Christmas Pixies

It is a bit of a Christmas tradition in our family to go “Pixing” each year to families we want to share special Christmas treats with. Ashton has been really into cooking lately and was determined to make some cookies the other day. . .  so I asked him who he would like to share his cookies with and our pixie list was formed.

Now, traditionally a true “Pixie” would be that you sneak up on the house, leave the treats on the door step, knock on the door/ring the door bell etc. and then sprint your heart out to get away from the house before someone gets to the door and sees you. The idea behind it all is that you become an anonymous bearer of Christmas goodies.

So, this year we went a little less traditional since Ashton had made the list of who he wanted to gift his cookies too… they were all his friends and cousins and not only did he want to give them the cookies but he wanted to see them and play with them too. So we called ahead of time to make sure the kids would all be awake and let them know we were coming, but to keep it a surprise from the children. We did the typical sneak up and explained to Ashton we were going to give them a surprise and that he had to be really quite. . . so he tip toed the whole way, holding his cookies, whispering “Ssshhh, cookies!”

Once we had placed the cookies and knocked, we ran as fast as we could to our hiding places to wait for the children to find us. Ashton was  beside himself with excitement! It was like combining all of his favourite things into one activity, his cousins, treats and hide n’ seek! Life couldn’t get any better! When the children finally found Ashton the squeals of delight and excitement were overwhelming, as they they talked about the cookies that were left and the chase that followed!

Its these kind of activities that make Christmas so absolutely exciting and fun! Do you have any fun Christmas traditions of giving? Do share!!!  And Merry Christmas everyone, from POLKADOT CARLY!!!

Santa's letterbox

Although Polkadots has been getting into the Christmas spirit for quite some time now with Christmas shows and preparations for our Christmas Extravaganza concert, we have only just started to get into the swing of Christmassy fun at home, and to get the ball rolling we decided to make a Santa Letterbox for our Family Night last night.

We just kept things simple, by finding an old show box. We got out the red paint and all chipped in to transform our shoebox into something a little more festive. Then it was time to decorate . . . again, keeping things simple, we just printed off some Christmassy clip art and stuck them around the box.

We wanted to make our letterbox have a bit of a difference, so we decided instead of writing letters to Santa to tell him what we wanted, we decided that for each day of December we would write a letter to Santa to tell him what we had done to be nice to someone else. Then Santa would know that we’ve been good!

We’re excited about writing our “Nice deeds” letters to Santa and can’t wait to do more Christmassy activities in the days to come!

I live in my dairy

So, I have been a little inconsistent in my blogging efforts of late... such is the life when juggling being a mum and a Polkadot... not to mention all of the other balls I have up in the air as well currently! Sometimes you just have to say, "You know what... I just can't do that. There just isn't any time left!" And let me tell you, I find this sentence VERY HARD TO SAY!!! I pride myself on being organised and making sure I have enough time in a day to do all that I need to.

I LIVE IN MY DIARY! It is my life! If something somehow doesn't end up in there, chances are I will forget it. And just to give you an idea of what my life is like currently, I have popped in a screen shot of this past month from my google calendar. (Blue is Polkadots appointments, pink is home life, yellow is church, and there is a few extra colours added in to make it look pretty! ;o)

Then there is all of the stuff that you can't really put into a calendar that also fills up your time.... managing our Polkadots Blog, writing my own blog, organising the Junior Explorer classes, preparing my nursery lessons, keeping my house organised, book club, library adventures, being a mum, being a wife, being a sister, being a friend, making my photo year books!

All of these things whether they are on the calendar or not... I LOVE to have in my life. I keep trying to figure out how or what I would drop to make life less... busy... but I can't. I can't imagine life without any of these elements. So, instead of letting it stress me out, or overwhelm me, I enjoy each thing as it happens and just trust that I will have enough time, and energy to do it all. And if I happen to not have time to do something one day, I'll find time to do it the next day. And if I stop loving something, I'll re-evaluate. But I chose to have these things in my life, so I LOVE it, crazy and all! I've decided that stress isn't worth the trouble it causes... it just stops me from being able to think straight and slows me down. ;o) Bring on NOVEMBER! ha ha.

