Yule Advent, Day 16-21

Crazy busy.
So busy the mind is a bit of a blur of what this week has consisted of.
There's been more snowflakes made.
More crochet, ooh such fun crochet, which I will share soon.  
A friend's eldest daughter has been over a couple times this week, and we've made fudge, coconut ice and peppermint creams - although the creams were not overly successful.  The fudge tho, oh my the fudge.
I reduced the chocolate and it worked brilliantly, much more fudgelike
We have been to a Christmas Party at a toddler group.

 Rye sporting the crowns he made at the toddler Christmas party.  (over his pirate hat)

Chocolatey face from eating fudge!

There was the seasonal crafts at the Home Ed group.
One of our members is a professional photograher too, and she took photos of the kids, I also asked her to take one of the group too.

By Buss-Burns Photograhy

Giving Rye a new book:  The Snowman which comes with CD.  Which we snuggled into bed and read.  Later we will listen to the CD too.
We watched excitedly the snow falling - although too wet for it to settle.
I've ordered some seasonal dvds for us to watch; The Snowman, The Grinch, Miracle on 24th Street, The Polar Express.
More crochet
More paper snowflakes

And inbetween I've been working.  Minding during the day with the little girl I mind, and through the night for the little boy.  Exhausting, especially as one night the poor wee lad kept waking up crying, because he's was very bunged up.  Burning some Oblas oil helped a lot.  I was rather zonked the next day, and bless Rye he slept till 11am - and even then I had to wake him up!

And now it's 4 days to Yule and still so much to do, I'm on annual leave from 5.30pm 20th December until 3rd January, and phew, I can't wait!

Yule Advent, Day 15

Ooooh just 10 days to go to Yule :-)
And Arrrghhh at the same time as I try to find time to beaver away on gifts!

But anyway, Day 15, what did we do today.  Well, Rye actually spent an inordinate amount of time playing Reading Eggs (or watching Rotten Eggs, as my 3yr old mindie calls it), and watching a Fireman Sam full length espisode/movie.  I'm trying to see if given unfettered access if Rye will self regulate - and it certainly keeps me off the laptop!

So our crafting for today has not happened until this evening, when he eventually came down and said he'd had enough.  This evening we made paper snowflakes.  A parcel of goodies from ELC arrived this evening too, with the glow in the dark paint I ordered.  Nifty stuff.  So we painted some on a few of the snowflakes and added glitter too.  Very pretty - and yes they do indeed glow in the dark..but not enough that I can take a photo I'm afraid.

 These are the ones with the glow in the dark paint on them.  I do find myself wondering if I kneaded the paint into homemade playdough if that would glow in the dark too... I may have to experiment.

 After the snowflakes Rye asked if we could glitter some pinecones too.  So we did, and added some glow in the dark paint for good measure too.

 Oooh looks so pretty!  Now just need the real stuff.

Oh dear.  After the snowflakes, and glittering, I tided up, I even steamed the floor.  The lounge was spotless.... I then went in to tackle the kitchen and the mounting up dishes......... came back to get the steamer to do the floor and cupboards and nearly cried.  This actually is far better than it was, I was very good though, no shouting.  I calmly said, "Rye, I think you'd better get the bag from the kitchen and pick up all this paper".
"In a minute" was the response,
"I really need you to do it now..." there was an edge to my voice, and Rye took note.  lol

On the bright side his scissor skills are getting better and better, and he's starting to get how to hold the scissors properly, which is making his attempts at cutting much more accurate and steady.

Yule Advent Day 14

Eeek not long at all to Yule now, and I'm seriously behind, but all will be well :-)

Today the plan was to make the lounge/playroom look more festive.  So, I rooted out the sticks from our walk in the woods earlier in the week, hooked a festive cover for the jar, and plonked them all, artfully of course, in a jar.

 Very simply cover indeed, this is actually just trebles.  All I've done is spike the green trebles down so it creates that latticed bobble effect, which when done in seasonal red and green is very effective.

