Planning Play

As all the mums and dads out there will know, it's tricky to plan things with toddlers. They have their own minds, after all, and don't always what to do what we think they will enjoy or what we think they should do.

However, each week after reading what Harry does with the childminder on a Thursday morning I have found myself feeling a bit wistful that we don't manage to complete that much when we are at home. So I am planning a little experiment. By no means am I going to be removing Harry's 'free play' time, but I am going to try to make an activity open to him each afternoon that we might not otherwise have done. For example, Harry almost never instigates creative/messy play - by which I mean he is very unlikely to ever ask to do colouring, painting, play dough etc. However, as much as he loves his cars, by the end of the afternoon he does sometimes seem to reach saturation and ask for the TV on.

So, this week I am going to just think a little ahead and make sure I am prepared for a good play session straight after nap time. We are going to go for a dinosaur theme as Harry has really been into his 'Harry and the Dinosaurs' books recently:

Monday -  am: Daddy is on holiday - Soft play. pm: Track-making with cars and paint (or Daddy's choice).
Tuesday - am: Cousin Isla coming to play. pm: Playdough and dinosaurs.
Wednesday - am: Toddler group at Children's Centre. pm: Dinosaur sticking/colouring activity.
Thursday - am: Childminder. pm: Dinosaur swamp cakes (with green colouring!)
Friday - am: Messy Play Group. pm: Active play - stomp like a dinosaur! I plan to make a cushion fort/forest/swamp in his bedroom with all the blankets and pillows in the house.

Do you plan your child's play? Does it work? What do you think of my ideas? I hope to feed back to you next week how we got on!

C25K - Week 6

Well, I finally completed week 6! Only 3 weeks to go now, and I will have graduated the programme. Today I had to run 25 minutes - the goal is 30 so I am nearly there. The most I had done so far was a 20 minute run at the end of week 5 so I was pretty nervous. However, the plan works!! I didn't find it as hard as last week's long run - I was even able to speed up a little at the end. I'm proud I paced myself well (although I do run very slowly).

I've had a couple of barriers on the way. The first was a nasty fall nearly 3 weeks ago now. My arm has still not quite healed, although a couple of days ago was the first time I could leave it without a dressing. It was really horrible and I did have to take a good few days break from the programme both to recover physically and to psyche myself up mentally. However, C25K is obviously suited to those of us who are bloody-minded and determined! I got myself up and carried on, only to be hit by the first cold of the season (always the worst!) I didn't let it stop me too much, although I have taken slightly longer breaks between runs whilst suffering. I'm really hoping to get back to running evey other day now, although that's also tricky now it is getting dark earlier.

In other C25K news, I got my first cheer this week! I wear shorts similar to these - they are called 'Cheer on the Rear' shorts and obviously date back to my cheerleading days. This week was the first time that someone took the instruction literally and cheered as I went past! Always good to get a bit of support, haha!

Vehicles and Sticky Faces

I thought I'd try to get down on the blog some of the things we regularly do to entertain ourselves - I love getting new ideas of thngs to do from other peoples' blogs, and I also think if I keep a record of things we do I can look back and glean some inspiration from my own blog on those days when it just seems impossible to think of anything!

As usual, you'll have to forgive the poor quality of the pictures as a) I am not the photographer of the family (you'll want Ian for that) and b) I was using my BlackBerry.

As is probably obvious from most of my posts, my boy is a little vehicle obsessed so our craft attempts are usually heavily vehicle based. I do try to introduce other elements into our play though - today was emotions. I picked up these great foamy face stickers from the pound shop one day. They are very tactile and also easy for toddlers to use - although Harry can't yet peel off the backing by himself.

First, I drew the outline of some vehicles with circular windows: a car, a bus, a rocket and a plane. Harry stuck the faces into the windows. As we stuck them in we talked about the different emotions depicted on the faces. He is very precise about where he sticks things, although as you can see his motor control with drawing and colouring is not quite there yet.

 

We usually use crayons to colour, but as a special treat today we got out his (extra washable) felt tip pens. They are much easier to make marks with than crayons, so he does find them quite satisfying! Here is his completed bus - he was very pleased with it!

Oh My Days!

I thought it would be interesting to get down on paper our daily routine... When Harry was a little baby we didn't have a routine, but I am a bit of a convert now. I try not to be too defined by it and let it spoil our day, but he does still need a nap at some point so we always try to squeeze it in. I think Harry is a little happier when he has an idea of the 'shape' of his days - he is the sort of person who loves order in his life (wonder where he got that from ;-) ) so it suits us to follow a similar pattern each day.

Archie can pretty much wake up/sleep at any time at the moment, so we just drag him along with us - he seems happy, lol!

7.30/8.00 - Harry wakes up - or, should I say he gets up, I'm pretty sure he lies awake in his cot considering the day before he asks to be got up. It's usually me who goes into him, but if Daddy is about sometimes he will get him up. We head downstairs for breakfast - for Harry a banana followed by a bowl of cereal.

8.30 until 9.30 ish - This is play time, get dressed time and get mummy an injection of tea time. Mostly all this happens in the lounge, I bring down all the clothes and nappies for the boys and get them dressed, then I sneak upstairs to get dressed myself and chuck on foundation, blusher and mascara. This is the half hour in which we are most likely to have the TV on - it's usually something like Alphablocks, Numtums and the dreaded Rhyme Rocket (which Harry loves and I hate).

9.30-11.30 ish - We try to get out every morning. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays there are groups that we go to at the local children's centres - a real god send. Otherwise we visit the local Animal Park, go to the park, go to town, go supermarket shopping or meet friends. If we don't go out in the morning or have friends over Harry goes stir crazy and I get stressed! He definitely needs that interaction. A snack gets slotted in somewhere along the way. Luckily Harry is a great walker, he holds onto the pram while I hold his reins and he just walks everywhere no matter how far really.

11.30-12 - Play time in the lounge whilst mummy gets lunch sorted

12-12.30 ish - Lunch time - we have some variety of toast/bread and cheese and ham most days - sometimes I bake up some scones, sometimes we grab something at the shop. If there is even the slightest bit of sun we usually picnic/eat in the garden - saves sweeping up!

12.30-1 - Nap time. I can delay Harry's nap time until 2/2.30 ish if we re busy/out for the day, but the day runs smoothest when he naps from 1-3/4. This is Archie time as he doesn't usually sleep the whole time. Otherwise it is housework time or reading time for mummy, depending on how much there is to do/how tired I am. I try to give myself some down time during nap time if I can. This is also when I try to prepare for dinner if there is any prep to be done.

3.30ish until 5.30 ish - Sometimes we make it out again - today we need to nip to the shop for stamps and to post my thank you letters. It's usually only little errands at this time rather than a big trip out. Harry will play with cars/trains usually at this time or we do craft activities, reading or puzzles together.

5.30-6 - Sometimes a bit of TV again if we have had a busy day. This is dinner cooking time. Anything that takes longer than 1/2 an hour to cook doesn't get cooked during the week!

6pm - Daddy gets in and dinner is on the table.

7-7.30 ish - Daddy and Harry play, mummy cleans the kitchen.

7.30 -Tidy up time (Harry does most of it - he is very particular about which box each toy goes in) followed by story time followed by racing Daddy upstairs followed by bed time. We try to complete as much of this without Archie screaming the house down! LOL!

8.30 ish - Mummy gets to sit on the sofa for an hour or so until Archie deems it bed time and we head up to bed!