Playtime with playdough!

My son is given a different literacy or numeracy learning pack each week from pre school which are designed to promote weekend activities with the family. They normally come with a book, an exercise or game, a felt board with characters, musical instruments or other props. The pack comes complete with a laminated sheet with ideas and suggestions as to how to use the learning pack.

I love them as they are full of ideas and the one just before half term included the idea of making non-cook playdough, rolling it into little balls and then pushing the balls through some skewers and leaving to dry overnight. Then you can paint them and leave to dry again before threading them through some string to make a beautiful necklace!

I normally make playdough on the cooker but this was a non-cook recipe and it was brilliant. The kids loved the progression of making through to the necklace and it took all of half term to complete it due to the drying times required but this added to its charm. It was an activity that went the distance.

We developed this idea as we all loved it. The next time we made playdough, we rolled it out and used our letter cutters to make our names and other letters that we liked. My son was having a great time finding the letters to make up his name and trying to help his sister and then using the letters to make words once they were dry.

This was a cheap, fun and messy activity that we will be doing again soon!

Playdough recipe

1 cup of salt

2 cups of flour

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons of oil

2 cups of boiling water

Mix up all of the dry ingredients, add the oil and then slowly stir in the boiling water.

Making sense of the world

I was brought up as a Christian with varying degrees of dedication. For a long time my family were really quite religious and so we would attend church every Sunday, go to Sunday school and my sisters and I all started our education in a Church of England school. We would say grace before a meal, we had copies of the bible around although bible reading wasn’t forced upon us. I envied my sisters as they were old enough to go to ‘Supersaints’, the church group designed for teenagers in the evenings.

My parents separated when I was nine years old and, as I remember, this is when our family and religion in the traditional sense also parted ways. The faith remained however our church attendance was limited to Christmas Eve Mass and other special occasions and there was no more Sunday school and, perhaps most upsettingly for me at the time, my name would never appear on the guest list for 'Supersaints’.

My family each have their own relationships with faith, spirituality and belief and I have mine. I have been thinking of this a lot recently as my son asks so many questions such as ‘Who made our house?’ ‘Who made that car?’ ‘Who made water?’ ‘Who made me?’ ‘Who made you?’ ‘Who made Grannie?’ ‘Who made this toothpaste?’ ‘Who made the trees?’

My answers are normally are one of the following:

1) A factory

2) Their Mummy and Daddy

3) A clever man/lady

4) Bob the Builder

5) God

Then I had ‘Who made God?’ ‘Where is God?’ ‘Why is God everywhere?’ ‘Why is there only one God?’

OK, I had to decide fairly quickly how much to discuss, feeling rather under qualified to explain such important theological ideas and what I was to fill his head with. More questions it turned out, of course.

My husband was brought up in a relaxed Catholic family and attended a school run by nuns for some time. He has no strong religious views now but is a spiritual and open - minded person across the board. We both want to allow our children to decide what they believe and I think the best we can do is offer answers based on what we know or believe and also make sure the kids know that there are lots of beliefs, all of which are equally valid.

I give full credit to my parents as my guides in what I should and shouldn’t do and I recognise that they brought me up to be a ‘good person’ however, I can’t help but think that I also owe a lot to starting life with such a solid religious education. I was never scared by religion or made to feel intimidated, simply the fact that there was the possibility that something like God existed and would see me and judge me was enough of a deterrent.

My son is now making sense of the world around this ‘God’ I have introduced to his world and he talks about him often.

According to my son, the following is an accurate description of God:

He has two googly eyes

A shiny, round nose

A big, big tummy

2 goobly hairs

He is short with feet as big as my (Duplo) castle

He paints and glues and reads Thomas the Tank Engine books

He gives Karma

He eats potatoes (lots of them) and so that he’ll grow into a big polar bear

He eats, pasta, spaghetti, meat and chicken

He doesn’t go to school as he’s too small

I am slightly concerned that I am confusing him but until I can think of better answers to life’s big questions, this will have to do.

Pilate Revisited

I discussed my lack of core stability in my ‘64th Time Lucky' post and so I thought I should revisit my previous procrastination and update on my progress.

 

I completed the Pilates course and left with new knowledge, feeling fantastic despite suffering more illnesses during the 5 weeks I had been learning than ever before (this was purely coincidence!) and ready to put it all to good use.

 

I use a lot of the techniques most days. I use some of the exercises in the gym during my mat work and others just at home when I need to relax or stretch particular muscles. One move I was shown helps a part of my back that I had never been able to reach before. (cue respectively toned down - this was a civilised Pilates class with dimmed light and mood music playing after all  -  ‘When Harry met Sally’ moment)

 

I use the location of the correct layer muscles technique when I do weight work, when I do sit ups and sometimes just when I am walking along.