And our Yule "tree" aka sticks. The crochet decoration nearest is another bangle decoration.  I rather like how it turned out.  The green one lower down on the opposite side is just weaving the cotton aroudn the bangle and wrapping it around to create a sort of dreamcatcher effect.  We have quite a few clay decorations to paint/glitter to add to the sticks too, and I have some small led lights, which should be perfect for this wee "tree".

And well, paperchains.  Had to be done.  I am very pleased I did not spend money on buying paper chain strips though.  In the end I just cut strips of paper we already have, and I think it looks very lovely.   It did occur to me I could use my spray mount to make the paper tacky and sprinkle glitter over too - but I confess the thought of clearing up glitter for every more has meant that idea...has stayed an idea.

Utter concentration on his face.  We made another paper chain to hang in the window, I'll take photos later, once we've added tomorrow's addition to the window.

"Take a picture of me, Jacqui."
"Why?"
"Because I want you to."  Ok, then good enough reason.

Oooh and remember me mentioning the snow flake around the bangle I designed the other day?  Well I haven't got around to blocking it, and frustratingly I could find any spray starch in the supermarket, so I'll have to waterdown the fabric stiffener and paint it on....being the impatient sort though, I thought I'd show off the snowflake now...

The festive spirit is taking over slowly.

Yule Advent, Day 13

Yesterday didn't quite work out as I planned.

Saturday mornings I have a minded child until 1.30pm.  So the children played and I took advantage to sit and work on some crochet snowflakes, flat baubles.  I saw this, the pentcle I have saved on my ravelry queue and I've been meaning to knock a few up.  But what actually caught my eye was the use of wrist bangles.  It just hadn't occured to me.  So I've been playing.  I made a large lacy snowflake, which needs blocking.  And a few play around dreamcatcher like ones.  Think I need to look at the instructions becuase my attempts to do it off the hoof, aren't spectacular.

Oooh and more yarn arrived.  Yes more.  However, these are colours that I do need for the gifts I'm making.  I do have quite a stock of cotton yarns, but to my suprise I discovered I'd run out of yellow, which is such an important colour when teaming lots of different colour, it's a colour that will pretty much match up with any other and in doing so it help to calm and reunite all colours.  I also did not have red or a dark green.  How can this be!  So I got some more, and well you know me, I couldn't resist adding a few other colours.

Once mindie left in the afternoon the plan was to paint the clay decorations we made a few days ago, and have taken such a long time to dry out!  Rye had other ideas.  He wants to read and write and is constantly asking to do workbooks/sheets/read his oxford tree reading scheme books, and of course reading eggs.
I gave him the choice, fully expecting him to choose painting, but no, he choose to reading eggs. 

Oooh the hooky time was fabulous, and I would be lying if it wasn't a part of my decision to let allow Rye to decide when he'd had enough.  Naturally, I told myself the website if educational, and it's not like he's on there all the time.. infact weeks and weeks can go by...all true, but honestly I allowed longer than normal play on the computer because I have a lot of preparation for Yule still.

I do find myself warring with myself on this issue though.  I do have rules for screen time.  Rye is allowed to pop on a dvd on a morning if he's up before me, which tends to be only once or twice a week.  He is allowed to watch a dvd on an evening after the minded children have left.   That rule has had to be relaxed a little because a mindie's mum works shifts and for 3 days wasn't picked up until midnight.   Similarly, he can forego dvd and use the tablet; which has a couple of educational games on it, as well angry birds.  He will play angry birds for a bit, and then the educational games.  Laptop time is severely limited because of course I use it, and evening time is when I use it most.

However, as he's so keen on reading and writing and has asked a few times this past week to do reading eggs, I've cleared my desk in my bedroom so Rye can sit up there, (also means laptop stays upstairs..I've had it downstairs a few days and spent far more time online that I would normally!).  I am not happy with him spending hours and hours though.  So I've decided the plan is to set an alarm for 45 min, with a maximum of two 45 mins sessions a day, (and not consectively).

