A round up

I think I will just do a weekly update I have too many commitments these days ....
So, this week we had M's friend over again and she went to their house and did a beautiful watercolour painting it' very detailed - I think it deserves a frame I'll add it to my things I REALLY must do list!

We went to the carnival at the weekend it was nice to not have to follow the school's regime to have to get her to the field at a certain time for a routine they were performing or to have to walk the 5 miles round and miss the entire carnival.
We got to watch the floats - not sure what the theme was this year but each one was great we threw pennies at them all went in ate our special icecream and saw the star attraction... ZORBING!!
( running round a giant hamster ball!) alas it was just for kids or I'd have gone in too - but she had a ball ( pardon the very poor pun!! )
She said it was very echo eey and hot but great fun.



We have been reading lots - Apricots at Midnight a compilation of short stories
and the stories behind a patchwork quilt - M I think sat on the fence with it I thought it was great she got a little bored - so we are back to Jacqueline Wilson and Clean Break - a story of a small family and their parent's divorce.
it's nice to talk about these things with M as her dad and I split many moons ago - I think rather amicably we've certainly tried to stay respectful of everyone's needs.

we're on the last chapter of that - maybe a classic next we have a fair few books stored away.

We've done lots of crafting she was inspired by the winning carnival float the lady had safety pinned ribbon and artificial roses to her skirt so M asked her how she'd done it we made barbie evening frocks from old socks - snip the toes and voila! you have an evening dress!
Today I think we'll do some jewellery making I bought some bits the other day memory wire and some pretty beads - if I had more time I think I'd be a bead addict but I just quell my desires by stroking them in shops instead.

Musings

For the first time in 6 years I ventured out to the shops on a Saturday - I remember now why I stopped and why I hope it will be another 6 years before I have to face it again....
I left the big ones with dad and ventured round = I got Mastermind EEEE! I LOVE the old games even if I do get screw up face and um mum? really?
but she does play a mean game of Monopoly that kid!
Picked up a few books too - the Story of Nelson Mandela - I think it's important for M to understand that not even that long ago mixed relationships were deemed as wrong and why we must always keep up the fight for our rights.
Last week we went to the Bodyshop as I walked round it brought back so many memories as a young teen I was allowed to go to town on a Saturday and buy all the lovely smelling things in there - I had a strong sense of "rights" and refused to use the family soap because it was tested on animals much to the family mirth - I even went as far as handwashing my clothes because the soap powder was made by a certain company
I had to relent on that a little there is only so far 100ml will go!
As I got older I signed petitions and got into lots of trouble for bringing "horrible" posters to school. M has laughed when I say at school I did well academically but I was always breaking "rules" I ducked out to go on marches or ducked out because I was plain bored a lot of the time
I told M about it - as delicately as you can tell a 9 year old she asked lots of questions and I could see the righteousness in her brewing!
I didn't tell her who The Bodyshop is now owned by - it's a bit political for a young child to understand.
But,still she's starting to understand about how actions have an effect on people.
Sometimes she gets huffy because I don't buy certain brands because of their ethics I keep the explanation simple and just say they aren't kind to people or animals and I refuse to make them any money,that's sinking in now.
As I walked round the shops I remembered being a teen and Saturday shopping I saw petitions from the anti animal cruelty clan - again something I haven't seen for a great number of years it's funny how these things go round - the same posters I remember the bunny with the red eyes too well.
These days I'm more on board with Human rights and so I am now imploring for some help
some of you may have heard of "Habiba" - a 22 year old woman whose baby has been removed from her - she had gone to a woman's refuge with her 15 month old baby because she refused to follow the regime of force weaning her child from the breast the authorities took her into care.
As I read it a week ago my stomach lurched I am a passionate advocate of breastfeeding
but this is not about that - the bigger picture is simply that a child was forcibly removed from it's mother with no warning and no comfort - we are all Habiba.


I see lots of posts on Netmums and the like about how their toddler has lost their binky or Mr long ears Mcbunny fluffy and they can't sleep without him babies of this age with dummies and taggies and other forms of comfort - imagine taking those without a word and not having her mother to soothe her tell her it'll be ok and say I love you holding her close in her arms.
It did finally make the Guardian yesterday and lots is being done worldwide - but I implore anyone reading this to please spread the word get it picked up so that these two are reunited so that no other families are torn apart when they need help the most.

Painting....

we love painting !
when M was small we'd have a system first thing we'd do the household stuff and settle down to paint and in the afternoon I'd work a bit and then we'd do the post office run, a little shopping get home and make the tea.

She loves painting still! we got some water colours a while back and some oil pastels some charcoal and lovely pencils to play with and she's really enjoyed those - so have I !

As you may have noticed we've been sprucing up the garden it's going great guns
the plants are growing well loving the downpours and the warm sun
the thing with this house is the previous owners had a concrete passion ( or a cheap ton of it ) !!
and we - we had a handful of gloss paints and two eager children.....
this is Daniel's carefully painted it's Peppa pig's sun he tells me - I'm so pleased to have his art set in stone

Fairy tale farm

we have stripes an oasis scene a Peppa Pig sun and Fairy Tale Farm - complete with a polar bear with wings gold mud and blue pigs !
thrilled to see her imagination coming out she was so excited when I said yes to painting - and when I started digging out the gloss she frowned .. and then the big announcement - let's brighten this place up !


she screamed yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! I LOVE HOME ED!!

hehe!! - I painted the stone next to it blue and made a sign for her farm - rain called us in so we'll finish up soon - was a lovely day !!!

