The Power of Pets

With the beautiful weather we have been having, we have spent two mornings outside in the garden this week so far.  We have recently acquired more guinea pigs (bringing our total to four) and it has been lovely for the children to feed and observe them.  I loved having pets as a child and I know Ethan and the other children get so much from our furry friends.  All the children love the cats but the cats take time to build up trust.  When the children have shown they can be calm, quiet and controlled they will be rewarded with Simba letting them stroke her.  The guinea pigs are much more nervous but when the children are quiet and still they can watch them nibble on some pepper, drink a bit of water, clean themselves and chase each other around their hutch.  I love how calming it can be to have pets around.  They teach children to be still and gentle sometimes before returning back to the crash bang wallop of childhood!

 

Living in the Moment

As adults we spend so much time planning or thinking over past events that we can often forget to ""stand and stare" as William Henry Davies encapsulated beautifully in his poem.  Living in the moment comes so naturally to children but as adults and especially as busy mothers we are constantly multitasking - writing shopping lists whilst arranging doctors appointments whist packing a bag for nursery and wondering what to make for dinner.  I spend so much time being busy that when I get some rare time off my work as a childminder and Ethan is at nursery I feel strange.  Perhaps I had better clear the cupboards out or go into town I think, make use of this time.

This afternoon I didn't do anything productive.  I went for a walk, bought a pot noodle and enjoyed consuming the powdery wrongness (I would blame pregnancy hormones but to be honest I just really like very wrong food!) before finally seeing what all the fuss was about and watching Black Mirror on catch up.  I didn't decide what we are having for dinner.  I didn't do next weeks planning.  I just enjoyed the passing of time.  I went to pick Ethan up from nursery feeling recharged and positive.  He stopped to pick a leaf up on the way home.  Why?  Because he saw it and he liked it at that moment, simple as.  When we got in I got the pebbles and a baking tray out for him to play with.  He loved playing with them, describing what they felt and looked like.  Then I asked him if he wanted them on the farm.  He did.  We got the construction vehicles out and he played happily with them using the tipper truck to pour pebbles out.  He added his die cast Chuggington trains and toilet roll tunnels to the game.  We shared a beautiful time together, living in the moment.  Sometimes the simplest materials to play with provide the most enriching experience for child and parent (or Grandma - the toilet roll tunnels game was one they started together and play every time she visits now).  Seeing the satisfaction my boy takes from heuristic play I wonder why we are seduced into buying fancy electronic plastic fantastic stuff for our children.  A child's imagination and way of being is something we could all learn a lot from.

        

Science Play - Bicarbonate of Soda & Vinegar

To show the children a chemical reaction I got out the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and vinegar.  I put a bit of bicarb in the messy play trays and then filled some plastic egg cups with malt vinegar.  The children added the vinegar to the bicarb and loved the fizzing sound and watching the bubbles and flow of the mixture.  I explained how the bubbles were carbon dioxide which is the same chemical we breathe out.  Here's the scientific explanation 

Food colouring could be added to the vinegar in the egg cups for dramatic effect and to show what happens when different colours are mixed.

 

Science Play - Float or Sink

This week I decided it would be nice to introduce some scientific concepts into play with the children.  I did not take my science GCSE and must admit it was something that I lost interest in at secondary school but by researching experiments I found I had a renewed interest in the subject and it was fantastic to see the children learning and making predictions as to what would happen next.

The first experiment we did was:

Float or Sink?

This experiment is to show displacement in action.  I put a bit of food colouring in a clear plastic mixing bowl and filled it with water.  What objects sink and what objects float?  Why is this?  I looked for objects that were similar so we could talk about why one sank and the other floated.  I looked for things made from the same material that were different shapes as well as lots of different materials.  I also encouraged the children to go and find objects to do the experiment with.  The children loved guessing sink or float and placing the items on the correct piece of laminated paper afterwards.

Here is the theory and some other ideas. 

The Outdoor Life

Ever since  Ethan Bear was very young he's loved being outside.  When he was a few months old we used to go for mammoth walks with him in the buggy taking in the world around him with eyes full of wonder and a happy smile on his face.  When Ethan was three months old we went to Cornwall on holiday.  Ethan put his toes in the sea for the first time and loved it.  He also had a good crawl on the grass outside the cottage we were staying in.

  

When he learned how to walk and could interact even more with the world he was firmly in love with the outdoor life.  It was hard when he went through the phase of being impulsive and having to learn boundaries and about keeping safe by not running into the road but soon he realised that to keep safe he must be aware of limits.  Ethan loves pushing himself physically and usually the best environment to do this is outside.  All of the children I look after become more vocal and light up when we do activities outside.  They love running around together chasing each other, sitting under slides talking and picking flowers on the grass for one another. 

During the summer months we are barely inside the house.  Why stay inside when there is the local paddling pool and sandpit to explore at Central Park? Or the wooden play park and ducks, geese and swans to feed at Ferry Meadows Country Park?  Or the Green Backyard where we can see chickens and rabbits, meet friends for a shared picnic and pick vegetables and fruit?  I am blessed to live in an area where there is a wealth of activities for the children to experience all within walking distance.  Sometimes people will say we haven't had a summer but my childminder tan and the fact I can count the number of days when we had to stop play because of rain on one hand tell a different story.  We often meet up with other families outside during summer and lunch is a bring and share picnic where the children are keen to try new foods and flavours due to the social aspect of eating together.  Children end the day tired and very happy.     

