Literacy Love

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... the literacy initiative begins!

Actually for quite a while now we've been doing a "Morning Message". I first read about it on Jennifer's website and thought it was a great, free and useful little tool. More about it here.  

I tend to do the Morning Message over breakfast. While the boys are eating we talk about what day it is (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc), the weather, what we are doing imminently and what we are going to do later.  It didn't take long for Spike to become familiar with the format; the predictability is helpful as Spike likes it when he knows what to expect.  I'm trying to use phonics and cvc words as much as possible to help him become accustomed to them. They are great words to start off with as they tend to sound exactly how they are spelled which is good for kids as it is less confusing for them. The Morning Message is also great because Spike decides what we write; the fact that Spike is so involved with what is being written helps to keep him engaged.

The pink underlined words are words that he recognises/we are working on him recognising.

As you can see we are mainly working on the smaller words at the moment.  On this message he was able to recognise "is", "no" and "at".  We have been doing the Morning Message for a few weeks and I am already seeing an improvement in Spike.  He is able to predict correct linking words such as "is", "in", "at" and "on" etc whilst doing the message and is also using these words more in his general speech throughout the day.

In the afternoon we did a Treasure Hunt.  

I wrote a list of things for Spike to find which he loved doing. Then after he had found all the objects he counted the objects and wrote down how many there were. 

Here he is telling me that there is a difference between stormtroopers and snowtroopers, silly Mummy!

I wrote the numbers first in a light colour pen in the box and then Spike drew over them in a darker pen. He also wrote over the numbers in words identifying each letter as he went.

It was a good activity and will definitely be doing it with him again.  When the weather clears up it would be a good one to do outside including some tree and plant identification. Hopefully by then he will also be ready to do some sort of art activity off the back of it. I'm not holding my breath though. I like the idea of incorporating other learning themes within the literacy activity. So here there was a fair bit of maths but we also talked about machines, which of his animals live on the continent of Africa, characteristics of the animals and dinosaurs and their habitats and the difference between machines and living things. Apparently not doing a poo is one of the more significant points.  

Spud yn dweud nos da....  

xoxo

The spectrum and us.

There was always something about Spike. He was gorgeous and super clever but something niggled me.  He was a fantastic baby; he fed well, slept well, was content, would play great by himself, was interested in numbers and picked up new information really quickly.  For months I took comments on how alert he was as a compliment.  I clearly had a little genius in the making and we all think our little crotch goblins are going to be the second coming of Jesus Christ secretly.  He was WAY ahead on all of his milestones, building massive towers out of blocks when the milestones said 3-4 blocks and had double the vocabulary.  Then at around 16 months the talking stopped, even "Mummy" and "Daddy" and he started talking in scribble.  This extended until we went on holiday when he was 22 months and while he was on my shoulders some seagulls flew over us and he pointed at them as said "birds!".  YES SPIKEY BIRDS!!! That same holiday we also got "sand", "sea", "beach" and "flag".  We have built from there since and whilst he is certainly still a bright boy his speech is quite robotic.  He hates chit chat, his conversational skills are best described as ruthlessly efficient.  

Socially Spikey has always struggled. He doesn't have any interest in joint activities. I consider myself a bit of an arty farty type and from about the time he could support his own head I had designated the end of the kitchen as The Kid Craft Area. It groaned with poster paints (with the proper lids that the paint brush fits in!), glitter, foam shapes, coloured feathers, coloured lollipop sticks, pom poms, glue sticks, stickers and a myriad other supplies.  It is so hard to get him to do any sort of arty activity.  Occasionally the mood will take him and it generally always takes a really sensory angle such as hand/finger/face/whole body prints. I have never been able to get him to use a colouring book and he has never had any interest in drawing or writing. 

The Nursery has said that he does the same things everyday and has little interaction with the other children, preferring to observe them.  On tidying up after the children leave for the day his teacher started noticing little caches of lined up objects hidden around the room; eventually she realised Spike was doing it.  He refuses to be touched by his teachers and even hates being touched by me unsuspectingly.  He will howl as if in pain or fright from just a hand being placed on his shoulder. 

 Noises are also a big thing for him. His major hatred is a two-stroke engine like you would find in a petrol lawn mower, hedge strimmer or chainsaw. Quad bikes and motor bikes are also foe. Fair enough you may say, they are loud. But does it really warrant planking on the side of the road to cope with the over stimulus of a chain saw being used 3 miles away half way up the mountain?  One time we'd been for a walk down the lane and two quad bikes drove passed us resulting in a melt down of truly biblical proportions. I had to carry him back up the VERY STEEP LANE as he was terrified of more quad bikes coming. This is a kid who would (if you didn't stop him) march up to and jump on the biggest most maddest horse or a growling dog. He'll climb anything, isn't afraid of falling and you have to watch him like a hawk because he'll throw himself off stuff for the fun of it.

