Thursday, June 30, 2011

Chipmunks Drawing ~ 2 ~ 30-06-11




This a drawing Chipmunk did of his family this morning.

It was the teachers strike so Chipmunk had the day off school.

Nice work Chipmunk :-)


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Monday, June 27, 2011

Water

Just lately Chipmunk has been playing in water *a lot.*

First of all there is obviously his swimming,which he loves.

Secondly after tidying his water tray out he has been playing with it on a regular basis.

I love the fact that Chipmunk fills his water tray up all by himself.He's got his own bucket and can manipulate the outside tap.He knows that it's best only to fill the bucket half full as otherwise it gets to heavy to carry.The carrying of water in bucket is good for him because it is heavy and makes him use his muscles and it's also good to see him tip the water into the tray as he has to manipulate the bucket to get the wanted result,not a straight forward task!

We made boats for it yesterday from junk material and talked about *attaching*
Chipmunk used Sellotape to attach the sails to the boats and then we went and experimented with the boats in the water tray.






Two were successful but the other two sank and had to be dried in the sun.






The successful boats did indeed float and Chipmunk was really pleased with them.
Here they are bobbing merrily along






The other area of water play that Chipmunk adores is his paddling pool.

It may only be small but Chipmunk has hours of fun in it,proving that it's not always the big fancy toys that are the best!

Even on a cloudy day Chipmunk will play in his pool,he's not bothered about being cold or wet at all.

I think we are going to be using water a lot this summer :-)





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Chipmunks Year 3 Teacher

On Friday we found out what teacher Chipmunk would be having when he transfers from Infant to Junior School!

I was quite nervous about finding out but as it turned out Chipmunk is having a teacher that has had both Tiger and Sharky.

No teacher before has ever had all three of the boys!

Now I know about this I feel a bit easier.

What will be,will be and all that...

He knows a couple of the children that are going into his new class and I think this will be a good thing for him.

There is more transition activities happening during July so we will have to embrace the change for sure!


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Church Youth Club

It was a really busy week last week,lots of clubs and activities after school,really enjoyable though.

On Friday Chipmunk went to the church youth club.
He goes there once every three weeks and really enjoys it.They do lots of different things and today the main activity was baking.
The children were given some cookie dough and they rolled it flat,cut out a shape and then popped it in the oven to bake.

Chipmunk made two star shapes and when they had baked he decorated them and ate them both up :-)

The next day he said to that he had wanted to bring one home to show me but they were so delicious he decided to eat them both! I had to smile at that comment! To be honest they did smell very eatable!

The children played a game of dodge ball which was extremely boisterous and talked about the Lords Prayer.

Chipmunk put two bags of coins in the collecting bottle,his mamma had saved those for him to take.It took a long time to post all those coins,it was a good job that he had help from one of his school friends.

The night passed happily and Chipmunk had a good time.



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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Spellings ~ The Result!

Well Chipmunk got 5 out of 6 spellings,a great improvement on last week!

I think he was a little disappointed that he didn't manage 6-6 but I think he has done great!

The one that foiled him was *lady*

Now this weeks task is too make a sentence with the spellings using a connective!

Interesting!We'll see how we go!




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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Swimming ~ Almost a frog!

Today Chipmunk was described by his swimming teacher as *almost a frog* :-)

This made me smile and I've been saying it ever since!

*Almost a frog* it has a certain ring to it I think!

It was of course breast stroke week and the children were doing *froggy arms and froggy legs*

Chipmunk tried so hard this week and had quite a serious look on his face for most of the lesson as he concentrated on making his arms and legs move in circles just like a frog.

There was only 6 children this week and the behaviour was good so they all did a lot of swimming.

I always love to see Chipmunk swim and I think he enjoys the lessons too.


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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Eek!A Wobbly Mess!

On Tuesday what a mess we had!

Chipmunks water snake burst in bed,all over the sheets,all over the duvet and unbeknown to me all over Chipmunk!