But anyway, as Rye decided to do reading eggs, it meant the plan to give him the Snowman book & cd has been postponed.   

And now I really must get off the computer and get on with Day 14.
Have a super day, whatever you have planned or not planned :-)

Yule Advent Day, 12

And after all that rain and wind yesterday, today has been beautiful, cold, but beautiful sunshine.
Today's activity was a trip out.   A local arts company have created a winter grotto, there is a large map showing the village, and then shelving suspended from the ceiling and on it, lots and lots of little wooden houses that have been decorated.  There's also beautiful snowflakes, and in another room, christmas trees, lights with benches and old films projected onto the walls. 

Rye absolutely loved it; and despite it being a smallish area, we stayed there for a good hour or so.

 We met up with quite a few members of the home ed group too.  And wow, just look at all those houses!

 Rye making his own decorated wooden house.

 And this was Rye's addition.

 There were some fantastically intricate or clever houses too:

 And this is the large map on the floor.  The idea is you find your house and pop a star on it.  Fascinating to look at a map sooooooo large.

 The tree grotto.  Really liked this space, but alas dry ice smoke stuff, makes me feel breathless, so I couldn't stay in here too long.

Such a lovely time, and soooooooo much better than a Santa grotto.  Much more imaginative and fun.  And none of the usual, "have you been good...." nonsense.

Decided not to go to the live nativity in the town centre.  Too cold and mindie is not very well..... and I confessed I chickened out a bit.  I just did not fancy attempting to park and then navigate the town centre, which is bound to be heaving...and I can't imagine Rye would have enjoyed it much either.

Home, Thomas DVD and chocolate brioche.  And in a mo pizza, just need to pop them in the oven to cook :-)

Yule Advent, Day 11.

Plans changed again for Day 11 of our advent.
This Thursday morning was Forest School.  The weather has been exceptionally kind to us, so far; not so much yesterday.  Lots of rain; although at least it had warmed up a bit, so not quite so miserable.  And it was rather nice sitting in the outdoor classroom protected from the rain, watching it lash across the valley.

The children made christmas decs.  Most of them went rummaging for greenry and what not for making wreaths etc.  Rye did want to go, but he wanted me to go too; and my knees just weren't up for slipping and sliding around muddy paths, so instead we stayed behind and and made a start on decorations.

There were round discs of wood, and using a manual drill, we popped a little hole in the top and then using string, ribbon etc dedcorated the wood.  Rye made a couple of lovely ones.  No photos sadly, we left them deocrating the forest school area.  Rye really, really enjoyed using the drill.  And I was super impressed that the simple potatoe peeler was so effective on Elder branches, which we used to make "pencils".  So simple, cut a little elder, and then use a potatoe peeler to peel some of the bark off - make patterns etc.  A tent peg is perfect for pushing into the middle of the spongy bit of the elder branch to make the hole, in which a bit of willow charcoal can be placed.    Rye thought this was great!

After Forest School Rye invited himself around to a friend's house, and I facilitated her getting a grate etc so she could finally use her fireplace.  Ooooh that was so lovely, sat in front of a fire as the wind and rain lashed agains the windows.  Although it wasn't what I had planned for the afternoon.  Painting clay decorations was on the cards..... although actually I've noticed they are still not completely dry!  Nearly there tho.

Very exciting as Yule draw nearer, the weather gets colder....... ooh snow for Yule would be magical.  Not sure if it's on the cards for the SE though.

Yule Advent Day 10.

Letterland day today, so today has been spent at a friend's house. 
I toyed with the idea of a simple craft session this evening; but after working 15+ hours per day for the past couple of days, I'm frankly tired, and just not in the mood to do more kids stuff.

So Rye has been firmly told this evening is mummy time and no, he cannot race his car noisly on the laminate, throw the cars off the play cooker to clatter on the laminate, he cannot watch a dvd and no I'm not putting music on.  His choice is read books or go to bed.

He is reading books. 


