Calling Time

I had been wondering about continuing with this blog for a while. My posts are pretty sporadic and, with other commitments increasing I think they will continue to be so. I am not a natural writer- it takes a lot of thought for me to put anything on here, and I am not even sure who reads it! Also with the advent of facebook I feel that I can communicate much of what I do here on there. Blogging has always been a way to keep in touch for me- now I do not need to use it for that. If you would like to keep in touch then please find me on facebook or email me- Susannaberryatgmaildotcom, and I will keep in touch. I have been debating my use of facebook too but like it too much to let go....yet. It is a bit of a communication lifeline for me!! I will leave this blog up for a bit, and make sure I copy all the blog addresses I follow! But then it will be goodbye blogosphere- at least for now!

Giveaway

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paint-Little-Crafts-Juliet-Bawden/dp/0600590410/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335966718&sr=1-2

I have a copy of the above book to give away :) We have 2 copies and (as yet) neither have been used. All you need to do is leave me a comment here. I know this blog has been pretty quiet recently- we are having some ups and downs right now- but I hope to get back into things a bit more next week :)
Feel free to share this give away!

Easter

Well it can safely be said that this Easter has not gone as planned! On Thursday Doodle fell in the garden and managed to break the bottom of his left humerus. After the obligatory 'come on get up' to 'that does not look right' to 'help' to child re-distribution to lift to hospital (thank you thank you Pastor and Ruth Kay for all your help) we ended up in A and E where x-ray showed he had indeed broken it quite badly.Poor little man- he was ever so brave. We went up to the children's ward to wait for theatre- he had eaten lunch just before he fell so we needed at least 6 clear hours. But by this point the nasal morphine was working wonders. We stayed in overnight and then came home on Friday. The trip to London was cancelled and thankfully the church David was due to preach at were able to cover.

Overall he is doing OK but we are struggling to manage his pain relief. We have been given the OK to up his pain relief meds for a couple of days but if he is still distressed this evening the GP has told us to call back and they will try and think of an alternative. We are waiting for an appointment from fracture clinic- hopefully we will be seen on Thurs/Fri and can get a better idea of what is going on. On a personal note, this was my first experience of sending a child off to theatre .....and the cannula placement was a trauma in itself....I am hoping we do not have to do it again soon! I did have to laugh at one point when he announced really loud 'oh no mummy, what about my school work'?.......ha ha ha- I will remind him of that when I am trying to get him motivated again!

Life's a Beach!!

We had a lovely few days in Appledore thanks to some very dear friends. The boys love it there- although it is only 20 minutes from home you get there and think 'ahhh I am away!'. The property we stay in is right on the quay so there is always something to watch out of the windows.

Being by the water got me thinking (well, something had to.....) and when we got back I finally got round to ordering some water beads which friends had been raving about. I have to say they are great fun!!! Whilst on the beach we collected some shells. Then we left our water beads in water to expand over night, and made some cloud dough .

First the folks from Happy Land had a day trip to the seaside.

Then the Lego men decided they needed to get in on the fun. The only downside was that the moisture from the beads made the 'waters edge' a little mushy and several Lego figures now have gloop in their various holes! Samiad LOVED the water beads! They bounce and he had excellent fun chucking them around....I am pretty sure I now have a colony living under my fridge. ..... They are also good fun to squash....and best of all, they sweep up beautifully leaving very little mess :) I must confess I couldn't resist swishing my hands through them either- they feel great. We have lots left over which can, apparently, be re-hydrated, and I have three more unopened packs as well......I wonder what fun we can get up to with them!

Science

I had been a bit nervous about starting science lessons. Now, I know that science is all around us and that we 'practice it' and 'use it' every day. But the formal putting it into words was causing me some consternation. After looking around we settled on Building Foundations to begin our scientific studies. We have only done 2 lessons so far and although they require some thoughtful preparation I have enjoyed teaching them and Doodle has really enjoyed the practical learning.



The first lesson was simply about the fact that we organise things and sort them into categories. I selected a variety of household items and let him sort them however he wanted to. We then walked around the house looking at ways that things were organised. I even managed to slip sorting out socks/pants into the lesson. Score one to mummy!




