I don't like to miss out on anything! So my life is a mish mash of everything! Spending time with my family and friends, making sure I'm doing everything a mum can do for my child, seizing the spontaneous moments, and making sure I'm organised enough to be at all of the preplanned ones!
Some people wonder how I fit it all in... well, where there's a will... there is a way.This is ALL of the random stuff I get up to!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
