oooo, I have a blog...

I am not sure anyone but my hubby will ever read this but I thought it might be fun to do. Also if you considering adoption you might want to know what you are letting yourself in for.

We have two kids, one of each flavour. To protect our identities I won't name them but I will call them Dinosaur Boy and Princess. We also have a couple of dogs, 2 rabbits and a pair of guinea pigs. Presumably as I think I have a lot of spare time.

I am a stay at home mum. As I have a child in nursery and one in primary school and the dogs what this actually means is I am always out. I do 3 school runs a day, walk the dogs and attend a million clubs with the kids. Also there is always something up with the princess, so we stalk the gp like Dot Cotton. I am ashamed to say my 3 year old has a better social life than me.

My kids have attachment issues and really cannot cope with me going out very often. Really cannot cope. Even in their own home with their dad. They go to pieces and it takes days for them to recover. I do occassionally because they have to learn I come back and I have to chat.

Enough intro. I thought I would blog about our day to day stuff.

Things like the day I was unloading the washing machine and in amongst the millions of socks was my poor, drowned mobile. Thinking aloud I said 'How did that get in their?' My son, wandering into the room with a big smile, replied, 'it was dirty so I washed it.' Oh, well, I was gutted about the phone but that was so sweet and kind it was impossible to be cross. Thinking about going to the Warner Brothers studio tour or Hogwarts, my son asked, 'Are our trunks coming soon?'

Ancient Egypt

I had a plan. An educational plan. My first one ever, as it happened. We were going to finish our Geology lap book and move on to Fossils. I even made a load of salt dough fossils with the children in anticipation. After we had done that, we were going to look at Dinosaurs. I am set with books and materials and then one of the kids said, 'I can't wait until we have finished this because then we are doing Ancient Egypt, aren't we, mummy?' Ummmm, yes? I always said they could pick their topics and we would follow their interests but it hadn't occurred to me to do it in their order. I just assumed I could wander through the playground of their interests in the most logical way. It would seem I was mistaken. I ended Geology with the continents and made the link between continents and Africa and Egypt. Oh, yeah, I rock. So, we are starting Ancient Egypt. We have A3 card to make pyramid shaped lap books. We have read a couple of introductory books, I will add a book list. We watched a few bits on You tube and we did a wonderful brainstorming session. I love these. I am constantly surprised by how much my children know and how many wonderful questions they have. I started by attaching a metre-ish long sheet of wallpaper on to the wall with blu-tac and getting out the new highlighters. I do enjoy standing in front of the children with a marker. I always feel like the CEO of a major company. Sad but true. Probably should have never shared that. Anyhoo, my first question was what have do we know about the Ancient Egyptians? and my second was what would we like to know? You can see from the pictures that my kids are amazing and my handwriting is appalling. My son, unsurprisingly, came up with the weapons questions, near the end of the session. I was really pleased because wars were a part of Egyptian history and it might have got left off otherwise.

Chick a Doodle Play Date

We have 14 day old chicks in our lounge (in a box). The kids had a play-date today with two of their friends. We sat in a circle on the rug and got the chicks out. They noted their wings were growing feathers. We held them high so they could 'flutter' down, they are beginning to learn to fly. One of the chicks landed on a child's head, not only was this immensely funny but also immensely desirable. Everyone had to have a turn with a chick perched on their head. The chicks, being birds, have a great head for heights and were happy to do this. The chicks, obligingly, pooped on the carpet. More hilarity, as poo never gets old. Only surpassed by me saying, 'No, sweeties, we do not eat our own poo!' You would think this was the funniest line in history given the laugh it got. I noticed one of the boys gently picking a chick back up, saying, 'oh, you fell down, let me help you, little one,' in a really slow, soft voice. My son, explaining to my friend, 'you have to keep the light on in their box for heat. They don't know how to keep themselves warm yet and that does it for them. Else they would die.' My son's friend, 'If they are both girls, why is one called Will(iam Turner)?' and 'Is she a Swan?' 'No, she is a chicken that was named after Elizabeth Swan. Elizabeth is not a good name for a chicken. Swan is.' replied my daughter, as if it actually makes sense.