Prison tray meals!

(Goblin is 23 months)

A while ago I was reading Counting Coconuts blog and came across the idea of Muffin tin meals. Goblin has had a cold this week and his appetite hasn't been as great as usual so I thought a different presentation might encourage him to eat a bit more. I wanted to give the muffin tin idea a go, but our muffin tins are 3 by 4 which makes a lot of compartments to fill. So instead I used one of our Sing Sing prison trays!

His tray contained:

• Carrot sticks
• avocado
• baby bell pepper slices
• cheese
• raisins 
• pasta and tomato sauce

What I love about this idea is that it is very child led. They can choose what they eat and when - pudding before main! It came as no surprise to me that Goblin polished off the raisins and cheese first. But then he went on to eat the pasta. 

Recently the only way we have been able to get him to eat is to sit him on our knee and feed him, so I was really pleased when he just tucked in on his own. I'm definitely going to use this idea again. But not too often as I think the novelty was half the success.  

Art activities

(Goblin is 23 months)

This morning Goblin and I had fun colouring with crayons. As you know Goblin is obsessed with vehicles, so he wanted me to draw some. He told me what he wanted, I drew it and he coloured it in. As I was drawing he would carry on shouting what it was he wanted me to draw until it started to emerge. 

One thing I was really pleased about was how much of the picture he was covering with colour. When he was younger he'd colour but he'd only cover small amounts of the paper, even if there was a pre-drawn picture. But today he was really trying to cover the whole area. 

(I did the red on the back of the lorry).

We did some painting too. Goblin ripped up some tissue paper and we added it to the pictures. He really enjoyed having has hands painted with a paintbrush, and then he did some lovely hand prints. Then he decided he needed to do the same with the glue. 

Fortunately when this activity came to a natural end Goblin was more than willing to jump in the shower and wash all the glue off. 

Supermarket shopping

(Goblin is 23 months)

Today we went on a family trip to the supermarket. Normally we avoid these outings like the plague. Our preferred method of shopping is online ordering. 
I was not looking forward to trying to keep Goblin in the trolley and calm for the entire trip. So instead we decided to get Goblin to help us do the shopping.  

 Hublet read the shopping list and told Goblin what we needed. 

Goblin raced off to get stuff. I went too to help direct him to the right aisle and to ensure he didn't get squished by trollies or run into people. We found the items together and I handed them to him. He carried them back to the trolley and threw it in - and I mean Threw, it was just as well we didn't need anything breakable. He was particularly cute trying to carry a 12 pack of cat food cans. But he managed it and was very proud of himself. 

 When we were done Goblin helped push the trolley to the counter. 

 And unload the trolley onto the conveyor belt. 

And he helped pack the bags at the other end, although this was trickier as it was hard for him to reach. 
This isn't really an activity that you can do if you are on your own with your toddler (unless you are doing a really small shop and can carry a basket), but if you can go with another adult or older child who can push the trolley its a great way to keep your toddler happy and involved. 

{this moment}

(Goblin is 23 months)

Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}  - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in Soulemama or my comments for all to find and see.

Nature Nursery

(Goblin is 23 months)

Today Goblin and I went to Nature Nursery. A friend of mine organises it at her friend's Biodynamic farm. There are a group of parents and toddlers that come once a fortnight and enjoy outdoor activities. It's like forest school for toddlers. 
Today we started Nature Nursery with a trip to feed the sheep. Goblin loves sheep, he's completely fearless even though they are the same size as him. 

Some of the sheep on the farm are quite feisty. This is Florence trying to get her head in the food bucket (below). Contrary to everything I have heard about farmers not naming the animals they are going to eventually slaughter, all the sheep on this farm have names. Miss M, one of the older toddlers at 3 years old, even remembered some of the names from our last visit. 

There aren't many places where you can get up close and personal with a whole herd of sheep and feed them from your hands.  