I know I sound mean as hell, but if I put into context, I have been a friend's house m ost of the day, and he has played with lots of other children, he's played with playdough, watched tv, ran around like a loon, played with cars and garages and goodness knows what else.  Today my working day has been just shy of 12 hours; and enough.  I need some quiet time, so instead, we've sat on the sofa, Rye looking at his books, me reading blogs while we munch through some mince pies.

And for today, that will have to do.

Yule Advent Day 9.

Last minute change to plans. 
Initially I had thought of making a wreath with Rye and C, using some of the greenery etc we found yesterday in the woods.  The downstairs really did need a good sweep, the table in only a day was covered and needed clearing.  The kitchen too was a bit a bombsite.  Add in a friend said she might pop round this afternoon.

So the crafting turned into something I could quickly show the kids and then leave them to it... what they made isn't quite what I had in mind... the image in my mind eye was more refined.....  I think though the children's creations are much more fun!

 Glue, toilet rolls, cotton wool and felt, can only lead to.......

 Snow men!  Isn't he fabulous.  I had been pondering what whether to try and find a way to add a large compacted ball of cotton wool for a head...... I like Rye's solution - just stick cotton wool in and out until the loo roll is completely masked by cotton wool.  

And here he is sittng on the season table.  C had fun making this too, excitedly telling me how she will show her snowmman to her mummy.  After this the kids were asking what they could craft next.  I did briefly consider painting pinecones and glittering them....... but as I'm trying to clean up a bit while they are nicely occupied., that idea was quickly discarded and instead out came the air drying clay.......

I'm not a big fan of this stuff to be honest.  It is remarkably stiff and pretty difficult for little fingers to manipulate, and trying to soften it with water just makes it slimy so when this mama tried to roll out some.... the rolling pin shot across the table and mama nearly went face first into the clay.... much to the amusement of the children.  Humph!

Still we did manage to get it rolled out.  This was a craft that involved more of my input, simply because the clay was so difficult to manipulate,  I ended up rolling each piece of clay out for the kids, so they could use whichever cutters they wanted. 

And here's a few of the cut out shapes.  We went on to make a few more; including some great looking bells.  The kids are keen to paint these; although might have to give C a few to take home to do, just thinking, it is letterland day tomorrow, Thursday she is at nursery and Friday is her nativity play, so I don't think she's with me.  Hmm.
Probably paint and glitter a few with Rye Thursday afternoon, after Forest school.

Following the crafting, there was play with the magna doodle, some odd game that involved kissing each other on their legs, feet, bum etc?  Weird children. And then building large gnome houses from tree blocks and knocking 'em down.  And now the minded children are napping and Rye is watching Curious George.

Time to prepare tea then.

Yule Advent, Day 8

Oh what a fabulous morning.  Finally, there is the distinct nip of winter in the air and woollies were definitely called for.

Myself and another family met at Lyminge Forest and had a good tramp around, we saw all manner of fungi; fly agaric, what I think,  having now looked it up, was an amythest deceiver,(which turns out to be edible, didn't know that thought it was inedible) found by my friend, ceps and excitingly bracket fungus!   Also saw an umbo.  And there's lots of white, gills showing fungi too, which look a little like Oyster mushrooms, but I'm certain they aren't those, as Oyster mushrooms are usually more tubular in the stem.  (shh and we didn't get lost this time ;-)  )

 So nice to share the wonders of the woods.  Exploring Elf homes, and C been fascinated by the spikey coverings of sweet chestnuts; the ground was litered with them.

 Checking out the shelters/dens.

 Oooh those waterproof dungarees are wonderful.  Rye could tramp in the mud and deep puddles without me needing to worry about him getting wet and cold.

 "Come in my house."  Rye shaking C's hand as she comes into "his" home.

 C was doing really well on the balance bike, and beginning to cruise with her feet off the ground.

 Oops sat in a big muddy puddle.  Very grateful for Rye's old waterproof dungarees!

 LOL he enjoyed riding his scooter through all the mud.  I rather imagine he'll be in bed early to night!

