Saturday 25 February 2012

Star-gazing

Shared a lovely moment with the Chops this evening. Once Roly was asleep, I put Chops (already in his pjs) onto my back and inside my babywearing coat then we took a walk to see the stars and moon. I'd read that Venus and Jupiter were visible and they were so so clear. Amazing to see and mind-blowing to think of what's up there.

I promised Chops that I'd try to find some worksheets etc on space. Maybe that can be our next project.

Friday 24 February 2012

Monster-good Thursday

The boys and I had a lovely chilled out day at home yesterday. It feels like months since we had a full day of laziness!

We had water play, shaving foam 'swamps' for dinosaurs and Chops and I created rock monsters in the afternoon while Roly had a nap. It was the most involved I'd ever seen him in a craft activity.

We continued the theme by drawing a monster together and then he dictated a story about the monster which I typed for him.

He also enjoyed completing a few worksheets from 1+1+1=1. They were concentrating on his pen skills and forming letters but had themes which appealed (batman catching bad guys, Luke using the force on vader, cars winning races...)

These were the days I wished for when I decided to home ed. Happy happy relaxed learning.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Reading contined

Chops' confidence in his reading is growing so quickly. I love to see his face when he deciphers a word and he is so proud of himself! We moved on today to stage 2 of the Songbird scheme and also have a new batch of 'tricky words' stuck around the living room for his exercise game.

Wildfowl Park

The home ed group meets each week at the local Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre. They are beautiful surroundings and it has an excellent but quiet play area. Chops loves seeing his friends. Roly loves seeing the ducks and otters. Win win!

Siblings are a puzzle

I am yet to find an interest aside from wrestling and bouncing that both of my boys enjoy! They are different in every way imaginable.

The Chops has always hated jigsaws. Roly loves them. He's getting really good at the peg ones and getting the idea of simple 2 piece ones too

Thursday 16 February 2012

Reading Success

The Chops read his first book today without any prompting from me. He was so so proud of himself and said afterwards that he didn't think he could do it but he could!

It was ORT's Songbird Phonics' book Zak and the Vet.

A big moment indeed!

We've had a lovely day all round that included pancakes for breakfast, a bike ride by the sea, lunch in a cafe and lots of board games and books. Simple pleasures.

Butter wouldnt melt...

Here is my very own 'Mr Mischief' as named by his big brother

Happy Valentines

We created some Valentines pictures for Daddy. Roly concentrated hard on where to spread the glue/stick things on and as usual loved covering the paper and himself in pen!

Monday 13 February 2012

Mmmmm

Stole a recipe from another blogging friend and it was simple but delicious!

Ice cream balls, rolled in melted choc and dipped in sprinkles. And all vegan!

Locomotion!

We visited Locomotion - The National Rail Museum in Shildon yesterday with the boys. It was great. Lots of hands on stuff for the Chops, a nice (if very muddy!) play area and trains galore for both boys to admire.
Will be heading back up there for another (free!) day out in the summer

Shadow Walk

'Mummy my shadow moves because the sun can't get through my body!'

Thursday 9 February 2012

Productive Day

Yesterday was one of those days that I look back on and wonder 'how on earth do we manage?!'

Toddlers/gymnastics in the morning, took car to get exhaust fixed, lunch, did some literacy/numeracy and did a lot of playing/reading with Chops, did some work towards setting up my own business and an 8 hour shift at work.

Just a normal day then...

Bubbles!

'Mum when I blow air under the water it makes bubbles!'

Saturday 4 February 2012

Musings

I've been thinking a lot recently about how things have changed for me since having the boys.

It's hard to believe that I'm the same person who just started to follow 'what you do' the first time around with regards to feeding and sleeping and all the various baby paraphernalia that you 'need'. If it wasn't for the Chops being very determined to get what he needed (bedsharing, not being in a pushchair, lots of time at the breast) then I have no doubt that my parenting journey would have been totally different and more than likely included lots more nights out and a school application for Chops. 'Because that's what you do'

He taught me to research WHY things are the way they are - why cots and scheduled feeding and cry it out and early weaning and nursery places for 2 year olds are so common. I like to think that the majority of our parenting decisions are backed up by the best evidence we have available. It may be harder work on occasion - but it will pass and their future physical and mental health is worth it!

He taught me to be mindful of exactly who is profiting when you make a decision - particularly baby milk/food manufacturers and shops who sell lots of gadgets to new parents!

He taught me that being true to yourself is important. Following the crowd is not.

He taught me that parents have much more to learn about the world than babies do! I've had to 'unlearn' a lot to get myself on the road to the kind of parent I'd like to be.

He's taught me that people and relationships and time are much more important than things.

And the more that I've learned along the way, the more I've realised how little I know! How exciting to think of the knowledge and experiences that are still to come for our little family!

Friday 3 February 2012

4 words in a row

Tweaked an idea I found online today to make our own 4 in a row game. I made a grid with 6 columns and wrote in a variety of words - some phonetic and some tricky. I made sure that a lot of them were ones he already knew but introduced another handful of tricky words too.

We took turns rolling the dice then picked a word from the column to read. Once we'd read it we put on a counter. The first to 4 in a row wins!

Chops did really well with it. The phonetic words he read pretty easily by sounding them out. He remembered most of the tricky words we'd looked at previously. The new ones we'll look at again soon but it was nice to introduce them while he was engaged in something fun and 'competitive' which is what makes him tick.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Domesticating Chopsy

He made lunch for himself and his brother today! Chopped veg, spread purée and put the whole thing together and under the grill

Wednesday 1 February 2012

All for the boys

A friend of mine sent me a link to this blog http://www.allfortheboys.com/ and it's full of good ideas.

The Chops and I spent ages yesterday playing with trays of dry couscous and lentils and a collection of construction vehicles. We also made letters and patterns in the mix.

Joke of the day by Chops

What do you get when a light and a toy shelf cross the road?

A marble