Living Arrows 2019 48/52

Welcome to Living Arrows post 2019! 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 post one photo of James and one photo of Freddie and share what they have been up to that week!

This has been a busy week for us all! James had a busy week at school and then we finished the week with James and mummy being on camp at Beamish open aired museum in County Durham with our Beaver Colony! It was so cold but we had a brilliant time!

Freddie has had a great week at nursery and they he got to spend the weekend with daddy while we were away! We also started the week with Freddie turning 4! He had such a great day even thought he was at nursery for three hours!

Living Arrows 2019 47/52

Welcome to Living Arrows post 2019! 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 post one photo of James and one photo of Freddie and share what they have been up to that week!

James has had a brilliant week at school and Beavers! We even took him ice skating for the first time!

Freddie is still loving nursery and even he tried ice skating and both loved it! 

Freddie you are Four!

Freddie Bear today you are four years old! And you are actually in nursery for three hours as well! I hope you are having a great day with all your little friends!

Its so crazy that you are four years old already! You started the primary school nursery at the start of September and you have settled in so well. We already have your school reception place application in for next year and we know you will love the school as much as your big brother does!

You get so excited to go into nursery every day and you are already leaving me at the classroom door to go in to play with all your new friends. That is something James never did at all when he was in nursery! Your two best friends at Nursery are actually the little brothers of two of James classmates. You three are as thick as thieves and get so excited when you see each other on a morning! You do not like coming home from nursery and someday's you get quiet upset about coming home. I wonder if you will still think the same next year when you are in reception!!

This last year has gone so fast, you are now fully potty trained in the day time and are dry quite often overnight as well! Once you were reaction clear with your allergies potty training was easy. You will use both the toilet and the potty and when we are out you will confidently stand up to wee at a big toilet!

We will be starting to think about reintroducing milk into your diet soon and mummy is pretty on edge about it, but this time its going to hopefully be more closely monitored. Taking wheat out of your diet at the beginning of this year really helped your stomach. 

You are so stubborn and will always answer us back and argue with James! If you do not get your own way boy do you let us know. You absolutely adore your big brother and you get so excited when the alarm goes off on mummy's phone when its time to go and collect him although there have been a few times when you have wanted to leave him at school!

Happy Birthday our gorgeous little man, we love you so much
Love
Mummy, Daddy and James 
xxxx

Newborn

One

Two

Three

Four

Living Arrows 2019 46/52

Welcome to Living Arrows post 2019! 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 post one photo of James and one photo of Freddie and share what they have been up to that week!

James started the week by going on a school trip to Beamish with his year three class and also the year five class from his school. They had a brilliant day! Later in the week they had a exhibition of photographs from their recent school residential trip and to end the week they had a Pyjama day to raise money for Children in Need. James also had aa trip to the Discovery Museum with Beavers to take part in a badge day. He tried lots of fun things that can be used towards badges! 

Poor Freddie started the week with a trip to the doctors after he developed a high temperature and a nasty cough. Mummy and James had come home from the Remembrance Day parade to find him curled up on the sofa feeling sorry for himself. Luckily he was well enough to be back at school come Wednesday! 

Siblings November

Welcome to the November edition of The Siblings Project!

I know I say it every month but really its November and the year is almost over! We have one more Siblings post of 2019!

This month's photographs were taken over half term when Mummy and the boys were visiting Nana and Gaga. Mummy, Nana and the boys went across to Amble and took the boys for a walk. On our way back to the car the boys found some huge puddles!

When we got back to the car we actually had to strip them out of their trousers and boots and in Freddie's case his socks as well! 

(AD) Christmas Gift Guide for 7 Year Olds

So its nearly Christmas and parents all over are trying to work out what to get their kids for Christmas. As a parent of a 7 year old I sometimes struggle with what to get him. I'm hoping that some of the things in this gift guide will give other parents of 7 year olds some good ideas on what to get them for Christmas or even 7th birthdays!

