Saturday 24 December 2011

Twas the night before Christmas!

How exciting!

We've delivered a lot of presents to friends and family today and also baked some biscuits for tomorrow. Chops has left one for Santa with some pineapple juice and 8 carrots. He didn't want any of the reindeer to miss out as they all need energy!

This afternoon we went to the cinema to see Arthur Christmas. It was very sweet and will definitely become a Christmas classic I think.

Boys are now both tucked up in bed, new pyjamas on, 'twas the night before Christmas' read, stockings hung and now time for the grownups to make sure the food is prepared and house ready for the big day tomorrow.

I love Christmas!

Walking in a winter wonderland

We had a trip to Alnwick Gardens yesterday to have a walk in their winter wonderland and to see Santa. It was beautifully done. If we go next year I'd like to go for longer I think.

Friday 23 December 2011

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time

Or 'dilly dally a wonderful Christmas time' as the Chops is currently singing while strumming away on his guitar.

We've had a very busy few days preparing for Christmas. All the gifts are bought and wrapped. We braved the supermarket yesterday so the cupboards are full. We went to panto (oh yes we did!) which Roly danced and smiled his way through. We've visited the reindeer in the park.

Unfortunately we missed two parties last weekend due to us all being ill but we've made up for it since.

I've never seen Chops so excited as he is at the moment counting down the sleeps. Can't wait to see his face on Christmas day!

Thursday 15 December 2011

Baby Signing

Well, my youngest son might not say much (ok, anything!) but he is AMAZING at getting his point across with grunts, signs, nodding or shaking his head and dragging people to wherever he wants to be.

Over the past few days he's been using a lot more baby signs and it's very effective. We've loosely done baby sign with them since Chops was very young and I've found it a great tool for understanding their needs better before they are able to verbalise them. Even once Chops did start to speak he used to accompany his requests for milk with the sign, it became second nature to both of us while communicating and was another lovely bond that we shared.

Speaking of bonds and communication, the way Chops responds to Roly is lovely to watch. He often knows when Roly wants a drink or snack before I do. He's so in tune with his needs. It's another reason why I'm pleased that Chops won't be off to school any time soon - they'd miss eachother terribly. I'm looking forward to seeing the sibling relationship develop as Roly becomes more assertive and also a little apprehensive about the mischief ahead once the Roly One can involve the Chops in his plans!

In other news

Today I had my biggest ever baking failure! Chops and I made some vegan cupcakes that were meant to be for the playgroup Christmas party tomorrow but they went flat and tasted awful. Not pleased! The hunt for the perfect vegan cake recipe goes on. Fortunately my vegan brownies and cookies are more successful!

We did some winter pictures today too. Chops' picture is of our house with icicles, falling snow and snow on the ground. Roly loved the stickers and was actually engrossed in the process for a lot longer than his big bro.

Christmas Crackers

We took the boys to the 'Christmas Crackers' event at Hartlepool Maritime Museum today. It was Victorian themed and they had lots of performers and activities on plus choir on board the boat and a firework display. It was a bargain for £3.50 a ticket.

While Chops was doing a craft activity with daddy I spoke to one of the members of their 'learning team' about having a home ed trip there in the new year. They have different themes and are free, hurrah!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Stop! Hama Time!

Sorry, that was really bad but I couldn't resist!

The Chops and I had our first experience of Hama beads today. I wasn't too sure what he'd make of it as he's not usually a sit still for fiddly crafts kind of kid but something about the idea appealed to him and he was really engaged with it. I enjoyed it and can see how you can sit for ages doing a more complicated design. We were very careful not to drop any though - I can't see that being fun!

We made a heart shaped decoration which is now pride of place at the top of our tree.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Simon says..

What an awesome game. Barely a day goes by when we don't resort to this on a journey or just to fill five minutes at home.

We love to do a mix of physical activities (hopping, jumping, rolling etc) and 'brain work' (increasingly difficult sums, sounding out words, naming rhyming words etc)

Love it and find it fab that Roly has started joining in with the actions too

Life

We had a lovely day at Newcastle's Centre for Life today with a few other home edders. There are so many hands on things to do there. Chops loves it and I'm pretty sure we'll be renewing our annual pass.

I'm sure we all learn something new every time we go. My favourite fact of the day came from Chops' friend who is 7... 'did you know that Japan has over 3000 McDonald's restaurants' No? Me either!

The planetarium show was a special Christmas Star edition and was not quite on our level. A bit too technical for Chops' age but he sat through it better than some of the college group who were also in there! I found it interesting though. Life long learning and all of that.

Monday 12 December 2011

Simple things...

make happy boys

Dancing with flashing toys in the dark and making lunch into a Christmas tree.

It doesn't take a lot of time or effort to make them giggle and I *love* it

Friday 9 December 2011

The noisy word game

Chops and I have played this lots recently. It involves writing a 'noisy word' ie boo, pop, bump, rarrrr on the board for the other person to read and then shouting it and pretending to be shocked.

4 year olds are awesome.

Ch ch ch ch

Chug chug!

Learned about the 'ch' sound this morning with a train game

Thursday 8 December 2011

On the 8th day of Christmas..

.. we baked festive biscuits and had a lovely home ed party.

