Getting crafty and creative.

Both K and M have been quite creative lately, to the extent that I feel it deserves a post of its own.

As I mentioned previously over the summer (and indeed before) they have both been making videos and photo stories in various ways.  They have an on-going project with a couple of friends making either a film or a trailer for one, I'm not sure which but it seems to be taking some time, using the friends' family ipad.  They spent hours making a photo story about three friends (cuddly toys) who go on an adventure to save the earth.  M has done at least another one of these on her own and she and I made a video one together mostly while K was at gymnastics recently.  They have also started at least one more with another couple of friends too.

K & M were given this Shrink Craft Jewellery kit, which has been sitting on the shelf since at least last Christmas.  They have both had a go at making things, although K considerably more than M.  She has been experimenting with various ideas and made a bracelet for a friend's birthday.

Another thing we have been given, by the lovely Ma when she came to stay, was this card making kit in a tin which has everything you need to make a dozen or so cards using quilling to make the pictures.  I had a go and then K did.  I posted a couple of photos of the cards K had made on Facebook and when our friends Z & R came round on Friday, Z brought some more quilling paper along with some tools and a couple of books for us to borrow.  They have already been put to very good use by K.

My attempt.

K's first go, from the card making kit.

K's second card making kit effort.

K followed a pattern in a book for this beautiful one.

K & M went to a sewing workshop for the third time when we went to stay with my parents.  On the two previous occasions they made needle books and bunting.  This time it was really cute owls.  They each made a big one and a small one at the workshop.  Since then we've had my sewing machine out and M has made quite a few more and I've made one too.  K made something else, but I have no idea what as it was secret.  Sometimes I eventually find out these things, other times not.

My large owl (back left) and some of M's - she's made even more since this photo!

M and I both had a go at willow weaving at the National Forest Wood Fair on Monday.  I finished off a rattle that the man there had started and M did most of a basket with his help.

M's brilliant basket.

Finally, M has been very busy in the kitchen lately.  For example this morning, she came into my bedroom at 7.30am, asking if she could bake.  That was a bit tricky, as we didn't have any eggs, so she went out to the Co-op and bought eggs and a lemon and had already made the dough for her first lot of biscuits before I was up!

First she made some of these - chocolate with marzipan in the middle.

Later she and L made some multicoloured (pink and blue - not what I would have chosen, but ho hum!) lemon biscuits.  Both of these were to take with her to L's belated birthday sleepover today.  L lives opposite and is good friends with both K & M.

Our summer.

It seems (probably because it is!) an awfully long time since K & M were away at korfball camp, which is when I last blogged.  They both had a great time, although M did have a nosebleed on the final evening when she was accidentally punched in the face by a 16 year boy.  He was understandably absolutely mortified, and even more so when he found out that she'd voted for him as the 'campers' camper', as having been particularly friendly or helpful!  M came home with a trophy for the top girl scorer over the week for the practice shooting that they did each morning and she got 20/20 on the final day.  While there, as well as plenty of korfball, a run and wide games every day, they went kayaking and did high ropes and abseiling, as well as on a trip to a waterpark.  I think it's fairly likely that they will be back there next year.

We have seen various friends in various places, including the lovely Ma, who came to stay for a few days.  She came along to the Summer Scientists at the university.  K & M really enjoy this, although sadly it's the last time K will be able to take part at least officially.  We were told she might be able to go along as an older sibling next year though.

The girls and I went to stay with my parents for a few days while A went to the US for a meeting (flying out on the Monday for the meeting on the Tuesday and home after an overnight flight on the Wednesday morning!) and while there we met up with my friend S and her four children.  It was a happy coincidence that they were staying just for one night with her cousin, who lives in Stratford-on-Avon and we were able to join them there for a cuppa while the children all played in the garden.  We also went to Mary Arden's Farm, Halls' Croft and Shakespeare's Birthplace.  Rather sadly, some of the Shakespeare Aloud actors who perform in the garden, and whom K & M consider friends, have moved on, but we met one of the replacements, Steve, who although he has some big shoes to fill, seems very promising!  K & M also went to a sewing workshop, the third year they have done this, where they made some very cute owl doorstops and paperweights.  M and I have made some more since at home.

Mine is the big one on the left, all the rest are M's made either at the workshop or at home.

