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Showing posts from November, 2018

November seasons table

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The seasons table is very pared down this month, before the madness of Christmas decorations starts! We take most of our inspiration from The Nature Corner , and the beautiful emails that come from Myriad , but we haven't got very far with ideas for Martinmas. We had a go at the swede lantern last year although not sure it was entirely successful. I did spend a couple of evenings this week sewing two little mice for the table, although probably not the best use of my time given my very long list of Christmas craft still to complete! And T and I finally found some teasels this year for little, very spiky hedgehogs. Now I can turn my attention to December and deciding whether we are going to stick with the understated, natural approach we go with for the rest of the year or throw all sense of taste out the window as it's Christmas! 

A short note on the contrariness of children

My husband has been hard at work the last couple of weeks and hasn't been making it home in time for bath and bed. I must admit I'm finding it hard going after several weeks of him being around a fair bit. It culminated on Thursday evening in a bit of a set-to at bath time (caused by the bigger two trying to poke each other's bottoms, something I probably have an irrational dislike of). Once everyone was out the bath I took myself off downstairs for a couple of minutes' timeout and left three boys clutching the stair gate and W wailing 'I want my daddy'. Once I returned in a slightly more mature frame of mind, they grudgingly let me read them their stories and tuck them in. There was no mention of their favourite thing of today, something which has become a bit of a tradition in the family and T in particular likes to share every night. The following day Mark was home so I left them to it at bath time and went to have a shower. 15 minutes of separation later a

Jungle tuff tray

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For Tuff Tray Tuesday this afternoon, we went for a jungle theme. It was a bit more open ended than usual, I wasn't sure if the boys would take to it but it kept them happy for a good half an hour. We had to add a few more twigs and the Grimm's Leonardo's sticks to my original set up. They weren't particularly bothered by the animals but made structures out of blocks and sticks and then spent a while crafting playdough igloos. I think we need to make some more playdough (definitely scented, disguises the horrible smell of playdough!). It really helps make structures more stable, especially when you have three small boys leaning on and knocking the tuff tray.

No longer required

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I think I may soon be surplus to requirements (except when it comes to providing meals). I hadn't planned anything for after school yesterday but it didn't matter as W organised him and T to make toilet roll penguins and then later on requested plasticine (after trying his luck with clay - my craft supplies aren't quite that good!) to make igloos. He is definitely embracing this half term's Frozen Lands theme!

The Terrible Threes

Life with my middle child is pretty tricky at the moment. There seems to be an awful lot going on inside this little chap and it's difficult to understand it and know how to help him. A is bearing much of the brunt of it - some days every time he walks into the same room as T he comes out crying about 10 seconds later. T is definitely making everything just a bit more effort than it needs to be. This evening the other two are happily tucking into seconds of their tea and T is busy going through the cutlery pot seeing which forks and spoons will fit in the top of his water bottle.  These phases creep up on me. We'll be bumping along fine and then I'm realise that I've spent the last few days nagging incessantly and am back to doing quite a lot of shouting. I have to take myself to one side and psych myself up for some decent parenting! This used to happen with my eldest but he has definitely calmed down in the last year. Don't get me wrong, he still has his shout

On his feet, at last!

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This little chap has finally started walking, at 15 and a half months! Very slowly and not yet entirely reliably but he is up on his feet. It's only been a week so it's still quite novel for both of us - it makes me smile when I hear little footsteps behind me and I realise it is A wandering into the room. I know this photo doesn't really work as proof but I haven't managed a decent one of him on his feet yet!

Pirate ship craft

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W's topic for the first half of term was pirates. He likes to fully embrace what he's learning about and lots of things at home end up following the same theme. One afternoon after school he knocked up this pop up pirate ship card - I was pretty impressed with his handiwork! Some afternoons we get home from school and the boys follow me round the house asking repeatedly if they can watch TV, but some days they get on with things like this and it's much easier to get to tea time!

Tuff tray counting

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After a couple of weeks off, we started Tuff Tray Tuesday again yesterday with a counting tray. T is into counting everything at the moment so thought he would appreciate it, and W seems to be loving his maths at school. I have been setting them up with the older two in mind but now that A is up and walking he really enjoyed it yesterday and I think might be an easier target audience! He had a great time pottering around containers full of pom poms and various spoons. And the older two were pretty occupied by it after school - I think the break might have rekindled their interest in the tray.

Lessons from holidaying with three small boys

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Don't get me wrong, we had a really lovely time last week on our half term holiday in North Norfolk, but holidaying with three small children is never quite as relaxing as I hope it will be. I realised it's the first time we've been away for a week since having A - we had a few camping trips over the summer and various trips to Devon to see my family but no proper holidays. It's also the first time in a while that we haven't stayed in a Baby Friendly Bolthole, complete with all sorts of child-related equipment. I was a little worried about the packing, particularly having to do it with two small boys round my feet, but it was fine, not too much to fit in, and I even managed to pack the roof box myself (although I wasn't tall enough to do the straps!). I guess A, at 15 months, is old enough now to not need much in the way of equipment. And there's no need to take too many toys because all the older two want to do is draw pictures and cut up pieces of paper

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