Monday 27 April 2020

Living Arrows 2020 17/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week

So we are into the sixth week of lockdown i think! I have really lost all sense of time and days since the 23rd of March. The boys went back into home school last week. We have started using the BBC Bitesize with James, and just doing little bits with Freddie as he is much happier watching Numberblocks and Alphablocks on iplayer!

The BBC Bitesize stuff has been really good and James has been flying along with the maths!!

Our school are now sending out work weekly and we are mixing that in with what we have found ourselves. 

James and mummy also renewed their Beavers and Scout promise on video for St George Day. 





Living Arrows

Thursday 23 April 2020

What The Kids Will Love For Summer

The summer time is a big deal for kids of all ages - it’s when school’s out, the
sun is out, and there’s a beach or park to race down to and have some fun
with friends and family. It’s a time of year they look forward to the most, apart
from Christmas, and they always have a lot of energy for it! 

Which is why it might be useful to know now what the kids are going to want
for summer this year. They’ve been cooped up inside for a little while now,
which means they might just have ten times more energy than before, and
you’ll need to give them outlets to get all of that out. 

Without further ado, here are some suggestions on what to buy your kids for
summer this year. Make sure they’ve got the tools to have fun, and they’ll be
looking back on this time for years to come!

Pexels Image - CC0 Licence

Beach Toys (even just for the garden!)

Beach toys are the pinnacle of summer fun. If you have a beach ball on hand,
you can have a good game of volleyball on the beach, or float around with it in
the water. If you’ve got a bucket and spade, you can make all kinds of creative
projects out of the sand or pebbles on offer. But even if you’re not at the beach,
or don’t have the chance to get down to one, you can still make good use of beach
toys in the back garden. 

Alongside that bucket and spade, get your hands on a small sand pit that the kids
can mess about in for an afternoon. That beach ball can still be used for back yard
games, and even for something as simple as not letting the ball touch the ground.
This can be a lot of fun and laughter for the whole family! 

Something to Dress Up In

Kids love to play dress up, and it’s nice to slip on a costume and pretend to be a pirate
or a prince for the day! And when the summer time comes along, there’s a good chance
your kids are going to be wearing special costumes more often than they’ll wear normal
clothing. So, why not try to encourage their imaginations, and buy them more and more
fun things to wear? 

And you don’t even have to invest in costumes either; just buy them some clothes that’ll
help keep the dirt and muck off while they take a dip in the ocean or get covered in mud
from the football field. Boys tracksuits are always a populargo to for this, not to mention
how grown up your child might feel when they've got one on!

A Bit of Camping Equipment

Camping is something we like to do in the warmer periods of the year, and it’s especially
good to do as a family. Taking the kids off to a campsite to pitch a tent, teaching them
how to make a fire out of nothing but twigs, and having to sleep under the stars with the
sound of the world around them. All in all, it can be a very magical experience. 

And even if you can’t get out to a campsite, you can always set up a tent in the garden.
The kids will love the novelty of not having to sleep in their beds for the night, and
getting cozy under a sleeping bag and some blankets. They’ll love being able to tell ghost
stories with lanterns in hand, and it’ll certainly be a lot cooler on those hot summer
nights too! 

Maybe Even Their First Bike?

And of course, if your kids don’t already have a bike, now could be the perfect time to
buy them their first bike and teach them how to ride it. They’ll love being able to go on
bike rides through the woods or along the park, and it’ll be a lot faster to go round a
friend’s house when they’re able to do so again! A bike can be a hefty investment,
but it’s worth it. 

The kids love the summer time, even when they’re the kind of person to hide away
in their bedroom. Because the sun brings out the best in us; it makes us happy, and
helps us to feel a bit healthier, and the summer is a period filled with nostalgia! So,
make sure you’ve got some great activities set out for it this year. 

**Collaborative Post**

[AD] Review of Happy Confident Me Journal

With everything that is going on in the world at the moment, James is very emotional. 

He is really missing his school friends, his teachers, the staff at the school, his friends at Beavers and of course our other three Beaver leaders. 

Just before all this kicked off we were asked if we would like to review the Happy Confident Me Journal. James is normally quite a sensitive child, so we were thrilled as we thought it would help him to get his emotions out and onto paper.

The Happy Confident Me Journal is designed in a really positive and child friendly way. The colours are so bright and eye catching, I love how it has lots of ways to help James get his emotions out and onto paper. 

James has been writing in this most days since the lock down started, the first few days he was ok, but once the government announced only to leave the house for essencial trips aka food and medical trips, it soon changed. 

He has been having numerous meltdowns as he just does not really understand what is going on. We are trying to shelter him from the news and only checking what is going on from our phones or putting the news on once the boys are in bed. 

This is an example of one of the pages in the Journal. At the top there is a place to write what day it is, then a place to write how you are feeling. 

I love how it has space to write three things that you are grateful for that day, Then it has a section for the best part of the day and at the bottom a space for something they have learned that day.

Some days James is finding it a struggle to write how he is feeling as he is just so confused as to what is going on. Then again mummy is just as confused at times too. Its quite hard to comprehend that the boys realistically could have finished year three and nursery!!

This is definitely something I would recommend for children age 7+ especially at the moment

**We were sent this product free of charge in exchange for this review**

Monday 20 April 2020

Living Arrows 2020 16/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week

Another week of lockdown is over! The boys have been watching a lot of Disney +! They have been watching Puppy Dog Pals and PJ Masks!

It was also mummy's birthday on Friday so we watched Mary Poppins and chilled out with Tacos for tea then cake!

On Saturday mummy did a supermarket trip, with one big essential item bought - shoes for Freddie! He has suddenly out grown all his shoes! Then on Saturday night we joined in a video call with our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts for a virtual camp fire. James, mummy and Freddie then camped in our den in the lounge overnight!





Living Arrows

Thursday 16 April 2020

School Place Announcement

So it's the 16th of April 2020, that means it's national reception class offers day!

It seems so long ago that I put in Freddie's application to join his big brother at our local primary school, well in fact it was! I @put his application in on September 3rd 2019! I remember back in January when the admissions closed saying oh its still ages away till we find out! Then all of a sudden it was like omg we find out next week!

I had gone back in byto my email account yesterday morning to check where I would need to go to find out, so I went online and found out we could log in at midnight last night to see!

I knew this time we were higher up the priority list as we already had a child in the school. When it was for James we were much lower going on distance, and we lived quite far out compared to some of the other kids. 

Finally at six minutes past 12 it popped up that Freddie had been offered a place at James school! Place was accepted and confirmation was in my inbox by quarter past midnight!

The question now is will the school even be back in September? 


Wednesday 15 April 2020

The Siblings Project 2020 - April

Welcome back to The Siblings Project for 2020!
This month the photographs of the boys have been taken during the lockdown.




Monday 13 April 2020

Living Arrows 2020 15/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week

So another week of lockdown is done. The boys are starting to struggle with the no going out, especially as we have just had Easter weekend when we would have normally seen my parents. 

We have finally been able to get some of Freddie's vitamins, but everytime we go to Tesco we are checking the stock and grabbing some if they are in as he needs to take two a day!




Living Arrows

Monday 6 April 2020

Living Arrows 2020 14/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week

So the second week of lockdown. Both the boys are starting to loose the plot. They are both missing school and their friends. We have been watching PE with Joe Wicks on YouTube and also Lets Go Live with Maddy and Greg also on YouTube. 

Mummy and James are both missing Beavers! We had a virtual meeting on Monday night and it was so lovely to see every one! We even met a few family pets!



Living Arrows