Worms Eye-View

TODDLER PLAY IDEAS!

2012-01-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

I am not really a plastic, noisy toy lover, but this is a toy that I would recommend to everyone!

It stands the test of time, does not have lots of bright flashy lights and noises so is not over stimulating!

There are many versions out there along the same theme, this one is pets!

It's a great toy for little fingers to explore.

Encourages development of the fine motor skills that these little ones will need to self feed, thread beads, do puzzles and one day tie shoe laces and write!

By pushing, turning and sliding the different buttons, the toddler can make the corresponding hatch pop open and and animal will pop up too!

They seem to enjoying closing the lids just as much as making them pop open!

On this toy, 2 of the buttons require a bit more skill than the other 2. They need to be slid and turned. This tends to come later on in a child's development but does mean the toy lasts that bit longer! And in the mean time they do try really hard to make the buttons work. I tend to hold their little hands over the button to show them how to do it, but they don't always have the strength to actually manage it themselves.

Ohhh but when they do! That 1st time!!

The smile shows just how pleased they are with themselves!

This is one bit of plastic that will be staying in our toy box!

TODDLER PLAY IDEAS!

2012-01-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share with you some of the play that happens with my little ones!

It can be hard to think of things to do with very young children and I am always searching the net for new ideas. So here a few of the things that we do.

Collect natural objects and place in a basket. Offer them to the toddlers to hold and explore or add a few other things to the play and see where it goes.

Here we have some Branches that were cut from my parents Eucalyptus tree when they chopped it down last summer. My dad cut them and smoothed them off for us. The children just love the silvery colour and unusual shapes.

I added a couple of wood off cuts to make a road, a few cars and some lovely wooden animals. The Pine cones look like trees.

I sat on the floor driving the cars over the wooden roads and making car noises.

Soon the little ones were with me, pushing cars along the roads and turning the wooden blocks over in their hands.

I stood some of the blocks up on end and said they looked like trees. I balanced the Squirrel on the top of one and said that the squirrel was looking for nuts in the tree!

Little "R" found the fox and walked him along the long flat log. Babbling and chatting as she did so! She also tried to stand some of the blocks on end like she had seen me do.

We had lots of fun pushing the cars along the road and making car sounds!

Even little "L" who was a year old last month, started to make roads and push cars along them. She is still very much in the "exploring things with her mouth" stage so it was lovely to see her moving this forward and exploring the toys in a different way!

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2012 PART 4

2012-01-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Today was really just a round up of the weeks play activities.

Returning to toys and play that they had enjoyed and finishing off projects, like our Panda masks. We also spent more time on our Origami projects! The older ones are loving this.... so am I to be honest!

3 cute puppies!

We had a go at making some jumping frogs! These were a lot of fun and really jumped quite high!

HOP!

The little ones enjoyed looking through our Library books. I chose dual language books, written in both English and Chinese!

Little "R" finishing off her Panda mask

We have had a really lovely week celebrating the Chinese new year.

I hope you have enjoyed our posts and maybe even picked up some ideas to enjoy for yourselves!

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2012 PART 3

2012-01-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well what fun did we get up to today!

Still enjoying Chinese New Year activities!

We had to run some errands this morning and stopped at Hobby Craft while we were out. We found some yellow and red giant pom poms to add to our Chinese New Year sensory box!

We also found a great kit for Origami which I thought would be fun. Especially for the older boys. I made a turtle. "L" pulled his leg off though, and a bird which "R" is holding in this pic.

It was lovely having "R" back with us after she has been off for so long with a nasty bug, poor love :-(

"E" was photographer today! Still not playing Chinese, but he did like our Panda bear painting, which you will see next!

"R" painting her Panda! These are actually card masks designed for Decoupage, but I thought we could adapt them for painted Panda masks! We did need to put a few coats of while paint on these. They are very strong as well so should stand up to being played with a lot!

I felt "L" was too little to really benefit from making a mask, so I helped her with a Panda picture instead. I drew the outline and added black paint to the areas that are black and she spread it all about with her hands.

When we first started painting she would get very upset at the feel of paint on her hands, but she really likes it now!

Little "R" did a Panda painting as well. She LOVES the feel of the paint and spent a lot of time just rubbing her hands together!

Some of us took the whole Panda thing a step too far and became Pandas!!!

The finished art work!

The masks before the Black was added!

"E" added black to his mask. We looked at Pandas on Google Images and talked about where we should add the black patches.

We hope you are enjoying all our activities and would love to hear about your activities, or links to your Chinese New Year posts if you want to leave them in the comments box below!

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2012 PART 2

2012-01-24T16:02:00.000-08:00

Today we took our Chinese New Year activity to the toddler group I run in the village! I think it went down very well! Everyone seemed to have fun!

We made Laminated red and green window pictures

You just need....

some red and gold paper, stars, tinsel and the like.

A Dragon shape cut our of paper (our is more like a Lizzard)

Laminator pouches and a laminator

1) Lay our your Laminating pouch and make your picture.

2) Carefully run it through the Laminator

3) let it cool for a minute and then hang in the window!

They had a lovely time and so did the Mummy's at the group! I think one Mummy had more fun than her children and may be investing in a Laminator for herself!

We would like to thanks Heather for bringing us all Fortune cookies as well! They were a Yummy addition to snack time and it was fun reading our fortunes!

More fun to be had tomorrow!!

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2012

2012-01-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share some of our Chinese New Year activities with you all!

I know I like to read blogs for inspiration, so would like to offer something back to all you lovely bloggers out there that help me more than you can imagine!

Some cooking!

"L" looking at a book about emotions, written in Chinese.

"E" made it very clear he IS NOT playing Chinese today... he is playing Dr Who!

oh and reading about snakes!

I love this picture!

We built houses for our Dragons! Look at this castle, very grand for such important Dragons!

"I am not ... absolutely not.... playing Chinese...... oh whats this book?"

Our rice sensory tray. I wish I had more bits to add to it but I didn't plan it as well as I should. tut tut!

But we have some Chinese themed buttons, food, cups and chop sticks in there!

Not playing Chinese at all...........

"E" built a nice Dragon house...... while not playing with Chinese things!! He made this statement several times while playing with Chinese themed things.... lol, how he made me giggle!

But this is what he did spend a lot of today doing! "E" and I made this 2 weeks ago so he could play Dr Who! It is a scene from the episode "Hungry Earth"..... with some added extra baddies!

Panda stopped by for some dinner!

We made a Chinese inspired painting using paint and a straw to blow the paint in lines along the paper.

Then we added some pink blossom to the paper!

After the school run we enjoyed a Chinese New Year meal!

Noodles are so much fun!

Enjoying a stir fry!

We tried out some chop sticks! Lots of fun and giggling! Brendan is getting really good at using these!

Kenzie giving it a really good go!

Lychees and Ice cream for pudding!

Yummy!!

We will be enjoying more Chinese related activities tomorrow! Be sure to pop back and join the fun!!

LAZY SUNDAYS!

2012-01-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well, what did we do toady?

Not so much to be honest. During our woodland walk yesterday I started to come down with a cold, so today we all stayed in our pyjamas and kept the sofa bed out for duvets and cuddles!

The boys did enjoy making marshmallow Igloos while I cooked our roast dinner this afternoon! I saw this here and pinned it so we would remember to do it!

Kenzies Igloo starting out well!

We used watery icing to glue the marshmallows together. There were 2 aims to this activity.... other than having fun of course! We were looking at making sturdy structures, strong bases for building up and what would be the best way to make our igloos, and also to see how hard it is to make a domed roof......

Kenzie started with a big base and each marshmallow on its side, but soon realised the others would not build up on top of a rounded surface so turned all his marshmallows back up on end! This gave them a flat top to build the next layer. Brendan took a different approach. He made an internal wall. He started to tell me all sorts of things that i didn't know he knew about real Igloos. How the heat inside melts the ice slightly and then it freezes to make the joints between the ice blocks stronger. He really thought about strong foundations. Construction is something he has always been good at. Maybe the Aspie mind is better at this, or maybe its just him?

Brendan's had stronger foundations and an internal wall!

Kenzie picked up on this internal wall his brother was building and added it to his Igloo too! After about 20 minutes Kenzie had had enough building and decided his Penguins could have an open top home! He also added sprinkles for decoration and asked for a candle. Then he started to toast his marshmallows and eat them!

Kenzies Igloo with Penguins and camp fire!

Kenzie toasting the marshmallows over the campfire!

Messy boy!!

Brendan spent a good hour on this, his 1st arched door was fantastic but fell down sadly. so we propped the next one up with a jar. He also said it would be better to let what he had build "set" and then come back to it later. He decorated the inside of his Igloo with a sprinkles floor and moved his Penguins in. His arched walls had started but I fear we may have run out of marshmallows before he would have been able to finish it.

