Writing box

I have been having a lot of conversations with other mamas this week over the best thing to do with Charlies love of reading/writing at the moment. I don't want to push her but want to enable her to progress as she wants to and finding ways to do this that let her be in charge is hard. Charlie is not the type of child who likes to be 'taught' and has a real need to discover things on her own. Anyway a good friend over at 'roots and wings' suggested setting up a writing box as she has done with her daughter. It sounded perfect and very much Charlies kind of thing so I set to work finding postcards (I have several hundred as I went through a phase of collecting them), note cards, envelopes, nice pens etc and put them all in a little unused box I found at the back of a cupboard. I also made some little cards with words she might want to write and a picture so she could copy the words she wants without having to ask.





We had a quiet spell late this afternoon between returning from toddlers and needing to get dinner on so I decided to show her the box and see what she thought. She loved it! Huge hit so thank you soooo much Laura for the idea! She set to work right away addressing postcards to people.









one of the postcards didn't have much space so she had to really concentrate to write small. I was very very impressed!!



she also copied some words directly onto paper





and then stuck the sticky label on her cat!



Thanks again Laura for the suggestion! much appreciated

sticker stories

Once upon a time there was a boy playing golf and he fell in a hole. Then a dragon came and a birdie came to save him. The boy held a fish and it started to rain and all the rain fell on the dragon. He doesnt mind getting wet. A little mosue ate some cheese and the dinosaur rescued the boy. Then a pussycat came and sat next to the mouse and a reindeer came with a christmas tree.

The end

Been a bit busier

and have been up to lots in the last few days! Its nice to be feeling a bit more normal and capeable of getting through the day without wanting to curl up and sleep before mid-day, I'm sure Charlie is appreciating it too!

We've made scones



Played with salt dough (made snowmen, and then charlie got me to make rats and a cat and acted out the whole of tom kitten!! eek shes only heard it once and I felt uneasy about a kitten being rolled in dough etc so hid the book! she picks things up way too quick atm! That said she did then change the story and had the rats and cats friends and then they all went to buy some cookies together)







Had a lovely indoor picnic for lunch





and have done lots of random art (chick and footprints here)





Along with the usual classes, toddler groups, friends visiting, playing, drawing, reading etc that we always do. yay to second trimester returning of energy!

Soft play

Today I asked Charlie if she wanted to to go to our local softplay. She looked at me, thought about it for a minute and said 'lets make softplay at home'. What a good idea I thought and so we happily obliged! We dont usually let her jump on the furniture but some days rules are meant to be broken and we all had so much fun I dont regret it in the slightest!

Here is Charlie making a helicopter



and her and Daddy building a tunnel









and a slide





and a hidey hole by her kitchen



lots of jumping





here's a video of her assualt course! We had so much fun we are keeping this set up to play again in the morning!

More spelling

Charlie is very interested in spelling and reading atm. She figures out which words are which in the titles of her books, asks us to tell her words when we are out etc and is slowly letting us in on the secret of which words she now 'knows'. When we got home from a toddler group on tuesday she turned to me as I was opening the front door and said 'Mummy I can spell 'Mummy' m. u. m. m. y.' she also has learnt the word Sam and I have no idea how!! Other words I've noticed she can point out but hasnt yet randomly told me she knows are Daddy, Nanny, Bus, Bear, cat. Its so lovely watching her figure out the code but some days she gets frustrated at bed time and says 'i cant read all the words'. I can tell she is so desperate to have it all figured out already and I have to keep reminding her that it takes a while to learn to read and that Mummy and Daddy even now struggle to work out some words in books and that she is very clever and not to worry. Anyway here's another little video of my gorgeous girl in action (I have to point out that I dont generally get her to spell things out for me, its purely for the sake of the camera)!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa

Yesterday was Great Grandpas birthday. I made him a lovely card



and signed my name!



We went round today and I had lots of fun playing with Great Grandpa





and dressed up Grandad in a nice hat too!



Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!

floor art

Charlie sometimes decides to make art with whatever she has on hand, she has done this for as long as I can remember but sometimes things are so cute we have to share.

This is Charlies snowman



who fell down and bumped his head!



and then got hair and a wand