Granddad

My granddad, or Supergranddad as we call him as he was a great-grandfather aged 95, died last Monday evening. He suffered a stroke a little while before Christmas and was unable to recover. He was very well cared for by my Mum and Uncle and the hospital staff, though it's been a very painful time for Mum and Uncle struggling with communication difficulties and watching him deteriorate and suffer. Now they are busy preparing for the funeral. I've been able to help a bit with this, but Mum and Uncle have most of it well under control.

Even though Granddad was 95 and had had a stroke, well, we knew he wouldn't go on forever, his dying still feels shocking. Age has nothing to do with it, his absence will leave a hole in our lives. Right up 'til the end, I could have conversations with him and get a more intelligent response than most people I know (no offense!) and he had a fantastic memory - puts mine to shame! And he kept himself as fit as he could too, working on his allotment, cycling, walking everywhere and wouldn't be beaten by his first stroke. The recovery he made from that was astounding. But this last stroke was too much for him and I'm glad that he's now at peace.

So, now, guess what? I've been trying to follow his example since New Year by trying to live a healthier, more active life. It's not easy and I'm building up slowly, but I have my bike out now and am using it. I don't get far. I am extremely unfit and I have to carry Hope on the back which adds to the weight. She'd make a good personal trainer as she shrieks "come on! go faster Mummy" and " we're not going home, yet!"

This afternoon I cycled up to the cricket ground where two new benches have recently been placed. One of them is in memory of the young lad, Jack, from next door who died just over a year ago and the other one is for Ricky, another young man from the neighbourhood who died last year.

I've just got back from another panto rehearsal with the kids. It's coming together nicely now and although I've seen it several times, it still makes me laugh. I'll be sorry when it's all over which won't be long now.

Scenes from Christmas - a late post.

Oh look. I've just found some pictures taken over the Christmas holidays. I know we are half way through January but I thought I'd share 'em anyway. I don't know if you have noticed, but it seems that public swimming pools tend to be quiet at this time, so we had a very pleasant time at this one in Deal, which had some flumes and a wave machine and a good toddler pool for Hope. I'm going to try and take her swimming more often.
These pics are from Boxing Day. Here's Auntie Vicky playing carols on the piano while we sing along.
I love this picture: do Jingle Bells again!
... blowing bubbles.
And opening pressies on Christmas day.

Hope loves her fairy wings and magic 'blond'!

Happy New Year.

I'm still here. Just had a little blogging break while getting through Christmas and New Year. Plus - we've had the builders in over the last few months converting our loft into an en suite bedroom. Hubby and I got to move into it over Christmas so we no longer share a room with Hope. Now we all have our own rooms. I shall have to post some pics soon. It's lovely to have our own space again, though the kids still manage to muscle their way in sometimes. For Christmas, Hubby bought me the first season of Lost and I decided to let Honor watch it with me, all snuggled up. Now she is totally hooked and we've stayed up really late some nights watching episode after episode. I'm still trying to make sense of it.

Honor and Henry are still involved in rehearsals for the local pantomime. I'm still enjoying the practise nights and have now been given the job as prompt. I have to really concentrate on the action and the script and it's not easy knowing if the actors have paused for dramatic effect or need help. I think one or two of those thespians get a bit irritated if I jump in too soon with their lines!

Apart from that, it's back to the usual routine.

Elves in the loft?

I got the Christmas decorations out today.

I don't get it.

I specifically remember putting them all away tidily and well organised into their boxes at the end of the season last year.

But they didn't come back out that way.

Why is that?

I don't get it!!!

Plasticine fun.

I don't consider myself to be the most creative of people especially when it comes to taking part in plasticine and playdough activities. Believe it or not, I've spent a fair few hours trawling the internet for some inspiring plasticine tutorials but have so far been unsuccessful. Hope loves getting these modelling materials out but I often feel a bit useless when it comes to giving her a bit of direction. So on this occasion we had to rely on our own creative skills; as we had just been looking at The Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet book we decided to make delicious plate of fruit.
And counted: one apple, two juicy pears, three tart plums, four sweet strawberries and five oranges. We also had to make a banana!

And a beautiful butterfly with two wings!

Practical life

Here is an update of the practical learning activities that the children have been doing around the house lately. Hope enjoys doing a variety of Montessori tasks such as using tongs (though she often cheats and uses her fingers) to pass objects such as little plastic frogs from a container into the portions of an ice-cube tray.
In these pics she is transferring water from the left bowl to the right using a sponge. These activities are thought to get young children ready for the left to right process in learning to read. Then we played with the little frogs, counting them and making them jump from pool to pool.
Henry uses these base ten blocks which are fabulous for helping him understand loads of number concepts.
Here, we are about to follow a recipe for cheese stars from this jolly phonics book.


And I set up this pet shop to help the kids learn about adding up money and calculating change. This play till cost £10 and as well as calculating mentally, the children checked their answers using the till as preparation for future SATs tests that they sit in school - one of the papers is a calculator paper.
More uses for ice-cube trays! I've almost managed to sort out my homemade moveable alphabet. I just need one more for my vowel sounds.
We use this alphabet for word building. I am currently making a new set of tactile letters for Hope. I used to have a set of sandpaper one that I made years ago but they got ruined when the hot water tank leaked into our cupboard. As I don't much like the feel of sandpaper and find it quite tough to cut the letters out, I decided this time to use foam board and lighter foam to make these.

The website MontessoriMom.com has some great ideas and free resources.

Stuff and nonsense.

I don't know why I don't invite the children's friends round more often as it seems to be the only time they leave me alone to a bit of peace and quiet. At last I get to catch up on a bit of blogging. Today is Children in Need day and the children went to school wearing spots and took part in activities to raise money for this worthy cause. So last night I was up 'til midnight sewing spots on Henry's blue t-shirt. We've agreed to put the t-shirt away somewhere carefully afterwards so that he'll have something to wear next year and I'll be able to go to bed a bit earlier! Before I started on the sewing, I had taken Honor and Henry to the rehearsal for the pantomime that they're involved in with a local theatre group. We absolutely love going to these rehearsal evenings. It's great for the kids to be working alongside other people of all ages and it's such a fun and uplifting way to spend the evening. Of course, the kids love it even more because they get to stay up late. Honor, in particular, is really getting into the performing arts side of life. She's now going to guitar lessons (Hubby goes with her and tries to learn too!) And she has joined a performing arts school on a Saturday which she loves. They practise one hour of singing, one of dancing and one of acting. I think Henry would enjoy it too so maybe he'll join a bit later on.

And I've just received an email from the NHS. They do a national weighing and measuring programme in schools and are about to go into Honor's class to gather their statistics. After they measured Henry in Reception class and called him obese I decided I wasn't going to play this game anymore! So I let them know that HM wouldn't be taking part and to redirect the money they might save into paying for someone to feed the starving and neglected old people in hospital. My comments have been passed on to the head of dept.