Brendan's first Arch before it fell down :-(

The new reinforced Arch

The rest of the day has involved Dr Who mainly. We watched a Dr Who dvd, played with Kenzies Cyberman lego, Sonic screwdrivers have been waved about. We enjoyed the Dr Who board game together and then played Brendan's Egyptian themed card game. A real favorite game in our house!

This evening, after our roast chicken dinner, we snuggled on the sofa bed together to watch Aladdin. The boys went to see this at the Theater last week with the school and are taking part in the school production of Aladdin in March. Brendan is on his usual job.... lights! He is not in to performing but loves the behind the scenes stuff!

Totally engrossed in the film!

That was our Sunday! Fun filled but relaxed all the same.
I hope the weekend has been kind to you as well!

SEVEN DAYS

2012-01-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

I would like to share with you all a lovely idea by a fellow blogger who I just love to read!

Jacqui at Barefoot Crofter shares a wonderful insight to her past week using photos and a short description! The things that make her happy, make life worth living and feed her soul!

So here is my offering! My SEVEN DAYS!

Soul food.... enjoying a walk on a crisp winters day!

Tending the Allotment with my eldest.

Cleaning the house and de-cluttering on a massive scale!

Teaching my Youngest a new game... one I enjoyed as a child!

Watching my boys play sweetly together.

A couple of Home schooling days for my eldest this week and a trip to a Museum!

Teaching my boys to whittle sticks in the woods

Thanks for stopping by!

LEARNING TO WHITTLE

2012-01-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend the boys received Pen knives and have been given a lesson in safety and respect.

I have made it clear that these are not toys but tools to be used and then given to me for storage. They seem to be taking this on board and showing them great respect.

We have started with some very basic whittling. They are learning how to hold the knife and fold it back in without cutting themselves (we have had a small nic to the end of a finger).

Our first lesson has been how to angle the knife correctly to take off a slice and then to work with the knife moving away from you at all times. We started with something very simple, sharpening a stick to a point!

Before long we might be making little animals and fish!!

MUSEUM AND BATH BOMBS!

2012-01-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today we had another day of Homeschooling. The boys school had a dance workshop today, but Brendan will not take part in dance and music so we all felt it better to give him a day at home doing something he would benefit from, rather than have him at school and resisting the days activities. In fairness to the other children he would have probably spoilt it for them at the same time.

So he chose to visit a local museum. We packed his bag with a clipboard and paper, pens and pencils and off we went!

There was an Amazon tree root Art display out side the museum when we arrived. It was very interesting. The trees would have been huge! Brendan was a bit upset that someone had graffitied on this tree. Here he is looking at the writing :-(

He really liked this Giant Tortoise and decided to draw him. I sat down for a rest on the lovely underfloor heated tiles and warmed my bottom!!!

We looked at Minerals that glow under ultra violet light! These were really cool! Brendan decided the brightest one was Kryptonite! Lets hope Superman isn't about!

Playing with a T-Rex!

We found out how shrunken heads were made! Really grose but AMAZING!!!!

He bought a flute! This was after he tried out playing the recorder at school and really liked it!

We found some good old fashioned Red phone boxes on the way in to the city center! I love these! Why did BT ever change them? Here is Superman!!

We were drawn in to "LUSH" on our way back to the car. That shop is the best smelling place in the world! Brendan loves their products (who wouldn't) The lovely ladies in there seemed pleased to have a child in the shop and set about showing him what the different bath bombs did. We did of course come out of there with one each for the boys! This was the Rocketeer one! Fantastic. The jet part bubbles and leaves a yellow trail as it pushes the rocket through the water. After a while the popping candy inside starts to pop and it smells lovely!

I got to have a play as well!!

While we were out in the city center we found a Millets and bought 2 pen knives. The boys have wanted a knife for when we are in the woods. These were also multi tools and were in the sale for £4 each!

They spent late afternoon in the garden whittling sticks!

I am hoping to get up to the woods again this weekend so we can enjoy some Forest School type activities!

Kenzie enjoyed his bath bomb this evening! Feeling it fizz in his hands and watching it get smaller!

Tiny bit left!

Whilst drying himself after his bath, Kenzie saw a mole on his knee and asked how we get them.... so we googled it! Turns out they are places on the skin where cells have grouped together and the melanin which is responsible for pigmentation, is darker when grouped in these clusters!

I would say that was another fabby day!

What shall we do this weekend? Friday night sofa bed and nature programs this evening...... might even go and make us some Popcorn! Yummy!

{ THIS MOMENT } NEW GAMES

2012-01-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired bySoulemama.

HOME SCHOOL DAY AND THE CLEANING BUG!

2012-01-19T14:36:00.000-08:00

Due to illness and visiting relatives, non of my childminding children have been with me since Monday. It is very rare that all families take time off together and so I have had an unexpected few days off.

Tuesday Brendan stayed home from school. He had been very unsettled during the night and as a result did not want to wake up. Once out of bed he was rather snappy with everyone and started to growl. This is a clear sign that all is not well and despite having got him ready for school, I did not think he would cope with a day there. Thankfully his teacher agreed! So we had a Home school day! This was lovely! We will be doing it full time from September 2013 and it is nice to have the odd practice day lol!!

So we started the day making a menu and working out the price of a meal for a party of 18, eating from the set menu. This was an activity he was meant to be doing at school in a small group but we took it home with us and worked on it together. We had a couple of moments of resistance, but I walked away and let him gather his thoughts and very soon he was back to it. This is something it has taken me a while to learn. As much as he needs you there to keep him focused, sometimes he also needs you too move away from him to let him breath!

He had finished this and to a great standard by 10:15 and we started to get an activity together to do up at the Toddler group that I run Tuesday mornings. He came along and helped some of the little ones to make Snowmen with the art stuff we had taken up. He was very sweet with them. When he wanted time away he sat in a corner with his DS and didn't make a fuss.

After lunch he asked if we could work on the Allotment. The weather has been bitter and the ground was frozen..... but it was his day of home learning and I plan on it being a very autonomous thing when we do it full time... so we gathered our tools and went a digging!! It was hard but we found it was much better about an inch or two down. He had found some Onions that Grampy had given us and I had forgotten to plant. Some had already sprouted while in the draw. So after removing the weeds and turning the soil he insisted on planting them. I have no idea if this is the right season to plant them, or if frozen soil is ideal..... but this was his learning experience..... and I guess it will be mine too! We will be checking in on them in a couple of weeks!

We did a laundry run for my mum and sister as the washing machine at mums has packed up and stayed for a cuppa. He watched "Deadly 60" and learnt about Komodo Dragons and other deadly creatures!" He also checked in on "Nanny's" new fish. Mum bought a new tank the other week and got some new additions. He is trying to name them all! I loved our day together!!

The last 2 days have been cleaning days! I have managed to blitz the boys bedroom and make room not only for their new Christmas gifts, but also for their Birthday gifts which will be arriving over the next month. Both boys have birthdays in February. I have taken lots of toys that are no longer played with and stored them in the loft ready for a summer car boot sale. I managed to get rid of 3 bags of rubbish too!! Took me all day but my goodness it looks so different! I labeled some of their toy draws too so they can find what they want easily!

Today was the airing cupboards turn for a blitz. So much in there that the door was not shutting easily..... opps.... I took before and after pics of this as I wished I had done it with the boys room. (I know this is very sad... sorry but I had to share them lol)

Brendan came out of school with some great news tonight. After being a non writer up until September, he has now gone up several grades since then and is progressing very well! So I took him and Kenzie for a celebratory Tea and cake at the local Antique center. They both love it there and nag to be taken. After a nice drink and snack with a friend and her children, I took the boys to look at all the cool things. Brendan loves the garden room. He found some old hedge cutters. Kenzie liked the chairs.... I had to keep telling him they were not for sitting on lol! I loved the little mohair teddies. One old soft dog in particular which I wanted to buy.....

Tomorrow we are having another Home school day. They have a dance and music workshop at school.... Brendan doesn't do dance and music! So we are off to the museum. His choice! I wonder what we will learn?

CRISP AND FRESH!

2012-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

Blue sky, frost on the ground, crisp fresh air!

The perfect day for a good 4 mile walk with baby and dog!

Come join us!

shame the Motorway cuts through the landscape but the underpass makes a great frame!

I wonder if they would sell me this and a a field or two?

Natures art!

So many twists and turns up there!

I find myself on the top of the world!

Thanks for coming with me, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the stillness and peace!

Refocusing the heart and mind!

MAKING BOARD GAMES!

