August 26, 2014

Rainy Days

Sorry to state the obvious – but summer for now appears to be well and truly a distant sun filled dream. The last few days the miserable grey skys and biblical proportionate rain has set it. Fed up of it already? Don’t be!!

Charlie and I inadvertently got caught in the worst rain shower I’ve seen for ages. We had just finished at a party and decided to walk home as my husband had taken the girls home for a sleep so thought there was no point in ringing fur a lift. 
We rarely walk places I hate to admit. We live at the top of numerous steep banks and with the pushchair which is 99% of the time with me – it’s a bit hard going! But it just being us it was going to be a nice stroll. The weather looked fine. My washing had been put out so it must have been half decent!
We got to the last big bank and the heavens absolutely well and truely opened. I was wearing a 3/4 blazer and dolly shoes. Luckily Charlie had opted for jeans not shorts but when the rain came – there was nowhere to hide. So instead – we embraced it!
We ran, we jumped, we splashed but more than anything we laughed. And laughed and LAUGHED! 
Rain was dripping from our faces, my blow dried and straightened hair was a sodden matted mess and make up streaming down my face but we just could not stop laughing! 
People driving past took a double glance and some even laughed along with our crazy antics. 
It may sound a rather bizarre thing to really enjoy but it was one of the best giggles we have had for a while. So why not go for a stroll in the rain – kids will love it and I think secretly you might! Well – what else is there to do in England except love the rain!!
B x

August 5, 2014

Simple Story Ideas

With Charlie not being at school for six weeks, I did start to wonder if everything he’s learnt so far with school may come to a TV watching hazy end during the summer holidays. While I totally appreciate it’s the holidays and he needs a break from school, I also wanted to try to find a few activities that would not only interest him but also help him practising his writing and spellings.
So we came up with the idea of him creating a story. Very very simple yet he absolutely loved it! Being a huge Star Wars fan he decided to have his story about Charlie Vadar – and naturally Garfield had to feature in Stars Wars – of course who else?!

So we ended up with “Charlie Vadar and the Garfield Army” Charlie thought up the story whilst I wrote it down for him. We then transferred it to his book which he folded and he then drew the cover photo and we filled the pages with his (rather short initially!) story   He  really took some pride in his story and story book when holding it and turning the pages.  He did the drawings inside too along with numbering the pages and drawing a barcode which was his idea.

We had to do the story whilst the babies were sleeping – they have a tendency to flock to Charlie and somewhat maul him and whatever he’s doing! so it was nice to spend some one on one time with Charlie and him also learning in the process. He even was telling me about contents pages and blurbs! When he gets older, I can  encourage him to write out the story and all the words for himself.
If you’re stuck for something to do – why not let your little person be the star of their own homemade story and picture book? Simple, cheap and easy – and lots of scope for imagination and crafting!

 

B x