A dose of reality

I know I’ve been very quiet on the blogging front recently. There are a couple of reasons for that.

I finished and handed in my final essay on Monday, which was a fantastic feeling of relief. I enjoyed relaxing for a few days, but now I’ve got to focus on getting my presentation ready for next Monday. Then my first year will be over! It’s been a lot harder than I anticipated, having breezed through university at 17 and 18. I’ve really struggled with the stress over the last couple of months, and relied on support from others much more than I would like, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing as I often get told off by friends and family for being too independent! There have been moments when I wondered why on earth I ever started this course, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. I am enjoying it, despite all my moaning!

We made a fresh batch of playdough this week and added some fresh herbs from our balcony baskets to one ball. We used chocolate, lavender, orange and peppermint to scent the rest. I’ve noticed that the playdough doesn’t get used as much now that it is stored in our art cupboard, so I think I’ll have to move it back onto the side where the children are more likely to help themselves.

Tabitha is very much into helping with kitchen tasks at the moment. She loves cutting things and washing up.

Usually I fill a bowl with soapy water for her, but I learnt about this whisking activity on a Montessori course I’ve recently started. It’s great for strengthening the wrist and the children loved making their own bubbles!

We did some very messy play with shaving foam on our big acrylic mirror. Unfortunately I didn’t have a box or tray large enough to put the mirror in, so I risked putting it down on the floor on a mat. Big mistake, it went everywhere! The children had fun though and especially liked how slippery the mirror became.

On Thursday we went out shopping between rain showers and stopped for a while at a lovely grassy mound. The children spent ages running, climbing and rolling all over the wet, freshly cut grass. . . needless to say, they ended up rather green!

Today we enjoyed some sunshine again. We bumped into Auntie Hannah and Uncle Tom in town, who gave the children some money to spend. We then bumped into Nanny, who also gave the children some spending money, so they had ice creams for a treat on the way home from the playground.

I introduced Aaron to the stamp game, as he’s been keen to use it ever since it arrived. Watching him do addition with four digit numbers was quite impressive! We also played lots of games making numbers and practised changing.

So there’s a brief summary of our week. Please note that I have left out the many arguments, frustrations and oh so much screaming (seriously kids, I’m getting fed up of this phase!). Or the fact that on Thursday morning, the children moaned and whinged for hours to go to the playground. I told them that we could go out as soon as they were dressed, but they ignored me and refused to get dressed until mid-afternoon, by which time we needed to go food shopping so that we had something to eat for dinner! Poor hubby came home to find me in tears over the children’s behaviour.

I’m conscious that I blog about the things I want to remember. I don’t want to dwell on the bad bits, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any! Our life is far from perfect. Right now the house looks like a bomb has gone off. Even when it’s tidy, there are nearly always crumbs on the carpet, because my children don’t believe in eating snacks at the table. I get frustrated, I shout. I even resort to bribery or threats, knowing that it’s not the right option but sometimes it is just so much easier in the short-term. I am definitely not organised, most of our activities are spontaneous and there are plenty of days when it feels like we have done absolutely nothing. I’m human, and so are my children.

The last thing I want to do is make anyone feel inadequate or give the false impression that we lead a wonderful life in a tidy house with loads of fun activities! At the same time, I like to count my blessings by focusing on the good stuff, and I don’t make a habit (at least I hope I don’t) of moaning about the difficult bits as it feels disrespectful to my children. So there you go, a long-winded disclaimer basically saying that whilst I try to be honest, blogging doesn’t always give an accurate picture of reality!

On a more positive note, something really exciting is happening to our family next week, thanks to some amazing generosity. It will make a big difference to our daily lives. Here’s a clue. . .

Plodding along

I had been planning to do lots of essay writing at the weekend, but things didn’t quite go to plan. I ended up spending Saturday morning in hospital with abdominal pain and was told to take it easy for a few days, so this week has mostly been quiet days at home. We did enjoy a lovely relaxing trip out to Rosemoor Gardens with my mum and a Christian home-ed group. Eating our picnic lunch in the dappled sunshine of the woodland area was wonderful!

There was great excitement today when a long-awaited preorder of Montessori materials arrived. I was planning to leave the box unopened until I have time to sort out the shelving upstairs in our learning space, but couldn’t resist having a peek! I didn’t present any of the materials to the children, but they got stuck right in anyway.

Tabitha seized the knobbed cylinders as soon as she saw them and completed each block one after another.

She has also been working on several blocks at a time, which was much more challenging. She got frustrated the first time, but has been doing it over and over again all evening.