2012-01-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend we have been enjoying making our own board games.

Brendan started this little activity on Friday night while Kenzie was watching "Despicable me".
Brendan loves the little yellow minions in the film and made a really good game using elements from the film for the "lucky / not so lucky" cards that you collect if you land on a "card" square.

He put so much thought in to the game. At one point you have to move back and forth trading money for minions and minions for money. You have to think ahead and do some maths to work out if you have enough money and minions to move on to the next part of the game. He worked all this out himself, with no help at all!
The game lasts about 10 minutes and its lots of fun! Maybe he can be a games designer when he is older!

He even used Fimo to make the figures that you move around the board and the money that you need to buy minions with!

I love the fact that he has added a maths element to this. And he is usually the one to keep tally of everyone Minion count on a bit of paper!

Kenzie wanted to make one too. He chose to create a Dr Who game (what else??) and decided we needed planets to visit. We couldn't remember what planets Dr Who has been to so we started at the Tardis and made our way around Earth at different points in time! Each time you got to a new Earth you took a token related to that time period and then moved on to the next! Once you had visited all time periods you moved on to the Dr's home planet of Gallifrey! He went to find his Tardis so that his figures could arrive on the board in style and the games pieces were his little lego style Dr Who figures!
Another fabby game!

All this creativity, forward thinking, problem solving, maths and writing in one very enjoyable activity!

Give it a go with your little ones. I promise you will all have lots of fun!

SNOW PLAY.... WHEN IT REFUSES TO SNOW!

2012-01-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting and waiting for snow here in Oxfordshire, but nothing has arrived. So today we decided to make our own snow. I saw a fabby idea for this over at Chocolate muffin tree!

So here we are. Freshly blended snow!! The perfect sensory box for babies and toddlers that eat every sensory box I make them!!

We learnt a new word...... "Cold"

Girlies enjoying the snow!

We felt new sensations in our hands........... and mouths!

Baby "R" sucking the snow!

We practiced spoon feeding ourselves! and others!

Baby "I" feeding herself snow on a spoon!!

Then it all changed and became water................ what is this magic??

Baby "C" enjoying the melted snow and Polar Bears!

I would just like to take this moment to welcome Baby "C" to our little family! She starts at the end of the month and we are very much looking forward to her joining us!

POP FOR SITE WORDS GAME!

2012-01-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

After reading a review on Confessions of a homeschoolers blog for a game called "Pop for letters" I was inspired to look at other games in the series. I was really pleased to find this one on Amazon. "Pop for sight words".

It arrived really quickly and the boys were keen to try it on Friday night! We had our showers and got our pj's on and pulled out the sofa bed for our usual Friday nest night, and set about playing our new game!

This is great for Kenzie as many of these words he has recently learnt and some he still finds quite hard as they can not be sounded out. Also it doesn't matter that Brendan or I might be able to read more words than him because we are just as likely as he is to get a" pop" card and have to return all our pop corn pieces that we have collected! This makes it a great family game and does not knock a young child's confidence at all!

This game cost me £4.50 and it was well worth every penny and more! Can I just add I have not been asked to review this item nor am I being paid by any company to write this. I am just choosing to share a great resource with you!!

NATURAL STRENGTH IN AN EGGS DESIGN!

2012-01-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

Eggs are a wonderful design of nature!

I told the boys that eggs are very strong..... but the kids didn't believe me. Too often we have accidentally cracked an egg when collecting them from the coop. But we decided to test this and see if Mummy had a point?

First we took 2 eggs and wrapped a piece of sticky tape around the middle of each. We left a little space between the two ends so that the tape didn't quite join. Then we took a pair of nail scissors and carefully pushed the point in to the shell at this un taped point and cut along the tape till we had 2 equal halves. Do this over a jug or it will get very messy. We rinsed out the shells and trimmed them so they had flat bottoms and were equal heights when placed on their cut surfaces.

We then lay the shells dome side up on to a tray with a thick piece of card over them and took some cans of Tuna from the cupboard.

How many cans do you think we can put on the egg shells before they crush? Lets write down what we each person thinks. Kenzie and Auntie Heather were in charge of making a chart to log our guesses.

Then came the moment to find out just how much weight the eggs could hold.....

Before long we ran out of cans and had to get some tins of fruit out of the cupboard as well!

Then "Crack!!" and after a wobble it all came down, squashed egg shells and tins rolling around!

We then added up all the weights on the side of the cans to see how much the eggs held! It was 1837 grams!!

I explained to the boys that a dome is one of the strongest structures due to the fact that it distributes the weight applied at the top, evenly across the structure. No one point in the dome holds the whole load. This means that an egg is very strong. You can push on the two domed ends of the egg and it will not brake.

They lay down and we put the cans on the boys tummies. I asked if they felt heavy.
Kenzie said they were not but when I said "imagine you are a little egg.... now do you think its' heavy?"
He was quiet for a moment and then just said..... "Ouch!!!"

We will never think of eggs as being so delicate ever again in this house!

WORD FUN!

2012-01-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

Last week I ordered some foam letters from Amazon with the view to use them with "E" for letter recognition. But Kenzie and I enjoyed them tonight at bath time!
He had lots of fun making words and sticking them to the shower screen!

He added some numbers. He started with 20 then 200. I asked what it would be if we added another 0...
"2000 mummy!"
He then kept adding 0's till he ran out, each time asking "what number is it now?"

It was all very respectable until Brendan came to help.... then we had "Poo, Poop, Poop poo" and many other versions of the word with giggles to boot!

BOYS! (rolling my eyes)

SPACE EXPLORATION!

2012-01-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we decided to have a think about space and what things are like for the people that go up there exploring!

First we talked about how hard it would be to land on the moon. We realised that the people at the space center could not just point a rocket at the moon and send it on its way, because the moon is moving! So how do they get the space shuttle on to the moon that is orbiting our Earth? We decided they would have to calculate where the moon was likely to be by the time the shuttle got near it!
To show how hard it is to hit a moving target we hung a silver moon (screwed up tin foil) off a ruler and hung it over the edge of a chair, weighing down the ruler with a book. Then we swung the moon and threw our space shuttles (screwed up bits of paper) at it....... It's not very easy at all! We did get a couple of hits!

We also wondered how it might feel for someone walking on the moon. We found an activity in a book that was fun to try out!

The boys climbed in to all in one suits, we used a cyberman costume and a ski suit! Then stuffed it full of news paper, put on wellies, gloves and a helmet. Then filled a backpack with books to wear, to make their balance a bit off center!

The giggling was wonderful to hear and they were defiantly off balance. They decided to walk on the sofa bed as well as this made them even more wobbly!

Kenzie decided that being a spaceman was not very comfortable and he didn't think he would like that job!
He chose to come with me and look at how meteors brake up when they enter the Earths atmosphere!

We used a very basic and probably not very accurate example for this. But it gave a general idea of what happens. Antacid tablets dropped in a glass of water.
Kenzie noticed how the tablets brake up in to smaller pieces, and that the smaller pieces are the bits that hit the bottom of the glass! We decided this was a good thing as big bits could cause big problems for us!

Then we looked at how different sized meteors effected the Earth when they did hit. Does the size of the meteor make a difference to the depth and size of the crater? The experiment we were going to try did mention using marbles and a tennis ball, but after a while we realised that the weight of these objects was not correct. We didn't have a tennis ball so had been using a tangerine, which is of course very light and the smaller marbles much heavier. In the end Brendan found 3 ball bearings that were graded in size. These gave much more acurate results.

Brendan noticed that the bigger the meteor the larger the Crater but it was not as deep as the smaller ones. He guessed this was because it had a larger surface area!

Heather asked what she thought would happen if the meteor hit the Sea!? Thank you Heather.... the next experiment got us all rather wet!!

We used a melon, onion, apple and satsuma as different sized Meteors and dropped them all from the same height, in to the water. What differences could we see in the size of the wave and splash made by each of the fruits?

What would happen to the rest of the world if a big meteor hit in the sea? Then a quick introduction in to what Tsunamis are!

Lots of hands on Space fun today! Lots of mess and giggling! and lots of learning taking place without them even realising! Just the way we like it!

I hope you enjoyed our space fun and that you are all inspired to try a space walk for yourselves!!

ALPHABET BOXES!

2012-01-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got my act together! New year and new effort to do the things I have been thinking about for far too long!

The first thing I wanted to do was make up my Alphabet/ letter sound boxes. I have seen these on a few blogs but I think I first saw them over at Counting coconuts.

