Kids Coop - Cardboard boxes

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Its time for Kids Coop. Please link up your child related posts and check out what others have been up to this week. I'm linking the following:

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(Goblin is 42 months)

As Goblin gets older I have become wiser in the art of playing with cardboard boxes. When Goblin sees a giant cardboard box he instantly starts listing things he wants it to be. So the latest box acquired from our good friends was apparently going to be a helicopter and a boat and an aeroplane.
In the past I would have set to work cutting it up and trying to build an elaborated construction (for examples see here and here and here). It would have taken a lot of time and Goblin would have been frustrated while I was busy with my masterpiece.

So now I stick to a few basic rules
1. Try to retain the structural integrity of the box. 
In the past I would have cut down the sides to make the shape more "boaty" but the more you break the boxes integrity the less stable it is and the less durable. This limits the length of time that it will remain intact for play. So keep it looking boxy and get your kid to use their imagination instead.
2. Involve your child in the decorating
In the past I would have spent a lot of time trying to build what Goblin had requested but not included him in the process. Now I try and keep it a lot more simple, and get him to give ideas.
3. Embrace paper fasteners
Paper fasteners are my new secret weapon. All kids like moving parts on their creations right? Well paper fasteners are a super simple way of attaching stuff so it can spin around. Thus giving your child something to fiddle with.

So my latest cardboard creation was a simple boat. I did not try to make it look too much like a boat. Instead I asked Goblin what a boat needed. He told me it needed a propeller (yey! paper fasteners). And a steering wheel (more paper fasteners). After a bit more thought he also decided it needed a radar, start buttons, and flashing emergency light. which were achieved through a  yogurt pot, straw and bottle cap.
As we played with his boat I pointed to some barnacles on the keel. "You need to scrape those off so the boat will go faster. Oh and you'll need to pain the hull". My imaginary play suggestion ignited another idea with Goblin. And he set to work actually painting his boat.

And himself! 

This simple box provided an entire day of imaginary play. I love cardboard boxes.

And now to the linky

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Kids Coop - Cress heads

 
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Its Kids Coop time again, please link up your kids orientated posts and check out what others have been up to. This week I'm linking the following:

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(Goblin is 42 months)

I'd forgotten how much fun cress it. Its also such a great quick and simple way to show children how seeds grow. I blew three eggs and bashed in their skulls (she said in a melodramatic way). Then I filled the shells with a few cotton wool balls and some water. Finally I drew some faces on the shells and sa them in a cut up egg box. 

I invited Goblin to liberally shake seeds into the shells. He did a good job of getting them spread across the cotton wool. We sat them on the windowsill and waited. After just one night the seeds had germinated. After two they had tiny green leaves. At day three the stalks were poking over the top of the eggs. Goblin had checked on his cress heads every day and was really surprised on day five by how bushy they were.

On day five we decided they were in need of a haircut. So I got out the scissors. And chopped!

I tried to convince Goblin to try the cress but he wasn't keen. When I tried it and realised how spicy it was I thought it was just as well that Goblin hadn't had any. But I left our cress heads to resprout never the less and within three days they had a full shoot of hair all over again. What a satisfying activity.

And now to the linky

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Nature Nursery is back

(Goblin is 43 months)

A fortnight ago we made it back to Nature Nursery. The farm has been closed for a while because they are doing lots of renovations in preparation for opening the Steiner kindergarden. I was so excited to see what had changes and to let Goblin run loose for a while. 

Goblin still wasn't 100% after being ill for so long and this resulted in mini melt downs on several occasions when the flow of the morning didn't go exactly how he wanted. So while I enjoyed feeding the sheep Goblin was busy sulking because he'd wanted to go to the polytunnels. 

Once we finally made it back up to the polytunnels he was delighted. While we've been away they have laid a wheelchair and buggy friendly track all the way from the barn to the polytunnels. Goblin and Elfin had a great time exploring them and the various lose parts lying around.