This weekend will be a mad rush to write my final essay, then I’ve just got a presentation left to do. I will still have work-based learning and an Ofsted inspection to deal with, but the worst of it is nearly over.

Stave House: Teaching Music To Young Children

Stave House is a method of teaching children to read, write and play music. It uses a magnetic board and magnetic characters to represent the notes on the stave, and the children learn musical notation through stories, games and songs. My mum, who is a music teacher, has been teaching Aaron and Tabitha using the Stave House method since the beginning of the year. Over the Easter holidays we borrowed the kit so that the children could show me what they’ve been learning. I was so impressed that I decided to write this review.

How does it work?

Stories about the characters explain where the notes belong on the stage and games are used to reinforce learning. The children can place the notes in the correct place whilst singing along to the catchy songs on the CD. Tabitha was 2 years 9 months when she started learning Stave House, and after just 3 lessons she gave me a demonstration of placing the notes F, A, C and E on the stave. After a term she can do all of the treble clef notes.

The teacher’s manual outlines nine basic steps to introduce the treble clef notes, rhythm and composition. Younger children might stay on the first few steps for up to two years, whilst older children can combine the basic steps with composition, theory exercises  and playing an instrument.

The stories and songs do an excellent job of explaining that the bass clef is just a continuation of the treble clef.

The rhythm family introduces note values and timing in an easily understood way. Eventually this can be combined with notes for composition and sight reading.

What are the benefits?

I’ve always been keen on introducing my children to music at a young age, but until I encountered Stave House I would never have believed that two and three year olds could read music without the aid of colours, numbers or some other gimmick!

The first thing I’d have to mention is that it is fun! The stories really capture the children’s imagination and make music approachable for children as young as 2.5 years old. Apparently it also works really well for children with special educational needs. I can imagine it being very suitable for active children, especially boys, who might not get along with more traditional methods of music teaching.

Secondly, I love the fact that it builds musical foundations for life. It is “real” music and there are no bad habits to unlearn later, unlike some other methods that I’ve looked into. The skills learnt will apply to any instrument, music or teacher. Aaron has now started reading simple standard music for the keyboard and has found the transition easy. Chime bars, recorders and violins are also popular starting instruments.

Finally, you don’t need to have a musical background in order to use Stave House with your children, as it is very simple for anyone to understand. Nor does it require hours of practice every week, so it is easy for busy parents to fit in.

Who can use it?

Parents, parent and toddler groups, nurseries and preschools, home educators, home-ed groups, schools and clubs to name just a few!

Although Stave House is a brilliant method for introducing very young children to music notation, it certainly isn’t limited to that age group. The teacher’s manual recommends that it can be used for 10 and 11 year olds, and my mum has even used it with some of her secondary school pupils!

Stave House can be used either in one-to-one situations or in group settings. Ruth Travers, the creator of Stave House, worked in a Montessori school and based the method on Montessori principles, so it is ideal for use in Montessori settings.

Where can I find out more?

You can find out more, watch some video demonstrations and buy a complete pack at www.stavehouse.co.uk. There is also an interesting report about Stave House in the London College of Music magazine.

Disclosure: I offered to write this review because I genuinely think that Stave House is fantastic and all the opinions in this post are completely honest. In exchange, the lovely people at Stave House are sending me a pack so that we can continue to enjoy using it at home.

Irresistable sunshine

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and knew straightaway that we would have to go out. Once we were all dressed and fed, we headed down to the park. The children spent a couple of hours in the playground while I sat at a bench and did some work. Then we walked along the river and I sat on a bench underneath some pretty blossom while the children played on the grass. The sunshine was wonderful and we could have stayed all day if only I’d thought to pack a picnic lunch!

Back at home, Aaron built towers with some coloured shot glasses. Our balcony is a bit of a suntrap and it was actually really hot out there!

I temporarily hung up these percussion tubes which I found in Lidl last week and Tabitha enjoyed making music. Hitting things is definitely her forte! Eventually I’d like to find a more permanent way to hang them.

I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine too.

Weekly Wrap-Up

I am stressed to the eyeballs at the moment. Two essays finished, another two to write and hand in over the next fortnight, then a presentation to do. Oh, and Ofsted phoned to say they’ll be coming to inspect me soon. . . brilliant timing! I feel guilty that I’m not managing to do much with the children, as taking them out leaves me too exhausted to do any work in the evenings. So I’m just plodding on, one day at a time, and looking forward to relaxing and doing lots of fun things when it’s all over.

We’ve spent a lot of time this week curled up on the sofa reading Robin Hood stories out of this beautiful book from Barefoot Books.

Aaron has been making menus for his cafe. It started off with a “pikl samij” (pickle sandwich).

