
in for a feed of ants most days.
S3 (12:18):
She used to curl up in a spiky ball, or
dig herself into a hollow and lie in it with
her spikes all sticking up if we got too close.
But now she seems to know it's safe to be
near us.
S2 (12:31):
Those backward facing hind claws are just right. For shovelling
to an ant nest doesn't last long when our spike
gets going.
S3 (12:41):
I'm waiting for the day when she hatches a puggle
and brings it in to teach it how to use
the long, sticky tongue to hoover up breakfast.
S2 (12:51):
I wonder how many ants a puggle would need for breakfast.
S3 (12:55):
A hundred ants are pretty tiny. Probably double that. How
many would that be?
S2 (13:03):
Well, double means two. Lots of something. So two. Lots
of 100 would be a 200.
S3 (13:12):
And Mrs. Spike eats twice as much as a puggle.
So how many ants would that be?
S2 (13:18):
Well, twice means two times. So if Puggle ate 200
ants and Mrs. Puggle eats twice as much, that's two.
Lots of 200, which comes to 400.
S3 (13:31):
Brilliant. Give that girl a gold star. Now, how many
ants have been eaten all together?
S2 (13:39):
Oh, this is getting hard. Puglet. 200. And Mrs. Spike
ate 400 ants. So that adds up to 204 hundred.
More than 600 juicy ants.
S3 (13:55):
And that was just a snack. And echidna can scoff
about 40,000 ants or termites per day. So they're first
class termite controllers.
S2 (14:08):
Um, Kate, what do termites say when someone builds a
house on their nest?
S3 (14:15):
I don't know. What do they say?
S2 (14:17):
We have room service.
S3 (14:21):
Did you hear about the termite who gave a pop concert?
S2 (14:24):
No. What about him?
S3 (14:26):
He brought the house down.
S2 (14:28):
Oh. Then I guess someone would have to build another one.
And we could be very special helpers. Do you have
your hammer handy? There will be lots of nails to
hammer in.
S3 (15:41):
Built that house yet. You must be tired after all
that hammering. Sometimes when you get really tired, you feel
as if you can't move another step. If something bad happens,
you might feel sad or so angry. you're all scrunched
up inside and you might explode any minute. Our story
(16:03):
today is about a little girl who is feeling awful,
until her clever mum showed her an easy way to
make herself feel better.
S2 (16:12):
Well, she had a special helper, and I bet you
can't guess who that was.
S3 (16:18):
Listen to the story and see if you can work
out who as well as her. Clever mum helped Evie
feel better.
S2 (16:27):
My friend Icky by Michelle Johnston. My name is Evie.
I live in Perth in Western Australia with my mum
and dad and my baby sister Georgie. Our house is
in the countryside. We call it the bush. And many
bush creatures visit my backyard each day. I often see kangaroos, emus,
(16:51):
red tailed cockatoos, bobtail skinks and pink and grey Galleries. However,
my favorite animal visitor is the little echidna, which visits
my garden most days. Meet my friend Eki. The echidna
is an Australian animal and it is sometimes called a
spiny anteater. The echidna has spines or quills on its
(17:16):
back and it loves to eat ants and termites. Echidnas
are strange looking creatures. Their hind legs and feet face backwards.
Can you imagine how funny people would look if their
feet pointed backwards? The echidna's back facing feet worked like
little shovels to dig up the soil when he's looking
(17:38):
for ants to eat, or making a burrow to live in.
Imagine how useful those backward facing feet would be if
he had an itchy back. What a good scratching device
they would make when he feels frightened or threatened the
echidna spines stand up stiff and straight. He may even
(17:59):
dig himself into a hole in the ground, with those
sharp spines poking up to protect his body from danger.
And if he came across an echidna which was frightened
like this, you might mistake him for a brown cactus. Well,
when my friend Ikki has stiff spines poking up, I
call him Anxious Ikki. When his spines are flat, I
(18:24):
call him calm. Calm. Ikki Eggy's back facing legs make
him look awkward when he walks. He looks a bit
like his waddling. But he's not a duck. Just like humans,
the echidna is a mammal. A very special type of
mammal called a monotreme. There are only two kinds of mammal,
(18:45):
which are monotremes the echidna and the platypus. And they
both live in Australia. They're the only mammal which lays
eggs Watching icky in my bush garden helped me to
learn how to calm myself down if I was feeling anxious.
