New shoes, Autumn weather, wind sock, pond dipping and meditation

We have been talking about the Autumn weather lately, as Harlan needed some sturdier shoes now it is getting colder and wetter. I explained that sandals were great in Summer but his new boots from Happy Little Soles were more appropriate for the time of year. He is so much happier in 'barefoot' shoes as he has wide feet and a high instep and they tend to be much roomier shoes with lovely soft leather.

This afternoon we were at a bit of a loss so I decided to initiate one of the projects I have been meaning to do for a while - making a windsock for the garden. We took an empty plastic bottle and I cut both ends off. Harlan practiced his scissor skills by cutting strips of a plastic bag (Sainsbury ones are nice and colourful) which we then sellotaped around the edge of one end of the bottle. We found a long stick from one of our trees and stuck it in the ground, then tied the windsock to it with garden twine.

We went pond dipping a week or so ago with a Home Ed group and Harlan loved it. We were lucky enough to catch some of the rare crested newts which are normally illegal to disturb. However the farm we were on had special permission to pond dip for educational reasons. We ended up repeating the pond dipping today in our flooded sandpit, which was full of tiny mosquito larvae and fascinating to my boy. He used his bug pot to scoop some up and examine them, before tipping them back.

Lately my husband and I have been having a few challenges thrown at us by Harlan, as he has inherited my temper and stubborness. I don't want to 'train' these traits out of him, as his father and I both have confidence issues and I think the characteristics Harlan has will be beneficial as an adult. However, whilst I think getting angry and getting upset are perfectly healthy emotions, I don't want them to be expressed through violence. We have ended up holding him in a big hug so he can't hurt himself or us, but it takes him quite a while to calm down. Today he was pushing me, despite knowing I am not steady on my feet due to illness. I sat down with him on my lap and rather than fighting me off, he was ready to engage with me. On the spur of the moment I decided to try a very basic version of a guided meditation. I asked him to imagine we were walking through the woods and suggested some animals we might see. After a minute he joined in with suggesting animals, and we ended it by walking up a hill and having a rest at the top. By the time we were finished (only a few minutes) he was calm again. I don't think it would work if he had completely lost control, as he can't rationalise at that point, but I hope it will prove useful if we can use it in time.

So much for Summer!

Well Summer has disappeared, but we're still having fun.

I have been digging out our indoor activities and finding wet weather gear. We got a bargain Kidorable ladybird raincoat at the charity shop for the bank-breaking amount of £2.29!








 We've done lots of cooking together, baking, and of course playing Mario games - both on consoles and re-enacting it with soft toys.


 We made gingerbread men last week, Small loves sifting flour and even enjoys washing up afterwards, a habit I am definitely encouraging!






Tonight we spent about an hour in the bath after I made bath paints.

Instructions are as follows:

1) Squirt some shaving foam into each cup of a muffin tray
2) Add food colouring and stir until the colour is reasonably even
3) I also added vanilla essence to some and peppermint to others





He loved painting himself, the bath, the tiles... and then enjoyed using the shower to wash it all off again. He actually ended up playing in the bath for another half hour with the shower running, using a jug to "catch raindrops". It was a really lovely, relaxed way to spend the evening.

Sunshine and volcanoes

The glorious weather continues...

We've been mostly living outdoors, with lots of water play and a barbecue. A bucket of water and a paintbrush has been popular for 'painting' the shed and of course the obligatory sandpit and paddling pool.

I've been wanting to do the volcano experiment for months, but as Harlan has shown a recent interest in dinosaurs (and playing Mario levels with lava that burns Mario's bottom!) I thought it might be a good time to give it a try. We used half an empty squash bottle as the centre of the volcano and built up saltdough (salt, flour, water) around it to form the volcano shape. Ideally we would have let the saltdough dry in the sun but that takes too long so we accepted the volcano would disintegrate and got on with the messy fun. Harlan poured bicarbonate of soda into the plastic bottle and put red food dye in to make our lava the right colour. He then poured in vinegar (ours was malt vinegar but any type would work, whatever you happen to have in the cupboard) and was delighted when foamy 'lava' poured out of the volcano. We repeated it until we ran out of ingredients and I am under strict instructions to buy more so we can do it again. We might make a papier mache volcano next time I think and add dinosaurs around the base, as he thought it was great to pretend to be a dinosaur running away from the lava so he didn't melt.

I really recommend this experiment as it uses ingredients you probably have in your kitchen cupboard or are cheap to buy and it was a lot of fun.

Harlan ended the afternoon by making his own tea, poking linguini through hot dog sausages. It's something I saw on Pinterest a while back and never got round to doing. Under supervision, he prepared it all, watched it cook, talked about how the spaghetti was changing when it cooked, decide when it was done and scoop it out onto his plate with a slotted spoon. Job well done!

Photo catch up of the last week or so

 

 We spent a wonderful day at Tutbury Castle, where they had men in full armour battling with swords, a medieval style camp set up, archery displays and birds of prey. We took a picnic and spent the day there in glorious sunshine, with a rather excited small boy.