Early on it is hard to pin down your niggles as anything legitimate as children all develop so differently and he was my first. It's only really crystallised for me now Spud is getting older and I can compare the two.  Ahhh THAT'S what conversational babbling is supposed to sound like. Also, Autism presents so differently from child to child. The spectrum is huge and even children who are diagnosed within the same bracket can exhibit very different behaviours.  When you first start bouncing your observations of your child's quirks to other people you'll get a couple of, "No he can't have autism he smiles too much/he can make eye contact/he talks too well".  Not entirely unsurprisingly it apparently turns out that your kid doesn't have to act like the understudy in Mercury Rising in order to have autism. 

We are very much in the early stages of diagnosis. The teacher is fairly certain and tests are apparently going to happen.  Regardless of what diagnosis he gets he's high functioning and in many respects it's a positive thing.  If you can capture his interest in a subject it is sooooo easy to get him to take on board the information. He practically teaches himself anything to do with maths/numbers. But there are drawbacks and Mike's obvious one is getting him writing.  However, I have some initiatives to hand and will keep you updated on the results.

Ciao Ciao x 

The Best Thing I've....

Read | I'm getting myself the Game of Thrones books to read. I also want to fill in all the gaps in my Terry Pratchett reading as well.



Watched | I have finally caved and started watching Game of Thrones. You were all right, it is very good.

Heard | Really loving me a bit of Jenny Lee at the moment:

Also Courtney Barnett:

Made | Loads of makes on the go at the moment. Quilts, crochet, sewing and scrapbooking up to my eyeballs as usual in WIPs. A project I am most excited about is my studio Ghibli playset that I am making for my Niece's up coming second birthday. I am crocheting the Totoro characters and a large Cat Bus for them all to fit into. The patterns will be available for free on this blog.

So far I have completed a Chibi Totoro you can find the pattern here

Worn | Mainly enormous jumpers as it's starting to get chilly on the mountain. Also a lovely scarf that my sister got me for Christmas, a really wide and really long one. The way a scarf should be!



And Lastly ... I'm thinking about my to-do lists this year a lot. For Myself and for the boys.


For myself,

• Lose weight 
• Do my bookkeeping qualifications 
• One day trip a week with the boys 
• Get outside everyday 
• Go to the caravan more 
• Visit the Pratchett's in Oxford 
• Start playing a musical instrument again 
• Read more 

The boys list is more a list of the places I want to take them this year.

Bristol Zoo
An Aquarium
Legoland
Ape Sanctuary
St Fagans
Noah's Ark Zoo
Margam lots with Aunty Hannah
Big Pit
Raglan Castle
Caerleon Baths, Museum, barracks and Amphitheatre
Chepstow Castle
Oakwood
Techniquest
Newport Wetlands
Caldicot Castle
Festival Park Owl sanctuary
Walnut Tree Farm Park
Pontypool and Blaenavon Steam Railway
Twmbarlwm
Folly Tower
Neath Abbey
Swimming at least once a fortnight if we can.
Pontypridd Pit Pony Sanctuary
Wookey Hole
Cardiff Museum, I have a feeling we are going to have to go here often to see those flipping Mammoths.


There will be lots more to add to this as the year goes on I am sure!

(I pinched this from Eileen at In My Playroom)

Winter Photographic Scavenger Hunt.

The Winter Photographic Scavenger Hunt popped up on my reading list somehow and looked fun!  Most of the people I follow on here I have found through my cousin Ann so suspect that is how I found it.

These are my finds so far...

2) Tinsel. 

 Spud was helping me find the things on the scavenger hunt.

4) A Star.

  Well, star cookie cutters... but I love them! A much appreciated gift from my lovely friends, The Pratchetts in Oxford.

                                                         5) A Snowman

.... or... snow family.  I feel I may be playing fast and loose with the titles again.  This came home from nursery at the end of term.

6) A tree that has lost all its leaves.

  Four generations of my family have climbed this tree.  Its a good tree.

7. Berries or Nuts.

  Well,  these would be berries which Spud and I found in the garden.

12) A Fancy Button.

  Well it's not massively fancy I'll grant you that, but it is pink and in the shape of a flower.  That makes it pretty fancy compared to the buttons on most of my clothes. This came off a painting of a gingerbread man that Spike brought home from nursery.

18) An arrow

 On the weather vane in our garden. Nice view of Cwmbran in the background.

20. Cutlery.

 Yep.

21) Your Own Handwriting

My to-do list this year.

That's nine out of Twenty one photo's to get done, so not a bad start!