It all began one day when I was at school.
(19:07):
The teacher got a little cross with me because I
was making too much noise, and she needed us to
be quiet. When my teacher used her cross voice with me,
I felt scared and upset. It felt like an anxious
eckie was inside my tummy. I missed my mum and
I really needed a mum hug. When I got home
(19:31):
I told mum what had happened. Mum gave me a
big hug and said everything would be okay. She said
we all do the wrong thing sometimes and that's how
we learn. Mum explained how parts of my body become
stiff and tight when I'm scared or upset, just like
(19:52):
Echy when his spines stand up straight. I told mum
that my shoulders become tight and rise up just like
eggy spines. I also grit my teeth together when I
get stressed out, and sometimes my tummy feels all jumbled
up as if there are butterflies inside it. Mum then
explained how I could make myself feel more calm and
(20:14):
relaxed when I felt nervous. All I had to do
was to learn to breathe more slowly. I practiced my
breathing by always breathing in and out through my nose,
keeping my lips together. Mum told me to put one
hand on my belly just above my belly button. I
(20:36):
imagined filling up a pretend balloon in my belly as
I breathed in slowly through my nose. I could even
feel my tummy and belly rise up as if it
was filling with air as I breathed in. I held
my other hand over my chest to make sure it
didn't rise up too much. It was the belly that
(20:57):
was supposed to be doing most of the work, not
the chest. As I breathed out through my nose, I
practiced making my outbreath last longer and longer. It felt
funny at first, but it became easier with practice. In
the end, I was able to comfortably breathe into mum's
(21:20):
count of 2 or 3 seconds and out while she
counted to four, five or even six seconds. It was
important to do calm and controlled breaths, and not to
try to suck more air in or push more air out.
That just made me feel uncomfortable and lightheaded. I discovered
(21:44):
that this belly breathing really helped me to calm down
at night and to drop off to sleep more easily
after practicing my new slower belly breathing. I was able
to use it when I got uptight or stressed. I
would imagine sending a long, slow outbreath to my shoulders
(22:07):
a few times as I breathed out. I noticed that
this made my shoulders become more loose and floppy and
they dropped down just like calm, eggies spines. As I
imagined sending the long, slow outbreath to my jaws, my
(22:28):
teeth rested more gently and no longer felt locked together
as I imagined sending that long, slow outbreath into my tummy.
The jumbled up feeling slowly disappeared and my tummy felt
calm and peaceful. I also learned to notice the niggly,
(22:48):
tight feeling when it arrived in my body. When I
got anxious, I imagined that it was icky inside me,
becoming tight and prickly. I learned to have an imaginary
chat with my little echidna friend, saying things like, it's okay, icky,
you're safe with me, or we've got this. I didn't
(23:11):
say this out loud. Of course I imagined saying it
in my head. That's called self-talk. Before too long, I
found that when I felt scared or anxious, I was
able to calm myself down by taking a gentle belly
breath in and doing a slow down breath out. I
(23:31):
noticed that my shoulders had learned to drop down, my
jaw became looser and the butterflies in my tummy began
to disappear. After 1 or 2 slow breaths out. I'm
ten years old now. Sadly, I haven't seen Echy in
my garden for about a year. Perhaps he's moved on
(23:53):
to some one else's garden to help them learn to
calm down. Maybe he's moved to a garden or bushland
near you. I really miss him. But I will always
be glad to have known him with the help of
Echy and my mum. I can now recognize when I'm
(24:16):
feeling anxious, and I can calm myself down just by
breathing slowly and thinking encouraging thoughts to myself. Thank you Echy.
S3 (24:29):
That was a reading of my friend Echy. The writer
was Michelle Johnston and the reader was Geraldine. That belly
breathing really works. I tried it when I thought I
had lost my car keys, and I was going to
be late for a very, very important meeting. A few
minutes of belly Barely breathing and I stopped panicking, remembered
(24:50):
where the keys were, and made it on time.
S2 (24:53):
It works when you're trying to get to sleep too,
or when you get a fit of the heebie jeebies
and nothing seems to be going right.
S3 (25:02):
Sure does. So what have we done today?
S2 (25:06):
We found out that not only birds lay eggs. Reptiles, spiders, insects, amphibians, fish, snails. Oh,
the list of egg layers goes on and on. If
it isn't a mammal, it probably lays eggs.