    
Even during the winter months we try to get out as much as possible.  The children all love playing in the snow and rain and gain a lot from observing what they see, smelling different things and watching animals and people.  The recent snow gave a great opportunity for us to build an igloo (or wiggly woo as they called it), make footprints and talk about who's were the biggest and who's were the smallest.  The children also loved making snow castles with their buckets and spades.  After all this snow play the children loved watching an inuit boy build his first igloo and some polar bears emerging from their snowy den on the computer.  Without the practical outdoors element of play I don't think the children would have enjoyed watching the videos so much.

I urge you to get outside whenever you can with your children.  Buy good waterproofs ( I picked up a great all in one for Ethan from Mothercare), wellies, snow boots, sturdy shoes they can climb easily in , warm coats, snow suits & hats and there is no reason why you can't get out most days.  Often we are the only ones at the play park in winter which is such a shame as (unless its very wet) there is no reason why the children can't have a play.  We love to come back and get stuck into warm toast and honey on a chilly day and appreciate it all the more having worked up an appetite first. 

Pancake Day

One of the children I look after is vegan so I decided to find a vegan pancake recipe we could all make and enjoy eating.  This recipe turned out to be perfect.  The children all loved spooning, pouring and mixing all the ingredients.  They also liked seeing the change when I cooked the pancakes and watching me toss them.  Next was the best bit...eating our creation! We squirted some lemon and sprinkled some sugar on and got stuck in.  They tasted delicious, who needs milk and eggs to make pancakes?

The Baby Led Life

I remember in the early weeks of Ethan Bear's life when I was getting my head around motherhood and feeling the overwhelming responsibility for this tiny person, I sometimes felt all at sea due to the wealth of advice from relatives and health professionals and just about anyone I met on the street.  Health visitors were the worst, full of judgement and extolling themselves as experts.  Maybe any person coming into the sanctuary of your home and telling you what to do is going to get your back up from the get go and I am sure their intention is just to do what they think is best but I found their advice made me question my instincts and try things that just weren't necessary.  My health visitor told me the fact my husband was feeding our newborn baby once at night with expressed milk in a bottle would lead to nipple confusion and mean Ethan could not breast feed.  I had just had a c-section and I think without that chance at a four hour sleep once a day I would have got much more run down.  Ethan did not get confused or ever favour the bottle if Mummy was around and I fed him until he was twenty months old.  I also committed the cardinal sin of co-sleeping.

The health visitor told me it was dangerous and I should put baby in a cot and do controlled crying.  If hearing my baby screaming upset me too much I should go down the end of the garden where I could not hear him rather than tend to him as my heart told me too.  I was making a rod for my own back apparently.   Me and my husband took on board the health visitors advice and put Ethan in a cot and let him cry for about ten minutes before both deciding we couldn't do that to our child.  It felt wrong to deny this tiny person anything.  We continued to cosleep together until Ethan was about two, maybe a little older and showed signs he didn't need to be in bed with us anymore.  Relatives told us what we were doing by cosleeping was unnatural and not right but it felt right for us and there was no painful period of adjustment when Ethan went into his own room as he was ready.  We seemed to sleep better than those with babies in separate rooms as if Ethan stirred he was met by a loving cuddle before he'd even had the chance to wake properly let alone scream the house down and get distressed.  We weaned Ethan from breastfeeding at twenty months as he was getting a bit rough with me and I found I was resenting him as a result.  For the sake of our relationship I felt it needed to end.  Daddy took over the role of night time pacifer and they bonded more as a result.  That first night I felt a twinge of sadness that our breastfeeding relationship was coming to an end but it was just the beginning of finding new ways to comfort and love my boy.  Ethan starting eating solids at six months old.

He ate lots of fruit and vegetables and whatever we were having for meals.  People scoffed as I gave him curry or strong cheeses but Ethan has always eaten well and had a healthy relationship with food by being able to feed himself and try the wealth of flavours on offer rather than bland purees.  I had a few tries with potty training Ethan when he was younger but it was obvious he wasn't ready.  Some ridiculed that my boy was not trained before he was three but I just sighed and thought "once again we will take our own path led by Ethan on this".  He turned three a few weeks ago and began showing signs of being ready.  He has done really well in the past week with only a few accidents.  He takes great delight in his new found independence and once again, the time is right.  Potty training is not the nightmare I pictured but I can guess it would have been if we had tried to make him do it before he was ready.  As a parent I have learnt to be very suspicious of self proclaimed childcare experts (who more often than not don't have children) or medical experts (who may be qualified in medical care but are not experts on my child)  and grown a thicker skin as competitive parents scoff at my relaxed approach to parenting ("He still sleeps in your bed?  He'll be there until he's eighteen at this rate! "  "He is still in nappies? Our girl was trained at two years old!" ).  I am not a childcare expert but I am the expert of my own child and will continue to trust my heart and my instincts about what is right for Ethan and Minnie.    

I have been told this post has a negative air to it which was never my intention.  My main point is that I just believe we should all trust our instincts more and act on love for our children not what others deem acceptable.  Do not feel guilty or ashamed because your baby cosleeps with you (or vice versa), don't stress if your baby is the last out of a group of peers to walk, talk or do anything.  Don't be goal orientated, live in the moment just like a child.   I love being a Mum more than anything and when I had the strength to follow what felt right for me both me, my husband and my child we were all happier.  Enjoy your children and let them be children, it won't be forever :)