I had to laugh when I eventually realised what this one says. Any guesses for “kupite 10p”?

He had a long chat with our neighbour over the balcony and wrote her this message afterwards: “To Mrs O—, thank you for talking to me”.

My mum gave Aaron a maths workbook so we started working through that. He completed the first few pages of addition problems without needing any explanation of what to do. I did notice that he writes quite a few of his numbers backwards, so I got out a wipe clean numbers book for him to practise handwriting. We’ll revisit the basics when our sandpaper numbers arrive.

This was a spur-of-the-moment activity to cheer up grumpy children. It didn’t work brilliantly, I think larger, heavier balls would be better. Allowing the children to add their own paint meant that it was impossible to keep the artwork because the paper got buried underneath a layer of goo. And putting down a painting mat would be a good idea next time if I don’t want to spend ages scrubbing paint out of the carpet. . . surely I should have learnt that lesson by now!

This morning I turned my back on Tabitha for a few seconds to get some hairclips and suddenly heard her exclaim “it’s a number two!” Sure enough, it was. I was totally shocked, partly because she actually managed to write it, but also because I’ve never taught her to recognise numerals and she must have picked it up all by herself! She couldn’t draw it again, so I think it was a fluke, but she has been writing lots of letter “T”s ever since I showed her how to paint over her name. She is definitely showing an interest in letters and numbers, so I think it will soon be time to introduce them properly. My baby is growing up!

Today we had a wonderful morning, meeting up with an old school friend I haven’t seen for ten years in a cafe. Then the children spotted these rainbow sun hats in town and Aaron begged me for one. He got a lot of smiles and compliments on the way home! I’m glad he is still confident enough to make his own decisions about what he likes. A few months ago he told me that pink was no longer his favourite colour because his friend doesn’t like pink (although it didn’t seem to stop him and Tabitha squabbling over the pink plate every day!). He mentioned it to a bank cashier (have I mentioned that he can talk the hind legs off a donkey?) and she gave him some lovely advice about not doing things just because other people do.

Are my children the only crazies who like to play with umbrellas? Between not being in school, wearing flowery rainbow sunhats and brandishing umbrellas in the sunshine, we got a lot of strange looks today!

Happy Earth Day!

We spent the morning litter-picking and bird watching. I don’t usually buy plastic toys, but we found these £2 grabbers in the evil empire of Tesco and thought they would be perfect for the job. Before we set off, we talked about how we could keep ourselves safe and decided that we wouldn’t touch the rubbish with our hands and would wash our hands when we got home.

While we were walking we had an interesting discussion about the reasons why people might drop litter and Aaron came to the conclusion that there aren’t enough bins.

Using the grabber was excellent hand-eye coordination practice for Tabitha!

It was a great feeling to put our bag of collected rubbish in the bin. We’ll have to try and do this more often!

Aaron is getting really good at identifying birds, but unfortunately there weren’t many birds out in the rain. We did watch some cormorants and mallards for a while.

What have you been doing to celebrate Earth Day?

Spaghetti painting and printing

This morning I boiled up some spaghetti and tossed it in a tub along with some plastic insects for some sensory play. The children enjoyed exploring the cool, slimy, slippery, wiggly spaghetti with all their senses. Baby F stretched it and tasted it, Tabitha pretended that her spider was making webs and Aaron noticed that it goes sticky after a while unless you add a bit of water.

By this afternoon the children had lost interest in the spaghetti, so I squirted in some paint and gave them all paintbrushes. Baby F is generally quite reluctant to join in with sensory play, but she seemed to like the fact that all the mess was contained and soon got stuck in.

Tabitha stirred her spaghetti very vigorously and was excited to discover that she had made it turn brown. She continued doing this each time I added more paint.

I gave them each a piece of paper and showed them how to press it down on top of the spaghetti to make a print. The swirling patterns are really striking!

Recently a friend and I were talking about using food in play. She lent me a book which included a short article about not using food for sensory play, because it is a scarce resource in many parts of the world and playing with it reduces its value and encourages wastefulness. The FCCERS framework which I will be assessed against if I become a funded childminder also states that food should not be used for sensory play but doesn’t really give any reasoning behind this. It’s American and lots of it isn’t relevant to childcare in the UK, so I dismissed the food thing until my friend mentioned it. It does seem wrong that we can paint food and then throw it away, when others don’t even have enough to eat. At the moment I am still using food in play, because it is cheap and safe for babies, but it’s definitely given me a lot to think about. What are your views on playing with food? Are there any good alternatives for sensory play with babies and younger toddlers? I’d love to hear your opinions and suggestions.