Building

Harry seems to have been exercising some creative building urges today. He created his first 'own design' Hama bead pattern (he usually follows a picture) at 7am this morning, which I was pretty impressed with - an almost symmetrical butterfly! We have only recently got into Hama beads - I love the peaceful play element and Harry enjoys creative play - they also satisfy Harry's urge to sort and gather small objects. We mainly use the maxi beads for 3 years plus, although we do have some small ones and Harry can manage them, but I prefer to clean up the large ones, especially after Peter has been through scattering them in all directions!

It was then onto the Centre for Life to meet some of our home ed friends. We arrived early and spent half an hour building with the foam blocks. Harry created this pattern:

Which then became the base for this creation, which Harry was trying to protect from Peter's attentions:

After seeing Peter off, Harry climbed up and over the 'mountain' - he can always find something to climb!

We met our friends, had a lovely play together and headed home. One of our best visits to Centre for Life - Harry was very interested in a new dolls house which was as tall as him and there was a good activity table with various objects to examine through magnifying glasses. Peter loves it there now that he can explore everything too and it is essential for me to have places I can keep both of them happy. We seem to be limited to indoor spaces to achieve that at the moment - I am sure once Spring arrives and Peter can walk well that daily outdoor time that we can all enjoy will re-start.

A final building session at home saw us playing an hour long coal delivery game using the mobile coal hopper that Harry had built:

And Peter caused general all round amusement when he discovered that the table cover comes off - I don't think this will be the first time!

Phew, we have crammed a lot into today and I am feeling it, but I love days like this! There is always something new to amaze me in the way they explore and learn and there has been a lot of skill building too recently. Peter is insatiable at the moment - he is pushing, pulling, putting in, taking out, banging and copying noises. Harry is advancing all the time, saying creative and logical things, being much more stable in his temprement and enjoying such a wide variety of activities. I can't wait to see more of the same this year.