Listening

How often do we really stop to watch our child play and interact with their environment, and take mental note as to how they like to learn? What techniques are they using? Are they needing further stimulation? Are we extending them and giving them opportunities to grow and develop their interests?

I had a bit of an "aha" moment the other day, when Ashton walked past the rock he had painted at his birthday party, that was sitting in the garden. He picked it up and started carrying it inside. I asked him what he wanted to do with it and he started stroking it backwards and forwards with his finger. It looked like he was doing a painting motion, so I asked him, "Would you like to paint your rock again?" With a big smile he looked up and said, "Yup!" 

We took his rock inside and set him up with his paints and brushes and he got to work. Now for those of you who have read any of my previous blog entries, you will know that Ashton is not very keen on art! I would be lucky to get him to sit for 1 minute to do anything artistic. But I know this is not his attention span, because he will sit for great lengths on time playing with his cars! So when Ashton asked to paint this rock, and proceeded to stay painting for the next 15 minutes, I was AMAZED!

 When I saw Ashton's attention starting to waver, I thought I would see if I could revive his interest and challenge him to stay with the painting a little longer by adding some new materials to the table. I quickly went outside and collected a range of other natural objects from around the garden. As soon as  I placed them on the table his focus came back and he was right back into it. He stayed for another 15 minutes. This may not seem like a long time for some, but for a 2 year old who doesn't usually like to paint, it was a break through and a great starting point!

So, what actually was the epiphany behind my "aha" moment? It was realizing that maybe Ashton doesn't dislike art, its just that he likes to express his creative outlet with different mediums to what I have been making available to him. If you have read today's Polkadots Blog, you will read about Dez's little girl and how much she enjoys to draw with simple black pen and do line drawings more than anything. If you read my recent blog about the inspiring little artist Aelita, you will see that she loves to express herself through acrylic paints onto canvas. Whats not to say that Ashton is more drawn to working with 3D objects or natural objects? I don't know, but its an avenue I'm going to explore further and really watch him and listen to him to see what he responds to most.

This little YouTube clip I have posted below is all about gifted children and how they have felt misheard, or not extended enough. I'm not saying Ashton is gifted, (he may be, who knows) but what I got from this little clip is that we need to take the time to get to know our children and really listen to what they need from us to help them learn the way they want to learn! There is no cookie cutter approach to teaching and learning! We just need to work with our children as individuals.

Photo of the Week

We are totally entering into the crazy season for Polkadots right now! We have shows happening left, right and centre! Today, we got to perform up north in Whangarei and I got to capture this photo with our audience while I was down dancing with them! Its children like this who just get up and boogie and let themselves feel the beat that make all of our shows soooo worth while!

Mummy Moment: UH OH!

Today was my catch up on house work and spend time with Ashton today after being out of town for Polkadots and visiting family since Wednesday last week! We got to do all that we had planned and then found a bit of spare time in the afternoon to use some over ripe bananas to do some baking! Ashton was very excited about this idea, pulled up a stool and got straight into pulling ingredients out!

Well, things seemed to be going great, the mix was looking good and Ashton even taste tested it a few times and seemed to approve the mixture, saying "mmm, yummy!" It was soon time for us to put the mixture into the muffin tins and I managed to get some on my hands... without thinking, I licked the mix off my finger and all of a sudden... I realised something wasn't right! UH OH! We had used SALT instead of SUGAR!!!

In one of those Mummy Moments where you are trying to do a million things at once, I was trying to measure out the "sugar" while Ashton was trying to crack in another egg. I reached into the wrong container boom... the mix is ruined! So, instead of getting upset, we just put it down to a good 20 minute science activity or mixing and stirring fun! Ashton loved it, and it ment I didn't eat more muffins to add to my expanding waste line!

So, we don't have any photos of our finished product! We have a photo of our clean up! ha ha.

Photo of the week

Capture a moment that shows the candidness of children. 

Ashton and I decided to do some baking and right from the beginning
Ashton was determined to show how independent and capable he was
at doing EVERYTHING on his own. "No, my do it!"
At one point, just after we had sifted the flour into the mix, he went to stir it
in and managed to fling the flour and a bit of batter all over himself. He didn't
get upset though, he just picked some of it off with his hand, put it in his mouth
and said, "mmm, yummy Mum, I taste it!" and continued on mixing.