The first item we are looking at for James is Little Brain Paint Sticks. He has seen these advertised on TV for months and they look brilliant! 

Science Mad Chemistry Lab. James has started to do science at school this year and they have been doing experiments in their classroom. 

Even though this is for age 10+ we felt it was something that James would get a lot out of and that it would help him with his education. He has really taken to starting science this year in year 3 and he comes home raving about what he has been doing. A few years ago, James had a volcano kit when you added water to the two chemicals and it flowed like lava.

Then we have Heelys! Now James only found out these existed a few weeks ago when he saw his school friend with a pair on one night when we were on our way to Beavers. 

He had been asking for roller skates but we figured something like this would be safer for him! I cannot wait to see his face when he opens these. James unfortunately has inherited his clumsy gene from mummy, and mummy thought if he had roller skates he would probably end up in a&e with a broken bone!

Next up with have Paint Sticks from Little Brain. James has seen these advertised for months on TV and has been banging on about us getting some. 

The reason I like these is the fact they are twisty like crayons and you don't need water or brushes. I have always avoided paint with the kids, but these are something I can see James having a lot of fun with. 

Then we have the Which Way Game. This is another STEM item which we think is fantastic. We have been looking at a lot of STEM items for James this year as he is now in Year Three at school and we want him to enjoy his learning at school and at home. 

Its based around a programme on Cbeebies called Messy goes to Okido. The aim of the game is to help Messy get across the board to his friends.

Its aimed at 4-8 year olds so I can see this being something we can play as a family to teach both boys coding skills. Four fantastic new games from OjO for STEM fans are open for investment through the Kickstartercrowdfunding platform until 25th November 2019.

So these are just a few items that would be suitable for boys and girls aged seven plus. I think James is going to really enjoy using these. 

**We were sent these items free of charge in exchange for featuring in this Christmas 2019 Seven Plus Gift Guide**

(AD) Christmas Gift Guide for 4 Year Olds

So its Christmas, well it will be in around four weeks and its time for us here at victoriahockley.co.uk to publish our Christmas gift guides for 2019!

Today I am featuring gifts that are suitable for four year old boys and girls. Freddie isn’t actually four yet and wont be for another couple of weeks, so some of these gifts could also be used as fourth birthday presents as well!

The first item is the Pink Fong Baby Shark Song Puppet. Freddie is totally obsessed with Baby Shark and will constantly dance around doing the dance routine when it is played in the house. 

If we are early for picking up James from school he will often sit on the chairs by the back gate and ask me to put Baby Shark on YouTube for him. To use the puppet you move the mouth to start up the music of the entire song. 

Basically the faster you move the shark’s mouth, the faster the song will play or the slower you move its mouth the slower the song will play! I think this will be a huge hit with Freddie and probably also James who is seven!

Next we have the Mr Tumble learning pad. This comes with six activities to choose from including learning numbers, colours, shapes, letters and much more! 

Freddie has just started at our school nursery so something like this I think will help him so much, especially has the foundation curriculum has changed so much since James was in nursery, now children are expected to know how to write their own names before they move into reception class, which I think is crazy as James couldn't really write his own name till half way though reception. But he was the youngest in his class and was virtually a year younger than some of his classmates!

Next we have The Amazing Mystery Box. This product was originally launched in 2015 at Comic Con in London. 

Boxes can be bought on a subscription or as a one off. The box we received was the 24.99 one off box, with the value of the items being around £40. The items we received are fantastic. There are two model engines, a drink cup, a wallet, a backpack and a colour in table cloth which can be washed and recoloured! 

I have also been looking on their website and there are a few boxes that would be fantastic for James. As a special treat The Amazing Mystery Box have given us the code MYSTERYBLINDBAG and they will add in an extra treat with any box ordered!

**We were sent these items free of charge in exchange for featuring in this Christmas 2019 Gift Guide for Four Years Plus**