A splashing good time

The last few days seem to have included large amounts of water. We spent a great day in the sun at Chester Park on Friday and the boys loved the large paddling pool.

Harry thought he would round off Saturday nicely with a bit of daddy watering in the garden.

And Peter has a new favourite bath activity - super splashing. Harry is not hugely impressed as he doesn't like water splashes in his face!

Our culture box

The packages we have been preparing for our worldwide culture swap were posted today. We have really enjoyed putting them together but have found it trickier than expected to decide what to include and to try and find free or inexpensive items.


We included a map of Newcastle together with leaflets from our favourite places to visit, a bookmark showing the Millennium Bridge and a fact sheet about the Angel of the North. I printed recipes for scones and bread and butter pudding and put these in together with union jack cupcake cases. I bought Team GB flags and tattoos from the Olympic product offerings available at the moment and a pack of playing cards showing images from the North East. I made a schedule of a usual day in our family, so the swappers can compare it to their own. I printed Newcastle United colouring sheets as football is such a big part of this country and city. 

We found a good sheet showing pictures of UK coins so I sent that together with a 10p and 20p coin. I made notes on the sheet too showing what a variety of things cost here - milk, a bus journey, magazines and chocolate bars.

I made a craft kit with instructions for the children to make felt daffodils (although they are the official flower of Wales that still counts as part of the UK!) as I love the appearance of swathes of daffodils everywhere at the start of spring.

I am happy with our box and excited now about receiving the overseas ones so that we can explore them.

London calling!

The Olympics started in London last week and we had thought long and hard about getting event tickets when they first went on sale, after all it is not often such a huge global sporting spectacle is in your own country and Stuart and I are sports fans! We had decided that the boys were too young to fully appreciate it for the cost and effort involved, however, when the games actually started we just couldn't resist heading down to London to be part of the atmosphere! It was the first trip to London for Harry and Peter too and we were not disappointed - we were so pleased we made the effort to go.


We drove to Doncaster and boarded the train there so as to split the journey up a bit and kept busy on the train with lots of stickers and magazines

Arriving at Kings Cross - everything was really well signed and there were helpful Games volunteers everywhere

Harry loved the underground - he was a natural at navigating it

We headed straight out to see the sights around Westminster. Harry is already waiting for the next trip so we can go on the London Eye!

Peter spent about ten minutes stomping in the only puddle in sight, to the amusement of passers-by!

We made a last stop at Trafalgar Square, where we saw fans decked in flags

A very late bedtime

But everyone woke up in good moods and on day 2 we had tickets to the Olympic area of Hyde Park, so we went via Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park was perfect for families - it was a bit like a festival site - lots of food options, big screens and space. We saw weightlifting, hockey, judo and archery. Harry had a look at volleyball and enjoyed The Sun tent where he got a balloon dog and played table football. It would have been great to actually go in the Olympic Park but there were no tickets for that so this was the next best thing.

We were all pretty tired but loved it! We feel like we were a small part of the Olympics and we also had a lovely time seeing some other sights. We are feeling high in Olympic spirit at our house now - Harry is interested in a few of the events on TV and we are doing some themed activities which I will post later. I think Harry is playing on my Olympic mood by asking for (and getting) chocolate mascots wherever we see them!

Make Way For Ducklings

Amazon.com

It's not easy for duck parents to find a safe place to bring up their ducklings, but during a rest stop in Boston's Public Garden, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard think they just might have found the perfect spot--no foxes or turtles in sight, plenty of peanuts from pleasant passers-by, and the benevolent instincts of a kindly police officer to boot. Young readers will love the mother duck's proud, loving protection of her wee webbed ones.

This book has become a favourite with Harry and we have also been reading it at bedtime. He has remembered most of it, as he does with books he likes and has been joining in with some parts when we are reading.

First of all we looked at the names of the ducklings and Harry recognised that they rhyme. He thought up 2 sets of 8 rhyming names himself, which he would use for his own ducklings. We also played a matching game with the names, which was good for Harry's letter and word recognition. 

Alongside this book we have also been reading Jemima Puddle-Duck, which helped to understand why Mrs Mallard didn't want to raise her ducklings where there might be foxes in the woods (as Mr Fox wanted to eat Jemima!).

Harry had remembered a craft he had seen on Mister Maker to soak string in paint and wrap it around a bowl to make a nest, so we did this too. He found soft things - feathers and cotton wool for the inside of the nest.....

and made 8 ducklings out of pom poms to go inside. He was very pleased with this and it looked great!

We used some peanuts to feed Mr and Mrs Mallard and the 8 ducklings. Harry said that the ducks must have strong beaks to be able to open the peanuts as he tried to do it himself! We used this activity to introduce counting in groups of 2 and 3 and then 10 and Harry understood that it helps you to count quicker.

One of the pages in our maths workbook covers counting in 10's so we did this too. Harry seemed to grasp this well and we used it again when he counted £1 in groups of 10 pennies later in the week.

I printed out the days of the week on egg shapes to use and we have pinned one to the kitchen door (being the first place we go downstairs in the morning) each day before moving it to the playroom wall at the end of the day so we ended up with all 7 days in a line. Harry has done well remembering the names of the days.

This has been a good book to row while still making our regular visits to the Washington Wetland Centre. We have been visiting the duckling nursery this month and seen tiny 3 day old ducklings, together with cygnets and goslings.

"Mummy, I learnt something!"

"I learnt something!" was the shout I heard this afternoon from the garden as I prepared tea. I was very interested to see what the revelation would be and this was it....

I am so pleased that watching water fall from holes in a plant pot fits into Harry's perception of learning! I hope he is always so engaged with the world around him and finds learning in all aspects of it.

Pirates at the lighthouse

We went to the annual pirate fun day at Souter lighthouse yesterday. It was good, but I think we prefer visiting there on a normal day as it was extremely busy and the site isn't really equipped to deal with so many visitors at once!


Harry's favourite thing was the bouncy castle slide and Peter enjoyed feeling the bouncing on his face!

We climbed to the middle light of the lighthouse - the steps up to the top were too steep (almost like a ladder) for carrying Peter. We talked lots about what a lighthouse is for.

We played pirate puzzles and dressing up in the indoor area of the lighthouse.

We enjoyed wandering around outside away from the crowded area too, watching some kites being flown.

Enjoy a Ball

Harry has been taking part in Enjoy a Ball since last year and received his certificate at the last session. I think it is a great class that has really kept him engaged and it is the first thing he has stuck with for longer than a term. There is not much sitting around waiting and a good variety of activities to build sports and ball skills. I am pleased we were able to get a place to carry on with the class from this September.