Cutting creations!

It's the Easter holidays and it's raining, again! I needed something to entertain all the children from 3 years old to 7 (the baby was having his morning nap) I thought it would be interesting to see what my new little girl's cutting skills were like so I printed out some cutting worksheets from Sparklebox. But I thought the activity needed more of a purpose than just cutting for the sake of cutting so I thought we could use the strips we had cut to make creatures from our imagination.

We got out our scissor selection and our big pot of felt tips and got to work cutting along the lines. I gave the 3 year old the slightly easier lines with the least sharp angles and the older children had the trickier ones. We cut along the lines so that we ended up with thin, wavy, zig-zagy or straight strips. Then I asked the children to look at their strips and try to imagine what kind of creature or person they could be. The 3 year old found this tricky and ended up making patterns on her strips:

My 5 year old daughter was keen to think of creatures and she came up with a lady, a worm and a snake:

Joshua (aged 7) also made a snake. Then he decided he wanted a Star Wars theme for the rest. He thought of making Anakin Skywalker but realised it was quite tricky so he thought he would make Anakin's light sabre instead. When he had finished I picked it up and started swinging it around making light sabre noises and he realised he needed more than one. He decided he would make a light sabre in each colour so we could use them to have a battle!

It was also a good opportunity to practise name writing as the children needed an envelope each to put their bits into. My two can both write their names now but it was a good chance for Joshua to practise joining up. The 3 year old I childmind needs lots of opportunities to practise this new skill as she is not yet able to copy her name so I wrote her it in pencil on the envelope and let her pick a coloured pen to trace over the letters.

This activity kept the children busy for about 40 minutes and they all really enjoyed using their imaginations to come up with ideas while still developing their cutting skills, pencil control, colour recognition and language skills.

Making Easter Nests

Since Easter came right at the end of the school term I decided to hold off making the traditional Easter nests until now so that my two could join in the fun in the school holidays! They are always a firm favourite and since they don't really require any cooking (unless you count melting chocolate as cooking?) they are really easy to do with the littlies!

So here's how we did it:

You will need:
200g bar of chocolate (whatever kind you like really but we went for milk chocolate
Rice Krispies (you can use Shredded Wheat if you prefer that genuine nest effect but I find the children aren't really keen plus then you have a whole box left that nobody wants to eat!)
1 medium sized bag of mini eggs
Cupcake cases
Fluffy yellow chicks - these are available in craft stores and some supermarkets
A heatproof bowl
A saucepan of simmering water
A spatula or wooden spoon
Children - optional!
(With 200g of chocolate we got 22 cakes)

1. Have the children brake the chocolate into chunks and place them into a heat proof bowl. (Here's Joshua forgetting they needed to go into the bowl. He seems to be looking longingly at them!)

2. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (HINT: do not let the water touch the bowl or it won't work!) Stir the lumps around occasionally until they've completely melted.

3. Pour in some Rice Krispies. I didn't measure out a particular quantity. I just added some at a time and if they were very heavily coated in chocolate I would add some more until it looked like they were all coated nicely. The children loved stirring them in and this was a good opportunity to talk about taking turns!

4. With teaspoons, let the children fill their cake cases with the mixture then press the centres down with their thumb to make a little well.

5. Then let them place one little chick and 2-3 mini eggs (depending on how many you have!)

6. We then let them set in the fridge and ate some after our lunch. Here's a little box I put together for my childminded children to take some of theirs home as we had so many!

Enjoy!!!

Back to childminding!

Happy House Childminding

Back in Business

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted but I have been very busy and had lots of changes since the new year. I have tried so many times to write this post but it just kept turning into an autobiography! Basically I just wanted to talk about the fact that I have recently started childminding again after dipping my toes back into teaching for a short time. I was a teacher before I had children, then, when my son was born, I couldn't bear to go back to work so I decided childminding was a good option as it meant I could stay at home and raise my family while still keeping up my skills and earning a wage. I think I always had it in the back of my mind that I would return to teaching one day when my children were older and didn't need me as much

When we moved to Basingstoke in May 2014 I didn't set up as a childminder again as I wanted to help my children settle into the new area and new schools. My daughter was due to start school that September and I realised that that meant I had no more babies at home all day and so maybe it was time to go back to school. To cut a long story short, I started working as a Teaching Assistant doing supply work in my children's school but they didn't have any permanent positions and it got to the point where I needed to earn a more regular wage. I decided to start childminding again about a year ago but then the school offered me more regular work as a Teacher covering maternity leave. However, as much as I loved the school, the children and the wonderful staff, I soon remembered all the down sides to teaching. The stress, the pressure, the long hours, the impact on family-life. I saw the effect it had on the other teachers, especially those with young families. I also realised that my heart was still in childminding. So I started to advertise as a childminder again.

I am really excited about this new beginning. This is the first time I have childminded from our new house and I have much more room here than in the old house. We have a dedicated playroom now (see the blog!) the garden is a bit bigger (although it really needs an overhaul!) and there are so many more green spaces here many of which are even in walking distance. I love the freedom that childminding offers, we can just choose what we want to do according to the weather and the interests of the children. I also love the fact that I can still take my children to school and collect them again. Also I'm able to be with them through the holidays and the fact that I'm childminding means I am more likely to do more exciting things with them whereas when I wasn't working we probably had an awful lot more PJ days than we should have!


So hopefully now, as well as my previous crafty and mummy blogs, there will now be some childminding adventure blogs on here; different activities we have done, places we have been and that kind of thing. So if that floats your boat keep checking back!

Thanks

Elizabeth x

Happy New Year! 2016 Resolutions

For me, the New Year starts the weekend AFTER we have all gone back to school or work. I really don't feel like I can make a fresh start while the Christmas decorations are still up, there are chocolates and naughty treats all around me and we are all on holiday mode or just making that transition back into getting up in the dark! Once we've got back into the old routine again I feel a bit more normal and then I can think about what I am doing with my life!

Now, normally I am not one for making new year's resolutions as I would always abandon them a month or so into the year. It seemed pointless making them knowing I wouldn't see them through so I gave up trying years ago!

This year however, I decided it was time to change that. My lack of resolutions in the past has meant that it was all too easy to just slip into old bad habits time after time, I had nothing to aim for or strive towards. I now realise that to make any improvements in my life I need to make a conscious decision to change things! The difference is that I now know I need to set realistic goals rather than the dramatic resolutions that I would make in the past. Resolutions like 'I am going to lose 3 stone this year' are going to put so much pressure on me that I'm just setting myself up to fail! A much better resolution would have been 'I will make more healthy food choices'.

I have been gaining weigh steadily since having my two children. At first I would just tell myself 'it's ok, it's just because I've had two babies, I will get my figure back soon! However, those babies are now 7 and 5 and not only have I not lost the weight, I've actually gained more!

I am not going to make the same mistakes as previous years by setting my goals too high. I just need to make more sensible choices. So with that in mind here are my 2016 resolutions.

1- Try to drink 6 -8 glasses of water a day
2 - Eat less refined sugar: biscuits, cake, chocolate etc.
3- Eat 5 a day (choose fruit snacks where I would have chosen sugary ones)
4- Exercise at least 3 times a week (housework counts!)
5 - Read more

Not groundbreaking I know but they are all little step towards forming better habits. I know number 5 has nothing to do with weight loss but I feel that reading helps to relax me and will contribute to making me a happier, healthier person!

So did you make any New Year's resolutions? If not it's never too late! You can decide to make improvements in your life at anytime but do write them down and look at them regularly to help you keep on track. Just make sure that if you do make any, you ensure that they are achievable goals.
Set yourself up for success!

Happy 2016 to you all x