I have only just started and have the fun of finding lots of nice little bits to go in the draws, but I have made a good start on it. I got all my bits from Hobby Craft and found the button aisle particularly exciting! I found some stockcard Alphabet stickers in upper and lower case for only a £1 in the sale bin. They look great on the draw fronts! I also found a pack of wooden lower case letters in the children's crafting area, which I have put in to each of the corresponding draws.

I am really looking forward to introducing this new resource to "E" next week. We are about to start looking at a letter every 2 weeks. I am hoping "block focus" on each one will help him to retain their names and sounds. Watch this space!

MAKING HELIUM BALLOONS!

2012-01-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Brendan has been asking to make a Balloon and fill it with Helium to make it float! So when I put in my Tesco online shop this week I ordered Turkey foil, sticky tape and string.

After school today he set about making his balloon. He was very clear about the design of it. He has been planning it for a week or so now and very quickly went about making and taping a simple pillow shape with a space in the bottom for the Helium tube!

Kenzie was keen to help but Brendan is not one to share his experiments so gave him the job of looking after the Helium!

The finished balloon was very light but not very floaty.

We talked about why this might be, and decided that the Tin foil was too heavy for the amount of Helium it could hold. So we then thought about light materials that we could use to construct a balloon from. Brendan thought we could try Cling film, but I put it to him that maybe that would be hard to build with, due to its clingy nature. So we decided we would try a plastic bag next! It already has the balloon shape and if we tape up holes and the base of the bag we might get some good results!
Unfortunately we ran out of Helium so we will need to pop to a party shop and get some more before we can test our theory!

NEWTONS LAWS AND SUPERSATURATED SOLUTIONS!

2012-01-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

After a day at the theater with the school to see Aladdin and then lunch at Pizza hut, you would think some light hearted fun would be in order! So what does my budding scientist do? Gets out his new Science kit and starts to learn about Newtons 1st and 2nd laws of motion and supersaturated solutions!

He looked at making a rocket launch using his all time favorite ingredients..... Bi carb and vinegar. We talked about how the chemical reaction produced Carbon Dioxide and the carbon dioxide needed somewhere to go so it pushed the rocket out of the tube! He really loves these sorts of experiments and often re visits them!

Then we looked at making Crystal Candy. We made a Supersaturated sugar solution and talked about what this means. How we used hot water to dissolve more of the sugar than would normally be dissolved by water at its normal temperature. We then added some colours and flavour to the solution and poured it in to the boys jars! We prepared the skewers with a coating of sugar to seed the growth, and have left it over night to cool. Tomorrow we will place the skewers in to the solution and watch over the next week as their crystal treats are made! Science you can eat!

THE LAST FEW WEEKS OF 2011

2012-01-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the poor photo,s but these were all taken on my mobile! Some snippets of play, cooking, exploring and life in general!

Practising our drawing skills!

A spot of Fishing!!

Spelling and working on our letters!

Baking wheat free chocolate muffins!

Tree climbing!

Trying out a new local park!!

Winning some goodies at a village raffle! Wrapping and storing prezzies!

Making "Good bye cards" for a very lovely member of staff at The SEN play centre we go to!

A spot of music here and there! Must book Brendan some Guitar lessons!

Christmas parties in the local pub!

Christmas art!

Den making and imaginative play!

Lots of Lego building and playing!! Lego is such a fabby toy!

Walking off the cobwebs of some lazy days! Enjoying lots of puddle jumping in these.... puddles that think they are lakes!!

Seeing in the new year with a sofa bed night and sleeping by the light of the Christmas tree.... one last time before it's magic is packed away for another year! So sad.

I do hope this new year will see more of the same for us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL AND I HOPE 2012 BRINGS YOU MUCH LOVE, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS BLOGGERS!

2011-12-27T14:55:00.000-08:00

Stockings being emptied! Brendan's at 3:40 am and Kenzie's at a more reasonable 7am!

Father Christmas knew they enjoy their art and bought them Easels!

Handing out gifts and brotherly love!

New tools to enjoy!

Flurries of paper!

More brotherly love and thanking for gifts!

Dr Who has featured a lot this year!

Prezzies for me! A beautiful bag from baby R! Thank you!

Kisses and cuddles and lots of love all day long! A whole week of family time ahead of us!

Prezzies for the dog!

Swapping gifts with extended family and sharing in a huge family meal! Brendan loves his handmade crochet zombie! Thanks Auntie Heather!

Bonding with Uncle Mark over Geology! Trying to identify what each stone is!

Family time! LOVE IT!

Happy Christmas to you all!

I hope you were all able to spend a lovely, healthy and happy time with your loved ones!

WHO SAID TV IS BAD FOR YOU????

2011-12-19T16:17:00.000-08:00

So what do you do with a broken TV/DVD combi? Give it to the kids of course!!

Let them Pull it, Unscrew it, explore it, find interesting components and then look them up on the internet to see what they do! Help them work out how to get bits out, unplug bits, talk about why the wires are different colours and what do you think this bit is... or does?

Let them choose tools from the tool kit, which screw driver do I need? What can I use to get this bit off?

Even let the babies have a go with some of the safer bits!

Then build something new!!

A great day 1 to the school Christmas holidays!!

TUESDAYS CHRISTMAS CRAFTING!

2011-12-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Christmas fun started with some Partying!

Party fun at the Toddler group I run! This is Heather helping baby "L" decorate her Christmas Gingerbread shape!

After school fun making Oranges and clove decorations for the house! Kenzie working hard at pushing in the cloves!

Then he helped me slice Oranges for the dried orange decorations.

He found using a child sized chop stick to make holes for the cloves, made it easier to push them in!

Even little "R" had a go with a satsuma, she managed to get quite a few in!!

Everyone hard at work!

Brendan was making his very uniform. lots of lovely circles!

We added ribbon and hung them up in the living room!

Then we made more crayons!! They are loving this activity at the moment. We raided Nanny's box of crayons and turned all the little broken bits in to round rainbow crayons and even Butterfly crayons!

A lovely reader asked how we make these and it is really easy!

Take all your old crayons, peal of wrappers, brake up in to small pieces and lay them in silicone moulds! Place in the oven for about 10 mins at about 180 (electric fan oven)

check to see the wax has melted and then take out and leave to cool!

Love how the Butterfly's turned out!

What Christmas fun have you had today?

MONDAY CHRISTMAS ART!

2011-12-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

Mondays art was rather glittery, foamy and sticky!! not all at once though!!

Decorating our foam Snowmen decorations! Googly eyes and a Santa hat! all "E"'s choice!

He asked for stick arms!! so that was my part in the art activity... cutting out a hat and stick arms!!

Time to use our new glitter paints we bought at the weekend! Christmas trees with baubles!

Although you can't see it, he painted Holly leaves as well!

Lots of glittery fun!!

DECORATING CHRISTMAS CAKE!

2011-12-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

That time of year has come again when the boys get to decorate the cake! I always look back fondly on this event from my own childhood, when me and my siblings were the ones decorating the cake! We always made marzipan models and painted them with food colouring, but due to Brendan's bad relationship with food colours we have tried to avoid them where possible!!

First we lay the marzipan layer over the cake and chopped and smoothed it to size!

Then to make the Royal Icing. Kenzie set up the electric whisk!

It was hard going so we needed to add more water than the packet advised...always the way, but still worried we would go too far the other way and end up with slop!

Once the cake had the icing layer (which to be fair I put on as it was a rather tricky job!), the boys used left over marzipan to make snowmen!

Then to add more icing to make them look snowy!

Adding some other decorations and gold and green sparkles!

Adding eyes to the snowmen. Bless him, Kenzie's does look a bit like its melted!!

The finished cake!! I think they did a grand job! Don't you?

A view of Santa and the Reindeer!

We are going to make a Yule log this year as well! I bought all the bits we needed today, so we look forward to making that in the very near future!

SEVEN DAYS

2011-12-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

A play put on for me by the boys! lots of giggles!!

Lots of lovely time with my eldest as he has been off school with headaches. Some crafting and science!

Making Chocolate cakes in a cup! great mid afternoon snack!

Fun making crayons with old ones! look lovely don't they!

My youngest writing out his Christmas cards to his friends and Teachers. All his own work, sounding out. I didn't have the heart to correct his spelling!!

Christmas crafting over the weekend!

The boys decorated our Christmas cake and did a grand job!!

I hope the next days bring you all much fun and love!

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!

2011-12-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today I had my big boy home with me as he woke up feeling a bit "off" and was quite pale. He has been fine, but his Hyper mobility has been playing him up all day with pains in his joints, so it was probably the best place for him. I love having him home with me!!

Thought I would share our day with you. I took this idea from another blog (wish I could remember who) and I thought it was a great idea to give a run down of your day. The good, bad and mundane. Sometimes you don't always see how much you accomplish in a day till you really sit back and reflect!