S3 (25:24):
Australia has two special mammals, the only two kinds in
the whole world which lay eggs, then feed their young
on milk. The platypus and the echidna. How special is that?
S2 (25:37):
We can put Monotreme on our big word list along
with amphibian. That's an animal which spends part of its
life in the water. And Reptile that snakes and lizards
and all their cousins.
S3 (25:49):
We did some ant maths and we had a story
about Ikki the Echidna, who helped Evie to find a
useful way to feel better when the heebie jeebies tried
to take over. Your Happy Pants team has a challenge
for you. We would like to know what you think
Happy Pants Headquarters looks like. It's where Kate, Rebecca, Joe,
(26:10):
and Geraldine hang out and where all the happy pants
pocket clues are found. If you write down your thoughts
or even make a drawing, we could post it on
our Facebook page. The address is Vision Australia, 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong,
Victoria 31,004. That's Vision Australia, 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong, Victoria 3144,
(26:39):
or email us at Vision Australia.
S2 (26:45):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can find us at
Radio Vision Australia.
S3 (26:56):
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you next time.
S5 (27:13):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(27:36):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:30):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially
for kids and especially for you. I'm Geraldine and I'm Kate.
And together we're your happy pants team for today. Before
we see what is in our happy pants today, we
thought we'd let you know that you just might need
(00:50):
a pen and paper at the end of the show.
Are you wearing your happy pants today? We are. Today
my happy pants feel soft like kittens fur. If I
stroke them downwards, they feel silky and smooth. Like when
you eat honey.
S3 (01:10):
Mine feel like fur too, but when I stroke them upwards,
they feel like honey with coconut in it, sort of
silky and rough at the same time.
S2 (01:20):
EpiPens have lots of pockets, but I can't feel anything
in there this morning. Perhaps Happy Pants head office is
taking the morning off.
S3 (01:30):
Head office never takes the morning off. There will be
something there. So have another feel. I have a big
lump of something in mine. It has a handle and
what feels like a lot of stiff bristles. Oh, it's
a hairbrush. And it has a golden ribbon tied around
the handle in a big bow. Oh, there's something else
(01:53):
in here. It's cold and it's moving. It's a big
green frog.
S2 (02:03):
Well, I can't feel anything in mine, but I can
hear something.
S3 (02:07):
That sounds like a very small and very yappy dog.
You aren't carrying a puppy around with you, are you?
S2 (02:14):
Not that I know about. This thing is velvety smooth
and I can feel a little fat body and a
velvety tail. Oh.
S3 (02:24):
Oh! Did it bite? What is it?
S2 (02:27):
Well, it did bite. And it held on to. But
it didn't hurt. I don't think it has that kind
of teeth. It just gave me a bit of a surprise.
It's a bit wriggly, and I can feel little legs
trying to run away. If I'm very gentle, I think
I can get it out of my pocket without hurting it.
S3 (02:47):
Oh, it's a gecko. Isn't it pretty? Big dark eyes.
And those pads on its toes are specially made for gripping.
So it can even run upside down across the ceiling.
You wouldn't think such a little reptile could make such
a big yap.
S2 (03:04):
Its skin is covered with tiny scales, but it feels
as soft as velvet.
S3 (03:11):
There's something else in here. A couple of silver coins.
A five cent and a 20 cent or. And a
bunch of emu feathers. I'm glad it wasn't the whole emu.
S2 (03:28):
I just found this in my pocket, and I know
what it is.
S3 (03:32):
What a neat little case. It's made of white silk.
It's round and flat. A bit like a ten cent piece,
only thicker.
S2 (03:43):
Well, I think it might be an egg case made
by a huntsman spider. There were probably about 200 eggs
in there before they all hatched.
S3 (03:52):
Oh, you mean one of those giant spiders that sometimes
come inside and hang out on the wall?
S2 (04:00):
Well, huntsman spiders aren't dangerous. You'd have to try and
grab one before it bit you. They'd much rather run
away than attack. Anyway, that's just the egg case. All
the spiderlings have packed up and left home.
S3 (04:16):
What a strange lot of things were in our pockets today.
A bristly brush, a frog, a barking gecko, emu feathers
and a spider's egg sac, for starters.
S2 (04:29):
And, Kate, can I have a look at those coins, please?
