drawing

Learning to draw at 15mths and 3 3/4

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My word of the week this week has to be drawing, as both kiddies are making leaps and bounds with their drawing abilities at the moment.

LM has well and truly discovered drawing now and would love to be doing it all day every day at the moment. I have held back from letting her have crayons for a while (for fear of her eating them) and she has amazed me with the magna doodle things. Then lately we got a couple of crayons out and she was in her element.PhotoGrid_1454505406334

She does pop them in her mouth from time to time but is gradually learning not to I think. She loves it though and often takes herself off to the little table in the conservatory and sits swinging her legs. She has fallen a couple of times bless her but she just wants to get right back up.

She doesn’t distinguish that much between paper and table though and I have to control my feelings about this and remind myself that it doesn’t matter if she draws on this table. I am still trying to keep the crayons contained though as I really don’t want find her drawing on a wall or sofa one day! So it was lovely at the weekend when we got out in the garden with the pavement chalks as I could really leave her to do as she pleased. Again it ended up in her mouth once or twice but only very briefly and on the whole she was absolutely loving drawing on the pavement.PhotoGrid_1454505585883

Monkey was loving it too and it was lovely seeing them do it together.

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His drawing is coming on leaps and bounds lately too. There is still a lot scribbling going on but they are usually something, at least in his mind, and are often roads. I was dead impressed a few days ago though when I was doodling while they were drawing and drew a tree with some grass by a river… And Monkey copied me! He did so well and it was lovely to see him create an actual picture of something.

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He’s also coming on really well with his writing. He has been writing his name for some time now but it has definitely improved and then the other day he wanted to draw numbers so he was again copying what I did, and did such a brilliant job! I was so proud of him! (excuse the bag of clothes in the background ready to go to the chairty shop!) Of course some aren’t perfect but who cares, what a brilliant effort, such a clever Monkey :).20160202_091315So as you can see there has been a lot of drawing going on in our house. Do your kids love to draw?

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Life UnexpectedNot My Year Off

Monkey’s Mini Milestones at 29 months

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I haven’t done a mini milestones post in a while and there are a few lovely Monkey things that are making me dead proud at the moment so I thought it was time I did. It seems that he has grown up and his development has sped up rapidly just in the last couple of weeks since the arrival of his baby sister. It is incredible and he really is very fun to be around at the moment.

This may seem like a slightly braggy post (Look how amazing my toddler is) but it’s mainly to keep a record of what he can do, when, and if I sound a bit braggy it’s because I am actually pretty amazed by his development, and loving every minute of it.
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“How to Catch a Star” Review, Activities and GIVEAWAY!

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We have been sent a lovely book to review by Harper Collins. It’s the 10th Anniversary of ‘How to Catch a Star’ so we received the book in  a lovely presentation box and it came with some lovely extras. The book itself (and a spare copy to giveaway, see below!), a poster, some lovely activity sheets, some glow in the dark stars and a very lovely star shaped USB stick, which has the activity sheets on it.

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The book itself tells an enchanting story of a young boy who loves stars so much that he wants to catch one and have lots of adventures with it. Monkey loves stars too so it went down very well in our house.

Our favourite quote from the story is

“He thought he could fly up in his spaceship and just grab the star.

But his spaceship had run out of petrol last Tuesday when he flew to the moon”

Monkey very much enjoyed reading the book and looking at the pictures with his daddy!

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And he loved the glow in the dark stars and the star shaped USB stick.

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We also had great fun with the activity sheets, though some of them were a little advanced for Monkey he loved colouring all of them in 🙂

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We then did a little star themed painting with a star cutter and a sponge cut in the shape of a star (well, I tried to cut it in the shape of a star! hehe It went a bit wonky! hehe

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To my surprise Monkey did manage to stamp a few stars with the sponges, but then smeared them all over with his fingers hehe. Ah well, at least he had fun!

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Overall it is a lovely lovely story that I am sure will be a family favourite for many years.

Out on the 27 March, the 10th Anniversary edition of How to Catch a Star is  now available from Amazon for £12.99. (At the time of writing it actually looks as though the price is currently reduced to £9.09!)

 

Alternatively you can win a copy of this lovely book by entering the below competition!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent the book for the purposes of this review but all views and opinions are my own. Winners will be contacted within 48 hours of the end of the competition. Competition is open to UK residents only and the book will be posted  within a week from the end of the competition. I accept no liability for items lost in the post.

We're going on an adventure

 

Mini Creations

Cardboard box playtime and a slightly more independent Monkey – 16 months

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Another bit of inspiration from Pinterest today, although randomly I can’t find the page I found it from! Anyway, as I may have mentioned, Monkey loves colouring at the moment, so this week, when I got a new hoover (which, by the way, is brilliant) I thought we should put the box to good use.

The idea is simple – let them draw in the cardboard box. What happens is hilarious and keeps him entertained for ages!

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We also then had great fun by opening up the box so he could use it as a tunnel, hilarious! Especially as it isn’t that big, and definitely not sturdy so it kept collapsing on him, which he actually quite enjoyed. Anyway lots of fun with this activity.

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I mentioned before that Monkey has a slightly longer attention span now, and, well he is also getting a bit more independent! Which I love! Yesterday afternoon I was able to sit in the conservatory and write the baking blog, while he played around in the garden with his chalk and the dirt, and he popped in now and again to play with his box and a sheet that he draws on, then went out again. We played peepo behind my laptop screen a few times and generally he was just totally fine!

Then even better than that, the other day we were playing together in the conservatory when I realised I needed to go and make dinner. So I told him I was going to make dinner, that he should stay here and I would be right back. I have tried this soooo many times and normally he just makes his “I’m not happy about this” noise and runs after me. But this time, he stood up, looked at me and then waved! I went off and popped back and he was so happy. I did it a few times, popped in and out to check on him and it was just no problem at all! Brilliant!

Lovely boy, playing all by himself :)

Lovely boy, playing all by himself 🙂

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It is good timing as Monday I start Jury duty… I just hope that doesn’t set him back as we have come so far and he is much less clingy now… anyway more on that in another post!