The said water snake was bright red with glitter in it!And it spread everywhere!

Chipmunk hurried down stairs when he woke up to show me what had happened and I thought " whoops " but just thought I would have to clear it up later.

I didn't realise the full extent of the mess until Chipmunk was getting his school uniform on and I noticed his legs were bright red/pink and then I noticed it was on his back and his bottom and his arm!

I tried scrubbing him with a hot flannel and lots of soap but it only came off a bit.

There was nothing else for it,Chipmunk had to go to school red!

Luckily most of the redness was covered up with Chipmunks uniform and later that night he had a nice warm bubbly bath and that took away the last of the redness!

It even dyed Owly and he had to have a wash in the washer,poor Owly.
Here he is looking decidedly pink!






We now have a new rule

*No More Water Snakes's In Bed*



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Matching

On Monday I was watching a tv programme about a woman who had quads ~ 4 identical little girls and she consistently dressed them in matching clothes.

This got me thinking about when the boys were young,especially when Tiger and Sharky were young as I used to match their clothing a lot!

They always had a matching coat and gloves and hat each year.

They always had a new England kit each year.

I loved stripey tee shirts and I can really remember them having red and white stripey tee shirts from Next,they wore those shirts to pieces because I just loved how they looked!

They had matching socks too and it made sorting their socks a terrible job as they were just slightly different sizes so you had to look so carefully to match them up correctly!

I just loved how they looked when they matched!Proper brothers!

All their early school photos had them in matching clothes and when I look back at them it really makes me smile now.

I was thinking how early I started matching them and think it was before Sharky was one year old as I can remember them at Cornwall just before Sharky's first birthday and they were in the red stripey shirts!

Now if I ever see little children in matching clothes it makes me smile and remember those two little boys whose mummy made them match :-)








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Spellings ~ 3

Tonight Chipmunk got 5/6 spellings right ~ woohoo!

He just got one letter wrong in herb,he put a 'o' instead of a 'e'

This is looking much better than last week!

I think Chipmunk and me are feeling quietly confident :-)

I think he's going to have a good go at it this week!

We shall see!


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Footy Club ~ 2

Today after school was the much awaited footy club!

Chipmunk was very excited about this club and had been counting down to it since last week!

Luckily this week the weather was ok,not sunny but at least the rain held off and the children were able to get out on the field.

Chipmunk was a goalkeeper today and they played what Chipmunk described as a *real match*

It was J.L's turn to take the trophy home at the end of the session,Chipmunk said he got it because he did a brilliant save!

Roll on next weeks footy club :-)


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Magic potion!

On Saturday Chipmunk & I decided to play in his water tray.

I made Chipmunk a water tray last year out of a big old sandpit and it's just the right height for him as all the commercially bought ones were to small for Chipmunk.

To make the water interesting I used red food colouring & strawberry essence so it looked good and smelt delicious!
I also added bubbles so it was extra exciting.
The toys Chipmunk played with were mainly clear so you could see the red water through them.

Chipmunk had a jug and some bottles and a huge bucket and he decided to make poisonous potion!

I thought the mix looked like strawberry milkshake but obviously Chipmunk thought different!

He spent ages mixing and pouring the *potion* and got absolutely saturated!

But as always with water Chipmunk had fun and I enjoyed watching him play :-)

I'm going to enhance Chipmunks water play by using different coloured water,different smells and some clear objects like funnels and tubes and I'm going to do some simple science experiments like floating and sinking.

Exciting times ahead!











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Monday, June 20, 2011

Basketball

Had a lovely time outside today with Sharky and Chipmunk playing basketball ~ well they played,I sat and watched and smiled and appreciated what I was seeing!

Sharky is nearly as tall as the basketball net now and does not have to reach much to get the ball in the basket.

Whilst Chipmunk has to throw hard and high to get the ball anywhere near the net!
He seems to have some really strange throwing techniques and he aims in one direction and the ball goes in completely the other direction!