As a follow up the next day he did some sorting of the toy food - which he looks quite pleased

about!

The next lesson was about matter, and defining solids, liquids and gases. Again I placed lots of things on the table and he said what should go where and then we discussed why. We also looked at things that change their state of matter- water- ice, candle- wax, water-steam, jelly granules- liquid- set etc and learnt about heat often being involved in these changes. Something I had not realised was that aromas are gases (not just the unpleasant kind!), as they are particles of something mixing with oxygen and thus becoming a gas! Coffee was a good example of that. To follow up the learning the next day, he made a little booklet with pictures he had drawn.

It really is great that these lessons are so simple and practical because almost every day we are able to draw his attention to matter or categories etc. I need to prepare another lesson for this week! We are also hugely blessed in that our Pastor and his wife have had the boys over 3 times this 'term' to do some gardening- planting seeds, learning about what they need to grow, doing general diy bits around the garden etc. Although Mookie would prefer to spend the time there playing, they both enjoy it and come home with a folder containing photos of what they have done and a little bit of home work! It is great to have other people involved, and also a brilliant bit of 'work' to show anyone who wants to see evidence.

April already?????

And whoosh, March is over and April has arrived. With all the busyness of February, March seems to have unobtrusively been and gone! It has been an interesting month, with things not quite going according to plan! But the high-lights have been:

1) A quick baby visiting trip to London to see two new nieces and a dear friends baby daughter.

2) Attending the Birmingham Conference, including having our first 'stay over' in a Travel Lodge as a family

3) A three day break in Appledore.

4) Toilet training Samuel in under a week :) Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee! He sat through the service in church today with no accidents.

David has been off for two weeks- I think it will be a shock to both of us when he is back to 12 hour shifts tomorrow. Work wise, things have been slow. Mookie has a suspected virus. He has not been 100% since we all had what we assumed was flu back in February. We finally took him to the doctors as he was getting constant mouth ulcers. We have to keep an eye on it and if they are still there in 3 weeks, take him back for blood tests to ascertain what he has- apparently it could also be glandular fever. Although it knocks the socks off adults, children can have it with few symptoms. He has been doing some lovely drawing recently, and asked me read his writing yesterday. Lets just say it was not readable, but without knowing it , he is forming some good letters! He has also done well with swimming this term and after Easter will be joining Doodle in stage two!

Baby Faith

Baby Sophie

Mookie's art work.

Travelling monkeys :) We were all able to stay in the same room as we put Samiad in a travel cot. However we are fast approaching the 'need to book two rooms' stage :(

Actual formal learning has been a bit sparse this month although it has happened, but we have done lots of learning on the go which has been fun. It does mean we now have a struggle on our hands to get Doodle to settle and concentrate again. We are not having 2 weeks off over Easter as we would never regain the momentum- we will just have some days here and there when David is not working.

Puffy Painting

A few days ago I caved in and joined Pinterest. I am a little wary of something that may take up more time than I have..... However, one of the first things I came across was this idea for Puffy Paintings! It looked so simple that I had to give it a go, and more than that, Doodle was actually intrigued by the idea. I am sure there is a good science lesson in here too about the change of a substance from soft to hard (if I only knew what it was myself!!!)

These pictures probably do not do the effect justice ,and, to be fair, I think my technique needs some refinement. But you basically mix together 1 tablespoon of self raising flour, one table spoon of salt, and some food colouring of your choice (I need to find a good supplier of varied colours- red, blue, yellow and Green are getting a bit boring!!!) You then add enough water to make it into a paste and dab it onto CARD (the thicker the better I think). We used a paint brush but the original post mentions cotton buds as being good as well. You don't want it thinly spread out- you need to 'blob! You then put your blobbed on card into the microwave for 20-30 seconds on high and VOILA! Out comes a dry, flump like picture- sensory as well as artistic, and no wet paint to contend with!

I decided to try out a 'name' - needs some improvement I think! You are limited to size as it needs to fit in the microwave- although I guess you could do different letters on different bits of card. It isn't a 'refined' discipline...but it is great fun and so easy for the children and pretty much instantly rewarding as well. We will be doing this again!