 

All good so far. I have not been to a Pilates class itself since as the one led by my original teacher is on a Saturday morning and so far I haven’t got myself up and out in time…my husband always offers a lie in to me on a weekend morning if we do not have guests and I find it impossible not to simply nod in submission and turn around back up to bed to snuggle under my warm duvet and…zzzzzzz!

 

I am so glad to have done the course and there is a move, I cannot remember the name of, where you work your way down to touching your toes feeling every vertebra and stretching out and this is how I start and finish every day. I still rate cardio higher for my own needs as it works me in a way I respond to in reducing stress and feeling on top. I would leave the Pilates class feeling relaxed but restless and I still needed to work up a sweat.

 

I think when I have extra time to fit in more than the minimum number of workouts that I need a week, I will introduce a Pilates class and until then I will practice it daily at home. My Pilates DVD now finally makes sense and I know what feels right so this will keep me going until then! 

Mummy Uninterrupted

 

Quite often I will leave a coffee morning or meeting with a friend and feel like I have returned from a tipsy night out and I am experiencing that morning after feeling of half conversations. You know, you remember starting them but you cannot remember how the conversation ended. Well, I often find this is the case now for entirely different reason. My children, their children, someone else’s children or our own parental paranoia meaning that we have one ear on the conversation and one on what’s happening with the little ones.

 

‘So, your husband’s looking for a new job and when is the interview?’

‘On Wednesday but he’s not…oh Josh honey give the train back to Charlie, yes it’s his turn….he’s not really sure as….OK Josh love, let’s go for a wee wee…one minute..’

 

By the time we return from the toilet, the conversation has evaporated and so we start another forgetting where we were prior to the train or the toilet

 

‘I hope the catchment area is the same as last year as we’re hoping to get Simone into the school and…..Poppet, hold your drink up as it’s spilling, oops, on the carpet, no, no don’t worry’

 

Once again forgotten as the next conversation begins with

 

‘The carpet? Oh, no don’t be silly, we’re planning to rip these ones up at the end of the year because….oh dear, it’s ok, it’s only a scratch, oh darling, it’s ok, Chester didn’t mean to hit you with the train’

 

And then that one is discarded onto the increasingly large pile of half sentences..

 

‘’Oh yes, the sight of blood always give me a turn. One time, oh it was so funny, I was on my way to…..Yes, my lovely, you want a cuddle, ok lovely come on up, oh such a lovely song…he’s such a good little singer, one time we were at this restaurant and the music came on and he recognised the tune…..oh dear, who is that? Archie?’

‘Yes, I think so…hang on, let me go and check’

 

And so it continues…starting and stopping, half conversations, half finished stories and a very enjoyable social catch up although a side dish of non - stop interruptions. I have developed a much faster speech rate due to this ‘HowmuchcanIgetoutinonegobeforeweareinterrupted?’

and I rush through any conversation until I realise it’s OK to slow down and pointless rushing as nobody will understand me anyway.

 

I thought of this because last week I had the opportunity to experience not one but two, count them- ONE, TWO – uninterrupted girl times. First up was a coffee morning with the mums from my son’s school and it fell on a Friday. Friday is the only morning I am childfree as my daughter is at playgroup from 9.30-11.30am. 

It was so strange to sit with the mums and chat without looking over shoulders or stopping and starting. I had never actually done it before and I still chatted way too fast but came away feeling like I had heard so much more than normal. I could see the plate of chocolate biscuits and think ‘yum yum’ and not ‘potential toddler sugar high run for the hills’. I could sit back and listen with both ears and watch with both eyes. I think I may need a few attempts to get used to this as the feeling was quite alien and without your children to protect you, the mummy world is a very scary place at times, but I am already looking forward to the next Friday meeting!

 

 The second was something I had been waiting, in excited anticipation, for a while. I had my little big sister for a full night all to myself.

 

We planned an evening together and I knew it would be wonderful and special and it lived up and exceeded my expectations.

I was so happy to spend some proper and uninterrupted time with her for the first time in too long. She has two small children as do I, we live over 200 miles apart, we try to get a decent chat in weekly but there is nothing like a night devoted to each other. She came to stay at our house alone and over a bottle of champagne, a lovely dinner out (and a further bottle of wine) and then a cup of peppermint tea on the sofa afterwards, we properly chatted.

 

Having spent that time with her, I appreciate her even more and I feel a better person for having been in her company for that time. Yes, she’s special.

 

My sister is one of those women who are aware that there is enough to go around everyone and she celebrates the successes and happiness of all of those around her. She is the first to tell you that you look fantastic, your hair is great and your clothes look fabulous. She can’t wait to hear your good news and she picks out all of your strengths and highlights them whenever she can. Your celebration is her celebration and she makes a huge fuss of you to prove it.

 

I cannot thank her enough for granting me that and it was the best birthday present she could have given me…her time.

 

Can you get some uninterrupted time with someone special this month? Give it a try, it will make you feel closer than ever!