Tag Archives: #review

Tots 100 Learning Through Play

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Zu3D – Learning Through Play in the Early Years

For this month’s Tots 100 Blog Hop I am submitting the post above. It tells how animation and Zu3D software in particular can be used throughout the early years curriculum to encourage and enhance learning through play. Animation can be seen as digital role play for children of all ages and is a great way of using technology with small children. It is easy to do at home as well as at school. It fosters sharing, team work, speaking and listening skills.

This month’s Tots 100 Blog Hop is being sponsored by MEGA Bloks. These kits would make great animation models providing children with characters and props for their stories and even plot ideas.

To find more ideas to help children learn through play, hop on over to Tots 100 to read the other entries in this month’s Blog Hop.

And please don’t forget to read the post I have chosen to submit this month:

Zu3D – Learning Through Play in the Early Years

Great Big Ants in Your Pants!

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After what can only be described as a horrible morning and early afternoon, our late afternoon was saved by reading books.

Part of my over tired, over emotional state led to me feeling a little jealous of my Mum. Stupid, I know! She is staying with us at the moment to help with the babies. Because she always gets a good night’s sleep she is so full of energy to play with Esther and William while I can barely speak out loud I am so shattered. I pathetically got to thinking that Esther and William might prefer being with her than with me! She is just so loud and so much fun!

Anyway, William was playing with my Mum when I sat down with Esther to read a book. As I started reading aloud William stopped playing and with the saddest face looked over to where we were and listened to the story too. That tiny moment, that one loving look just melted my heart. He continued to listen to the story, never not watching, from the other side of the room. When I finished reading to Esther I read to William too, the same story and one other. It was such a special time, reading with my son and daughter, that it totally made up for the rest of the day. It also made me realise that no matter what, only I will ever be their Mummy, and that counts for a LOT!!

I would like to share with you now, the books that made it all better.

Tell Me What It’s Like To Be Big by Joyce Dunbar
This is a lovely story about a little girl who wants to be bigger. When her brother tells her of all the things she might do when she is grown the little girl realises that perhaps she would rather stay small after all. A lovely tale about growing up with a subtle message of not growing up too fast. This was beautiful to read as a mother snuggled up to a son and daughter who are growing and changing every day.

Ants in Your Pants by Julia Jarman and Guy Parker-Rees
This is a fun book for reading out loud. It is written with great rhythm and rhyme. The characters are very funny and the pictures are bright and colourful. This is one that can be shared over and over again and every time you will notice something new. A great funny book full of knickers to make you giggle!

Jenny Craig – Day 4

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I am really tired today after a second terrible night with the teething twins. William is breastfeeding night and day at the moment because he is off solids because of his teeth. This is leaving me exhausted and I am worried that my allocated 1200 calories is not enough for a Mummy feeding 8 month old twins. I did tell Jenny Craig during my initial consultation that I was breastfeeding and so was sure this had been taken into account but now I feel uncertain.

It could just be that I am having a bad day. Esther and William are demanding and draining every ounce of energy that I can muster.

Must try to keep positive and keep my goal in mind, to lose weight for the wedding. Seems such a silly thing to focus on though when the babies do not seem to be doing so well.

It is taking me, my Mum and David to make things work today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Jenny Craig – Day 3

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Oh dear, yesterday I fell off the diet wagon spectacularly, enjoying not only pancakes with sugar and lemon but also fajitas and flapjack! Not because I do not want to continue with the plan, not because I particularly lack motivation but because I wanted to enjoy the last day before Lent. For Lent I have given up fajitas, flapjack and caffeine. I will feast again at the end. To counteract my over eating yesterday I upped my activity and went for a 9 mile cross country walk pushing almost 2 stone of babies in their double buggy. The weather was glorious and we completed the route in 3 hours, quite good going I think!

But back to Jenny Craig’s Plan today. I was naughty yesterday but am back on the diet today. I started the day with porridge and blueberries from my free fruit allowance. It was really a rather nice way to start the day. I am back on the diet and raring to go.