 

 

As a result, we have been having regular sword fights, and all playground structures have become Harlan's castles to defend. We are heading to the local library tomorrow to find some books about knights and castles, and I have secretly bought a rather bargainous set of toy knights and castle which should be ready for him by next week.

Aside from out castle adventures, we are having a rather stressful time as we have been given notice on our house. Always a risk of a rental property, but we have been here 3 1/2 years and will be sad to move. The atmosphere has definitely been picked up on by the smallest member of the family, who has been a bit unreliable with his toileting and more shouty then usual. I am trying to make an effort to talk about the positives, perhaps a bigger garden... and I will have a look at the library and on Amazon for books about moving house.

To keep ourselves busy and to make the most of the glorious sunshine we have been making regular visits to the parks in our local area - one in particular, Brampton Park, has a large sandpit with a water pump. Whilst there today we saw some obviously school aged children, at the park during school hours. I bit the bullet, approached the mothers and asked if they were home educated. Turns out they are and we know a few of the same people, although we had never met before. They go to a Christian H.E. group locally, but said they only focus on faith at Easter and Christmas, and it is open to people of all or no religion. I gave one lady my email address and she has promised to get in touch with details of the group. Her children were a great example of H.E. - confident, polite, self assured. Hopefully that chance meeting will mean we can meet even more local families.

Rainy day activities

In between rain showers this week, we've been making mad dashes to the park and meeting up with friends, but I've not been well so haven't felt up to braving the weather too often. As a result we've spent a lot of time indoors.

I got some bargain dot to dot books at Aldi, which have proved popular with Harlan, as well as the obligatory dominoes games every day. My grandmother is sending Harlan some money this week and we're planning to take him to Toys'r'us to choose some new board games.



Last night I looked at the forecast for today, which predicted rain all day. I took a look at my Pinterest boards for inspiration and hit upon food dyed salt and rice. We had some green, red and blue food dye left from our flower experiment so I prepared the salt and rice and put it on the table ready for today.

 

We ended up spending the morning snuggled under the duvet watching TV and didn't even have breakfast until lunchtime! After brunch we got out PVA glue and sugar paper - did some patterns, a big letter H and on one piece of paper I helped Harlan write his name with the PVA, before sprinkling rice and salt all over the glue.

Afterwards, Harlan asked if he could do some washing up - and who am I to say no to such a request?! I set him up with some warm soapy water and left him to play, pouring water between cups and making bubbles. How many years before he starts trying to get out of washing up?

Birthday visit and illness

Wednesday was my Grandad's 71st birthday and my grandparents' wedding anniversary. We drove down to Nailsworth for a surprise visit and took them a laminated salad-spinner painting that Harlan had done and a garden wildlife reference book for my Grandad. Harlan, for some reason, was adamant that his Great Grandfather would want a card with a picture of a guinea pig riding a pink sparkly scooter so that's what he gave him! We also took Grandad out for a birthday ice cream on the common, where I used to go for a treat when I was a child. He is a very poorly man these days, and has been registered disabled for 35 years, but his face when he is playing with Harlan is a sight to behold. When we were on the common, Harlan and Grandad ran around, and whilst I knew Grandad would pay for it the next day, it was brilliant to see him so happy.

Unfortunately, since we got back Harlan has had a nasty cold. He's been coughing, snotty, sore throat, vomiting and generally miserable and lethargic. He seems to have gotten over the worst of it now, although not before infecting my Granny on the Wednesday we visited and myself since getting home! He's doing the usual of perking up during the day but flagging at night.

Undoubtedly I will have pictures to upload tomorrow, as the Easter Bunny has visited our garden tonight (with lots of milk/soya free treats!) and on Monday my Mum and brother are visiting and taking Harlan and I back with them to their home in the Brecons, for a holiday.

Lapbooks and leaps forward

We made our first lapbook at the weekend. It started from the walk Harlan and I took together before he went to bed one evening. As usual we took a bag and he collected treasures - stones, twigs, feathers, catkins...

Usually we would get the glue out and stick his treasures onto paper or card, but we've done that many times and I wanted something different to do with them this time. So we made a Spring themed lapbook from card and added pockets and flaps to hold twigs, catkins and feathers. I laminated some of them to make them last longer, printed a picture of a ewe with its lamb and Harlan made a collage of a rainbow.

For the cover of the lapbook, I did a dot to dot of the word Spring, then Harlan joined up the dots. He has always lacked confidence in using a pen/pencil/crayon and rarely draws at all. But his love of dot to dots (which he already does on the computer) won out and he wrote his first word. We discovered that he gets very frustrated with crayons and pencils as he doesn't press down hard enough for them to leave a mark, so I found a felt tip pen and he got on much better with that.
 
Spurred on by that milestone, the next day I wrote his name in dots and asked if he would like to have a go at writing his name. He wanted me to help him, so I cupped my hand around his - despite me not actually guiding his hand at all, it gave him the confidence to try and he wrote his name for the first time. Cue one very proud mummy! That was yesterday, and today he has written his name again, this time in a card for his Great Grandad's birthday. He also asked me to do dots of his Great Grandad's name, Ted. I have a feeling Grandad Ted is going to be exceptionally pleased with this year's birthday card!