Pebbles & Bam Bam Party Hard

My 'Mummy Moment' for the week was seeing my little man celebrating his 2nd birthday at his party on Saturday! He and his cousin Ellie are only 2 weeks apart so Dionne and I decided to have a combined party and go with a "Flinstones" theme, just go we could dress the children up as "Pebbles and Bam Bam". Because they are actually Pebbles and Bam Bam... as you can see in the photos!

So, instead of heaps of writing... I'm going to show you how the party went with photos and a few captions! 

This was the sign on the front door, welcoming our guests!

Meet Pebbles and Bam Bam! (I told you!)

Instead of having heaps of party food that goes to waste and in
keeping with the stone age theme, we gave each of the children
a "Snack Stash" from the "Bedrock Cafe". Each bag had the
children's name it, and they all thought it was pretty special to
open their own snack present!

We tried to have food that was Stone age(ish) if there is such a word!

The children got to put their bommy-knockers to good use on
our styling pinata... we left it a bit late to finish properly! ha ha.
Had a busy week of shows... the life of a Polkadot! ;o)

We did some "Rock Painting" and Ashton actually painted!
The children really loved this activity!

Each of the children were able to take their rock home to put
in their gardens.

Miss Ellie showing off her work!

Time for a bit of cake! Loveling made my Aunty Dez!

The Flinstones and the Rubbles!

We played a bit of "Duck Duck Goose" but kept to the theme of
the party by changing it to "Dino Dino, Russ!" short for "Dinosaur and Walrus!"

All of the crazy parents trying to get the children to look at
the camera and smile all at the same time... this was no set up!

It worked!

Betty, Bam Bam, Pebbles and Wilma!

The Rubbles! And Ashton with his cars of course!

I know its a bit of a shocking photo, but it was the
only one I managed to get of him with his whole costume on!
Thanks to Grandma for doing such an excellent job on the costumes!

Prodigy of Colour - Inspriring

I stumbled across this very inspiring YouTube clip of a young girl named Aelita Andre the other day. Aelita has become known as a Artistic Prodigy. She is only 4 years old at the time of this video being made and the way she explores colour, texture and space is just amazing.

What I loved most about this clip and about Aelita's story is the freedom and space she is allowed by her parents to just explore and experiment with various mediums. I wish I had a space like this for Ashton... (and me) to be able to just paint or get arty and not care about getting paint on the carpet, or the furniture. I don't care about clothes (I just dress him in old ones).

How many limitations to do we put on our children that stop them from truly being able to express themselves or begin to explore the possibilities of mediums that may lead to an outlet or form of expression that they love.

Note: The clip is a little long, but you will get the jist within the first couple of minutes... I couldn't turn it off!

Photo of the week!

Capture a moment that illustrates how wonderfully uninhabited children are!!!

This is how Ashton came out to me the other day after spending some time with his dress up box! I just love the combo!!!

Roadworks Heaven!!!

Roadworks heaven was right outside Polkadots Headquarters door the other day! We were all busy working away on all things Polkadotty when the house started to rumble! The whole road was being resealed and I just couldn't resist but have "Girl Jordan" (our Polkadots Nanny) bring the children over to see all the action! I don't know if the workers were use to such an interested crowd, but it put a smile on their faces and I'm sure it made them feel very important!

Ashton was sooo taken with all of the different pieces of machinery that he barely said a word the whole time we were out watching! Then as soon as we got back inside he just couldn't stop talking about everything he saw. It was such a great opportunity for the children to see the whole process in action, especially after reading our recent library book, "Roadworks."

We got to see the roller!

The big Asphalt Machine. 

Ashton loved watching the truck tip out its load with Papa!

Who would of thought I would ever pose for a photo in front of roadworks! ha ha.

Ashton's favourite thing to do at lights at the moment is
shout out STOP and GO each time he see the lights change
colour, so he loved seeing the sign doing the same thing.

Blacked Out

Every time the All Blacks have a game day our family has been blacking out! It doesn't matter whats happening that day, everyone wears ALL BLACK for the day. Even to both of the birthday parties we had on this Saturday, we wore our black outfits. I went shopping in the morning before the parties and it was so cool to see so many others wearing all black as well. One man even said to me, as I caused a traffic jam, "Its all good, at least your wearing the right colours!" LOL!