But as usual the best bit of Goblin's morning was some unstructured time just mucking around in the hay barn. He found a pile of nylon ties that had been used around the bails. He called them tomato sauce and the hay was his spaghetti. He and the girls got down to moving the hay around and putting tomato sauce string on the top. And when this imaginary play was done they had a game of hide and seek. I'm so glad Nature Nursery is back.

I'm sharing this at
  

The Sunday Parenting Party - House of Plague

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Its the Sunday Parenting Party. Please link up your parenting posts and have a look at what others have linked. I'm sure you will find something you like. This week I'm linking the following:

******* (Goblin is 42 months)

I am soooo fed up. Goblin has been ill for what feels like an eternity. It started way back at the beginning of March with a hideous cough and a raging temperature. After letting that fester for five days we decided to take a trip down the doctors. They listened to his chest and thought he probably had a chest infection so gave him antibiotics. 

That cleared up by the end of the antibiotics and he had a day at nursery before he was floored once more. This time by two hourly vomiting which lasted three days and was accompanied on day two and three by a high fever which obviously we couldn't control as he kept vomiting up all the drugs we tried to give him. 

And just when he had recovered from that and was starting to sleep better again (and following a day at nursery - are you spotting a pattern here?) he developed another temperature. This one seemed to make him so lethargic and floppy that we didn't wait five days. We took him to the doctor after only two. The Doctor looked at him and said "Oh my! He's not well" and gave him yet more antibiotics. But this time despite the antibiotics he proceeded to maintain a temperature of 39 - 40 degrees C (86 - 104 F) for the following five days. He was sleeping really badly and coughing through out the night and that wasn't giving us much sleep either.

This prolonged illness made me worry about all sorts of things.
There was the obvious worries:

• - Is his temperature going to spike in the night and cook his brain
• - is this something more serious that hasn't been diagnosed properly
• - will this ever end?

But there were also the stupid parental worries that I allow myself to have

• - is he ill because I don't feed him the right things
• - should I not fill his days with so much stuff
• - Am I making it worse by pumping him full of chemicals?

Now he is on the mend and we are all sleeping a little bit better I have had time to reflect a little. Firstly it gave me a chance to notice the pattern that most of his illnesses came on within a day or so of going to nursery. That's not nursery's fault but scientists don't call small children "super spreaders" for nothing. They are harbingers of germs and their lack of respect for personal space, hygiene or hankies makes them walking infection magnets.
And secondly Hublet and I both commute from London during the week, probably bringing back half the world's lurgy with us. So Goblin has significantly more chance than most of being exposed to germs that his little body hasn't previously encountered.
Still I'm going to up the level of vitamins and reduce the level of activities in our rhythm, in the hope that we might fend off the next bug coming our way.
One thing this experience had taught me is how grateful I am that the majority of the time I have a healthy and happy little human. My heart goes out to the parents of children who are really ill, who have something serious and may not recover. They must be such strong people.

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My favourites from last weeks link up are
Parenting Mantra ~ Happy Whimsical Hearts
How to choose the best possible day care for your child ~ Mums make lists 
Birth Trauma: If only I'd known ~ Ghostwritermummy
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And now to the linky

Lego Construction

(Goblin is 42 months)

I usually try and avoid playing Lego with Goblin. I find it quite frustrating trying to design something with a small person asking every five seconds if its finished and then inevitably breaking it about two seconds after you hand it over. But today Goblin insisted that we make lego boats, and by we he meant me. 

So I set to work sifting through our giant box of lego to find some suitably boaty parts. Hublet recently dismantled his Millenium Falcon and that has provided quite a few nifty boat shaped bits and bobs. So I soon managed to piece together a few - complete with jets and propellers as instructed. However Goblin has a rather annoying habit. As soon as you have completed the item he first asked for he requests something even more complicated. And today was no exception.
"I'd like a submarine"
Of course you would -  *sigh*

Well I have to say I was actually rather excited by my awesome submarine. So much so that I am going to talk you through the highlights: As you can see it has torpedos, and an opening hatch for the men, and the periscope goes up and down and round and round.

In what feels like an ongoing battle between Lego and me, I feel I may have won this round. In your Face lego!

linking to