So here it is.

Childminding children arrived and with the morning school run completed, we all sat down to some fun! Brendan and "E" played with Playmobile for half hour and also 20 mins of Mario on the Wii!

I made this for the babies to play with on the felt story board! Brendan noticed and came over to help cut out a star! Baby "R" spent quite some time decorating the Tree with the shapes. This picture is of one Brendan decorated!

Then to the kitchen to enjoy the Christmas scented play dough we made last week! Everyone had lots of fun and it still smells lovely! Lots of rolling out, sticking bits in, using cutters and making caves!

Brendan and I decided to make another toy that I have got pinned on my Pintrest "too make" board! Such a simple idea and lots of fun for little fingers!
Brendan enjoyed sewing on a button he had chosen from the button basket. He didn't even mind pricking his fingers! We talked about safety issues and making sure the button was secure as babies would be playing with this toy!

After he finished it he tested it out! I made one as well with a bigger round button. Then we just needed a small person to test it out!

Baby "R" was more than happy to help us with the testing! She needs help getting the button through but has grasped what is meant to happen. and she just loved sliding the felt squares up and down the ribbon and then off the other end!

Time for a spot of lunch. Small Autistic moment over the wrong Bakewell tarts. Apparently the ones I normally get, he can eat in layers. Starting with the cherry, then the icing and then the almond paste, jam and finally the pastry....... I made a boo boo..... These have a pastry top under the icing....... We were not amused!

Then Brendan wanted to hold a Science lesson for "E". This was an experiment that he has been enjoying for the past week or so! I blogged about it here. What this doesn't show is the Vinegar EXPLOSION on my Kitchen ceiling!
I tidied up, hoovered, put washing on, cleaned out pets and put the babies up for a nap!

Snack time and the boys decided to re-try and make the "cakes in a cup" that had not worked for us earlier in the week. Much better results this time! Chocolate muffins in 2 minutes... doesn't get better than that!

We then moved on to making rainbow crayons with a box of crayons we found in the cupboard! I have seen this on many blogs over the months, so have not linked to any in particular as I am not sure where the idea originally came from! Loads of fun though! Peeling off all the paper wrappers, snapping the crayons!!

Small pause in the proceedings for another Autistic moment... all crayons had to be grouped before we could move on.... I do love his little quirks!

Then they chose their colours and lay them in the silicone mould!

A spot of painting while we waited for the crayons to melt in the oven.........

Ohhh and the making of a beard!

Finished Rainbow crayons! all new and shinny!! Pieces of art in themselves!

We needed to test them out of course! Out came the big bits of paper and the drawing commenced!

After all this fun I declared it was time to watch the new "How to train your dragon" DVD that the boys picked up from the shops at the weekend. It has a couple of short stories and is so worth buying if you liked the Film and the follow on short film they made!

I crept off for a cuppa in the kitchen at this point, babies sleeping, boys watching tv and peace for 5 minutes!

Then the babies woke and we walked the dog, played on the swings and picked Kenzie up from school!

The camera seemed to not be picked up after the crayon making sadly so no pics of late afternoon to share, sorry.

Kenzie helped to cook dinner for me and did his usual great job of entertaining the babies!

Daddy came home, babies and "E" went home and I put the house back together, hoovered again and washed the walls in the hallway. Amazing how grubby they get!

Time to put Chickens to bed, feed pets and then get in the shower.... I love the point in the day when I can climb in to my PJ's!!

Then snuggles on the bed with my boys while Kenzie read to me and then I read them an Astrosaurs book!

Now in my eyes that's been a fun and productive day and a lot of UnSchooling going on (apart from the one who did go to school today that is lol)

So much enjoyed, so much learnt, and I think it's fair to say every part of the "curriculum" covered at some point!

Hope you all enjoyed your Wednesday as much as we enjoyed ours!!

CHRISTMAS PLAY DOUGH AND TEA PARTIES!!

2011-11-30T14:31:00.000-08:00

Today has been a lovely day of Tea parties with ponies and teddies, reading Christmas stories and listening to our Christmas carol CD! I know it's not quite December... but in a few hours it will be and I just couldn't wait!

Baby L enjoying putting things in and out of a bag!

Any one for an apple and a cuppa?

We made homemade Play dough this afternoon and coloured it green and red! I also added some Mixed Spice to make it smell all Christmassy and also added some little stars to some of the green dough!

Christmas trees!

Look at baby R's beautiful smile!

learning to roll out the dough

Baby L eating the dough! She quickly realised it does NOT taste good!

We also lit one of our Advent Candles. This is not on our stand of 4 candles, but separate and surrounded by stones. Celebrating the Light of stones in this 1st week!

"The first light of Advent is the light of stones

Light that lives in crystals, in seashells and in bones"

I hope your all enjoying this 1st week of Advent and looking forward to welcoming in December with open arms!!
The boys have set up their calendars and are so excited!! Kenzie lay in bed this evening and said Goodbye to November. Such a sweet thought from a little person!

SEASONAL READS!

2011-11-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share with you some lovely Christmas stories we are enjoying. I am not really sure how many posts there will be, or how often they will appear but there will be several over the run up to Christmas!

The first book is one that we borrowed from the Library last week and it made us all giggle SOOO much! In fact Kenzie was still giggling when he was trying to go to sleep (so maybe not a great bedtime story choice!) and he had to take it to school the next day to share with his class!

The book is called "Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas present!" by John Burningham.

After all his deliveries on Christmas Eve, Father Christmas finds a present at the bottom of his sack! Its Harvey Slumfenburgers present and he knows that Harvey's family are very poor and it's the only present he will get this year! But what can he do? His Reindeer is sick! So off he goes, on foot, in his pyjamas to deliver the present. The journey is long and lots of people try and help him..... but things do not go smoothly!

It has a lovely repetitive rhythm to it, which young children love so much. Just reading the name Harvey Slumfenburger was enough to start giggles for us and the name is used to full effect throughout the story! I really do recommend this as a fun Christmas read to get you in the Festive mood!!

SCIENCE, ART AND HISTORY!

2011-11-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

This evening we did a little experiment that Brendan has been wanting to do for a while! Blowing up a balloon using the gas made from mixing Bi-carbonate of soda and vinegar!

Oh the excitement!! They also liked to watch the bubbles rising up inside the bottle until it bubbled in to the balloon!

We talked about using a smaller bottle to see if the gas made, would force the balloon to pump up larger. With less space in a small bottle for the gas to sit in, we felt it was a fair prediction.......

But to our surprise it didn't really make much difference to the size at all.......

Kenzie could hear it fizzing inside and said it sounded like rice crispies after you put the milk in!

Then it was on to some art and history. Brendan's homework was to look for information on who Grace Horsley Darling was and then to write about it and illustrated his work.
After looking on the Internet we found a great site with a little animated story to read. After watching it a couple of times Brendan got out the art supplies and started to paint a picture of the rescue!

He is really enjoying mixing colours and trying new brush techniques with his painting at the moment!
Kenzie enjoyed painting his homework as well. He had to paint things that he had seen on his recent trip to the village church!

This is Brendan's painting of the sinking boat, lighthouse and Grace coming to rescue the people on the rocks!
We didn't get much writing, but what he did write was neat, independently done and in his own words, which is a real step forward in it's self!

Another enjoyable evening with my boys!

SEVEN DAYS

2011-11-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Toddlers on the Play bus that visits our Village. Making animal masks!

My wonderful Non-writer, writing in the wood chip at the park with his feet!

Brendan bought himself a Christmas tree from Asda and I got him some decorations. The boys set it up in their room!

1st Sunday of Advent so we lit our first candle. Also loving our new knitted Nativity!!

THE SOUL OF SUNDAY!

2011-11-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

A single photo, capturing a single moment that I want to remember and enjoy.

1st Sunday of Advent! Our 1st candle lit!

CAKES, CUTENESS AND NEW TOYS!

2011-11-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well, this is really just a jumble of things that have made me happy over the past couple of days and I just had to share!

Cake! We spent a lot of last week making cakes for different fundraising events and the boys just love it!

My lazy cake making! chuck it all in and use an electric whisk..... my mother would not approve! Sorry Mum!

How sweet is this? I just had to take a pic of them cuddled together playing an online strategy game. "Age of war" I think it's called. Brendan was keen to tell me when they were using "advanced technology" that was "beyond the civilizations current Evolution" lol. I love his mind!

Oh and my lovely new Holztiger wooden toys that I only ordered on Monday! Great service Amazon! I would love to buy some Ostheimer items, but I can justify paying their prices when these are just as lovely! I look forward to extending our collection, I thought I would start with these as they have a very Autumnal, Thanks Giving feel to them!