For lunch I am having yesterday’s Winter Vegetable Soup which is easily prepared in the microwave. This is great when parenting twinfants! With the soup I am allowed some bread and cheese and also some salad. I am going to have some cherries though instead of my salad. Tonight I am having mushroom stroganoff and rice supplemented with lots of free veg and a little parmesan cheese.

On Monday I found the Bacon and Mushroom Risotto okay but I had to supplement with a lot of veg to feel satisfied. I am thinking that I might actually like to become a vegetarian. Maybe next Lent I will give up meat and see how I get on!

The soup today was quite nice and definitely filled me up. A filling lunch that will give me plenty of energy for the afternoon, playing with Esther and William.

Looking forward to dinner tonight and seeing how satisfied I feel at the end of a full Jenny Craig day.

I think I should point out that I am getting this 28 day trial for free but receiving no financial reward for the reviews. These are all my own, very honest findings and opinions and I hope that people will find them helpful.

Books and Babies

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This is a fabulous listography from Kate Takes 5 this week, an opportunity to share books for babies. One of my favourite topics! As a mother and a teacher books are one of my best loves and I have been reading to Esther and William since before they were born. I read to them in the womb, beside their incubators and their cots, I read to them now on my knee and they have started to turn the pages themselves. They love to look at pictures and they enjoy watching my face as I read. I am certain that they recognise the pattern and intonation when I read certain books. Their favourites. Our favourites.

I have already blogged about some of these books and will link to them rather than write about the same books again.

The first books that we bought Esther and William are written by Oliver Jeffers and you can read about them here.

Our most read book, by far, is Eric Carle’s Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? which you can read about here. This one has an audio link too!

Our best bedtime book is I Love You, Sleepyhead and that can be read about here.

We also love Hairy Maclary and share our thoughts about these fab books here.

And here are 5 other books for babies, books I have already chosen as perfect for babies of my own.

The Gruffalo
This is a magical story that rhymes and encourages children to really use their imaginations as they try to picture in their minds the monstrous Gruffalo. It lends itself to being read aloud or acted out with a range of voices. It is a great story to animate too. I love this book and so do Esther and William. We read this a lot and sometimes watch the animated version on You Tube whilst waiting for our tea.

The Rainbow Fish This is a lovely book with beautiful illustrations. It tells a story with an important message about friendship and sharing. Again it lends itself to being read aloud and provides real inspiration for arts and crafts activities. (Always the teacher!)

Click Clack Moo Cows That Type
Children’s books have to be enjoyed by the adults that read them too and I find this book hilarious. It is a comedy sketch, well written and simply illustrated. Though Esther and William are still too young to understand the humour of the book they love the differnet voices and sound effects of literate cows and ducks taking over a farm. A great, fun read.

A Cultivated Wolf
A book about the importance of books and reading. A story of friendship that appeals to all the family. Great moral too, that anyone can change their ways if they want to.

Tanka Tanka Skunk
Two animals who together sound like drums! This book is great fun to read and shout out loud over and over again. I do it with increasing vloume and speed til me and the babies collapse in fits of giggles. It is great fun! Great in the classroom for teaching about rhythm and breaking words up into syllables. A book that encourages you to really play with words and have fun.

And books for another time … The Silver Sword, I Am David, The Machine Gunners, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Children on the Oregon Trail, The Secret Garden, Private Peaceful … I could go on and on.

I hope that we have another book listography soon, in the meantime, come and join in this one. I have read everyone’s posts with my Amazon account open and we will have a lovely large box of books on the way come Friday. Thank you everyone!

Jenny Craig – Day 1: Part 1

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Today is the first day of my 28 day Jenny Craig Weight Management Plan trial. I am feeling quite apprehensive about it actually, almost like I am on trial. The children must have sensed my heightened mood as they have been awak and raring to go since 5.30am. It is now 7.45am and they are already back in bed having had a breakfast of fresh, warm apple puree and a good play. Bless.

