Littlemummy.Com

Scribbit has a great way of expanding her kids’ vocabulary, which clearly works!

The Experiment, at Pass the Torch is an interesting read for any parent considering or indeed about to embark on the journey of homeschooling.

Is homework bad for kids? Yes, I think it is. If it is unacceptable for adults to be bringing work home night after night, what makes it ok for our kids to do the same?

Christina at Solo Mother articulates it so well in The importance of ritual

Bring back family night; I’m pleased to say at the moment we enjoy a fair amount of family time, this may well be because we are still at the centre of Erin’s world and there is no-one she would rather be with (perhaps, apart from Bindhi, her teddy blanky).

This weeks Carnival of Family Life featured my post on how to make a halloween pumpkin. There were many other posts that were far superior to mine here are my favourites;

Top 10 unusual reasons to stay at home is a refreshing top ten with a ‘moral behind the story’.

So too much work really does make Jack a dull boy! Hsien says children need more play and less work…

Father Vs Son who will win….pop along to scribbit and find out. I love this woman’s writing!

You will need:

Orange Card (or thick sugar paper)

Black Marker/Felt Tip/Pencil

Green, Orange or Yellow Cellophane

String or Black Wool

Scissors

Glue

Cellotape

1. Draw a pumpkin onto the paper with the black pen, include triangle eyes, a nose, and a toothy grin or grimace.

2. Cut out the pumpkin and then cut the holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth.

3. Glue cellophane on the rear of the eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Cellotape some string on to hang to the ceiling or blue tac to the window so that the light shines through and brings your pumpkin to life.

Related Link: Plus Size Costumes Halloween costumes available in all sizes at Halloween Express!

Extendable trainers for growing kids - why hasn’t this been invented before?….

I popped out to the shops earlier and I ended up going into T K Maxx. It’s not somewhere I have ever been before but I was surprised to find a whole corner full of children/baby toys, all brand name and all with 50% plus off!

I couldn’t believe it when I saw quite a few of the things that we wanted to get for Erin from Santa there all half price or less…

I’m well chuffed Santa got her the baby leap pad for half price, a book to go with it for 75% off, plus Mr Men book ends, building blocks, a noise book with jungle animals, and Baby Barney!

I read a post today. I was going to leave a comment. As I wrote, I realised that my comment was running for longer than three lines. I read somewhere, that if a comment runs longer than three lines you should do an article on you own blog and link-up.

Here’s the article…

and a choice paragraph

During the eight years my children have attended this fine school I’ve watched one thing after another on the playground become “off limits”: the group of twelve trees constituting “the woods” (evidently trees are a silent killer), the open field if there is a trace of mud (in Alaska, a weekly occurrence), the hill if there’s any ice (ditto previous comment), the fence around the perimeter (because fences shouldn’t be touched on general principle) and if there’s even a trace of rain the whole thing is gone–it’s indoor recess.

It made me consider my own childhood…..

Bike rides that started at dawn and ended at dusk - that was the time you had to go in…no watches, mobiles, just when it got dark. Now this was a little open to interpretation - but basically if the cars had their lights on, or if you could barely see the football (or each other) during a game, then it was time to go in.

Lunch was a folded piece of bread with anything from the fridge that you could make in under a minute and take with you.

Weirdos? Yes there were weirdos - aren’t there in every neighborhood? We used to chap their door and run away to get a chase….

We’d go on adventures. Accidents happened but we are still alive to tell the tale. I came off pretty unscathed, my brother on the other hand, burnt his arm in a fire incident, split his head during a stone incident, and very nearly fell into a river - but he’s still alive - in fact he’s in the army nowadays doing much more dangerous things I would imagine. Did those childhood incidents harm him? No, they are his war wounds from a childhood of free exploration, ‘dangerous’ games and fun. In fact, I think he is a tad proud of them!

One of the games that was big when we were young didn’t have a name (or, I can’t remember it), you basically swung on a swing as high as you could then you would leap off and try and get as far as you could. Two people would do this, the winner would stay on and take the next person on….dangerous? yes, any fatalities? not even a broken leg…

Was my mum a bad mum for letting us do this (the bits she knew we were doing!)? No. I know this because all the other kids were there too, even the rich ones! It’s just the way it was.

Childhood is short, lets not spoilt it for the kids by denying them the freedom we had, to explore, make up games and generally, well, be kids…