Love, Laugh and Learn

Here are a few of our busy little moments from before the Christmas fun and madness began!

Movember

Annabelle has been supporting Movember!

No, she’s not drinking espresso – can you imagine a two year old on caffeine??! Just frothy milk with a shake of chocolate dust!

A spot of engineering

We paid a chilly visit to Bruntwood park this week, and after feeding the ducks and watching the cheeky squirrels raiding the bins (some impressive teamwork used to get the lids off the bins!) we headed for the sandy play area and climbing frame.

Ducks!

The climbing frame has some buckets, pulleys and tubes for transporting and dumping the sand which Annabelle loves.

Who says buckets and spades are for summer?!

Collect some sand, dump it through the hole, collect some sand, dump it through the hole, collect some sand, dump it through the hole…and repeat!

I showed Annabelle how to use the pulleys to raise the buckets up to her high platform, and then she spent a long time pulling the chains trying to do it herself. At first she found it tricky, but I left her to discover it for herself, and before long she had worked out how the pull the chains separately to control the buckets and she said to me “Look mummy this one makes it go up, this one makes it go down!”. As the saying goes, children don’t need educators, they just need facilitators!

An engineer in training.

Phonics fun!

Here is a little self initiated phonics game that Annabelle has been playing. She got her magnetic letters and board out from a low shelf where we keep her ‘resources’ and she started looking for “A for Annabelle”. I cut down the selection a little bit to make it easier and she started collecting the A’s. I also gave her a s, t, p and i (these are the first 5 letters taught in synthetic phonics schemes) and asked if she could find some more of those letters. I didn’t really put too much emphasis on the sounds as this was her game and she was matching letters – but as soon as I named the letters and the sounds they make Annabelle wanted to join in.

She also wanted a ‘M for Mummy’ and all the little dots from the centres of the letters!

Walton Hall

Last year, Walton Hall was one of our favourite haunts, but for some reason it has been ages and ages since we have been! It is a lovely place to visit with grounds and gardens to explore, a big playground, and the best bit – the Children’s Zoo. Although ‘zoo’ might be a slight overstatement, there is a lovely little collection of farm animals that Annabelle loves to see.

I spy Billy goats gruff!

Who’s that under the tree?

It was a pretty chilly day, but that meant that there was more space for us in the playground!

Boo, we see you!

Brrr, it’s a hat day!

Office Party

We went to an office party with a difference – a children’s Halloween party at Dave’s office! I love the fact that a serious professional office was transformed for a day and the children took over the boardroom! I was determined to make Annabelle a costume myself so we used these funny felt pumpkin faces and a plain black t-shirt and leggings.

We already had a silk scarf that Annabelle wears as a cape or robe when she is being “Queen Annabelle” so we made a quick crown and corrinated the ‘Pumpkin Queen!’

The party itself was fun, lots of party games and dancing, far too many sweets and chocolates, and great big orange chairs to spin around in!

Annabelle was very impressed with Daddy’s office, although I’m pretty sure she thinks that all he does all day is go to parties and spin round in big chairs!