 Fly agaric.  There were still loads of these in the woods; lots of baby ones emerging from the under growth too.  Maybe it's the witch in me, but I do get so excited when I see these.  lol.

One of the many, many paths through the trees, almost expected the gruffalo to come shuffling along!

Yule Advent: Day 2.

Oooooh, very nearly cancelled today's plans.  I blumming well slept through my alarm AGAIN, or alternatively I'm turning it off but not remembering doing so!  So I woke about ten minutes before my minded child was due, and leapt out of bed and dragged on clothes.  Not the most auspicious start to the day!

Today was  a big day though, and while my sleep fogged brain was not embracing the day's plan, initially, I knew I would regret it if I gave into my inner laziness and cancelled...so slapped the face with some cold water, poured tea down my throat and dragged the kids, out of the door.

Today, was definitely a day for woollens.  Brrrr, tad nippy and that wind!  Oooh, those pinecones might finally be on the floor, we will have to go and look later this week.... but anyway...... so on the train, big excitment and much talk of the difference between blue and yellow trains.  (Hide speed and normal trains lol)

Today was the day of the Christmas Lecture at Canterbury University's Gulbenkian Theatre on bubbles (the link shows tomorrow's lecture on colour, but we're not going to that).  Very big deal for Rye because in the past he has not been a fan of the theatre, and it causes him quite a lot of anxiety; but if anything was going to help him cope with the experience it would be bubbles!

 Initially, Rye was not a happy bunny, as we walked toward the theatre and he saw the masses of school children he began to chant, "I don't like it, I don't like it, I don't like it,".
"Give it a chance Rye, I think you will really like it when we get inside"
"I don't like it, I don't like it, I don't like it," was the response and my heart sank.





As luck would have it, we had front row seats and no one else on the row and all those school children behind us; so it kinda felt like it was just us and the stage, and it was quite light; had it been dark I think that would have been game over.
Rye's interested was peaked when the Professor began his experiments.....

The topic was bubbles all around us; and the Professor was demonstrating how important the mere bubble is!  Here the kids on stage were attempting to make big bubbles with wands.... and that grey circle on the floor.... the kids took turns standing in it, while the white ring was pulled up over them and they were encased in a huge bubble.  Very cool!

Rye did enjoy the lecture, and has asked if we can go back and watch it again, bless him; but I think I probably enjoyed it the most; full of fascinating information that went totally over the kid's heads.  For example the sound of the waves is actually bubbles in the water, and wind farms are generating lots of bubbles, and thus lots of noise pollution in the water which is problematic for acquatic animals - and there's research into this.

The Lecture also gave me a few ideas for experiments to do with Rye.  In the above photo is he demonstrating how sound can neutralise bubbles.  A can of lemonade was passed around, and the kids, including Rye (which he loved, and re-engaged him back into the lecture), all shook it violently.  Then the professor tapped the can all over with a teaspoon and then opened it................ to a disappointing fizzzzzzzzzzzzle.  I was very impressed because I did really expect it to explode everywhere.  Sure I know tapping a can is suppose to prevent it exploding, but I've never had much confidence in the idea.  Rye didn't understand the experiment though, because he's never seen a can explode....... so guess what we'll be doing in the next few days!

We also saw how bubbles ususally form a sphere because it uses the least energy, but by using metal cages shaped in different ways bubbles can be formed in different shapes - although if you try to blow the bubble from the cage it will go back to being sphereical...... so another experiment idea; buy some wire and make our own bubble cages and see what shapes we can make.

LOL and in a strange way, today I felt like a proper home educator, taking my child on an educational trip  ;-)  Of course we've been to other stuff; but its always been about just introducing Rye to new experiences, or because I was interested in something - up to now he's been a bit young (or too anxious around crowds etc), for such trips.  

So that was day 2 of our advent.  I confess I'm not entirely sure what Day 3 will bring, as Rye has his appointment tomorrow, which may well be the beginning of his assessment?  I've been told the Dr we are seeing is one who can diagnose children if they do not go through ASD diagnostic team.  Bit nervous as I've no idea what to expect.