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.