First week back!

So many new beginnings!

I have moved house, into a lovely little village and very much enjoying country life once again. A house move has resulted in new children starting with me, including a few older ones after school, which is a change of pace!

Days are already going by so fast, I can't believe a whole week of work has passed already! You would think moving to the country would make life slow down but no! There is playbus and toddler group in the week, Bingo every fortnight, Zumba another night of the week (I do want to start getting out to that). We have had a power cut, for which the Mrs actually saw the powerline go up in flames as we were driving past. We've had the council cutting back fallen trees at 11pm. And we're now steaming ahead into another week exploring Chinese New Year.

I had so many things to share as this first week has been a busy one, unfortunately I have just discovered the majority of photos I have taken over the last week have been corrupted and so are worthless! Many cross words have been exchanged between my mobile and I. But lesson learnt; keep my camera with me, do not rely on my mobile!

None the less I thought I would share a few of the highlights from the week, and pictures where I have them!

 We went out on a very muddy walk! Up one of the lanes past the school, we went to find some sheep and horses, but mainly lots of mud and puddles.

 Little 'E' had a bit of trouble staying on her feet, so much slippery mud can make things tricky for little ones, but she did have fun splashing through the puddles anyway.

'W' is a bit bigger and was off ahead with the dogs, he was making big splashes in the puddles, to a point where we had to stop and empty his wellies!

I am discovering 'W' has the most amazing imagination. This week we have been shopping, been on a long train journey, run a restaurant, been firemen saving people from fires, pirates on a ship, we have been in a snow and ice covered land with crocodiles who might eat you, we have hidden in a snow cave, we have been good knights protecting our land from a dragon, we have been Witches, mummies and daddies, and I'm sure many others that I lost track of!!

This week we also enjoyed a sensory 'Winter' tray. This consisted of rice, wooden blocks, a few selected animals, some plastic snowflakes and various scoops and containers.

'E' became engrossed in collecting up the rice, she started out trying some of the scoops but resorted to just grabbing handfuls of rice. She filled containers, poured them into each other, emptied them out and then started all over again.
I have already noticed 'E' is a bit of a collector, a number of occasions this week I have seen her collecting up little bits of toys, finding a bag to put them in or just making a pile. A potential Schema uncovering itself?? This most definitely calls for some exploring in the coming weeks.

'W' was just as intrigued with the sensory tray, his ever present imagination creating a dialog for the Polar Bears and Reindeer. The Reindeer in particular was enjoying rice being poured over it's back. 'W' commented "he likes the feel of that".

With Burns Night on Friday we also spent some time this week exploring Scotland. We looked at the flag and a book on Scotland that talked about castles and the Loch Ness Monster. 'W' and I spoke for some time about why there were no knights in the castles, I explained that we don't really have knights any more, we just have Soldiers and Policemen now. He didn't really like that concept though!

We finished off the week by making some yummy shortbread together and paying a trip to the park to collect some logs to put in the garden.

Crafty Monday

Happy October!!

Another beautiful Autumn day and as is becoming our routine we headed straight out for a walk.

After some fresh air we headed home and Little 'A' headed off for a sleep and I could have a sneaky cuppa. I have a new starter Little 'O' who arrived after lunch and we had a bit of quiet play time with animals and cars. Once 'A' had woken up and had some late lunch we decided to finish off some of the crafty bits we started last week.

I don't often do organised 'Arts and Crafts' with very young children as it's so easy to get caught up in making something to send home. Which is of course a lovely thing for families to have, but it becomes an exercise in leading children to make something you want rather than what they want to do. Which is often simply exploring the media, feeling textures with their hands and just practicing control with various tools.

At the end of last week however I did do a bit of painting with Little 'A', took a print of his hand and arm and he also painted a couple of empty toilet rolls brown

Something Little 'A' is really enjoying at the moment is making sticker pictures. I put a bowl of stickers down on the floor and 'A' sits and picks out the sticker he wants and then puts it on the picture.

I then have to pick it back up again and tell him "peal the back" and then hold it out for him and say "stick" for him to place it back where he wants it. He hasn't yet started trying to get the backing off himself, but I'm sure that will come in time!

