I'm in the Green Parent Magazine this month

If you want to read a really great uplifting, good value magazine for parents, I don't think you can beat the Green Parent.  It's bimonthly, available by subscription and in major chains such as Sainsbury and WHSmith.

I'm really pleased to have an article featured in the current issue - pages 40 to 42 and am looking forward to reading the rest of the great contributions, craft ideas and product reviews.  I like being able to treat myself to a magazine that I can read from cover to cover that's not just endless pages of sick-looking models pushing expensive buggies and exhorting me to spend £80 on a changing bag.

I love seeing the viewing figures on this blog and reading the lovely comments on the blog and on my personal FB page, as well as hearing in person from friends who have tried out activities I've featured, but it's still cool holding something printed in my hands that I've written.  So thank you to all the folks reading this who have given me the confidence to do the whole freelance writing thing xxx

Learning and fun with the Weekend Box Club

 We were really excited to receive a revolutionary new concept in children's activities to review this week.  The Weekend Box Club was developed by what may be the most awesome Uncle ever.  Unable to find gifts for his niece and nephew that were fun and educational, creative, non-gimmicky and not plastic trash, he quit his job and developed this brilliant club.  Every fortnight you get a box containing everything you need for something to cook, something to explore, something to make and something green.  I found it incredibly helpful that even though it contains loads of things, the box is designed to fit through a standard letterbox so we didn't have the hassle of having to trek across town to the mail collection office if we weren't in when it was delivered.  I had intended to review the whole box today, but we found there was so much to do I am going to break it down into two activities per post.  Since it is St Patrick's Day today, I'm going to cover the Pot 'o gold game and the green pancake kit.

Ollie woke up with a fever on Friday morning, so having a mysterious paper envelope to open which turned out to contain plastic gold coins and pipe cleaners in rainbow colours really cheered him up.  Each activity comes with a double-sided card with clear instructions and background information, plus a sticker to attach to the card when you've completed it.  For the Pot o' gold game all we needed to add to the materials sent was a cup to construct our rainbow in.  I really like this kind of activity because it is deceptively simple but has a range of learning outcomes, some of which are mentioned on the instructions card.  We used it to revisit the colours of the rainbow, which Ollie knows because I've always sung the rainbow song using the real colour spectrum instead of the traditional words.  Ollie never heard of Leprechauns though so this was a great opportunity to introduce that mythology to him.  The time suggested on the card was 25 minutes, but we probably spent a lot longer with it on and off because both boys had such fun throwing coins into the mug, tipping them out and remaking the rainbow.  Toby particularly laughed his head off throwing the coins.  We had a delay for a while when he got possessive of the coins and took some persuasion to share them.

The game comes with six coins, so we had a great opportunity to use some basic maths skills as Ollie shared out coins between himself and his brother, or all three of us.

All this fun wore out poorly Ollie, so we had a gap before trying out the next activity while Toby looked after him.

 The following evening Ollie was well enough to get out of bed and do the next activity from our box - making green pancakes.  I had been itching to try this one as the spices supplied in the box were making the whole kitchen smell delicious.  For this activity we again had a clear instruction card.  Apart from some help in reading the instruction and an adult to cook the pancakes on the hob, the activity was something Ollie could manage by himself so he got a real sense of achievement that he had cooked our whole dinner.

Our result didn't look like the ones on the picture supplied, but we're used to that with our cooking.  Ollie really enjoyed weighing out the ingredients using the scales because he can now read the weight he needs to measure from the instructions and look at the display on the scales to match the numbers.  He also grated up all the cheese without grating his fingers, broke the egg without getting any shell in the mix and added the flour without it going everywhere.  He got a bit distracted adding the paprika and trying to watch Matt and Toby making a cake, but most of it ended up in the bowl.

Activities like this are fantastic for building children's self esteem and also getting them to try new ingredients if they're going through a fussy stage.  It's not foolproof, but kids will tend to eat anything they've cooked themselves.