K & M were booked in to do three days of gymnastics, one day soon after they were back from korfball camp and two days later on in the month.  Unfortunately M sprained her wrist (the same one she broke which caused her to miss two days of gymnastics last summer!) and couldn't go to the second and third days.  She was not happy, but quite sanguine about it and desperate to be able to go climbing with friends later that week, which fortunately she was!  While K went to gymnastics, M and I had one day when we had lunch in town and the second we went to the cinema to see Inside Out.

We had friends come for part of the Bank Holiday weekend and as well as introducing us to a new game, Smash Up, we went on the Sky Trail High Ropes at Holme Pierrepont and to the National Forest Wood Fair.  The weather wasn't ideal, but it wasn't too bad either.  M and Ma both did some pyrography, burning a picture onto wood and M and I did some willow weaving with help.

M's very sturdy little willow basket.

We've also seen local friends quite a bit, and also sadly had to deal with one of the perils of growing up as one of their friends has decided she'd rather spend time with other people or on her own than with K & M, although I am grateful that her mum made it possible for me to help K & M with this by letting me know honestly what was happening.

One thing that K & M have been doing quite a lot of, variously individually in M's case, the two or them together or with other people including both adult and child friends and me, is making either photo- or little video-stories.  Some of them are quite short, but others are really quite extended and have involved writing signs to go between photos, setting up scenes for their toys to be put into and making props and even costumes.

I'm sure there's plenty more that we've been up to, but those are some of the highlights anyway.

It's oh so quiet!

For the first time ever for more than one night, both K & M are away.  It's M's first time at all away from home without us for more than one night, although K has been away on several Scout camps the longest of which was four nights.  This time though, both of them have gone away for a whole week, Saturday to Saturday, so it's by far the longest stretch that they've been away from home and since the camp they are on is in the New Forest, it's the furthest too.  As well as each other they are with two friends, A, who they are sharing a tent with, and M who has his own tent.  They've gone on a week long korfball camp and it's very strange at home without them!

K certainly appeared completely happy in the run up to leaving, but M was a little bit wobbly.  She never wavered from wanting to go, but definitely had rather mixed feelings about the length of time and the distance.  I know some 10 & 11 year old have mobile phones, but K & M are not among them, so I haven't heard anything from, and it is a question of no news is good news.  I did despatch them with a few stamps (very high tech!) just in case they wanted to send a postcard, either to here or to grandparents, but we haven't had one here.

We're over half way through the week now, A took them down on Saturday and I'm picking them up on Saturday morning.  I can't manage to drive much more than an hour and a half, depending on the time of day, without needing to stop for a nap; on more than one occasional I have had to pull over to sleep when driving back from my parents who live about an hour and twenty minutes away!  Since this is the case, I'm driving down on Friday and staying with my lovely school friend, known as Big K in our house, (although I think K might possibly now be taller!) and her family, the newest member of which I last saw as a bump at Big K & B's wedding last September.  I'm really looking forward both to seeing them and, of course, to seeing my girls again on Saturday!

A big milestone

It's around 15 months since I wrote one of my most-read blog about independence for pre-teens and younger children, and today feels like it was the next step.  K & M are 11 and 10 and for quite some time have been allowed to go out either on their own, which is usually when the trip is tasked based such as going to the shop or the library, or together, which could also be to play in the park.  They also sometimes go to the park with friends and whenever they go out to play someone has to wear a watch and there is an agreed time that they have to be home by.

Last week I had a conversation about with a friend about just this topic and in fact said that I didn't think that K & M were ready yet to use the bus on their own, and in fact when I asked them they confirmed this.

This morning came around though and the perfect opportunity to find out whether that really was the case arose.  When I came downstairs for breakfast, I found that A had left his phone (a work one) on the side in the kitchen.  I asked K & M if they thought they might be able to and want to deliver it to him, his office being in town, close to a couple of bus stops and somewhere they could find their way to pretty easily.  They were both a bit nervous of the idea but, even when I made it very clear that it wasn't something that they had to do and it was entirely their choice, decided that they would go.

They have a travel card, know which buses are options and which bus stops they could use.  So we phoned A together before they left.  M had already decided that she was going to buy elevenses for everyone from the Co-op on the way, which she duly did.  I said that they should go directly to A's office to deliver the phone, but that they could have a short paddle in the fountain in Market Square before coming straight home.

It all went extremely smoothly and they arrived home, just as I was starting to get a bit impatient but well before concern would have kicked in, both looking very pleased with themselves.  I don't think that it's something that will happen particularly frequently, but the confidence that they will have gained by managing their little adventure is, in my opinion, definitely a good thing.

Another week.