A lovely Autumn tree!

Next we finished off our toilet rolls, the idea was to make some owls so I drew on some marks for wings and then asked Little 'A' to put on some googly eyes (more sticking!) and then gave him a pen so he could do some more 'detailing' for the owl.

Little 'O' had said he didn't want to join in any of this so far and was happy playing by himself. He has only been here a few days and has had a lot of changes to his routine in the last couple of weeks so we're taking things nice and slow. He had however come over to the kitchen gate by this point and had started watching with a bit more interest so I asked again if he wanted to join in. He said yes but he didn't want to make owls, but did want to make a monkey and an elephant instead!

So I gave 'A' some paints and a brush to play around with and a quick improvise, (and a google search) we found some paper in the right colours and started cutting out arms, legs, trunks, tusks and tails and 'O' stuck them all on with some more googly eyes and even drew on some banana's for the monkey!

'A' had a lovely time with the paint, using the brush and then watching the marks his fingers make and then wiping with his whole hand. I took a couple of prints in some lovely autumn colours

After all this crafting there was just enough time for the boys to help me set up the Guinea Pig cage again. We got a bit covered in hay but it was good fun!

Our previous baby boys went to their forever home about a week ago so we've been waiting for our next foster piggies to arrive which I am off to collect tonight. We are having a pregnant mum this time so that will be lovely for the boys to see mum alone and then a few new ones 'appear'!! We don't know exactly when the babies will arrive as mum came to the rehoming place just pregnant so some time in the next 10 days is the estimate but we shall see....

New Arrivals!!

Oh I'm so excited about this, not a new child but some more new animals!!

A pair of baby Guinea Pigs!!

Over the last couple of weeks my partner Georgia has been getting to know a lady through facebook who runs a small animals rehoming center which it turns out is literally just around the corner from us at the lady's house! I had said to Georgia a few times about getting piggies, but she had never been really all that keen on them. However her mum then got a couple through another rehoming center run by my sister in law (this one however only really takes rabbits hence my mother-in-law ending up taking the Guinea Pigs!) and Georgia began warming to them. So after a bit of thinking, we decided to do some fostering!

And they are so lovely!! They are approximately 3 weeks old which sounds awfully young to be separated, but male piggies are fully mature at 3 weeks and so there is a chance they can get mum pregnant again which is not what a rehoming center is about at all!

They do love a bit of kale!

These two are not brothers but came from 2 litters born around the same time and the center managed to get them into bonded pairs for rehoming. Small animals can't really go to a forever home until around 8 weeks so we have these two cheeky boys for the next 5 weeks at least. Lots of handling and getting used to noise (which there isn't a shortage of during the day here) and people and hopefully they will be found a nice home soon!

Proving popular with the kids already!

Another Welcome!!

To.... Baby 'A'!!

He's just hit 7 months old and such a cutie!! He's very happy and easy going, we've spent some of this week exploring our red basket.

He also loves a trip to the park!

'A' is just about able to sit up but still occasionally wobbles so he spends time in the baby gym, or the inflatable play ring and 'C' likes to stop by for a visit!!  

He's rolling about all over the place at the moment so he's never where I put him for long!

So a big welcome to baby 'A'!! I'm looking forward to watching you learn and grow in the coming months!!

Welcome New Little Starter!!

I'd like to welcome little 'C' to my setting!

He's just under one year old and soooooo full of energy! He loves to be outside so we go to the park most days and we have lots of treasure baskets to explore

Errrrm.... gardening to 'help' me with....

...ummm animals to play with...or just empty the bedding hay....

I made this buttoning snake which Isabelle is modelling beautifully. 'C' hasn't shown much interest in this yet but he is still a little young

And some sensory boards, I'll add to these over time but these are a start. There are buttons, shells, bubble wrap, sandpaper, string, stones and some 'Waxy-Doodles' made by my lovely other half.

I also have the beginnings to some discovery bottles but I have SOOOOO many ideas I want to have a good set before bloging about them all in one go!

So a big welcome to little 'C', I'm looking forward to all the play time we have in the months to come!!!