We have two further activities to describe in the next post, which have been great fun, including making a robot voice box and a rocking bird.  The boxes cost £7.50 each, which I think represents really good value both for the items sent (which have even included the glue stick we needed for the rocking bird) and for the thought that has gone in to each activity.  Some items such as the spices have obviously been used up, but others such as the coins and pipe cleaners will be used over and over.  The boxes are delivered fortnightly which also makes them more affordable, and with four activities in each box there is enough to do to last two weekends.

The boxes are designed for three to eight year olds, but with caution and close supervision when using the small objects such as the coins we have found that Toby has had lots of opportunities to get involved too.  I would recommend opening the box and having a look through before you intend to let the kids loose on it if your children are at the impatient younger end of the scale so you can get in any bits and pieces you need that couldn't be supplied for practical reasons, such as the spinach and egg for our pancake recipe.  The eco-credential are really good - 100% of the contents are re-usable or recyclable, and 95% comes from recycled materials.

If anyone reading this (in the UK only I believe, my apologies to all my lovely readers around the world) wants to get their first box for free, pop along to the website www.weekendboxclub.com  and enter the promo code MARIANNE59

NB we received the box for free to review, but all opinions and photos of cheeky children are my own.

Silent Sunday

Blists Hill Victorian Village

 

I missed posting for Silent Sunday this week because we were at Blists Hill Victorian Village near Ironbridge, but here's the photo I would have posted if I had my computer with me.

Following their lead - the importance of underscheduling

Earlier on this week I had a newsletter editorial meeting that lasted all morning, during which Toby very patiently played with his toys, occasionally brought us things and was beautifully behaved when he joined us for tea and scones.  Ollie was at nursery so when the meeting was over I thought it would be a great opportunity to spend some real quality time doing the things that Toby wanted to do.

How often do we get a chance, or the will, to follow our child's lead for any real length of time?  Life with kids can become
a hectic race from one planned activity to the next, with unscheduled time being mostly taken up with chores.  I make a conscious effort to take time out to spend time sitting on the floor playing with the boys through the day, but I have to admit that it often isn't for very long stretches as I notice more jobs that need to be done from my new vantage point on the floor.  Some days we seem to be in constant transit, from nursery drop off, to playgroup, to grocery shopping, back to nursery to pick up Ollie, home to play for 10 minutes before starting dinner, then dishes, bath time, stories, singing and bed.  This must be even more pronounced for parents with kids in school every day, or who work outside the home, or who schedule every free minute with ballet, music, swimming etc...  Yet despite the advantages we want to confer on our children from having a broad curriculum of activities and playgroups, we don't do them any developmental favours by over-scheduling our time with them.

 By engaging in the play that they choose, we are encouraging our children's creative play and emotional intelligence.  By taking even  fifteen minutes out in between activities to play the way your child wants to, you are validating the importance of their opinions and wishes.  Letting children know that their decisions matter to you and putting them in the role of leader builds self confidence that helps them to be emotionally open but also resilient as they grow.  Conversely, bouncing constantly from one thing to the next can leave everyone physically and emotionally drained and lead to increased stress all round.

The kids love their playgroups and activities, but the most I hear Toby laugh out loud is when I'm laughing along with the things he's doing spontaneously.  So that day we spent the afternoon playing for a long long time with his train track, clipping his colouring pens end on end and tapping them on the stairgate until they flew apart over and over, throwing the pens up into the air and laughing as they crashed on the floor over and over, playing outside in the yard shaking the bamboos, moving pebbles around and drawing on

the patio with chalk for almost an hour.  In between these I flew through the necessary chores such as getting laundry and dishes done, but the focus was very much on Toby.

