Playing Christmas!

I have been resisting the 'C' word as hard as possible for weeks. I don't like that the commercial side of it is thrust down our throats for so long, but last Wednesday I could resist no longer as the children were playing 'Christmas Shopping' furtively, worried that I would tell them to stop! I mellowed and provided gift bags that I had stored - for them to put their 'gifts' in once wrapped. They were delighted and it made for hours of happy and imaginative play (and lots of opportunity for counting in fives and tens, and working with money, and writing receipts and signs etc etc). The evil anti-early-Christmas in me found great satisfaction from the amount of learning that took place! This week I am adding in jiffy bags for posting gifts and am going to transform a corner into a post office using some of these resources here, as well as these, whilst I am waiting for the resource pack offered by the Post Office, available here. Now just wondering if we have a box big enough to make a suitable post box?

Here is the post office ready to go, and here are the girls who were so excited they wanted to view it before they went to bed - it met with their approval!! We are going to see if the real post office will let us have some forms and labels and other goodies to plump out the stocks a bit!

Lost in the Snow?

No I'm not lost in the snow..... just trying to balance the various aspects of my life and writing blog posts has come up pitifully short I'm afraid. I am now in possession of a rather snazzy laptop and am writing this from the comfort of my sofa with a cuppa within easy reach! No more banishing myself to the frosty realms of the box room!! I am hoping that it will enable me to make use of little snippets of time that I find.

I would like to thank those of you that have left such kind comments on the blog recently.... you have probably been checking in more regularly than I have!!

Things have been moving along with Eve's home-ed. I'm still trialling new things and have found a couple of things that really work for her recently. I will try to post separately about that soon and add a few links. I'm toying with the idea of using the laptop to play some online maths and phonics games but as it is sometimes a battle to engage her in 'work' in the first place, I am a little fearful that she will love the laptop too much and be even more resistant about the other approaches!

It is bitterly cold here at the moment.... not that it stopped the children leaping around the woodland like spring lambs this afternoon.... we went for a short blast of fresh air and spent an hour and a half there!Ii forgot my camera so didn't catch any of the beautifully frosted trees unfortunately but I can't see them defrosting overnight so not too dreadful!!

Much love, Jenni

November's Mission - The Garage!

 

As you can see from these pictures, the garage needs a lot of sorting out. We periodically sort it out and then it ultimately becomes a dumping ground again!

Re-organising this mess is the lynch pin to my plans to be able to introduce some Montessori shelves for the little ones that i child mind every week and make both my outside area and my working day flow a little easier!

It also means that my husband can reclaim the end with the red shelves (as they will move up) ready to house the surprise birthday present that I would like to give him in December!!

It will require throwing away, giving away, re-purposing, selling and a whole lot of mess before it is done!

I made a start tonight with 20 minutes of de-cluttering to kick things off!

Wish me luck.... this is a biggie!!

October Mission Accomplished!

I am happy to say that I have achieved October's mission and had a lot of fun along the way which was the whole point of it really.... for me to enjoy Christmas preparations again!!

So we all made a pile of cards together at the beginning of the month and they lie stamped and addressed ready to go in December.

I have purchased and wrapped all of my gifts, labelled and some parcelled up ready to go to their recipients.

My beloved brother and sister-in-law's gifts are somewhere on the ocean on their way to Cold Lake in Canada. I love what I have got for them.... more catering for Lorri that John but hey ho!!

There was a rolling programme of pudding making one day when lots of people came to make theirs too!

And after my poor unfortunate cake accidentally got incinerated, a good friend offered to make a replacement!

I sent ideas e-mails to people that asked for them.

And just Christmas to wait for and enjoy now!!