I thought so. If you run your fingers over the
five cent coin, you can feel the outline of an echidna.
And there's a platypus on the 20 cent coin.
S3 (04:47):
Now all we have to do is work out how
all these different things fit together.
S2 (04:53):
Okay. Thinking caps on and some music to get our
brains working.
S3 (04:58):
I reckon a wobbly walk would get everything moving. Brains
and bodies. Everybody up and we'll wobbly walk together.
S2 (06:35):
Oh, why did you take my brain still wobbling? Oh,
well that's better. I was all shook up for a bit.
S3 (06:44):
Me too. Nothing like a good wobbly walk to get
things loosened up. Now, let's work out what we're supposed
to talk about today. First the hairbrush. Mm. That's for
brushing hair.
S2 (06:59):
Well, the platypus has hair, but geckos, spiders, frogs and
emus don't. At least not the brushing kind of hair.
Echidnas do have hair underneath their spiny overcoats, though. Now
what do all these creatures have? That is the same then.
S3 (07:19):
Hmm. Geckos are reptiles. Frogs are amphibians. That's a big word.
It just means they spend part of their lives in water.
EMUs are birds and spiders are arachnids, which is just
Old Greek for webspinners. Echidnas are in a special group
(07:39):
with platypuses, and I'll remember what that group is called
in a minute.
S2 (07:46):
Well, maybe that's it. They're all different kinds of animal. Um. Ah.
S3 (07:53):
Got it. They all lay eggs. Frogs lay their eggs
in water. Geckos slip theirs into a crack. They can
find spiders, spin a silk purse. Echidnas keep theirs in
a pouch. EMUs make a nest on the ground, and
the platypus lays hers in a burrow in a river bank.
S2 (08:15):
Well, that's true for most of our pocket things, but
what about the hairbrush? Hairbrushes do not lay eggs.
S3 (08:24):
The brush had a golden ribbon round the handle. Mm.
That means there's something special about it, which we're supposed
to notice.
S2 (08:33):
Nah, it's just a hairbrush. Well, although it does have
much stiffer bristles than your usual everyday brush.
S3 (08:41):
Ah. That's it. That's the clue.
S2 (08:44):
Well, what what bristles?
S3 (08:47):
What creature is it that has bristles and lays eggs?
S2 (08:52):
Of course. Our friend the echidna. She has a whole
overcoat of spiky bristles which she wears over her soft,
hairy undies.
S3 (09:03):
The echidna is a mammal, and the echidna and the
platypus are the only mammals in the whole world which
lay eggs and then feed their young on milk. They
have a special name. Monotremes. See? I knew I'd remember.
S2 (09:23):
Big word alert. Monotreme is the name for a special
sort of mammal which lays eggs. See? A kookaburra. Friend
is laughing at us because it took us so long
(09:44):
to work out what the pocket clues were about.
S3 (09:47):
I heard on the grapevine that our kookaburra has had
quite a lot to laugh about just lately.
S4 (11:55):
Nothing can stop me when I'm wearing my happy pants.
S2 (12:00):
Well, lucky to have all that bush on the other
side of our fence. So we often have bushland visitors.
We should have worked out those pocket clues much sooner.
After all, we do have our friendly neighbourhood echidna coming
in for a feed of ants most days.
S3 (12:18):
She used to curl up in a spiky ball, or
dig herself into a hollow and lie in it with
her spikes all sticking up if we got too close.
But now she seems to know it's safe to be
near us.
S2 (12:31):
Those backward facing hind claws are just right. For shovelling
to an ant nest doesn't last long when our spike
gets going.
S3 (12:41):
I'm waiting for the day when she hatches a puggle
and brings it in to teach it how to use
the long, sticky tongue to hoover up breakfast.
S2 (12:51):
I wonder how many ants a puggle would need for breakfast.
S3 (12:55):
A hundred ants are pretty tiny. Probably double that. How
many would that be?
S2 (13:03):
Well, double means two. Lots of something. So two. Lots
of 100 would be a 200.
S3 (13:12):
And Mrs. Spike eats twice as much as a puggle.
So how many ants would that be?
S2 (13:18):
Well, twice means two times. So if Puggle ate 200
ants and Mrs. Puggle eats twice as much, that's two.
Lots of 200, which comes to 400.
S3 (13:31):
Brilliant. Give that girl a gold star. Now, how many
ants have been eaten all together?
