Valentines Tissue Holders

Eve in particular loves to sew and I put this together one evening knowing that she would enjoy it. I love to leave her to create her own projects as I'm not a huge fan of 'carbon-copy' crafts on a production line. On the flip side of that I also realise that skills and ideas of how to put things together and what is possible have to come from somewhere. With both those arguments in mind I try to balance the two!

I cut out two hearts for each girl, one from red fleece and one from organza. I used the paperclips to put them together as pins seem to cause trauma at the moment - both physical and mental! Faith went round the edge of her hearts using a simple whip stitch and pink embroidery floss (we use that a lot!). It is nice and thick so covers a multitude of sins and is easy to see! You need a large-eyed needle to use it and I have some sharp ones harvested from my Nana's needle book.

I showed Eve how to do blanket stitch around the edge of hers. She loved being shown this. I am no expert at needlework and this is dredged from my primary school days doing a sampler that my Mum had under the telephone for years!

This is the (ever so slightly over exposed!) picture of the back of the tissue holders, with a slot cut to pull them out. they hang by an organza ribbon and the ribbon is big enough so that the holders hang perfectly over the post at the head of their beds! There are tissues in at present as these are one of those 'holy grail' things for the girls that are really special to them (I know, I know!). When the tissues are gone they will be hanky holders instead!

Valentines Montessori Activities

I had a sudden explosion of creativity this evening after realising that the little one that I child mind (who has just returned to me after nine months off on maternity leave) needs a boost in fine motor skills. I had great fun putting all these together, some of them with things I have previously collected for the purpose and some cobbled together from crafting and the recycling box!

This is a simple activity sliding paper clips onto the numbered paper hearts. The paper clips are colour co-ordinated with the numbers on the hearts, as you can see in the picture below. I'm not going to mention that to start with to observe two things. Firstly if she can recognise the numbers and secondly if she observes the connection!

This pegging activity is made from an Ikea lamp box with a ribbon strung across it, and pieces of organza ribbon to peg along it.

This activity involves threading wooden beads onto a pipe cleaner in any pattern the child chooses.

I think this is my favourite activity that I put together! I wrapped a ball of play dough in tin foil and pressed it into a coffee jar lid, then gently pushed red golf tees into the dough to make a heart shape. I picked a mixture of fun marbles to be gently placed on top of each golf tee!

This is a slight twist on the standard 'spooning' activity: there are four measuring spoons in the pink rice and four glass candle holders to decant each spoonful into to allow a comparison of the amount.

Ordering by size (we've already used them for play dough and will probably be pinching them back for biscuit making too!!)

This is a fun one - inside the pipette bottle there is water coloured red with food colouring. The idea is to control the pipette to put one or two drops of colour into each of the suckers on the upside down anti-slip shower mat. When finished the child needs to get a piece of tissue and soak up the drops ready for the next child (almost as much fun as the dropping in the first place!

Pouring with sequins - there are three chunky shot glasses to pour the sequins into - again some control is needed as if the child just tips the jug, there are too many sequins for just one glass and they will spill over.

Tweezing - little paper flowers to tuck into each section of the ice cube tray.



This is an opening and closing activity with four different types of opening mechanism - each has a little confetti heart inside (see below!).

A wooden noughts and crosses game that belonged to my parents.

Opening and closing with locks and keys - each key will only fit one padlock. I threaded a bead onto each key as they are tiny and a little magpie that I know will fall in love with them and want to spirit them away!

This jewellery box housed the beautiful cross that my husband gave me three years ago and that I always wear around my neck. I put tiny gems under the necklace plate, the box hinges closed then is tied into another box which is tied into a bag. I put this out for the girls to practise tying bows which is a popular new skill!

As a final activity for building fine motor strength I put out these wooden nuts and bolts.

Just a note to say that Montessori activities of daily living cover more areas than this but this is what I could pull together in one evening! It should also ideally be made up of beautiful objects and be clearly spaced and set out in an ordered fashion to be found in the same place every time the child wants to use it. I do not pretend to have a Montessori class room however and the activities will be packed away for much of the day. I'll try and come back to say how it goes having them out for periods at a time and see if i can troubleshoot it and make it work well. I'd love to flex my Montessori muscles more, expecially as I qualified with MCI this summer as a 3-6 teacher!

Monster Writing!