They both had fun though and it was lovely watching them play together outside.











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Photography Club

Chipmunk goes to school photography club every Monday now.

He seems to be enjoying it and has learnt how to take a photograph and download it on to a laptop.
He said today that the teacher was discussing putting music on it too.

I'm glad he's enjoying it,it's something completely different for him :-)


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Spellings ~ 2

Well the spelling chart I made for Chipmunk is working!

He has practised it every day since it went up on the fridge. I mix all the words up and it looks like this when he's finished with it



He's had more practise on the computer and yesterday he wrote the spellings on his whiteboard.It's looking good!

Chipmunk ~ 19-06-11

What I'm going to try and do is get Chipmunk to draw a picture of himself each week so I can see progression & also have a lasting memory of how his drawings were :-)

Here is his first one ~ done last night after his mamma and grandad went home.



I like the square hands!That is a recent thing.


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Friday, June 17, 2011

Spellings!

Last week was a bad week for spellings!

A mix up on the school website confused me & Chipmunk,then after school clubs meant I didn't get chance to check with his teacher until midweek,then we lost his reading packet so it got too today and Chipmunk hadn't even seen this weeks spellings!

School were great and he did not have to do the spelling test,he read instead,but its made me think that we are going to try hard with the spellings this week!

We started a day earlier than normal and Chipmunk was getting 5/6 right on computer practice,which was great!

I've made him a matching board too and put it on the fridge,I'm hoping that the more he looks at the words the more they will sink in.



Let's hope that with a good weeks practice he can zap next Fridays test :-) Or at least have a good try!

















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Swimming

Today's swimming lesson went really well,Chipmunk was working on back stroke tonight.

For the first time Chipmunk used both arms and legs at the same time.
I'm really hoping he keeps that up!

Before swimming we went to the park and Chipmunk had a play on the slide where he was going down on his tummy,then he went on the train and on the trim trail.

After swimming we had chippy chips with his mamma and grandad.
A busy but nice after school time for Chipmunk :-)

The river next to the swimming baths


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Footy Club




Chipmunk has joined the football after school club this week and what a success it was!

He got to wear a proper football kit ( pictured above ) and bring it home!
He was so proud of it!

The teacher who was running the club said Chipmunk *scored a cracking goal* in the penalty shoot out!

Chipmunk cannot wait to go again!




Monday, June 13, 2011


The Pole
 
This pole may not seem much but it makes me smile every time I pass it!


It all goes back to the time when Sharky was at Leas Park & we had a friend called Chloe,when they both came out of school they would run to this pole and do roley poleys over and over again.

These days I would give anything to see a little one doing that but I do appreciate the memory of the little boy who used to spin round and round and round :-) 

The pole is bit broke now and really rusty but still it makes me smile!






Silverstone

Well today was great!Chipmunk woke up at 5.45 with the words "This is going to be the best day of my life"

He had breakfast and then went
to wake Tiger and Sharky up.
After getting dressed he went to sit in the car and we were ready to go!
After a bit of a swap round Chipmunk was put in the back with me and off we went.

The journey was good and Chipmunk was really well behaved and it didn't seem to long before we arrived at Silverstone.



We went and stood quite close to the track at first and Chipmunk was very happy to stand and watch the bikes roar past,it was only when the Moto Gp Bikes came out that he decided it was too loud and put his headphones on.


We walked to another spot a bit later and on the way there saw lots of shuttle buses and even people with cones on their heads



We set up camp and Chipmunk
enjoyed the picnic,a really big ice cream and wrestling around with Sharky!

Tiger got went exploring and got some great photos of the bike riders and 5 cans of free monster!He was suitably pleased!

The sun shone most of the day and we all came home with a bit of a tan!
It was a great day out :-)



Rossi Flags


Look at the big clouds!



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Friday, June 10, 2011

Weekends here :-)

Woohoo for the weekend :-) and boy isn't Chipmunk excited for this weekend because he's going to see the bikes at the Moto GP at Silverstone!