Our home ed under 7s group had a lovely Christmas party today in a local sports hall with bouncy castle and slides. The children all had a brilliant time and it was nice to catch up with everyone.

Chops and I made some vegan choc biscuits before we went. He did the majority of the measuring, mixing, rolling and cutting. He only really needs me to read the recipe and taste the goods! Oh, and do the washing up!

He left one for his dad to try and left him a letter to go with it. Very proud of the writing!

Things that make you go ooo

This song came on the radio while we were making lunch. Chops asked me if they'd forgotten that its two o's to make oo. What a sweetie

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Days like today...

remind me why it is so so utterly brilliant to be a parent of two small boys.

They began by both lying in until after 8am which is unheard of!

We went to the National Glass Centre this morning and had a look around their new exhibition on glass and ceramics, a look in their kids' investigation room where there are lots of hands on things to do with lights and mirrors and a walk on the glass roof.

From there we went to the park and it was just perfect weather for it. Freezing cold but bright sunshine and blue sky - cobwebs suitably blown away! There was no-one else there so they ran wild for a bit!

Then went on to a cafe for a bit of lunch and home to get the Roly one to nap.

While he was asleep the Chops and I did our Christmas activity which today was making a wooden spoon Rudolph. It takes a lot to inspire Chops to craft but he was suitably impressed by this idea and enjoyed himself so much that he carried on painting/sticking a nativity scene too.

We had yet another game of cauldron maths game. He can't get enough of it! And pancakes. All good days involve pancakes.

I noticed while we were out today that Chops is making a big effort to read words in the environment. He sounded out a couple at the Glass Centre today and more later. I love watching him progressing and gaining confidence with reading. He encountered 'shoot' on his football so now knows that S and H say shhh.

Then this afternoon we took him along to gymnastics club. It's run by the same people who do our toddler gym session so I knew she was good. He really enjoyed it and wants to go again. They do a Saturday morning session so think that'll fit into our schedule better.

Rounded the day off with vegan sausage, lentil and bean casserole with herby dumplings. What could be better!

Adding tens

Chops decided to pick a random page of his maths book yesterday and ended up adding 10s to numbers 1-9. He caught on really quickly that you ended up with a 1 in front of the initial number. We made it more interesting by running up and down the number of times of the answer! I've noticed him doing a lot of jumping and running when he's got his brain working at the moment - a learning style which definitely wouldn't be suited to a classroom!

In other maths news, he's still loving the orchard toys cauldron game and confidently does both the addition and subtraction sums in his head. Even the ones with two parts (eg 4 + 2 + 3)

We also did the 'A' page in our own letter book yesterday. Found as many things as we could beginning with A and took a photo to stick in.

Monday 5 December 2011

Festive Fun!

Oh I love the build up to Christmas!

So far we have...

put up the Christmas tree and decorations

read loads of Christmas stories

baked bread in festive shapes

played lots of Christmas snap

snuggled under blanket to watch Elf

been to the garden centre to see the decorations. Chops bought a lovely santa snow globe then they played in the soft play area

put lots of baubles back on the tree after the Roly one removed them!

Today my mum is bringing a craft activity for them while I work.

Saturday 3 December 2011

Football crazy

Thought I had cracked it and found a suitable football course for Chops but alas, it wasn't to be.

It was advertised for 4-7 year olds but he was the youngest there by quite a margin and to be honest, even some of the older children weren't really comprehending the coach's instructions a lot of the time! For me, there wasn't enough focus on having fun with the ball and there was too much waiting around for them.

In the end they played a match and one of the older kids ran into him and he went flying so he came off and finished early. Disappointing as he'd been looking forward to it. He's still keen to find somewhere to play with his own age-group so will continue my search!

Friday 2 December 2011

Just keep swimming swimming swimming

The Chops received his first swimming badge today - the 'Puffin'. He's had his ups and downs over the past term of swimming but wants to go back to do level 1 after Christmas so I think he's enjoyed it on the whole.

The progress he's made has been amazing.

Zzzzzzz

I will miss moments like this when the boys are grown

Thursday 1 December 2011

Roly update

He's just yummy! A mix of mischief and cuddles.

He's still not saying any words but his non-verbal communication is second to none!

He's signing more for things, uses lots of actions for songs and can point to loads of things in books or parts of the body so I have no doubt that once he starts talking he won't stop - like his brother who went from saying nothing to talking in sentences pretty much overnight.

Roly's fine motor skills have visibly improved. He can do simple peg puzzles and spent ages putting a pen lid on and off when we were drawing.

He still has no 'interests' as such. No favourite toys and he won't watch tv even for 5 minutes. He loves stories, singing, action songs, hiding/tickling games and generally being in places I'd rather he wasn't (on top of table/hands in bin/running towards bathroom with arm-fulls of toys). He's certainly never dull!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Our tree is up! All very exciting. That was our festive activity for the day. It included lots of dancing and some air guitar. Happy family times.

Also did a Rudolph maths sheet, as you do, where Chops had to complete the sum by putting in a + or -. He didn't even have to think about it, just knew if it was bigger then you need to add. Must find something at least a little challenging next time!

We had our first viewing of The Smowman for this year too. Amazed by how much of it Chops could remember from last year.