The sheep's fleece is really soft and bouncy and Goblin loves patting them. The farm sell the sheep's wool in the natural black and grey colours. Its really beautiful. You can see some of the balls of wool on the windowsill in this photo of Miss M. 

After feeding the sheep we collected blackberries from around the farm. The kids took buckets and a little plastic wheel barrow to collect them, but most of them went straight in their mouths. Its great that they were all so happy to gobble the berries straight off the bushes. But we did manage to save a few for our art project. 

 We pushed the blackberries through a sieve and poured the juice into a couple of plastic pots. Then the kids used their fingers and hands to paint with the juice. It was surprising how few berries you need to do this.  

Even Goblin happily sat and painted rather than running off to do his own thing. I think it helped that he discovered how delicious the paint was.

 Elfin used it as face-paint too. They made some lovely individual paintings. 

And we made a team effort. We collected some leaves from the wood and stuck them onto the paper to make an Autumn collage. I showed Miss M how to get a leaf, rub the back of it in the juice and then print the leaf pattern onto the paper. 

 The finished article looks great. We're hoping it will decorate the school room at the farm. 

 While the mums tidied up and had a coffee, the kids explored. Goblin and his friend Elfin (who looks like a female clone of Goblin - although not so much now she has had her haircut) found a big pile of mud and happily sat digging in it for about 15 minutes. 

Waterboatman, the farmer, took the kids over to the polytunnels to pick tomatoes and potatoes. More opportunities to grub around in the mud, Goblin was in heaven. 

Nature Nursery has everything Goblin loves, space to run, animals to play with and dirt to throw. And he really enjoys being with the other kids. I love it too because, like Goblin, I love being outside, but also because after a morning at the farm Goblin usually naps really well. 

More needle felting

(Goblin is 23 months)

I did some more needle felting and I wanted to share because I was so pleased with how they turned out. As promised I made a dragon. 

His tiny arms make him look a bit like a tyrannosaurus (thank you spell check).  I love his surprised look!

He has a pipe cleaner inside so his neck and tail can move and be shaped. And he has pipe cleaners in his legs to help position him. The only thing is I don't think he'll last too long if I let Goblin play with him as his wings are a bit delicate. 

 My other piece is a little wizard. This was inspired by all the Waldorf gnomes I keep stumbling on in the Steiner blogs I've been reading. 

 They are super cute and I love the fact that they are the right size for Goblin's hand. 

Animal Husbandry

(Goblin is 23 months old)

Anyone who has concerns about toddlers and germs should probably stop reading this post right now.

I have been trying to encourage Goblin to get involved in caring for our pets. He has always liked the kitty and tries to cuddle him all the time. I thought I'd try and get him to feed Kitty in the mornings. But the cans of food we use have a ringpull that is too stiff for Goblin to manage, and the lid when pulled off is razor sharp and the food gets stuck in the can and needs a good shake to get it loose before it will plop into the bowl. So after several attempts, which ended in food all up the walls and on the floor but not in the bowl, I have pretty much abandoned this plan for the time being. 

But I have had more success with Goblin feeding the guineapigs. Since he was about 16 months I have entrusted him with carrying the food bowls from the shed to the cage. He carries them really carefully and tries not to spill the nuggets. Recently I decided to get him involved in cleaning them out.

We have five so they need cleaning out at least once a week (they have the run of the garden so they don't get as stinky as they would if they were caged up). Cleaning them out involves scraping the poop out of the cage into a big bucket, carrying the bucket to the compost bin and emptying it, filling the cage with new straw, filling the food bowls and repeating with the eglu (we used to have chickens and I kept the eglu and now use it for the guineapigs). 

 Goblin always hovers around when I am cleaning them out anyway, so I bought him his own trowel and showed him how to scrape poop. 

Goblin likes carrying the bucket to the compost bin and once I have heaved it up he helps tip it over the edge. The clean straw smells lovely and Goblin likes playing with it, so it quite often ends up around the garden as well as in the cages. 