Tiger and Sharky have been for years now but this is Chipmunks first time!

He has told everybody he meets that he is going to see the bikes and I mean *everybody* :-)

I hope he has a great time and it's everything he hopes it will be.


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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

This Is A Home Where Children Live

This is a poem I have had stuck to the kitchen wall since Tiger was born,the paper is now discoloured and scruffy but the words still ring true.

This Is A Home Where Children Live.

You may not find things all in place,
Friend,when you enter here.
But,we're a home where children live,
We hold them very dear.

And you may find small fingerprints
And smudges on the wall.
When the kids are gone,we'll clean them up,
Right now we're playing ball.

For there's one thing of which we are for sure,
These children are on loan.
One day they are always underfoot,
Next thing you know,they're gone.

That's when we'll have a well kept house,
When they're off on their own.
Right now,this is where children live,
A loved and lived in home.

By Judith Bond

One of the nursery mums gave it to me when I had Tiger.
I really liked this mum,she had 3 small children under 5 and was a lovely person.
I think now she has at least 3 grandchildren and my Tiger is 18!
I still stick by these words,I will never regret not having a spotless home but I would regret forever making the most of my time with the boys as they grew up!



A rather tattered and dirty poem!

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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

School Run

I love the school run!In the morning it's great to walk Chipmunk to school,he chatters away all the way there :-)

First we have a check that we've got everything;bag,sandwich box,drink,book packet.

Next we look to see if Sooty is there,then we cross the road and talk about shadows,Chipmunk loves looking at shadows and to see if they are on the road!If they
are on the road then it's a poor squashed shadow when a car comes!
It is funny because you see the shadows go on drives,hedges,walls and Chipmunk really giggles if the shadows go somewhere funny!

We always cross the road with the lollipop lady and Chipmunk will say a really polite thank you to her when we are on the other side.

Then we walk down the school drive,sometimes seeing Mr Smith the school caretaker and arrive at nursery.

And that is another story :-)








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Growing Up

Tonight my nephew came round.Tiger and him are just 8 weeks apart.
They were swapping tunes on the iPods and then they went out in my nephew's car,Tigers last words were "leave me a key out"

After they had gone I sat thinking about when they were younger.
I remembered when I found out that my sister in law was having a baby and when the two boys were first born,we have photos of them in Moses baskets together,car seats,having dinners together,running around their nannas garden together.
They went through school together and played in the same footy team together and now they are 18 and off out in a car together,both old enough to drink!

It's makes it so clear just how fast kids grow and how quickly time flies!






Tues News

Well I guess the main news today is that Chipmunk has moved up onto a new book box at school!

This makes him mega proud,he told me through the school fence this morning and when I picked him up from school he got the book out on the school playground and walked home with the book infront of his nose reading away :-)

Mrs Templeman was pleased too,she had a word with me at the school fence and seemed very happy with Chipmunks progress with reading.

Here is his sticker in his reading diary






And here is the new reading book






These are a sample of the pages Chipmunk is now reading






I think he is doing really well :-)

Unbelievably Chipmunk finished the book tonight,that's 64 pages read in a night!Now that's gotta be impressive!
Way to go Chipmunk!

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Chipmunks Animal Friends

Chipmunk seems to collect a variety of animal friends!

There is Sooty who is a black and white cat that lives on the next street to us.
Every day Chipmunk will look to see if Sooty is out and if so Chipmunk will stroke her. She is a very yappy little cat!

Then there is Biscuit,she is also a cat and she lives next to school!
Biscuit sometimes actually sneaks into the school grounds which causes a great fuss when Chipmunk and his friends see her!She is very friendly and likes to be stroked.