The confidence they gain from this approach really pays off when they go out into the world one their own.  Ollie's key worker at nursery wrote in his home journal this week that he had built a big castle out of wooden blocks and when another child knocked it down Ollie said 'it's OK, I can just build it again'.  She seemed surprised at how relaxed he was about it.  This kind of relaxed attitude to the incident didn't happen overnight or come naturally to Ollie.  It would previously have provoked a storm of grief stricken tears.  The development to a more relaxed attitude happened because of the time we sit down with the boys to play and model good play etiquette - when something goes wrong and one of them is upset we give cuddles and explain that it's OK to feel upset, but that the problem can be fixed.  We don't get angry and tell the child that caused the problem off, instead we ask that they give a cuddle and say sorry that it happened, and we say 'It's OK, we can build that again/fix that/make a new one'.  It's those time when we can really focus on what the kids are doing that we can head off trouble as it starts and give the boys the emotional and verbal tools to deal with problems when we're not around. Hopefully then when they play with each other and other kids without us, they know how to react to accidents and upsets without getting angry or upset, because we have modeled a better way for them to follow.

It doesn't always work, sometimes they're tired, or we're tired, and everyone gets grouchy with each other, but I firmly believe that taking time out to do the things they want us to do builds a good relationship all round and makes us closer and happier.  So next time you're sat on the floor drinking the 80th cup of pretend tea or that endless game of hide and seek when they 'hide' in exactly the same place each time, you can give yourself a pat on the back that this is just as vital for them as any of the organised classes and play dates you might decide to take them to.

10 minute experiment - Milky bubbles

Ollie asked to do some science experiments yesterday.  In addition to doing some experiments that I've given details of in older posts (such as playing with adding bicarbonate of soda to vinegar, planting beans in a jar and making shaving foam clouds) I thought this new experiment would be good fun.

All you need are a cup, a straw, milk and a couple of ingredients to add to it - we used a popular brand of blackcurrant squash and drinking chocolate powder.

The idea is to blow bubbles in plain milk and compare the result with what happens if you add different things to the milk. 

Toby didn't get the idea of blowing bubbles until the third experiment - the plain milk and blackcurrant squash milk both got drunk while he looked confused about why Ollie was getting bubbles and he wasn't.  After we cleared up from the blackcurrant phase and got fresh milk with a little drinking chocolate powder added Toby got the hang of it and blew plenty of bubbles for himself.

For each phase, you can introduce the basic scientific practice of making predictions and then testing them.  Simple questioning like 'we saw that you could blow bubbles in the milk, but they went away really quickly.  What do you think might happen if we add blackcurrant squash' gets kids thinking about cause and effect.  They will start to suggest further experiments you can do adding different ingredients, giving you an opportunity to help them think in terms of practicality and safety - 'yes it would be interesting to see if adding soap will make brilliant bubbles, but do you think your little brother might drink it?' in our case.

For really little ones like Toby, it's all about experiencing what happens when you do different things without predicting.  Even if they drink every sample, it is just as exciting doing a taste experiment.  For slightly older pre-schoolers like Ollie getting used to the idea of making predictions and trying things out is good fun.  Ollie enjoyed adding a picture to his science notebook of all the bubbles coming out of his cup. Keeping a little journal of experiments is a good way to play at being a scientist keeping notes and you can encourage detailed observation skills by getting children to draw what equipment they used and what happened.  Initially you can write down their description, trying to use their words and drawing them into thinking about what you did together.  As they get older they will be able to take over on labelling their diagrams and eventually writing it all, which you may want to support by using a writing frame.  These are really simple to make - just draw boxes on a page and give each one a heading e.g. 'What we used', 'what I thought would happen' and 'picture of what happened' initially.  Kids who are struggling or not ready for writing can draw diagrams under each heading which you could label for them.

 For older children, you could use this as a part of an investigation into bubbles generally, describing concepts such as surface tension and air pressure and how certain substances such as soap affect the surface tension of water.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a nice detailed page with videos for older kids or for your own interest.

Health and safety bit: as usual, apply common sense.  You know best your own child's development stage and ability - if you think they're going to stick it straight up their nose, don't give them a straw.  I haven't tried this with dairy alternatives, but that would be an interesting experiment in itself.  I used blackcurrant squash and drinking chocolate in very small amounts, but because they're both high in sugar I wouldn't recommend adding them to your kids milk as a regular thing.  You can get sugar free versions but I suspect feeding sweeteners containing known carcinogens to our children is something that as a population we're going to look back on in the future with horror.

Silent Sunday