I like the idea of getting Goblin used to caring for our pets at a young age. And he seems to enjoy the responsibility too. 

Words and letters

(Goblin is 23 months)

Goblin was in a really fun mood this morning. He wanted to play all the learning games on the shelves. As soon as I came into the room he brought me the story stones, and the shell jar, tongs and palette. 

We sat and played with the snail shells for a while. Its great because he gets to practice opening jars, using the tongs and when he gives up using the tongs he still has to use his pincer grip with his fingers to move the little snail shells. He still struggles to use the tongs - which wasn't helped this morning by the fact that he started off using his left hand. He hasn't really settled on a hand that he always favours but I am pretty sure he'll end up right handed as he does seem to do things better when using his right hand. 

I was looking for something bigger than mini snail shells for him to use the tongs with so I took down all our jars of things. Goblin opened the jar that holds all the tessellation shapes. So we made patterns. He'd hand me a shape and I'd tell him what the shape was and then place it on the floor. Goblin wasn't interested in trying to tesselate them himself - the shapes are quite small so its a bit tricky - but he liked watching the pattern evolve and controlling the shapes that went into making it. 

Once he was done with this he helped put the shapes back in the jar - he is getting much better at tidying away before moving to something new. Next he turned to the magnetic letter jar. We had to move Goblin's shelves while we were getting the windows replaced this week. As a result the radiator has been exposed. I showed Goblin how the magnets stuck to the radiator. He really liked this and stuck every last one to the radiator. But it was a bit tricky to make words on the radiator because the letters had to be spaced out between the bumps. So I grabbed our white board which happens to be metal. We must own the only fridge in the world with a plastic door!

I started to make words on the white board. I'd show Goblin the letters and tell him what they were, then stick them together to make a word. Goblin liked sounding the letters. As he is just learning to talk I guess the distinction between a letter sound and a word sound probably doesn't exist. So he is just as happy repeating a "d" sound as he is repeating the word "daddy". We started with the words "Mummy" and "Daddy". Then Goblin started telling me words to spell out. We did "lorry", "fire engine", and the photo is "bus" for which he got props. My goal here was just introducing him to the idea that letters have sounds and that a mix of letters together can form a word.  

Goblin was on a roll with his vocabulary so I pulled out our flashcards. I have never used flashcards as actual testing cards. I use the number ones for matching games and with the counting fish. And I use the pictures on the animal ones to match with Goblin's plastic animals. But this is the first time we just went through them all and I asked Goblin the name of each thing pictured. I was amazed how many words he knew (he even knew "windmill" athough Hublet and I have no recollection of using that word with him). We got through  all the flash cards and Goblin said "more", so I got out an animal picture book and we went through that too. For those of you whose toddlers could talk at an early age you are probably wondering what all the fuss is about, but Goblin couldn't say any words at all at 18 months (much to the horror of one Health Visitor!). So he's only been talking for 4 months and I am surprised every day at the new words he knows. 

One of the flashcards we looked at was the word "hat". Goblin repeated this word so many times that Hublet went off and found our little stash of hats (Nanny bought us some great ones from a charity shop). Goblin of course chose the fireman's hat. For the rest of the day he wore his hat and shouted "Fire engine" intermittently. 

 He insisted that we all put fireman's hats on (luckily we have 4 so the rocking horse also got one). And Goblin, Hublet and I sat on the sofa and pretended to drive a fire engine. Goblin steered and made the broom broom noises and Hublet and I did the siren and flashing light which consists of twisting your hand in a circle above your head. This went on for some time. 

Yes I am in my pyjamas - its Saturday, who needs clothes. You may also be able to see my giant spot on my chin. While I was changing Goblin's nappy today he took a wetwipe and tried to clean it off my face. Bless him, if only it was that easy. 