Then on our street lives Max,he is a little black dog who is Chipmunks partner in crime when they get together!
Chipmunk likes to entice Max into our home where he dashes about until his owner fetches him out.
Max even sent Chipmunk a birthday card with money in it,they are great friends :-)

Another great animal friend is Teddy the dog.He is very small,fluffy and white and Chipmunk loves him!
Sometimes Chipmunk is allowed to hold Teddys lead and take him for a walk!

As you can see Chipmunk loves animals :-)






Monday, June 6, 2011

Our Hamsters




Our hamsters are called Nudge and Budge.

They are adopted hamsters,we got given them at February half term and they have become part of the family.

They love to play in their wheel and for such small creature they are incredibly noisy!



Chipmunk loves Nudge and Budge and one of the first things he asks when he wakes up is "So what did Nudge and Budge do last night?"
And the answer usually is "Play in their wheel!"

Chipmunk has got a book about hamsters from the library and we have read it many times,he likes these following lines

"you can brush your hamsters fur with a old toothbrush"

"Close all doors and windows when you let your hamsters out"

"Let the hamster sniff your fingers so they can get used to you"




They are very cute pets :-)

Introducing The Boys :-)

I'm always a bit dubious putting the boys names and photos on the Internet so for the blog I was left wondering what to call them.

I could have chose just any old false name but I wanted it to mean something to me so I've had my thinking cap on!
I've got it now though :-) I'm going to use the nicknames that they boys had when they were little, so here goes;

My eldest boy will be named *Tiger* this is because he used to say to everyone he met "My real name is .... but my daddy calls me Tiger"
It still makes me smile to think of him saying that.
Tiger is nearly grown up now,18years old and leader of the rugrats!

My middle boy will be named *Sharky* When he was born he wasn't given his proper name until he was at least a month old,as we deliberated over what he should be called.
We called him Sharky because he looked like a shark when he fed!This is really true!
Sharky is now 14yrs old and a lively member of the family!

My youngest boy will be called *Chipmunk*.
He didn't have a nickname to be honest so I chose the name of one of his favourite pets (he calls his cuddly toys *pets*).
He is 7yrs old and quite a character!

So that's the boys in a nutshell!Let the adventures begin!









Back To School

Well a week passes quickly when you are having fun and school comes around again!

It's the last half of the summer term,we have just 6 weeks and 3 days to do!
In that time there will be a sports day,transition to junior school,special leavers assemblies for Chipmunk, exams and work experience for Sharky,lots & lots of stuff!

Today went ok,weather was fine,always a plus!

Chipmunk had new trousers on,that I had painstakingly taken up last night.
It was worth the effort though as he said they were very comfy.

Sharky said the exam went ok and Chipmunk came home with 3 letters;
1. He's got in football and
photography club.

2. Letter from Juniors about
school uniform

3. A big newsletter full of dates
and fun events coming up
this half term.

Chipmunk said they had been allowed on the school field at playtimes,which is a sign that summer term is here.
Long may the dry weather continue,it's nice to see the kids playing on the field and grass is softer than concrete :-)

One of the games Chipmunk was playing on the field was *Bulldog*
it's a kind of tiggy game where the person who's on is *the bulldog* and when they tig someone then they are the bulldog.
Chipmunk likes this game!

After tea Chipmunk read to page 14 of his new book *The Two Giants* and did a jigsaw,he also played musical freeze whilst listening to Justin Beiber singing Baby ( one of his favourite songs at the moment )







Yes we have one piece missing from this jigsaw but it doesn't seem to bother Chipmunk!

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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Games

Two games Chipmunk and I like to play whenever we are out and about are *I spy* and *colour cars*
I spy is good for Chipmunk because it makes him think & listen carefully to my clues.Things he comes up with are;
Cars
Wall
Sky
Road
Trees

Colour cars is our favourite though!We each chose a colour & then every time a car passes with the chosen colour we count it and the first one to get to 5 wins.I have always chose silver but now Chipmunk chooses silver,I think he thinks it's a winning colour!
We've been playing this game for a couple of years now but it never ceases to amuse us!