S2 (13:39):
Oh, this is getting hard. Puglet. 200. And Mrs. Spike
ate 400 ants. So that adds up to 204 hundred.
More than 600 juicy ants.
S3 (13:55):
And that was just a snack. And echidna can scoff
about 40,000 ants or termites per day. So they're first
class termite controllers.
S2 (14:08):
Um, Kate, what do termites say when someone builds a
house on their nest?
S3 (14:15):
I don't know. What do they say?
S2 (14:17):
We have room service.
S3 (14:21):
Did you hear about the termite who gave a pop concert?
S2 (14:24):
No. What about him?
S3 (14:26):
He brought the house down.
S2 (14:28):
Oh. Then I guess someone would have to build another one.
And we could be very special helpers. Do you have
your hammer handy? There will be lots of nails to
hammer in.
S3 (15:41):
Built that house yet. You must be tired after all
that hammering. Sometimes when you get really tired, you feel
as if you can't move another step. If something bad happens,
you might feel sad or so angry. you're all scrunched
up inside and you might explode any minute. Our story
(16:03):
today is about a little girl who is feeling awful,
until her clever mum showed her an easy way to
make herself feel better.
S2 (16:12):
Well, she had a special helper, and I bet you
can't guess who that was.
S3 (16:18):
Listen to the story and see if you can work
out who as well as her. Clever mum helped Evie
feel better.
S2 (16:27):
My friend Icky by Michelle Johnston. My name is Evie.
I live in Perth in Western Australia with my mum
and dad and my baby sister Georgie. Our house is
in the countryside. We call it the bush. And many
bush creatures visit my backyard each day. I often see kangaroos, emus,
(16:51):
red tailed cockatoos, bobtail skinks and pink and grey Galleries. However,
my favorite animal visitor is the little echidna, which visits
my garden most days. Meet my friend Eki. The echidna
is an Australian animal and it is sometimes called a
spiny anteater. The echidna has spines or quills on its
(17:16):
back and it loves to eat ants and termites. Echidnas
are strange looking creatures. Their hind legs and feet face backwards.
Can you imagine how funny people would look if their
feet pointed backwards? The echidna's back facing feet worked like
little shovels to dig up the soil when he's looking
(17:38):
for ants to eat, or making a burrow to live in.
Imagine how useful those backward facing feet would be if
he had an itchy back. What a good scratching device
they would make when he feels frightened or threatened the
echidna spines stand up stiff and straight. He may even
(17:59):
dig himself into a hole in the ground, with those
sharp spines poking up to protect his body from danger.
And if he came across an echidna which was frightened
like this, you might mistake him for a brown cactus. Well,
when my friend Ikki has stiff spines poking up, I
call him Anxious Ikki. When his spines are flat, I
(18:24):
call him calm. Calm. Ikki Eggy's back facing legs make
him look awkward when he walks. He looks a bit
like his waddling. But he's not a duck. Just like humans,
the echidna is a mammal. A very special type of
mammal called a monotreme. There are only two kinds of mammal,
(18:45):
which are monotremes the echidna and the platypus. And they
both live in Australia. They're the only mammal which lays
eggs Watching icky in my bush garden helped me to
learn how to calm myself down if I was feeling anxious.
It all began one day when I was at school.
(19:07):
The teacher got a little cross with me because I
was making too much noise, and she needed us to
be quiet. When my teacher used her cross voice with me,
I felt scared and upset. It felt like an anxious
eckie was inside my tummy. I missed my mum and
I really needed a mum hug. When I got home
(19:31):
I told mum what had happened. Mum gave me a
big hug and said everything would be okay. She said
we all do the wrong thing sometimes and that's how
we learn. Mum explained how parts of my body become
stiff and tight when I'm scared or upset, just like
(19:52):
Echy when his spines stand up straight. I told mum
that my shoulders become tight and rise up just like
eggy spines. I also grit my teeth together when I
get stressed out, and sometimes my tummy feels all jumbled
up as if there are butterflies inside it. Mum then
explained how I could make myself feel more calm and
(20:14):
relaxed when I felt nervous. All I had to do
was to learn to breathe more slowly. I practiced my
breathing by always breathing in and out through my nose,
keeping my lips together. Mum told me to put one
hand on my belly just above my belly button. I
(20:36):
imagined filling up a pretend balloon in my belly as
I breathed in slowly through my nose. I could even
feel my tummy and belly rise up as if it
was filling with air as I breathed in. I held
my other hand over my chest to make sure it
didn't rise up too much. It was the belly that
(20:57):
was supposed to be doing most of the work, not
the chest. As I breathed out through my nose, I
practiced making my outbreath last longer and longer. It felt
funny at first, but it became easier with practice. In
the end, I was able to comfortably breathe into mum's
(21:20):
count of 2 or 3 seconds and out while she
counted to four, five or even six seconds. It was
important to do calm and controlled breaths, and not to
try to suck more air in or push more air out.