Well another week has gone by and I yet again, I haven't got round to blogging.  It's been quite a busy one and A has been away for much of it.

Monday was the second of the two sports days that we've been to.  They were very different!
The Fun Club one was quite big (3-4 dozen children), outside, (with the exception of the three-legged race) individual, organised by the parents and divided up into age groups, although they were fairly broad ones.
The second one, at Old Dalby, was small (a dozen children) inside due to the weather, team activities, organised by one of the children and mixed ages (including a couple of the adults at times!)

M had a bit of a struggle with what she perceived as unfairness in one of the games, even though the team she was on had been consistently winning.  This lead to a conversation about how sometimes fairness might not be treating everybody equally if things aren't even to start with.

On Monday evening we went along to try out Capoeira.  It was acrobatics though, which was fine for K & M, although the movements are very different to the techniques they are used to from gymnastics.  We all enjoyed it though (despite me jarring my neck) and will be back to have a go at the general (rather than acrobatic) class another time.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both quiet days, with the usual activities of piano lessons and korfball on Tuesday, and French horn and swimming on Wednesday.  I also picked more cherries from the tree outside the swimming pool.

The rest of the week was busy!  On Thursday our friends (E, C, L & J) came in the afternoon and the children all played in the park, or rather in the woods on the old railway embankment getting nicely grubby, while E and I picked the last of the cherries.  Or rather the last of the ones that are reachable with our stepladder.  Then the girls had Scouts in the evening.

Friday we had other friends, Z & R, here for the day.  The children got wet having a water fight in the garden and had a great time playing their imagination games, while Z and I drank tea and chatted.  As a result of part of the conversation, I spoke to K and discovered that she is aware that should, could and would can be followed by 'have' but not 'of', which can sound like in colloquial speech.  I later discovered that M didn't realise this, but she now does.  K & M later went to gymnastics.

Saturday was another sociable one, and we went for a walk in a local nature reserve wood, that we'd never visited before.  Then after a shared lunch, we eventually found our way to a small festival, where we listened to a couple of bands, and the girls played with the swing ball that was set up, and with other balls that were lying about.  Once home we dashed out again almost immediately to go and see K's ballet school's show.  She hadn't wanted to take part, but did want to go and watch it and we spotted several friends, who all did very well indeed.

And that brings up to today, when I've been rather incapacitated by a sore neck/shoulder.  The girls cleaned out the rats' cage with A, then we watched the film based on the first three Lemony Snicket books.  It was rather different from the books in places, but worked quite well nonetheless.

M seems to have got into a crafty mood and made me a present this morning and she has also started crocheting a hat, like the one she made A for Christmas, and is trying to follow the pattern again, not something she finds easy.

As you can see, it's a rest for a crochet hook!

In other news, we have been playing more Vapoosh!, mostly M and I but I have also had a game with K.  M has been transferring her improved times tables knowledge from playing this to Timez Attack on the computer and has progressed well as a result.

We have also continued, and indeed finished, reading Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals.  While K & M have expressed their disapproval at some of the events in the book (Durrell takes two birds from a nest for example, although he does leave the mother bird two chicks), we have as happens quite frequently talked about how things that are not acceptable nowadays, were considered fine when they took place.  We have all really enjoyed the book though, and the descriptions and rich language are absolutely fantastic.

Finally, I think that the cherry season is probably over for this year (although I will be taking tubs to the girls swimming lesson on Wednesday, just in case).  I've been totting up the amazing harvest and this is what I have done (or will do having frozen quite a lot) with what we've picked:
3 pies
3 clafoutis
2 lots of ice-cream
2 lots of jam/sauce (about 9-10 jars)
1 batch of muffins
That's as well as taking plenty along to share with friends at various times and eating a very large number ourselves.  All in all pretty good going!

A bit of a catch up.

For various reasons, I have once again got out of the swing of blogging regularly, so have decided to do a bit of a catch up post and then try to get back into the swing.

So some highlights of the past few weeks:

M had a go making a poster with an old fashioned printing press.

K produced this masterpiece on graph paper.

We went to a friend's climbing party in Derby, which was great fun.  There was abseiling, climbing, a high ropes course and bouldering (as below).

We also went for a outdoor swimming session in Ashby de la Zouche, which was fun.  The girls swam while I chatted with various people and did some cross stitch.

K continued following the FutureLearn Start Writing Fiction course, and although she didn't want to share any of her work online, she tells me that she did do all the set tasks.  The only thing that she couldn't do assess other people's stories, because in order to do this you have to submit your own work first.  Since then she has been working on a story, although I haven't been allowed to read any of it yet.