Oh and I can not forget my new book! I love these "Thats not my..." books. I know its beyond my boys age but they still enjoy them and the little ones I look after love them! We have the Snowman and Reindeer one so I just had to get this one too!! I am so ready for Christmas!!!!

So just a little look at a handful of the things that have made me smile this week! Hope your all enjoying your week!

AUTUMN SENSORY TRAY!

2011-11-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

Thought we would share this little sensory box we put together this week. Its an Autumn/ Thanksgiving theme.
I have ordered some wooden Turkeys and woodland creatures to add to it when they arrive! Come on Mr Postman!! Bring me my new toys!!

Anyone think of anything else I could add to it? Loving any excuse to re use those HUGE Pine cones!!

WRITING........ THE BOYS WAY!

2011-11-22T01:58:00.000-08:00

Well my non-writing nearly 10 year old has turned a corner. He wants to write. Not huge pages, or even the level of writing his peers can do..... but he IS writing!

Yesterday, at the park, Brendan started to use the wood chip surface to make shapes and pictures and write messages in huge letters, using his foot! He told me the "The world is my canvas!" what a lovely idea!

He wrote "come inside, its fun." and remembered his punctuation as well, which he finds very hard. He also found a KFC paper bag that someone had not thrown in the rubbish bin, and he then wrote KFC on the floor and drew the face of the the KFC guy above it.

I took some pics of his work. not very easy to see, but you get the idea. i just had to climb on the climbing frame and take a picture!!

I am very proud of his new interest in writing and will cherish each and every way he chooses to write! It is a huge milestone for him and I just wanted to share it with you all!

SEVEN DAYS

2011-11-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Brendan's Monet Painting and facts that he "WROTE"!! my little non- writer is writing! Oh... and my rather sad shoes that the rabbit took a liking too....... looks like I need a new pair!

Some interesting Fungi on our walk this week! And logs being chopped! Which means fun for boys! Making a staircase in to a tree!

Cakes for Children in need on Friday! For the children's school cake sale!

School Tortoise fundraiser. Each family picked and paid for a square and then we timed 2 mins and the Tortoises picked the winning squares!

Building the new Pudsey Bear Lego that we bought, profits going to the Children in need charity!

The finished Lego Pudsey and then nest night on the sofa bed with my boys...... and bunny!

Saturdays fundraising event that I helped run, for the local Pre-school. Jumble sale.... raised loads!

Kenzie collected his letter from Father Christmas from the Garden Centre!

Our new Christmas decorations. I know its early but Advent starts next Sunday and I just couldn't help myself! A letter for each of our names!

So there is our week in pictures! I hope you had a peaceful and enjoyable one yourselves!

SCIENCE AND ART!

2011-11-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

The boys had fun doing their homework with me this evening, and I had a wonderful time helping them!

Kenzie has been looking at suitable materials for a job. He talked at school about what was the best material for Teddies curtains. He told me they had looked at different materials and he decided that the purple material was best "cos the sun came through just a tiny tiny bit!"

He had to find one thing that let light through and one that didn't..... so the hunt started!

We found glass windows! They let the light through. His torch shone through the glass and on to the bush outside!

Then we found metal. No light coming through that.... but it did reflect the light back at him!

Then he drew his pictures and wrote about his findings. He is getting so good at sounding out words and some of the words he copied from the homework instructions on his page!

Brendan's homework was to find out some facts about Monet and paint one of his pictures! Now, Monet is my favourite artist and my mum has a Monet framed in her hallway, that I painted in my late teens. So I was looking forward to seeing his interpretation!
Look at my little Non-writer.... actually writing! He did not complain once and he was so careful about his letter formation!

Here is his finished work! I could not be more proud! He would not have done this 4 months ago..... He loved trying out the acrylic paints. we talked about the brush strokes that Monet used, or rather how he dabbed the paint on. He mixed colours on the palette and used different types of brushes to see what he liked the best.

We have bought him an easel and watercolours for Christmas. He has been asking for one since the summer holidays. The other weekend he said he wanted canvases for Christmas so I can see us going down the route of oils or acrylics as well! He really does enjoy art and being creative, I hope it is something he never stops enjoying. It would be a lovely hobby to follow.

THE SOUL OF SUNDAY!

2011-11-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

A single photo, capturing a single moment that I want to remember and enjoy.

My little boy writing his letter to Father Christmas while at the garden centre today. Sweet boy!

SEVEN DAYS

2011-11-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

1. Enjoying Halloween fun! Decorations, food, fun and friends!

2. Bonfire Night! The biggest bonfire my boys have ever seen!

3. Fireworks with family, toasting marshmallows over a fire pit and just enjoying being together!

4. A spooky train ride on a steam train with a cyberman and "scream"

5. Sofa bed "nest night" with my boys, falling asleep to the light of our lanterns we had made.

6. Traditional "Christmas Cake making day!" Making our yearly wishes while stirring the cake mixture.

7. Harvesting the last of our crops........ although the leeks are still there doing well!

Looking back on this I can really see how wonderful our weeks really are. It is easy to forget all the fun and heart warming times you can have in seven day

Enjoy your next Seven Days everyone!

THE SOUL OF SUNDAY!

2011-11-06T03:46:00.000-08:00

Remember Rmember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot!

HALLOWEEN FUN!!

2011-11-03T03:16:00.000-07:00

Wow.... what a fabby Halloween we had! I am still worn out from being on my feet all day and the house really needed a good tidy up after.... but worth it!

We decorated the house and the front garden. lots of blow up bats, candles, pumpkins, cobwebs and spooky signs!

Then we enjoyed making some spooky sticker pictures!

We made some spooky Ghost cards and pictures using baby footprints! I forgot to take a picture of the finished items but they looked really cute once we drew little faces on them all. The little ones did enjoy having their feet painted as well!

Then some painted Halloween pictures by using cookie cutters as stamps! and adding some hand and fingers prints for good measure. They turned out really nicely! Lots of lovely sensory fun too, squishing all that paint between their fingers!

Then it was time for cookies! We made Orange and Cinnamon cookies all cut in to the shapes of ghosts, witches, pumpkins and more!!

I made jelly filled carved oranges for a yummy treat! I saw this on the Internet somewhere but can not find them now.... you just spoon out the orange flesh, carve a little face and fill with mashed up jelly!

Then after school we all walked to the village pub to join in with the Halloween party they had organised!! So much fun! Yummy food and pass the parcel!

Sibling love!

"baby R" as a witch

Then some trick or treating around the village. We started as a group of 13 children and adults but it was a bit too manic so several of us split off in to smaller groups!

Then home to rest and enjoy the Jelly oranges! My boys decided it was best to use Halloween straws to suck out the jelly! What a day! And for the first time we were not cold while Trick or Treating as the weather is still unusually mild for this time of year.

CHRISTMAS CAKE AND HALLOWEEN FUN!

2011-10-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today was our annual Christmas cake making day. we all meet up with my siblings, at my parents house and we spend the morning weighing dried fruit, cracking eggs, zesting fruit and chopping cherries!! I am so pleased that this tradition has flowed in to my children's lives and they get to enjoy the fun of making this special cake. Now instead of one GIANT cake.... we have several smaller cakes being made and then after several weeks, we get the fun of putting on the marzipan and icing and decorating our cake!!

squeezing the lemons and oranges!

The tradition stirring and wishing that everyone has to do before the cake is cooked!

Kenzie's turn, although he felt quite self conscious about it all!

My turn!

After a morning of baking, I took the boys home for lunch and the Aunties Georgia and Heather came to play! We had an afternoon of Halloween fun planed! We started by making lanterns for our lantern walk this evening!

Kenzie's lantern

Heather working very hard on hers!

So happy with how they turned out!

But the fun didn't end there!! We then went to the Allotment and harvested our Pumpkins ready to bring home and carve!

Home grown are the best I say! Apparently they smell better than shop ones!? Not very big this year as we put them in the ground late, but lovely and Orange!

Carrying home our harvest!

Let the carving commence!! so much mess but so much fun! All with a few Pumpkins, a sharp knife and a spoon!

Look how proud he is!

Brendan's pumpkin is being sick apparently lol!

Then it was time to go on our Lantern walk! We had a few problems keeping the lanterns lit due to the breeze blowing them out. But we did have a lovely time walking around the village together in the dark!!

A lovely day with family and enjoying fun activities with the children! More to come tomorrow as we are off for a ride on the Halloween Express steam train! All dressed up and spooky!

TRING NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

2011-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Today myself and another childminding friend took our children to somewhere that I have not been to since I was a child. Tring natural history museum!