Banana Icecream - dairy free!

In our house we have a few intolerances over the past year we've had to re evaluate what we eat - it's been a journey a mostly fun one the main one is that D is cow dairy intolerant,this meant the whole house went dairy free whilst my biggest bug bear HAS to be people telling me how sad it is he can't have ice cream or chocolate etc I have to admit that I miss icecream as I'm breastfeeding him I don't risk it - not to mention without travelling far and wide ice cream has some pretty horrifying ingredients!

So, I turned to my vegan friends - I have had many a very yummy recipe from them and now my ice cream craving was hard I was sent "banana icecream"
I sceptically tried it.....
you need:
around one large banana per portion

chop into discs and freeze for at least 2 hours ( I hear the longer they are in for the better) - I have tried it with overnight freezing and 5 hour freezing all worked well

freeze flat on trays - put into blender and whizz - in short bursts 30 seconds and stir and so on
you may need just a teaspoon of water if it goes to soup status you overwhizzed it pop back into freezer
you can keep this is the freezer when it's been whizzed it takes about 10 mins to get soft enough to eat.

I got a load of bananas on their sell by on Sunday so we sliced them up 5 trays worth good job we have a chest freezer!
this led us to talk about what different people eat like vegans vegetarians pescatarians etc and religions that don't allow certain things to be consumed.

Just another manic Monday.......

ooohh a ohhhh ...

we've hit a little slump in some ways M seems happy to just do shorts bursts of things she is the sort of child who needs continual prompting - ie the garden she needs reminding to water it sometimes it's been hard to remember that, we were talking about it last night things at school have a start and an end things at home are mostly continual,so I am making a concerted effort to keep the interest alive in things like the garden - she hoed it yesterday and marvelled at the flowers growing,as there's been so much rain they've done well.
I've wanted to do yoga with her for some time we've done a few moves they are mostly ante natal moves that I know so I got a video of a little session once she relaxed a bit she seemed to enjoy it - the big problem of having a toddler to join in home ed is there is no peace time! D was busy drawing so I hoped he'd carry on he came and joined us which was sweet until he decided "words are boring" and started to attempt to entertain us himself! - next time yoga without a boisterous 3 year old!

Decoupage - a child led activity

Decoupage - this has been such a hit - and can be adapted for every age group
we had a ton of coffee drums and one rainy day.........

watered down PVA glue and old catalogues the kids literally tore strips out of the Tesco extra catalogue and painted the glue on the strips and away they went both kids enjoyed it so much M's was obviously more detailed and she was cutting shapes and patterns for hers D just enjoyed piling it on - certainly something I'd repeat - I'm saving these things for the winter time really and getting out when it's sunny and doing the garden and enjoying the few rays we do get!

I'm quite pleased today M had a friend she made at gymnastics over - a lovely little girl she's going over on Wednesday - her mother is an artist!! wheee!!
as they aren't from the UK we are swapping skills I will help with English - and she will do art!
This week it's been odd and quiet I've been overwhelmed with work - times like this I can't help but fret a little and there was once a time when it would fall apart and be a very tense time.
This week has been tense but all my own doing - I sat and had a chat with M about my commitments this week and the fact that I didn't have tons of spare time - she asked to play more on her games and do some learning in the evening instead which worked out well for me as well.
We have been reading "Cookie" by Jacqueline Wilson we finished it last night a fab read! I 'm not sure who wanted to read it more me or her!
Not sure what's next on the agenda but my reading to her is certainly helping her break out of her reading shell.

Fairy Doors - Salt dough

Today we really haven't done a great deal just basic pottering really it's been one of those annoying rain one minute sun the next days that good old Blighty is infamous for on days like this I like to do stuff - one of my favourite blogs has been "make today magical" she has many many cool ideas and this was one of them
Salt dough can be used is many many ways fairy doors pretend food robots numbers you name it I have no doubt a child could craft it out of salt dough!!


Mix together 4 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of salt and 2 cups of water. This makes enough for approximately 4 fairy doors, so make less if you don’t want that many. We used our leftover dough for play dough sits in the fridge well


so we kneaded the dough and made fairy doors - we just used cheap "value" flour
we baked in the oven at about 180 for 15 mins - realistically we should have left it a little longer they were still soft ish
we made doors and a "3" for Daniel's birthday and I made a little "thing" and stabbed out happy birthday that blew up a little so I made it into a balloon
with a skewer in the end


we painted with poster paints - these aren't waterproof so just inside models!
overall they all enjoyed playing with the dough both when wet and when I made plate sized discs to paint


these were for later on - sometimes we all need back up activities and these little paint pots come in things like model paint things he enjoyed it and it gave me 10 minutes to tidy up whilst he created his thing - he painted front and back!


I let M use the metallic paints and she glittered hers too!

a great easy to make throw together activity!