Kids Questions 2013

Last year I published some questions that I asked my 2 children, I have repeated the task again this year.  A is now nearly 7 and 1/2 and T is 4 and 3/4.  They were asked the questions separately so any consistency in their answers is purely co-incidental!!

What is something Mummy always says to you?

A:  Good girl

T:  I’m being good

What makes mummy happy?

A:  Me being good

T:  Me being good

What makes mummy sad?

A:  Me not being good

T:  Me being naughty

How does mummy make you laugh?

A:  By telling me jokes

T: When you laugh, it makes me laugh

What was mummy like as a child?

A:  Cute!

T: Tiny

How old is mummy?

A:  33

T:  33

How tall is mummy?

A:  I don’t know

T:  taller than me

What is mummy’s favourite thing to do?

A:  Spend time with us

T:  Cuddle me

What does mummy do when you’re not around?

A:  Go out with friends

T:  is sad (aww!) 

If mummy becomes famous what will it be for?

A:  Being the best mum in the world

T:   looking after us

What is mummy really good at?

A:  being a mum

T:  finding glow in the dark hama beads

What is mummy not very good at?

A:  Skipping

T:  scrunched up (scrunching up little bits of paper for craft!)

What does mummy do as a job?

A:    be a teacher

T:     looks after me

What is mummy’s favourite food?

A:  Brownie cake

T:  chocolate cake

What makes you proud of mummy?

A:  Your love

T:  letting me watch TV

If mummy was a cartoon character who would she be?

A:  Cinderella

T:  One of Thomas’ friends on TV

What do you and mummy do together?

A: Lego!

T:  Puzzles

How are you and mummy the same?

A:  Coz we’re girls

T:  The same body (??!!) erm......The same jeans?

How are you and mummy different?

A:  eyes

T:  we don’t have the same eyes

How do you know mummy loves you?

A:  kisses

T:  you smile at me

Where is mummy’s favourite place to go?

A: Legoland

T:  the park with me

The Snack Box

My children seem to be going through a growth spurt at the moment- they seem to be forever saying they are hungry!

I have seen in the past, ideas for snack boxes where children could choose a snack from. I always thought the idea wasn't that workable as some things need to be stored in the fridge, items may just 'go off' etc etc, but in recent days I thought I'd give it a go!

First, I needed a list of possible snacks to buy and then I needed to devise a plan make sure the children got a balance and didn't choose 4 yoghurts a day or ate 5 minutes before dinner!

So- the snacks, I went to my local supermarket and bought a range of fruit (as I normally would) and a few dairy items (yoghurt, babybel, spready cheese triangles to go with bread sticks), dried fruit and some  bread sticks, crackers, cereal bars etc.  Oooh, I also bought some less healthy things to go in the "treat tin," more on that later!

When I got home, I selected 2 of most items and put them one of the salad drawers in my fridge- instant "snack shop!" The children helped me, so gained ownership of the little project!

Looks pretty good, I thought!

So, second job- monitoring of the snack box!  Now, I'm a currently unemployed teacher, so if you think the next part looks "too teachery," well, you're probably right, but I don't mind- I love my laminator!

I made 5 tokens each for my children, 2 healthy snack, 2 fruit snack and 1 treat tin.  The idea being that they have one of each snack in the morning and 2 in the afternoon (A, my daughter is at school most days so will only get afternoon tokens on that day!)  The treat tin token will be given at parental discretion (ie. special occasion, as a reward etc)

I give the children the tokens at the time the snack shop "opens" and they can choose when to use them through the morning/afternoon. When they get a snack they simply put their token in the drawer and take out their choice.  So far I have only replenished the fruit snacks, the rest they are working through so as to not choose the same every day (e.g. a cereal bar which may not be the healthiest option!) The snack shop closes an hour before meal times.

We've been doing this a few days now and I have to say "so far so good!"  There has been a lot less moaning and I haven't been worrying about what I can give them to eat :)

Before I go- this is the treat tin........

Kids Questions 2012

I found a list of questions on Pinterest, I did ask my children these last year but forgot to post them! These are this years answers. A is my daughter, aged nearly 6 1/2 T is my son, he is aged 3 and 3/4! (the blanks on T's side are just when he didn't understand the qu!)

What is something Mummy always says to you?

A:  I love you

T:  Go and get dressed!!

What makes mummy happy?

A:  Pretty music and with Daddy, me and T

T:  Sleeping!

What makes mummy sad?

A:  When she’s on her own

T:  Me doing silly things

How does mummy make you laugh?

A:  putting a funny face on

T: you do this (does funny faces and dancing)

What was mummy like as a child?

A:  cute

T: You played with baby toys

How old is mummy?

A:  32

T:  11

How tall is mummy?

A:  32 feet tall

T:  big, really big, like this (stretches arms up)

What is mummy’s fave thing to do?

A:  read books in the bath

T:  Play a game with me and do puzzles and play lots of love and trains

What does mummy do when you’re not around?

A:  Take T to nursery and go to the library and swimming

T:  Do you play on your own?

If mummy becomes famous what will it be for?

A:  Sleeping

What is mummy really good at?

A:  Colouring in the lines

T:  numbers and letter

What is mummy not very good at?

A:  swimming like this (front crawl)

T:  muddled up puzzles

What does mummy do as a job?

A:  Nothing, because you don’t have one- remember?!

T: you can do a job at work

What is mummy’s  favourite food?