I was looking through the Internet a couple of weeks ago for fun things to do over half term and noticed they were doing Apple pressing today! I know my boys love this and thought the others would.... so off we went. Judy, myself and 11 small people between us!

First we chopped the apples!

Crushed the apples in a very mean looking chopper! Everyone had lots of fun taking it in turns to make it work!

Then we poured it all in to a press!

Folded the lining bag down!

Replaced the lid!

Then came the turning of the press handle! Brendan said he would wait till the end and turn it when it was getting harder to do, as he said he was one of the older ones. That was very thoughtful I thought!

Look at all that juice!!! A much quicker process than the juicing we did at home with a blender and piece of cloth the other week!

Yummy! The tasting! worth all the hard work!

Brendan and Kenzie wanted to use the apple corer, peeler and slicer! Something I have on my "To get" list!

Kenzies apple was a bit small. So it got cored and sliced.... just not peeled lol!

Then we went in to see all the animals. I was a bit worried about how I was going to explain that they were dead and stuffed.... but only one child asked and was fine with the truth. Why do I worry about these things?

Not really my favourite display but the boys seemed to like it!

Kenzie grabbed some paper and a pencil and started to draw lots of the animals that he liked! It was lovely to watch and I could see he was really looking at their shapes and details!

Brendan LOVED this place! He found birds that sparked his memory and he started to tell me all about the displays they did to attract female birds! The noises that some birds can copy and where some of them lived!
His Aspi sponge brain really is something of a marvel!

This is some where I can see us visiting rather a lot. Today was VERY busy due to the school holidays but we are going to try it at the weekend.

POTIONS AND PRE HALLOWEEN MAGIC!

2011-10-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

With Halloween just around the corner we decided we would start our Halloween themed fun!

This year the boys are more in to the Witches and Wizards side of Halloween as we have been reading my Aunts books which are very much based around magic and spells!

The first book is called "The Elder Brothers and the Padstow crystals" and we are currently reading the second book, "The Elder Brothers and the Dragons Portal"

We went to the £1 shop today to stock up on some decorations and props for our Wizards den we are setting up.

While I decorated the Playroom, Brendan made a Pocket Glob. This is something in the story that can transport you from one place to another. We covered golf balls in blue acrilic paint and tomorrow the boys will paint land on to them with green paint.

Kenzie helped to set up all our bottles, ready to make our potions in!

I lay out a mixture of ingredients that I thought they would enjoy using to make interesting potions

Off they went! They loved it. My little students in their potion making class!

Then I introduced Bi-carb of soda and Vinegar! Brendan guessed what might happen and he loved mixing the two and making foam!

Look at their excited faces!! So sweet!

So many things to mix.... where do we start!

Bubbly overflow!

Bottles and bottles of newly mixed potions!

The boys lay out their potions on the table by the Cauldrens.... after I had hot glue gunned the lids on.

Would not want any spillages!

I don't know about the children... but I am really looking forward to playing with this over the next week!

We have lots of fun things planed. We are going to finish making the Pocket Globes, write a spell book, dress up, visit the local caves for a special afternoon of Whitchcraft, where they get to do ghost busting and learn to fly broom sticks. It sounds great!! I hope to take them on a Lantern walk in the hills next Saturday and then trick or treating round the village on Monday!

Oh and not forgetting, picking and carving our Pumpkins from the allotment!

BEAULIEU MOTOR MUSEUM

2011-10-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was another glorious sunny day and warm as well.
The boys school term ended on Thursday so Lee and I had decided to take them on a mystery tour! They have spent all week trying to work out where we might be taking them. They just knew it was somewhere they have asked to go to in the past!
Beaulieu is quite a distance from us. About an hour and a half. We got there at lunch time and enjoyed a lovely fish and chips lunch in the cafe and then set about enjoying the museum.

We started in the James Bond tent. Brendan and Lee both like James Bond so this went down very well.

The next display was our main reason for going! The Top Gear display! We are all Top Gear fans. one of the very few TV programs we watch. It was great to see all the cars that we have seen on the show in real life. We really wanted to see Geoff, the electric car they made in their warehouse in Didcot and then drove around Oxford. Maybe we like it so much because they do a lot local to us, and have even driven though our village in one of their shows. We enjoy spotting places we know while watching the program.

The boys driving cars around a track!

The Dampervan!!!

Geoff!

Kenzie chatting to the Stig!

We also saw lots of lovely old cars, as well as the Harry Potter flying car, Mr Beans mini and Chitty chitty bang bang!

We had a ride on a monorail.

A ride on and old bus and then a walk around the ruins of an old Abbey!

We played by a river or inlet.... either way it was Sea water! Making boats from sticks and leaves and then seeing if they would float!

Sword fighting with sticks!

Cuddles with Kenzie!

Kenzie's photo of Mummy!

Building boats!

Our boat! and it floated!

Trying to retrieve the boat!

Don't fall in!!!!!!

Sharing a fruit lace!

New Forest Ponies on the drive home! Beautiful!

A wonderful family day out and so much to see and enjoy! They are already asking to go back again!

HALLOWEEN, DRESSING UP CLEANING!

2011-10-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to do some fun Halloween things! A dry run for half term next week, when I plan to make the whole place very Halloweeny!!

Baby "R" colouring in some Halloween shapes and playing with the wooden stencils!

We turned our garden scene in to an Autumn garden, changed the leaves on our tree and a few animals made their way in as well!

Then for some dressing up! Baby "R" loved the Pumpkins! She did several catwalks up and down the hallway showing it off!

Then we added the witch's hat! Give us a little twirl beautiful girlie!

We tried the whole Witches kit on! found a magic wand as well! This was turning in to a proper little fashion show!!

Too pretty to be a witch!

We found the Ideal blocks and built some interesting shapes together, and knocked a few down as well.....
I did most of the building, Baby "R" did most of the knocking down!

When the big boys got home from Science club we went for a play and a walk at the park. Brendan found a big ramp which belongs to a teenage boy who lives out the back of us. It had been buried in the weeds for months and Brendan fished it out. He asked if he could borrow it and the Bigger boy said he was allowed!
Brendan was over the moon and he and Kenzie carried it home and then proceeded to wash off all the mud and dirt! They have decided it will be good for the radio control cars and Brendan would like to try jumps on his bike! Do I book A&E now?

I am looking forward to some shopping in the "£1" shop this weekend! Looking for cauldrons and fun things we can use for some Halloween role play!

MONDAY MAKINGS!

2011-10-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Monday was a bit grey here, but nowhere near as cold and fresh as it should be for mid October! The perfect day to stay in and do some art though!

I have been planning to make some Toilet roll Owls, which I have seen in several places across the web recently. You just fold the top down slightly so that you have 2 pointy ears and then I hot glue gun this in place.

I find it much easier to give the toddlers paint on the high chair tray and let them use their fingers to spread it over the item we want painting. They get to really feel the cold a squashy paint between their fingers and paint brushes are just too tricky for tots!

While they dried we painted trees as well. The Owls need somewhere to live after all! Again the paint goes strait on to the high chair and they swish it about a bit. when it looks a bit tree like, I lay some paper over the top and take a print of it! Its the painting that they have made but without the paper getting ripped and chewed!

Then we needed a spot of fresh air and a play at the park! Both the girls are loving a daily play on the swings! We can be there for a good half hour or more. Personally swings make me feel rather sick!

Then home to decorate the Owls! Baby "R" has very good control of the glue stick. I let her choose where she wanted to put the pieces. I did try some small guiding by turning the toilet role, so that the rough spot for the wing or tummy was in front of her and then she would naturally stick it in the right area.... ish!

As you can see this is not so easy to do for the small details!

Picasso eat your heart out! Very abstract!

As you can see I had to add the bits for Baby "L"... she just wanted to eat everything ... including the glue stick lol! It's these teeth I am sure... or lack there of! Come on teeth!!

When the boys came home from school we made some dairy free cookies! We have really reduced Kenzies dairy intake to help with his eczema.

I did try to explain that cookies should really be flat but they wanted to make them in to models!

These are Cinnamon and ginger cookies with a few raisins! We also added a packet of Kenzies Dairy free chocolate buttons for some fun!

They didn't turn out too bad...not really the shapes they were made in to... but interesting non the less!

Hope you have a good week!

MAKING RAMPS AND HALLOWEEN ART!

2011-10-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

After a very lazy start to our Sunday morning (The boys playing "My Sims kingdom and Lee and I watching some Dinosaur excavation program) We got dressed and go to some real fun!

Kenzie has spent this weekend driving his Monster truck around the house, so I took him outside to make ramps! We raided the shed (which is no easy thing, let me tell you!) for some bits of wood a talked about how best to make it. Kenzie had a few ideas but after some careful questioning by me, he realised why some of these might not work and set about making this one. I had a go at driving and promptly crashed it 4 times! Kenzie took control and went up the ramp first time... and second... and third! I know when I'm beat!

