Discovery Basket: Colours

All primary teachers joke about how half their salaries go to Ikea because of their great range of stuff for the classroom. Be it creative storage solutions or role play Ikea covers it all. I think all teachers who are near a Tiger store will probably now joke about how the other half of their salary is spent in there!

Pocket change stuff covering everything Ikea also does well, storage, creative materials and those odd bits you can't seem to find anywhere else. Anyway, I was in my local store and found some lovely bits and bobs including this fab little basket.

Living for the Weekend

Living for the weekend, the two days after five of working, the time for rest and play. A largely credited to the Victorian invention and we have a lot to be thankful for for their introduction. The change of pace and the change of priority is vital for many of our mental healths and for our families. It is a time to reconnect and savour.

In the past, in the distant memory of life pre L, our weekends were spent lazying around in the mornings, lunches out, dinners out, dancing, visits to friends and some more lazying around. Visits to galleries, houses and gardens, weekends away to Paris or staycations. 

Life with L has slowly changed our weekend plans, and now that we have a fully fledged toddler, sob, our weekends now are much more jam packed. They need to be for L as she is a little whirl wind of energy who needs constant stimulation or she drives her parents potty! We now try to head out early for days out, swimming, visits or holidays to make the most of these precious days. With J working long hours during the week L doesn't much of her Daddy so the weekends are a time for filling with memories. 

After a week spent reading about and playing with farm animals I decided to research local farms and found one a 30ish minute drive which promised big things. Farm animals, playgrounds and soft play. Toddler paradise. 

Toddler Creations: Cotton Wool Ball Painting

We've had a week of farm based play, a small world, books, puzzles and we finished the week with a visit to Godstone Farm in Surry. 

When we got home we were all a bit tired and needed an activity to get us towards dinner time. A handy collection of pudding pots were the perfect size for some cotton wool ball stamps. 

Very simply cotton wool slightly teased out and then pinched in a peg. A great stamp and easy for a toddler to manipulate, hold and move. 

Farm Book Round Up

Books about farms are numerous for children, here are just a few we have enjoyed on our farm filled week. 

Small World: On the Farm

This week three will be lots of posts themed around farms. This follows Ls interest in farm animals and the sounds they make. 

All good child care and educational settings should be child led in their approach to teaching a learning. And this is what I aim to provide for L at home. Most of us do this without realising. Its found in all those activities we set up for do because our child is interested, picking up leaves and twigs in the park because your toddler is doing it, reading the same book all day because it is repeatedly passed to you or, like this week of play based on observations of what your child likes to do. In this case L was very interested in her farm books and in trying to copy the farm sounds modeled for her.  

Twelve Short Months: what I wish I had known then

We arrived home with a three day old baby. I was still crippled with pain and discomfort from the cesarean. L was feeding lots but very well. My milk hadn't come in yet. 

We were in the eye of the storm. That quiet bit when you think danger has passed but in fact you're still in the middle of the drama and should be preparing for another direct hit. 

Father's Day passed in a happy mood of cuddles and feeding and the slight discomfort of milk coming in. I was on the the pain killers and thought the increasing pain was par for the course. After a feast of, much missed while pregnant, sushi, I attempted to go to bed with L around 8pm. She was by my side of the bed for easy night feeding access. 

On our first night home in a hand knit and next to our bed, it was hard not to
stay awake watching her. 

Birthday Book Round Up

After yesterday's birthday discovery box I thought a round up of birthday themed books might be a nice second post on the birthday theme.

These are just a few I used in class when our class teddy turned five!

Happy Birthday Winnie!

Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul

Discovery Basket: Birthday

This post was planned for the week L turned one with a series of other birthday blog posts to follow it. Today as it is my first Monday back blogging we shall have a this playtime blog post even if it's three months out of date for L. And look at how she has changed in three months in the photos below.

I've made a discovery basket of sorts about birthdays and birthday parties. It contains;

A selection of balloons

Birthday cards

Present bags

Soft play cake

A paper candle

Treat bags from party

Tea pot

Tea cups and spoons

Party hats

Two card number 1s

Three Months On

Really this blog post should be three months off as that is how long it's been since my last blog post.

Nothing really prompted my break with blogging apart from a sudden lack of time that my return to work prompted. My return to work has not been entirely smooth, I've returned to a role very different to the one I left and this has left me feeling insecure, upset and frankly depressed. This hasn't felt like the time to blog. I lost my footing.

But I feel that maybe I need to blog now to get my feet back on the ground and life ticking over as it should again. I started this as a record of life with L, what we did, how we did it and what we loved doing. Focus on the positive Mummy Morkus!

So three months on here ate 20 things about her and how she has changed in that time.

*L is now 15 months old. 

*She never stops moving, ever, not even when asleep.

*She loves the park especially the round a bout or watching big kids

*She loves to walk everywhere and has walked properly undaided since 13 months, after six months of crusing and one month after her first steps between mummy and daddy

*She is chatting non stop but doesn't have many real words. 

*Words she has include, Da, Mum, yes, please, this, baby.

*She doesn't really have a favourite toy but always returns to books

*She likes to sing, especially Frozens Let if Go!

*She loves to dance by bouncing up and down

*She is in between routines and currently undecided on whether she needs two or just one nap a day

*She loves the cats still but they don't love her

*Her feet are stubbornly a size 4f and haven't grown in two months even though she has grown upwards and outwards and everywhere else

*She only went into 12-18 month clothes at 15 months yet everyone says she is a big girl

*She has recently been to a festival, a farm and the zoo

*She is beginning to explore creativity but seems concerned when she gets paint on her hands

*She also gets concerned about stuff on her feet if she is walking bare foot outside and carefully brushes stuff off

*She constantly says "yes please" to things she wants but doesn't tell us what it is she wants

*If you tell her off or say no she has a massive melt down which is hard for her parents not to laugh at

*Her favourite food is still yoghurt 

*She is only happy to feed herself and will only let you feed her if you aeroplane it to her! 

So there we go. Back in the blogging game I think.