A:  Chocolate cake

T:  Ice-cream

What makes you proud of mummy?

A:  When she helps me tidy my room

T:  

If mummy was a cartoon character who would she be?

A:  Dora the Explorer

T:

What do you and mummy do together?

A:  Play games

T:  Go out with daddy and anna to Legoland or Portugal or JJs

How are you and mummy the same?

A:  We’ve got the same trainers

T: Me getting bigger like you

How are you and mummy different?

A:  Not the same colour hair or eyes

T:  Me little

How do you know mummy loves you?

A:  She gives me lots of hugs and kisses

T:  I give you kisses and cuddles

Where is mummy’s favourite place to go?

A: Portugal

T:  The park

Autumn leaf animals!

Inspired by this activity, found on pinterest-

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/foliage-friends-671141/

the children and I made some creations this afternoon!

First we went out for a walk and collected leaves in a bag!

When we came home we looked at the website for ideas and then made a start, these are some of the animals made by myself and my 2 year old son-

My 5 year old daughter adapted some of the ideas and then went on a creative whim and made some of her own!!-

Enjoy!

Chunky cherry fudge cookies

Another cookie recipe that my children love to help with (good and chopping fudge and cherries!)

Makes 18

Ingredients:

75g (3 oz) butter at room temp

75g (3oz) caster sugar

75g (3 oz) light muscovado sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg, beaten

175g (6 oz) self-raising flour

100g (4 oz) of choc covered fudge bars (I use the Cadburys' finger of fudge bars)

75g (3 0z) glace cherries

Method:

1. Put the butter, sugars and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat together until pale and creamy.

Stir in the egg and flour and mix until smooth.

2. Stir in the fudge and cherries then spoon 18 mounds onto baking sheets lined with a non stick baking paper/liner, leaving space between them to spread during baking

3. Bake in a preheated over 180 C (350 F) Gas mark 4 for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown.

Leave to harden for 1-2 mins then loosen and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

These are best eaten on the day they are made.

Enjoy!

Youth Prayer Room

So....kind of crafts with kids, just older ones and with of a more creative meets spiritual feel!

Last Sunday I was to lead a session on 'prayer' with our 11+ Sunday School group. After setting up many prayer spaces in the past I was keen to do something along the same lines- lets face it, prayer is something you do rather than just talk about. Normally prayer spaces take aaaaaages to set up and I was only having an hour session with these guys- seemed like a lot of work!

Anyhow, I found a great discussion/talk thingmy in YouthWork Magazine about prayer and it had a guide for a discussion followed by a simple prayer space based on James 5v13-20

"Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins."

It then goes on to suggest ideas for 5 different prayer stations for each type of prayer mentioned.

Here is a plan from the room I used and some photos (taken on my phone so not brill!) for the different zones

Prayers for difficult times- this was really chilled out, pretty lights, encouraging bible verses on the walls, I hung a side on the gazebo so it only had one side open making it fairly private. People had paper to scribble on and write their thoughts/prayers on.

Prayers for good times- just lots of bright coloured art stuff and paper stuck to the floor!

Prayer for forgiveness- the article I read suggested having water to wash hands with to symbolise getting clean after giving stuff to God. I added to this giving a bin to write and "bin sin!" and also Magna Doodles to write sins to give to God and then erase them.

Prayers for healing- we just had an area with a church elder waiting to pray!!!

Prayers for others-again I added to this area, it was supposed to be just one large candle and tea-lights for people to light as they prayed for someone else, I added the world map and post-it notes to widen the scope of the prayers and to add more activity as we had quite a lot of people in the room!

And that's about it, we also had some worship music playing quietly and as you can see from the pictures the room was lit by fairy lights and lamps which gave it a really nice atmosphere.

Have fun with creative prayer!

Painting Post #1

This is the first post about painting....there will be many more I am sure as we do like to paint!

I know a lot of parents who don't like painting at home because it is classed as 'messy' and tend to leave this area of creativity to toddler groups and pre-school!

So I thought I'd start off my "Painting with kids 101" with some less messy alternatives!

This post shows using clear colouring book pictures for painting and some age appropriate resources.

Yesterday my 4 year old and 1 year old asked to paint, they started off with plain paper but then my daughter (the 4yo) asked for a picture to colour in with paints. We have quite a few colouring books with bold clear pictures in so I tore out some pages for them to paint.

My daughter was using a simple palette of water colours- I bought these in Woolworths (may it rest in peace!!) but have picked some cheap ones up in Tesco as well. I find water colours great for a quick fix of painting, I don't need to dirty lots of pots with bright poster paint, one brush can be used with one pot for washing and they are more contained and less messy. A found it very easy to get the colours she needed and also confidently experimented with mixing colours in the lid of the paint box. She generally doesn't have the patience for colouring in but really enjoyed painting in the pictures- I think the speed she could fill the spaces really helped her!

T who is 20 months old uses bottle paints to paint. These are small bottles of paint (these are from Sainsbury's) with a gauze top to them that means small amounts of paint are released at a time causing minimal mess. I have found, similarly with felt tip pens, he tends to get it all over his hands but the mess seems to be confined to there!! He loves using them and really helps him with learning his colours. The paints do say not suitable for 0-3years but I take this as "he can use them with close supervision!" This is his masterpiece- he obviously didn't spend as long on his as his sister!!!

Have fun........and get those paints out! :)