It was the Fun Club Sport's Day last week.  M took part in everything in the 10+ age group and having only just turned 10 the month before, was one of the youngest in the group.  She came in the top three in every event, winning the girls' 10+ long run, the obstacle race and the three-legged race with her partner.  K didn't join in at all this year, but enjoyed herself watching.

Following one of the sort of conversations we have periodically, usually following a period of not doing so much, we agreed that aiming for 30 minutes each day of each of English and maths, as well as some music practice and also some work on something else, a project for example, would be a good plan.  K seems to have really taken to this and most mornings lately has been up, had breakfast and done her English (working on her story), maths (a workbook) and music before I'm up!  M has taken to it with quite the same gusto, but we have been playing rather a lot of Vapoosh! for the maths side of things, and her times tables are definitely improving as a result.  She has also decided to do a project on jaguars (the big cats that is) and has made a start by getting several books on the topic out of the library.

It's been a while since I've made a note of what we're up to regularly at the moment, so here goes.
Monday - twice a month group in Old Dalby (used to be Asfordby)
Tuesday - piano lessons and korfball and once a month Fun Club
Wednesday - French horn (M) and swimming and once a month ice-skating
Thursday - Scouts
Friday - gymnastics
Saturday - ballet (K)

Today we met with various friends for a birthday picnic in Wollaton Park.  We had a lovely time with great bunch of people, some we've known for ages and some new folks too.  Quite a few of the people there were friends of the birthday boy and family from doing Capoeira together.  M had a go and has decided that she would like to try it out properly, so we may be adding to our list of regular activities if it works out.

In other news, it is cherry season!  After a very disappointing haul last year, this year's crop is absolutely amazing.  So far we've picked around 20lb from the trees in the park and next to the swimming pool.  Unfortunately, despite two efforts at jam, we've just ended up with an awful lot of cherry sauce, but I've also made a pie, muffins, ice-cream and I'm planning a clafoutis and of course we've also eaten lots!

About half an hour's work.

A book that deserves to be read.

Just over a year ago my friend, Teika, asked me if the girls and I would be interested in reviewing a book that she was considering publishing with her small independent publishing company, Mother's Milk Books.  Knowing that Teika has extremely high standards, I was very keen and K & M were happy to give it a go.
 
The book, Oy Yew, did not disappoint.  If you read this blog regularly you will know that I read to my girls frequently.  There are many books that we enjoy and a lot of which the girls ask for 'another' each time I finish a chapter, but books that they keep asking for (rather than just giving an enthusiastic yes if I offer to continue with it) later that day or the next, are much rarer and Oy Yew was one of these.  The girls' first question on finishing the book was 'Can we read the next one?', unfortunately, although the answer is yes, we will have to wait until next year for the second of the trilogy.

The world that the author, Ana Salote, conjures up is vivid and compelling and the title character intriguing.  Most of the characters are either from the ruling Affland, some more sympathetic than others, or waifs from Poria, badly treated children who have to serve the Afflanders until they reach the height that earns them their freedom.  Oy, however, is different, he isn't from either of those places and we don't really know much about him, since he doesn't know himself, but as he begins to find out so does the reader.  The baddy, Master Jeopardine, is one of those villains that you really love to hate, with his sinister hobby of bone collecting.  The waifs, kept hungry and worked half to death, take comfort from each other and together gradually find ways to fight back against their miserable existence.

Last weekend, K, M and I went along to Lowdham Book festival and attended a very interesting talk with Teika Bellamy, the publisher, Ana Salote, the author and the illustrator, Emma Howitt.  They spoke about the process of 'bringing a book to life' from the author's brain to the bookshelf.  There's a lot more to it than you might think!  Emma's cover is absolutely perfect in the way it fits the atmosphere of the book and portrays an important incident in the story, although the girls and I weren't quite so keen on her picture of the waifs inside.

You can read the first chapter of Oy Yew here, and it gets even better.  Please do consider buying this book for a couple of reasons.  Firstly it is a fantastic book (and it deserves to be read by lots of people), and secondly it would be supporting a brilliant little independent publisher that brings some really beautiful books to the world.  (You might also like to consider buying Musings on Mothering, a truly beautiful anthology that would make the perfect present for any mum, new or otherwise.  You can read some reviews and some excerpts here.)

It's not often I say this, in fact I don't think I've ever done so before, but please do share this post.  The more people who hear about this book (and hopefully buy it of course!) the better.