Chibi Totoro Free Crochet Pattern

I am making as many of the studio Ghibli characters as I can. My kids and the cousins are mad on all things Spirited Away, Totoro and so on.  I'm starting off with the Totoro characters as they are pretty simple shapes.  Although I (rather ambitiously) want to be able to fit all the Totoros inside the cat bus... we'll see how that works out.  So here is my pattern for Chibi Totoro

Equipment:

4mm hook
white aran weight yarn (only a small amount, 50g would be ample)
large darning/wool needle
scissors
black thread
pink thread (optional)

This arrangement is my preferred set up for amigurumi. Now, everybody has slightly different tension etc so hook size and yarn weight can and should be altered to what you get the best result with.

This pattern is written assuming you have a basic knowledge of crochet techniques because 1) I'm not a good enough crocheter to explain things that well and 2) this is the first pattern Ive ever written out properly so will probably not be that great. Please feel free to try it out and give me feedback on how terrible it is.  It's the only way I'll learn!

I haven't told you how to end the rounds because it is up to you.   You can either slip stitch into the 1st stitch of the round and chain one or (as I do because then you don't get a seam) use a stitch marker and work in a continuous spiral.

Method body/head

Making a starting ring in your preferred fashion, you can magic loop if you like.  I chained 3, slip stitched into 1st chain to form a circle.  DC 7 into ring.

Round 1, DC 2 into every stitch around (14)
Round 2, (1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat to end (21)
Round3, (1DC, 1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat around (28)
Round 4, (1DC, 1DC, 1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat around (35)
Round 5,6, 7, 8, 9,  1DC in each stitch around (35)
Round 10, (DC5, DC2 together) repeat around until last 6 stitches DC4, DC2 together(29)
Round 11,12, 13,  1DC in each stitch around (29)
Round 14, (DC4, DC2 together) repeat around (25)
Round 15, 16, 1DC in each stitch around (25)
Round 17, (DC4, DC2 together) repeat around (22)
Round 18, 1DC in each stitch around (22)
Round 19, (1DC, 1DC, 1DC, DC2 together) repeat around (17)
Round 20, 1DC in each stitch around (17)

At this point stuff Chibi Totoro quite stiffly.

Round 21, (DC2, DC2 together) repeat around
Round 22, DC2 together all the way around and sew closed.

Ears,  make 2

Ch5, slip stitch in ch1 to form a ring.

Round 1, 2DC in ch1 and ch2, 1dc in each other ch around (9)

Round 2, 3, 4, 1DC in each stitch around (9)

Round 5, DC3, DC2 together DC4 (8)

Round 6, 1DC in each stitch around (8)

Round 7, DC3, DC2 together, DC3 (7)

Round 8, 1DC in each stitch around (7)

Round 9, (DC1, DC2 together) repeat around and sew to close

Tail

Chain 10, slip stitch into ch1 to form a ring.

Round 1 and 2, 1DC in each stitch around (10)
Round 3, (DC3, DC2 together) twice (8)
Round 4 and 5, 1DC in each stitch around
Round 6,( DC1, DC2 together) repeat around and sew to close.

Making up

Assemble your Chibi Totoro using the darning needle to sew the ears in an upright manner on the head. lightly stuff the tail before sewing on.  Use black thread to sew on eye details and pink thread for optional blush marks below eyes.


Patterns for Chuu Totoro, Oh Totoro and Cat Bus are coming soon!

xoxo

P.S. (Do what you will with my pattern, I couldn't really care less.  If you do reproduce it online it would be lovely if you would link back to this dismal little blog here, many thanks!)

Crimblemas times and other festive tidings.

Christmas this year held a mixture of emotions for me.  On one hand it was the first year that Spike had a real sense of the build up to it and got excited, what with being in nursery and taking part in the nativity.  Spike really is so lucky to be in such a fantastic Nursery now.  They really do all that they can to make everyday as special as they can for the children.  I think childhood should be as full of as much magic and wonder as possible and this year he was really tapping into it all.  However, This was also a time of changes for us.  First Christmas not living in Llangybi, first Christmas Spike getting picked up by his Dad to go and stay with him for a few days and also the longest time I've ever been separated from Spike.  He, however has had a whale of a time and THAT is what is important.

Spike met Father Christmas in nursery and also Mrs Christmas came in and made Gingerbread men with them. One day they had to clean up reindeer poo in nursery as Santa's Reindeer had made a terrible mess and also they had a fab end of term Christmas party.  This year I also got to go to Spike's first nativity play.  I was the mum filming the entire thing whilst also singing along to all the songs and doing all the actions.  Spikey was SO GOOD! No melt downs, or freezing and thankfully no planking.  He sang and danced and clapped his way through the entire thing. I was busting with pride.