Whilst learning about Chinese New Year the girls drew a dragon and wrote a little about what they knew of Chinese dragons. They so enjoyed doing it that I followed it up with reading 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson this week. It has some fabulous descriptions of the gruffalo! I printed out these cards from Primary Treasure Chest which use the original artwork from the Gruffalo. They served to focus the girl's attention on the descriptive words used. We made a collection of our own descriptive words and grouped them together so that the girls could use them to help them write about their monsters! I used the printable page borders from twinkl as a writing frame for the girls to draw their monster and then describe it. I can't make the picture sit up the right way for some reason!

I'm glad that Eve is getting into creative writing a bit more - she gets excited about doing it and won't let me see until she is finished! She occasionally checks a spelling with me and I am finding her spelling fascinating - she can't 'hear' contractions so well, for example she has written 'is' for 'it's'. So far I'm not jumping on all those things, just storing them up for the future and being very encouraging and excited about her writing!

We LOVE Baby Led Weaning!

We are thoroughly enjoying watching Idris get to grips with solid food. I did the puree thing with the girls but since reading about BLW I knew that was the way forward this time around! No more hours spent steaming, pureeing, portioning and freezing, no more leaving my food to go cold whilst spoon feeding my baby, no more frustration at wasted time and effort and worry about limited variety. It's great - he loves to join us at the table and I make sure we have cooked a meal with things that Idris can grab hold of. It is then a simple matter of handing over tempting morsels at regular intervals and marvelling at his rapid progress! Same as I don't worry about how mich milk he is drinking, I don't worry about how much food he is eating, he will get there and there is plenty of milk on standby until he does!

To date his current favourites are leeks, spinach and mushrooms, as well as oranges, and rice pudding was a hit too! He thinks cherry tomatoes are far too tart (cue dramatic shuddering and pursed lips!) and he's not sure about boiled eggs either (a 'yeuch' noise followed by a determined sweep of the offending egg onto the floor told us that!)! I think his alltime high was the oaty apple and peach crumble my mum made though!! Very messy but very delicious!

We started a few days after he turned six months when he started grabbing food off our plates as we sat at the table. Already he has progressed to picking up things himself from the tray of his highchair (a lovely preloved wooden one!), whereas at first he always needed it put into his hand with a bit sticking out of the top of his fist for him to chew. He is now working on his palmar grasp - it grasps and he knows there's food in it but he can't always get to it - what a tease! The funniest is him using one hand to lift the other hand with food in it to his mouth!

This book by Gill Rapley has a great potted history of weaning and why/how spoon feeding started and why it isn't necessary. It has some good recipes that I had never thought of before also, things like lentil wedges for lunch, porridge bars for breakfast and some yummy dips for salad sticks too!

A Treasure Basket For Idris

Well Idris is sitting up already...... steady as a rock within about three days....... how did that happen so quickly?! It has opened up a whole new world of possibilities and he is very content to sit and reach out for all around him. This has coincided with him developing more control in his hands and arms along with a fascination with...... everything! I have been waiting for him to get to this stage to bring out the treasure basket that I made him for Christmas. I made one for my nephew at the same time and he really enjoyed his. Hopefully Idris will too and I can put up some pictures of him exploring it. Here's a list of what is in the basket:

• Fabrics - hessian, tulle, catch netting, silicone pot holder, kite material, fleece.
• Spoons - three different lengths.
• Spatula - wooden slatted and a silicone one.
• Honey twister and a pastry brush.
• Silicone coated whisk.
• Containers - small metal bowl, wooden bowl, half a coconut shell, wicker basket and two egg cups.
• Balls - two wooden jacks (one red, one natural), a heavy crown green bowling ball and a sculpted lightweight ball.
• Wooden dolly pegs.
• Wooden curtain rings - some with ribbons tied on.
• Wooden shapes - pebble, a star, a turtle, octagon, bobbin, optical viewer.
• Miscellaneous items - small metal sieve, sea shells, marble disc, large corks, wooden bobbin and a bear bell.

I've deliberately started with mainly wooden items and a selection of fabrics. I have plans to introduce sounds and smells later on as well as more metal items. There are so very many things to put into treasure baskets that you just have to start with some and build it up as you see things. I think it's fun to start with a selection and then see what Idris is interested in then expand that area. I have been careful to make sure that there are things for comparison, such as different textures of similarly sized squares of fabrics, and different shapes and lengths of 'implements'. The basket contains a mix of items found at home, at boot sales and from shops such as 'Home Bargains', 'Dunelms' and others.