Then Kenzie extended the ramps with more wood and even tried to play football with the truck! Have you noticed his Stig T-shirt. If I ask him what job he will have when he is older, he will say "I'm going to be the Stig mummy!"

While rummaging in the shed for wood I remembered that I wanted to get the Halloween box out too! We found all of our Knitted Halloween figures and our stencils too. We all sat down and made some pictures. Kenzie drawing round his Bat in this picture!

I do love this second picture he drew. He added lots of Adipose figures from Dr Who....... of course!
Dr Who had to get a look in there somewhere!

Then it was time to do our homework. Kenzie was asked to draw healthy things that we have done this week, in his homework book. So that's what he has just done in this picture! Brendan is writing an Acrostic poem. Look at him!! Writing!!! I have no idea what has happened to my "Non writing boy" but he has just suddenly taken to it! He will still not write like his friends do but I have no worries about that. He is willingly writing and anything he puts on paper is a step in the right direction!

Then we did a puzzle together! Well Kenzie and I did. This was our 100 piece jigsaw. Kenzie worked very hard on it!

,
We also went to the local sports club on the green for a drink and a play with friends, and to let the dog have a run around! Brendan found "Shrimp" in a grubby little stream behind the club...... not sure if they are shrimp and I tried to not stress too much about the cleanliness (or lack there of) of the stream, as he fished things out in an old wooden crate he found!

I am sure at some point we will find some real Autumn weather and will no longer be able to walk around in our t-shirts and sit out side on a picnic bench having a Sunday afternoon drink.
But while it is here... I am LOVING it!!!!!

FUN WITH CORN!

2011-10-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today seems to have been a day of Corn fun. Not so much through planning, more through children's choices of play items. But it does fit in nicely with Autumn and Harvest!

Firstly we made pictures with our Maize noodles. This is the first time we have tried an Art project with them, and everyone seemed to have fun.

"E" used a picture guide to make his Dinosaur. We practiced our cutting to make them the right size to fit on the marks on the picture. I asked if he wanted to colour the picture as well, but he was happy with it just having Noodles on! I think he did a Grand job! He loved how they got sticky when they were wet!

Brendan came home from school and made a couple of little models with his. A person and a tank.

Then Brendan asked to mix some Cornflour so that he could play with the "liquids and solids!"

I love how child initiated play can often fit right in to what you are trying to teach the children. They were interested to see 2 very different ways that the corn was used!

THE SOUL OF SUNDAY!

2011-10-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Apple juice making after a day at the Autumn Apple Fare!

More Soul of Sundays over at Ordinary life magic!

APPLE SUNDAY!

2011-10-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today we visited an Autumn Apple fare at a local Garden centre and private gardens. The boys really needed to have space to run about and this was just the place! They found some tree stumps and used them to climb on, crawl through and jump off! Great fun!

More jumping!!

Then we popped in to the rural museum which was great! lots of things that the children could touch and lots of farming and gardening tools from "way back when"! This is a seed grinding machine that Kenzie loved playing with!

We thought these were really funny and sweet! Goats boots! and Sheep wellies behind! They even had boots for horses! Just had to take a photo!

Some beautiful lace bobbins! I think they are just so pretty!

Kenzie drawing a Tardis on the old school chalk board. He is going through a Tardis stage at the moment. Every picture he draws is a Tardis!

Checking out an old till that was owned by Ronnie Barker. The boys loved pressing the keys and popping open the till draw! It was full of old coins and notes and had old monetary values on the keys!

Then a little bit of Pottery decorating. Kenzie made a frog and Brendan made a pig. They spent a good 20 minutes decorating their ornaments and took such care over the details!

Kenzie's finished frog! It was all green till Brendan stuck a red coat on his pig.... therefore Kenzie had to do the same. I am trying very hard to encourage Kenzie to do his own things rather than copy Brendan all the time. But it is not something that looks to be changing any time soon, much to Brendan's annoyance

We watched some basket weaving. There were some great baskets being made and I am very glad I didn't have any money on me or I may well have spent far too much!

No English fare would be the same without Morris Dancers!

We took a tour of the apple orchard and learnt about the different types of apples, how to grow them and saw how they make juice!

It would have been lovely if they had allowed the children to have a go at juicing but all the equipment is very industrial now :-( We hoped they would have a little press that the boys could try out, but sadly not, so the boys came home and we set about making our own!

Lots of peeling, coring and chopping!

Some chopping with an electric mini chopper!

and then we poured the pulp in to the muslin cloth! The boys talked about the colour that the pulp turned and remembered what the tour guide had told us about them adding vitamin c to counteract the effects of the oxygen on the fruit. They told me we didn't need the lemon juice as we were happy with natural brown apple juice! I was so pleased to see all this new learning was being absorbed!

Time for some juice squeezing!

and yummy juice for us to enjoy!!

Save some for Mummy!!!!

While they were busy juicing, I made an Apple and blackberry crumble with the left over apples and the blackberries Brendan and I picked on our walk yesterday!

"I'm not eating the apples mummy....... honest" !! BUSTED !!

Then an extra special treat for my boys! I saw this on a fellow Pintrest users board and loved it! I knew we just had to try it out! So we waited for the sun to go down and ran a nice warm bath. Then added Glow sticks! SOOOOOOO much fun, I can not begin to tell you!

This is boys playing with glow sticks in the bath!!

Its been a lovely family day with lots of fresh air and enjoying Natures gifts!

I KNITTED SOMETHING!!!!!!

2011-10-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

For all you bloggers that know I am a Knitting wanna-be, but have tried and failed many times..... you will know what a big moment this is for me!

I successfully knitted Brendan a scarf! By myself!!! Well with some online facebook chat tips from good friends lol!

I know its nothing huge but it has taken me 34 years to actually knit something usable!

Big grin on my face right now!!

THURSDAY BLISS!

2011-10-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today has been another one of those meandering days that I love so much! The sun has been out and the sky is blue, but there was that Autumnal nip in the air, and as the day progressed a rather blustery wind picked up.

During our walk today we visited the local cows. The babies are getting rather big now and growing more cautious of us.... or maybe it was more the dog they were avoiding.

The girls had a lovely time, drinking some milk and watching the cows. Giggling and Mooing!

Kane having a good sniff around on our way back down the farm drive!

I have been so inspired by my Blogging friends, that I have decided to give knitting another go! I always seem to drop or gain stitches and I have no idea how to cast off! But this is the fabby wool I am using that has minimal stitching and maximum results! So great for a learner. I am knitting a scarf for Brendan!

Lots of Toddler play today. I just have the babies on a Thursday so its lovely to focus just on toddler fun for a day. Baby "R" playing with a truck!

Baby "L" coming in for the attack....... Its very Dangerous to be on the floor with babies!

(please excuse the blurry pics, they were taken on my phone!)

Baby "R" getting in on the act... Its very hard to photograph yourself being attacked by babies! Oh dear... why is little "L" sad? I am sure it is probably just how the camera caught her... I don't remember her being sad.... or maybe its a growl!!

Me and Baby "L" having cuddles! a rare moment where she was still!

We enjoyed a spot of reading and lots of singing today!

And lots of tunnel play!!

Later on in the day we went to the school to read Class 1 a story! My Godson, who is in Kenzies class, asked if I would come in and read to everyone. I was of course very touched and honoured to be asked and took in a Julia Donaldson book called "Charlie Cooks favourite book"! It seemed to go well! Everyone looked interested and helped me find the characters from each page, at the end of the book!

We also had a cheeky afternoon Cream Tea, with a good friend, in the local Antique centre this afternoon, as the boys had Science club after school! Yummy!

ROADWORKS WEDNESDAY!

2011-10-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Today we didn't even have to leave the house to see exciting things. After lunch "E" and I watched the Roadworks being done outside the house. We have had traffic lights out there for the past 24 hours, which packed up over night... meaning rush hour traffic was having some issues this morning. But thankfully we are in a tiny village so not huge amounts of traffic coming past the house!

"E" loved the big crane arm moving around on the back of the lorry, scooping Tarmac out on to the road!

Then some men got in and the whole back tipped up! They poured tarmac out over the holes they had dug. One man shouted instructions and the lorry would move forwards a little bit. Then another man would rake it out over the hole...... "E" noticed that the man raking was loosing his trousers and kept trying to shout at him.
"Pip open the window.... he can't hear me... he is going to loose his trousers!!" So funny!
I really don't understand this fashion of wearing your trousers half way down your bottom..... especially in your high visibility work clothes???