                                       

This was Spike's costume for the Christmas Nativity. He was one of the 3 Kings/wise men.  Spike however was adamant that he was a Knight. Infact the only was I could get him to agree to wear the costume and attend the Nativity full stop was if he could be a Knight. So I crocheted him a Knight helmet rather than a crown and prayed the teachers wouldn't mind.  No one said anything so I think I got away with it.  I made the costume itself out of a pillow case and some scrap fabric that my Grandmother gave me.

Sam here is helping me write the Christmas cards.  A friend sent me a link of advice for people spending their first Christmas as a single parent.  One of the items that really struck a chord with me was establishing some new traditions.  I suppose it gives you something to focus on and work towards and also a new sense of identity.  I wanted our traditions to incorporate our extended family as much as possible so it was kind of perfect for us that in the week running up to Christmas we had the cousins Tomski and Umska to hang out with us EVERYDAY!

                   

  

Here they all are doing Christmas Crafts! Tomski made a star to go on the top of our tree as we didn't have a topper and people generally seemed a little displeased with me unceremoniously plonking a toy dalek on top.  We did salt dough ornaments, glitter stars, reindeer's and robins.  We sang Christmas songs and had a new Film to watch and goodies to eat on Christmas eve in our new pyjamas.  A Christmas eve box is definitely a little tradition that I will continue.

This year I made the boys a stocking each. They can hold about half a dozen small toys plus some chocolates and an obligatory Clementine in the toe.  Despite sharing a selection box between two of these stockings for the boys I am befuddled to tell you that neither one of them touched any chocolate over Christmas.  If Spud didn't look so much like me and Spike wasn't so weird (like me) I would be seriously wondering whether they had both somehow been switched at birth.  Anyway, back to the stockings.  I love them, they're so traditional looking and I'm thinking that each year I can add  bit to them, like the Boy's names, some snowflakes etc another little tradition to add to our festive season.

We trimmed the tree all together.  We never had a tree in Llangybi as our living room was quite an odd shape which made festive feng shui far more bother then it was worth. Especially considering we spent the actual main part of Christmas over my parents anyway. Last year I did feel a bit glum about no decorations so I crocheted some sparkly snowflakes to hang in the windows and from the beams.

Christmas Morning! Thanks to our wonderfully generous family and friends the boys (as usual) had lots of lovely presents to open. We have been on pretty meagre rations toy wise since leaving Llangybi so it's been nice to be able to reclaim play time some what.  As usual the kids tore into the presents quicker than I could note down which present came from which relative but they've all been a massive hit!

Spud with the train that his lying Aunty Hannah said didn't come apart.... it actually comes apart into approximately 10,000 pieces. Luckily those pieces are then building blocks that can be made into a tower and so forth. *shakes fist at Aunty Hannah*

This was their main present from me. Trains + Dinosaurs = two happy boys.

My beautiful sister with Spud on Christmas morning. We all hung out and exchanged pressies in the morning and nicked bits of bacon off the turkey as it rested in the kitchen.  Then Ruth went home to have dinner with her family and after dinner Mikey went over his Dad's.  It was all different and strange but still very good.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year!

xoxo

Homework already?!

Spike's nursery send homework assignments home on a Friday for us to do over the weekend. Admittedly at first I was ever-so-slightly horrified. Home work at this age? According to Alfie Kohn who wrote “The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing,” a close look at all the research available contradicts this practice. In an e-mail regarding homework for young children,“No research has ever found any benefit. It’s all pain and no gain.”

I was relieved to discover that at Spike's nursery the assignments are very relaxed and there is plenty of scope to adapt it to his particular learning style. An absolute must for Spikey. The assignments centre around a teddy bear called "Ginger". 

The first week there was a small paragraph to read about Ginger, her family and where she lives. A picture of Ginger to colour in and reference was made to a poem called "teddy bear, teddy bear". A quick Google search soon found it for me. We started with the paragraph, which he enjoyed. We expanded on it talking about Ginger's house, what it looks like; her family and friends and the games they play. Then we did the colouring. This was over in a flash, he just does not care for colouring at all. He did enjoy getting a scissors and chopping the picture to bits. The best bit for Spike was the poem. We were able to get up and put actions to it, I videoed it and he was really proud of the results.

The second week Ginger bear shows us what a good listener looks like and we have to talk about this and show that we can be good listeners too by sitting still, looking, being quiet and of course listening. The poem wasn't as good this week. It was hard to put actions to it and Spike kept going off on tangents and reciting the one we learned last week. The poem was about what a teddy bear is for (cuddles, tickles etc) so I went and got his big blue teddy bear and acted out the hugging and other actions on it. This sustained his interest for about one and a half recitations until he took the teddy off me and started acting out last weeks much preferred poem instead. Well you can't win them all. 

As long as I am able to introduce the activities in a gentle play based way I have no objections to Spike's "homework" assignments. If we had physical sit down pen/pencil in hand stuff at this point it would be way too much. So far I think his school definitely seem to have the right approach.