Making It Up

as we go along

Naked trevor

Birds and building and 1920s dresses.

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I did myself a list of things to do with children the other day. Perhaps because we’re all here, all the time, (well, not actually all the time, but you know what I mean) it can be easy to get into a rut, where the same things happen, and the same things don’t happen.

We’ve slipped out of the arty habits we were gradually getting into. The small children are trying for screens earlier and earlier in the day. And I’m not drawing daily.

Today didn’t have an auspicious start. I’d had a warning of potential bad news last night, and the bad news itself followed rather more promptly than expected. It put me in one of those sad moods not easy to shake off.

Smallest is a determined child though. And she wanted to do things, starting with the XYZ blocks again (see full review here). She was quick to start working out how to build blocks from a flat net, with minimal guidance – she needed some help with the first couple but then was fine. Until Small annexed half the tiles so that he could build a big cube. He was tempted to go for the 4x4x4 which would take up all but 4 of our tiles, but with Smallest using more than that already, he went for the 3x3x3. It took him a while, but he did it.

Shortly after they were done with the tiles, Smallest was back, this time with a Miles Kelly Mini Encyclopedia Birds. She has always liked birds. From the time she could manoeuvre herself to the windows, she would sit and watch birds in the garden. And her favourite magazine was the RSPB birdlife magazine. The first one we had she wore out, going through the page over and over again.

Today she wanted to draw birds, so she settled down with pencil and paper and the book wedged open, to reproduce what she saw.

Except she couldn’t. And I could see her starting to get frustrated, so I fetched a stack of picture books with birds in, ranging from Naked Trevor (I can totally see his bottom!) to Yeti and the Bird (Groooo!) Seeing that so many different books represented birds in so many different ways cheered her up immensely, and she started out afresh, drawing a bird named after herself, which apparently likes pretty things and is green.

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Eventually she was done, and I finally got the table set up for some 1920s dress making. There was a slight pause while I located my dress making shears. (On the plus side, the hall table is much tidier now. Sigh.) Then there was a longer pause while I located my courage. I *hate* actually cutting fabric. I’m very glad we’re doing a dry run in linen though, as when I transferred the pattern from the sheet dress we discovered again that Big’s shoulders really are quite uneven. Council of war around the table as Tim was drafted in – his degree in architecture isn’t that far from dress design is it? 😉 We’ve got a working pattern now I think though, there will be sewing tomorrow.

So the day, in the end, was rather more productive than it started. Particularly when Small reminded me at the dinner table that he wants to learn Latin. So that’s tomorrow’s project started then!

And with that in mind, I’d better head to bed.

Read 52 – books for children from Templar books

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A reading challenge from https://liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup

The background: I’ve challenged Big to read 52 books this year. She will probably be mentioning them over here on her blog. I’m also going to have a crack at reading at least 52 books myself, and more importantly, I’m going to keep track of what books I’m reading to the little ones. I’m going to do all of that in a weekly post, and I’ve also set up a google plus community which you’re very welcome to join. (If you need an invitation, leave me a comment using relevant email address – which will stay hidden.)

This week I don’t seem to have had much time to read for myself. But in keeping with my aim to do more things particularly with the younger children, today has been a Big Reading Day.

I was lucky enough on twitter the other day to win a competition to win a parcel of goodies from Templar Publishing. I had no idea at the time I won what a fabulous selection they had to choose from! And the books were sent out by UPS so they got here really quickly. Smallest was thrilled with Naked Trevor from Rebecca Elliott and Sidney, Stella and the Moon, a debut picture book from Emma Yarlett. Both Tim and I have had to read about Trevor (including his naked bottom!), and I’ve read about the Moon three times now. I can see that becoming a firm favourite. It’s a simple story, about siblings who struggle with sharing and accidentally break the moon, and it’s beautifully illustrated, with lots going on in the pictures that you can talk about. As we read the front page she asked me why there were two Os there, so we talked about how you write Moon, and then you get to a page where one of the Os is broken, so that led to a good discussion too.

The real hit of the parcel though was the book for Tigerboy. Touch and Play is described on the website as an activity centre, and they aren’t wrong. Every page has got inviting textures, colours, and pictures. Tigerboy adores it – he shakes it to hear the rattle and has already identified his favourite page, with the squeaky black nose on the teddy bear. I’ve got pictures, but because my phone was charging they’re on Tim’s, so I’ll add them in tomorrow.

So, given today’s post has been all about the children’s books, I think it had better be a children’s book competition. What’s your favourite children’s book? Can be one from your childhood, or one you read to your children now, I don’t mind. But leave me a comment letting me know. The prize will be either a picture book or YA book, depending on what the bookshop down the road has in that I like the look of – I’ll update the post during the week with a title.

The competition closes next Thursday 21 March at midnight so that I can announce the winner next Friday. And you can have an extra entry for sharing this post, using the badge or joining the linky with your own Read52 post – but you must leave an extra comment for each thing you’ve done, telling me what it is. As I’m doing the posting, I’m afraid it’s only open to UK – but if you’re international and happy to arrange to have it posted on you can do that – I’m only sending to a UK address. Draw will be made using the lovely plugin and the winner is, which relies on separate comment entries.

Grab the badge

Enter the linky.

Last week’s winner was Anne-Marie from Child Led Chaos – congratulations!