It was a big game on Saturday as well... All Blacks vs the French! It was a bit nerve wracking for me, as last time I watched the All Black play the French, was back in the last rugby world cup, at the quarter finals! It was my first ever All Blacks game I had gone to watch live and THEY LOST! I was devastated, as was the rest of the country, and I just didn't want to relive those feelings all over again! But I'm happy to report, THE ALL BLACK WON! WHOP WHOP! 

THANK YOU ELMO!

I had a big Mummy Moment this week!

Ashton strongly detests brushing his teeth and every time we do it, it is a HUGE drama! So finally the other night, (while Ashton was running in the oposite direction from his tooth brush) I said to Kris, look up "Elmo brushing his teeth on YouTube! There has to be something!". . .  AND THERE WAS!

I brought Ashton over to the computer and showed him Elmo brushing his teeth and after the initial excitement of seeing Elmo and once he realised what Elmo was doing, Ashton picked up his tooth brush and started brushing his teeth! When the clip had finished he said, "More Elmo teeth!" so we did it again and he brushed again!

Since then Ashton asks "Elmo teeth?" while reaching for his tooth brush. I still have a little battle when I ask if I can have a turn (to make sure his teeth get a good clean) but all in all, thanks to Elmo, our teeth brushing experience is a lot more pleasant!

Ashton checking himself out in the mirror while brushing his teeth with Elmo!

Photo of the week!

Capture a moment that just makes you fall in love with your precious little one all over again!!!

He read himself to sleep! Soooo cute!

Roadworks

"Tip the stones. Tip the stones.

Lift and slide and dump.

Lay the groundwork for the road.

Crash! Roar! THUMP!"

I am very lucky that Ashton loves books! So it is the one thing he will sit and do for ages that doesn't actually have to revolve around vehicles. But on our library adventure yesterday I found this fabulous book "Roadworks." Needless to say, Ashton loves it too, as it means he combine his two loves of reading and vehicles together!

Story Summary:

The roadworks team is out to make a new road. From the very beginning of drawing up the plans, to the end when the cars drive on the road for the first time. . .  the reader is able to follow the vehicles that are needed and the process that takes place to complete a road.

Loves and Likes:

I love that this is a story book about vehicles rather than always having to get the non-fiction books out to fuel the interest.

I love the rhyme and use of language used in the book. Also a lovely consistent and predictable writing pattern that the children find easy to follow.

Teaching Points:

This book would be a great point of reference to have alongside you and your child as you made your own "play road" whether it be down on the beach, on a cardboard box or out in your back yard. Turn the page as your ready for the next stage of building the road and see what you need to do next.

World Cup Fever!

Last Friday the Rugby World Cup finally kicked off here in Auckland! This is something that doesn't happen every day in your home town, so we, with our friends, decided to go into town (crazy) and get in amoungst the celebrations!

Straight out of the car park and we find ourselves right next to the bar where all of the All Black Old Boys are hanging out before they headed off to the game. You can see Buck Shelford just off to the side of the picture there!

A few more of the Old Boys over in the back of the photo.

A bit of the Party Central Craziness going on behind us!

Down on Quay St, where we got stuck in a bit of a mosh pit... you can see the giant rugby ball behind us there too.

Me and my Hottie! All Blacked out!

Us girls stuck in the mosh pit!

It was pretty crazy in town, but it lots of fun seeing everyone all dressed in black or sporting their country colours, with flags flying everywhere! Now all I can say is "GO THE ALL BLACKS!"

Readkiddoread.com

I love visiting the library and I always have the best of intentions of going, but something always seems to bump it off my list of places to go! So, the other day I decided to start a little group, on Facebook, with a bunch of my friends called "Library Adventures" This was all in the hope that going with others would make me go to the library on a regular basis.