Waldorf Window decoration

(Goblin is 23 months)

We have just had new windows fitted and they let in so much more light. I have been reading a lot of home ed blogs recently that are Waldorf - Steiner inspired. There is a window decoration that keeps coming up, and its so simple and looks so lovely that I thought I'd make one for Goblin's new window. 
All you need in order to do this is tissue paper in 8 different colours (although failing that tissue paper in two or three different colours that can be alternated would work too).  

If like me your tissue paper comes as a rectangle the first thing to do is make it into a square by cutting off the excess. Then fold all the corners of your square into the middle.

 Then take two opposite corners and fold them into the middle to make a kite shape. 

 Repeat for the other 7 colours and then stick them together to form a star.

Finally mount the star on a window. I used tiny blobs of blue tack. I guess double sided sticky tape might also work. 

Fear not if you couldn't follow a word of what I was saying. There is a much better tutorial on GardenMama's blog. You'll also notice she has much nicer scenery out of the window she sticks her star on. 

{this moment}

(Goblin is 23 months)
Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}  - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in Soulemama or my comments for all to find and see.

Bed Time Books

(Goblin is 23 months)

Goblin has recently started to really enjoy a book at bedtime. We started reading him 'Winnie the Pooh' when he was younger and just enjoyed being with us and hearing our voices, but now he prefers illustrated books. He loves pointing and naming stuff in the pictures as we read. So the more interesting the pictures the better. I had planned to do a post on Goblin's favourite bed time books but got distracted. Reading Mummy and More reminded me. So here is a list of Goblins top 7 bed time reads:

Penguin by Polly Dunbar

This is the book Goblin asks for the most. Its about a boy who gets a penguin as a present but gets frustrated because it can't talk. The pictures are nice and simple, and now Goblin can say "penguin". 

Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers

This is another book about a boy and a penguin. This time the penguin wants to fly. There is a little bit more story to this book and its another frequently asked for by Goblin. 

The Biggest Kiss by Joanna Walsh and Judi Abbot

You can see a theme here can't you - there is a penguin in every picture in this book. (We didn't buy them on purpose but Goblin seems to be attracted to the penguin books). The Biggest Kiss is a rhyme about kisses. Its very sweet and gives good opportunities to be tactile with your toddler (not that you need a book for that).

Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen

This is a lovely book about a good little wolf who meets a big bad wolf and is tempted to turn to the dark side. This is my favourite of Goblin's bed time books. Goblin likes saying "wolf". Lovely simple illustrations.

Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

As you probably know Eric Carle is the author of the Hungry Caterpillar. The Hungry Caterpillar has many dimensions to it educationally, it teaches days of the week, counting, names of foods and the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Mister Seahorse is not quite there. It teaches the names of different fish and how they lay their eggs. And it has lovely illustrations including transparent pages hiding fish. But it really lacks a plot. That sounds daft in a kids book but it makes it a bit grating to read as an adult. And for the age it's aimed at the educational benefit of teaching different fish names is limited in my opinion. But Goblin still likes it. 

Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey

This is a really unusual book with an interesting lay out. The plot about a biscuit bear and the fate of biscuits is amusingly dark and will keep you entertained as a parent while you read to your child. Lots for your toddler to look out for in the pictures, and never fear it does have a happy ending - well for biscuit bear at least! (We've never used the CD). 

Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort

The illustrations are the best part of this book - really bright and cheerful. The story is a rhyme about how Aliens steal pants from humans. My problem is the rhymes are really unpolished which makes it hard to read out loud with a rhythm. Goblin doesn't seem to notice though. 

You may have spotted that The Gruffalo is not on the list. We do have a copy but it isn't one of Goblin's favourites. Its much longer than the books I have just mentioned, and its quite repetitive. For a repetitive book the pictures just aren't interesting enough, there isn't much in each picture other than the animal who is talking to the mouse. So Goblin gets bored. He does however like the flap books that are done by the same authors Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Fox's socks is a particular favourite, and has lots to look out for in the pictures. But we tend to keep the interactive flap books as day time books. Maybe I'll do a post on them too.