At the duck pond

The so called *duck pond* is a place that is special to me and Chipmunk.We visit there regularly,mostly once a week.It's not a duck pond at all,it's a nature reserve with a big lake and all kinds of different ducks,geese,swans and fish,its just that when I first started taking Chipmunk there I nicknamed it *The Duck Pond* and it's stuck ever since



The duck pond is everything I like about a trip out with children,it's a trip out in the fresh air,it's very green and quite cool and sheltered due to the trees so even on a hot day it's possible to walk round the duck pond and not get too hot and bothered ~ on a blustery day you get blown to pieces!There's a lot of talking that can be done at the duck pond,talking about the different types of ducks,Chipmunk likes to see the different colours on the ducks necks and heads,we watch when the babies start to come out (this is always a favourite thing to watch)we look at how nature changes rapidly and that is unbelievable and never ceases to amaze Chipmunk and me.
Oh and the duck pond has a cafe which sells all kinds of little treats,Chipmunk will run quite a way round the pond to see if the cafe is open!

Thursday was a hot day,I had my hoody on (big mistake,by the time I got home I was
sweltering)luckily Chipmunk had a tee shirt on under his hoody so he was not too hot (unlike his hot
and bothered poor mum!)

Things had grown so much that Chipmunk couldn't even find his favourite hidey space it was completely covered in grass and the dreaded nettles!



We had a slow walk round and fed lots of hungry ducks,we buy seed for the ducks as it keeps them healthy but sometimes we do give them a little bit of bread.
The cafe was not open so we carried on walking round the lake when all of a sudden Chipmunk saw some baby goslings.We were feeding the bigger geese at the time when Chipmunk shrieked "Babies" as you can imagine the geese were very protective of their young goslings
and did a fair bit of moving menacingly close to us,this did alarm Chipmunk and he wanted to move back quickly!He described it as "flocking" and wasn't at all keen if the geese moved to close,although having said that he did start to giggle when he was in a safe distance away from the geese and their angry beaks!



We finished the rest of our walk peacefully and ended it by feeding a group of swans.
It was a good trip out,fresh air and exercise and a look at nature can't be beat in my eyes:-)











Saturday, June 4, 2011

Saturday Fun

Today we went swimming.It is my aim for Chipmunk to go swimming as much as possible,he has weekly lessons and in the holidays I like him to go at least once a week if not more.This holidays he has been twice so I'm pleased with that.

We went to the swimming baths where he has his weekly lesson so it is a very familiar place for us,we are getting dab hands at the swimming lark,we have a designated swimming bag,with talc,armbands,change for the locker,always at the ready just to make swimming easier & not such a chore.

Today Chipmunk had a good go at getting himself undressed which I always like to see and was soon ready to swim.
We went in the training pool as I think that's the best pool to swim & play in and Chipmunk did lots of different things.We did practice swimming a bit but mostly Chipmunk wanted to play,so play we did!
We used a watering can to sink a boat,Chipmunk spent ages working out the best way to pour water on the boat to make it sink,he finally found out that it sunk quickest if you poured the water through the windows.
We then had so much fun with a ball.Chipmunk kept pushing the ball under the water and letting it go,this really made him giggle and he spent ages playing with it.

Chipmunk went on the little slide and was pleased when I caught him and then we ventured into the waves!Well we were bashed about by the waves and Chipmunks face had that squinty little look that I like but we did survive!

On our journey home we sat happily on the bus eating a big bag of fruit pastilles,a rare treat for Chipmunk,it was a lovely relaxing end to a great afternoon out :-)

It's a blog :-)

Hiya :-)
I've thought about doing a blog for ages but wasn't sure how to get started,to be honest I'm still not sure!Anyway I've been messing round on my phone and hey presto I've managed to create this pretty little blog!I'm excited but half expect it all to disappear soon and knowing my lack of technological know how I'll never get it back!

I'm going to post this now just to see if it works,I'm excited!