That just made me feel uncomfortable and lightheaded. I discovered
(21:44):
that this belly breathing really helped me to calm down
at night and to drop off to sleep more easily
after practicing my new slower belly breathing. I was able
to use it when I got uptight or stressed. I
would imagine sending a long, slow outbreath to my shoulders
(22:07):
a few times as I breathed out. I noticed that
this made my shoulders become more loose and floppy and
they dropped down just like calm, eggies spines. As I
imagined sending the long, slow outbreath to my jaws, my
(22:28):
teeth rested more gently and no longer felt locked together
as I imagined sending that long, slow outbreath into my tummy.
The jumbled up feeling slowly disappeared and my tummy felt
calm and peaceful. I also learned to notice the niggly,
(22:48):
tight feeling when it arrived in my body. When I
got anxious, I imagined that it was icky inside me,
becoming tight and prickly. I learned to have an imaginary
chat with my little echidna friend, saying things like, it's okay, icky,
you're safe with me, or we've got this. I didn't
(23:11):
say this out loud. Of course I imagined saying it
in my head. That's called self-talk. Before too long, I
found that when I felt scared or anxious, I was
able to calm myself down by taking a gentle belly
breath in and doing a slow down breath out. I
(23:31):
noticed that my shoulders had learned to drop down, my
jaw became looser and the butterflies in my tummy began
to disappear. After 1 or 2 slow breaths out. I'm
ten years old now. Sadly, I haven't seen Echy in
my garden for about a year. Perhaps he's moved on
(23:53):
to some one else's garden to help them learn to
calm down. Maybe he's moved to a garden or bushland
near you. I really miss him. But I will always
be glad to have known him with the help of
Echy and my mum. I can now recognize when I'm
(24:16):
feeling anxious, and I can calm myself down just by
breathing slowly and thinking encouraging thoughts to myself. Thank you Echy.
S3 (24:29):
That was a reading of my friend Echy. The writer
was Michelle Johnston and the reader was Geraldine. That belly
breathing really works. I tried it when I thought I
had lost my car keys, and I was going to
be late for a very, very important meeting. A few
minutes of belly Barely breathing and I stopped panicking, remembered
(24:50):
where the keys were, and made it on time.
S2 (24:53):
It works when you're trying to get to sleep too,
or when you get a fit of the heebie jeebies
and nothing seems to be going right.
S3 (25:02):
Sure does. So what have we done today?
S2 (25:06):
We found out that not only birds lay eggs. Reptiles, spiders, insects, amphibians, fish, snails. Oh,
the list of egg layers goes on and on. If
it isn't a mammal, it probably lays eggs.
S3 (25:24):
Australia has two special mammals, the only two kinds in
the whole world which lay eggs, then feed their young
on milk. The platypus and the echidna. How special is that?
S2 (25:37):
We can put Monotreme on our big word list along
with amphibian. That's an animal which spends part of its
life in the water. And Reptile that snakes and lizards
and all their cousins.
S3 (25:49):
We did some ant maths and we had a story
about Ikki the Echidna, who helped Evie to find a
useful way to feel better when the heebie jeebies tried
to take over. Your Happy Pants team has a challenge
for you. We would like to know what you think
Happy Pants Headquarters looks like. It's where Kate, Rebecca, Joe,
(26:10):
and Geraldine hang out and where all the happy pants
pocket clues are found. If you write down your thoughts
or even make a drawing, we could post it on
our Facebook page. The address is Vision Australia, 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong,
Victoria 31,004. That's Vision Australia, 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong, Victoria 3144,
(26:39):
or email us at Vision Australia.
S2 (26:45):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can find us at
Radio Vision Australia.
S3 (26:56):
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you next time.
S5 (27:13):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(27:36):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
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