Blogger's Block!!

I'm suffering from blogger's block! It isn't that there isn't anything to say, it's that there's too much to say and I don't know where to start or how to say it all so I'm going to throw it down here, press 'publish' then move on....... please indulge me!

My brother and sister-in-law were over from Canada for three weeks over Christmas and New Year with my nephew who is one at the end of this month. I so loved seeing them but it was hard too, I always feel so bereft when they leave and I worry about them. They have lots going on. My sister-in-law (oh stuff it, lets just call her my sister) has to go back to work soon and that means that my nephew has to go to daycare. I remember very vividly how tortured I felt when I had to return to work after Eve was born and I feel her pain. They also have to face moving this year when they really wanted another year where they are to help my brother become established as a paramedic before having to start over somewhere new. That somewhere new means selling and buying a house, leaving friends and starting from scratch, stressful stuff. Stuff that me and my husband can make choices about, stuff that my sister can't make choices about because she's in the air force. Great job, great security, not great for stability and making your own choices. There..... worries down on paper, feeling lighter already. I'm here for you both if you want to chat about all that 'stuff' y'all! I'll e-mail you guys back now I'm not tied up in knots anymore!!

Then there was New Year.... usually I get that buzz before New Year and am itching to start afresh on new things and implement new ideas but we were supposed to be moving house in mid January so I made myself wait. I thought it would be silly to start new things just before upheaval. Hmmmm, well that's all off now and I feel a bit left of centre now, like I missed the last train or something?? Not to mention that we started packing and there are now things in boxes that we need back out now that we are staying. On a bright note we got rid of a bit more clutter whilst doing it!!! I need something to pin my mind on though now, a target and there isn't an obvious one there! Any suggestions?!

And then there are the illnesses - Idris with bronchiolitis over Christmas, sleep deprivation anyone? Faith with a torn tendon on her finger, strike gymnastics out for six weeks then! Then Eve had came out in an impressive bout of chicken pox just before Dewi started his marathon weekend of nights that he does every week now.... step into the breach my mum who must have recognised the desperate lilt to my voice and kindly invited us for Sunday lunch!

I think that about sums it up - you know, I really do feel better and I am through the worst and on the up the other side, stronger, wiser, slightly greyer! were some magic moments in amongst the madness - quietly listening to midnight mass whilst walking with Idris in the darkness of my parent's house, reading the book 'Redeeming Love' by Francine Rivers, the baptism of our beautiful boy, and recognising how loved we are by family and friends alike.

Enjoying some good old fashioned toilet humour with Uncle John by re-telling a story from one of the Oxford Reading Tree books!

My big brother with my little boy!

Baby Play for five-month olds!

I am really enjoying Idris being more alert and playful now - he likes to play very simple games for short bursts at a time. When I thought about them, they are based around communication and repeating the same simple action over and over. I thought I would put a few of his favourite games up on the blog for others to enjoy with their babies!

• Bath play - Idris loves to watch fingers gently splashing the water, then pausing and waiting for him to respond with a sound or a movement then gently splashing again. He also loves to watch water poured from a play teapot into a measuring cup. He clasps the cup and watches the water trickle in.
• Rhymes and singing - I had a limited repertoire so found some new ideas here
• Silky see-through materials gently floated down over him - he reaches up for them and gazes through them!
• Walks - watching animals and birds and looking at plants, trees and water (and he LOVED the fish at the aquarium!).

NEWSFLASH!!!! Whilst this post was still in draft format, Idris learnt both to roll over and to babble! Unlike my girls he managed to pull his arms free straight away and he actually likes being on his tummy! The girls hated tummy time and moaned as soon as they were over but he wiggles around and plays with things and is already pushing up on his arms strongly.

The babbling appeared late on Saturday night - he was finding it hard to get to sleep (teething) and eventually at ten pm I put him down next to me in bed and settled down myself. He went crazy, wriggling and squealing and laughing and then I heard some quiet, tentative 'dah' and 'bah' sounds!! By Sunday lunchtime there was nothing quiet or tentative about them at all - more like loud and incessant!! He is very pleased with himself!!