Purpose of the Library Adventure Group:

• Establish a regular routine of going to the library
• Find new books
• Catch up and socialise with friends
• Explore different libraries in different areas
• Find places to explore and play in each new area

Now that we have our regular routine of going to the library set up, I was finding it hard to find the GOOD books from the average or really not so good books. I decided that I need to go a little more prepared each time by researching some good titles before hand. I remembered a site a friend of mine told me about that would be perfect for my pre-library visit prep! 

readkiddoread.com

This site is fabulous! And this is why:

• You can chose the age range you are catering to
• It brings up the latest or most loved books for this age bracket
• Click on a book you like the look of and it gives a parents review and an educators review 
• It also recommends other similar books to the title you are looking at
• It even has links right there as to where you can buy the book

I have now discovered lots of books I have never heard of, have gone in and requested them via my online library service and will be able to check them out when I go on our next library adventure!

Parsley Rabbits Book About Books

Children love to write their own stories, and its a great way to get their imaginations flowing. 

So when I found this book on our trip to the library, I was very excited to do a little book review on it. 

Story Summary:

• As Parsley Rabbit takes the reader on a little trip through the book, he tells "You" the reader what each part of the book is for and how it is important to the story. 
• Parsley also explains why books are so wonderful and how you can use them in different ways, how you can share them, where you can read them, and even how there are different types of books for different purposes.
• The Author & Illustrator have done this really well. . .  not using too much text, but using the illustrations to really get the main teaching points across!

Likes and Loves:

• Like that Parsley engages the reader throughout the story by telling them to do things and asking them questions.
• Love the illustrations! The are so endearing and cute!

Teaching Moments:

• Little did I know that this book would come in very handy in helping me to break down the various elements of a book, to my niece Anika, when she wanted to write her own story. After reading this, I was able to remember the key points that she should incorporate into her story. Unfortunately, I didn't have the book with me at the time. Otherwise we would have been able to go through each little element with her and decide how she wanted to make it her own! She ended up writing a very cute little story about "The Fancy Little Mouse" who loved to get dressed up in beautiful things. 
• I LOVE HOW CHILDREN THINK! We have to make sure we capture it! 

Welcome to the world Baby Charlotte

I'm an aunty again! I now have 39 nieces and nephews!!!

Congratulations to Lincoln, Dez and Brooklyn. I can't wait for more cuddles, she's just so absolutely huggable!

Charlotte Dionne Reid

Ashton-Paul very excited to get up close to his baby cousin!
He is very intrigued with babies at the moment!

The Secret to Constructive Discipline

We all go through stages where our children produce behaviour that is less than desirable and we feel at the time that everyone is looking at you thinking, "Control your child will you!" But most of the time, everyone is just thinking, "Been there, dealt with that!" or "Been there, still trying to figure out how to deal with it!" I'm a teacher and have training on behaviour management strategies, but I am always looking for new ideas, and I have found when dealing with your own child. . .  its a totally different story! 
So i found this article titled, The Secret to Constructive Discipline. I don't totally like the way it is written, but I definitely like most of the sentiments of the articles and general approach to helping children recognize and move forward from the "less desirable" behaviour.


Quick points/quotes that I liked from the article:

• The secret to constructive discipline is a positive conclusion." - I totally agree with this, too often children are left feeling in discrace about what they have done or they are stopped in their tracks and moved away from the situation, so that the bad behaviour can't continue. When we respond this way, the issue or behaviour is never really addressed or dealt with.
• "The positive conclusion turns what otherwise might be punishment into a constructive learning experience." - So often, when we do the quick and easy "moving of behaviour" the child goes back and does the same thing all over again and the adult is left wondering, "Why do they keep doing this?" The fact is, the adult has fallen short in using this moment as a teaching moment, by talking them through it and helping them to see clearly what behaviour is acceptable.

4 things that I try to do when redirecting and addressing behaviour, which I feel fits in with both points above:

1. Get down at their level and get their attention (the first step in distracting them from continuing the bad behaviour).
2. Bring to their attention what  it is you want them to stop doing. 
3. Reinforce the desired behaviour. (You want to spend most of your time and effort on this step. This is what you want them to remember as they get back into play.) 
4. Praise when they behave well! (So often we forget to praise our children for their GOOD behaviour, so all they ever remember hearing, is us telling them off for their bad behaviour. If they know they will get attention for doing the good stuff, they are likely to do it more often.)

Read the article at the link above for a more in depth look at their approach to constructive discipline.