Now I am about to start my day. Today’s breakfast is a 40 gram serving of muesli with half a cup of milk. I can also have as much fruit as I like and as much tea, though without sugar. I usually have just one.

Before that though I need to weigh myself and make a note of my measurements too. These details are recorded on my Jenny Craig Lifestyle Graph. I have to measure my bust, waist, abdomen and hips.

Here goes

Bust = 93cm / 36.6 inches
Waist = 79cm / 31.1 inches (Oh my God!! I used to be 26/28 inches!)
Abdomen = 92cm / 36.2 inches
Hips = 92cm / 36.2 inches

And I weigh (in the morning, after a large mug of tea!) 9 stone and 11 pounds. So ideally, I have 11lbs to lose.

Crikey I am larger than I thought, and must look kind of barrel shaped as bust, hips and stomach are all about the same. If I needed some extra motivation I think that I have just found it!

Time to make my muesli!

Along with my Jenny Craig meals and snacks I can have as much free food as I like. My free foods include: diet drinks; tea and herbal tea; fresh chilli; garlic; herbs; spices; Worcestershire sauce; Balsamic vinegar; asparagus; bean sprouts; broccoli; celery; mushrooms; onions; peppers; sugra snap peas; tomatoes. I can eat as much of these as I like. Can almost make vegetarian fajitas out of that little lot! No wraps though!

I can also eat up to 3 servings per day of any of: melon; strawberries; honey; jam; jelly and low cal hot chocolate.

The Jenny Craig menu plan states that it is important to eat all the foods on your plan and aim for weight loss of 1 to 2lbs a week. The free foods are designed to increase your satisfaction without significantly increasing your caloric intake.

I have never been on a diet before and have always thought I would be terrible at sticking to one as I am such a fussy eater but I really do think this plan could work for me as I can fill up on veg should I not like one of the specified meals. I am looking forward to getting started now.

Will let you know how I have got on at the end of the day.

Twin Teethers!

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Esther and William are now almost 8 months old!!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown.  They are growing bigger and stronger everyday and developing very distinct personalities.  This has become apparent recently as they have started teething. 

Parenting premature babies can be very confusing as you are always trying to provide for them to two ages, their actual age and their adjusted age and you are never sure which to apply to what, for example weaning, sleeping, routines and teething. 

I am now confident that I know that anything related to feeding and digestion, including teething, is marked against their actual age whereas anything that is developmental such as crawliing, rolling, talking etc is measured against their corrected age. 

And so at almost 8 months actual we are well into the zone of teething though have nothing to show in the way of teeth.  I am quite distressed to learn of some prem babies who started going through the motions of teething at 6 months, as ours have done, but not been rewarded with teeth until well into their first year!

The reason I find this idea so terrible is that our twins, and William in particular, are really struggling with growing their teeth.  They are very unsettled during the day, constantly chomping and chewing anything that they can get their mouth on apart from their food.  They often seem to find feeding painful particularly their solid food.  William has had an earache linked to his teething and repeatedly tugs at the infected ear.  Both babies have struggled to get to sleep and to stay asleep once finally gone.  It has been very tiring and emotional for all concerned and is still going on.

One of the problems I have foudn is finding anything that can be used to soothe Esther and William’s tiny mouths.  Though they are really now quite old babies they are still very tiny, Esther only weighs 11lbs.  Finding teething toys to ease their gums has been impossible.  I twitted about this a week or so ago and was very pleased to receive a helpful reply from @Amber_Pumpkin

Amber Pumpkin suggested that I might like to try an amber necklace for the twins to soothe their teething symptoms.  I naively asked if they would be able to fit the beads into their mouths as we had been struggling with other products.  Amber Pumpkin kindly pointed out that in fact amber necklaces are not chewed but worn so that the healing properties can work their magic.

Babies do NOT chew on the amber – it works by warming against the skin and releasing minute amounts of soothing oils which is absorbed into the bloodstream.

A natural analgesic, amber will help calm a baby without resorting to drugs.

Amber is a resin, not a stone. It is therefore warm to the touch, as well as very comfortable and light to wear.

Scientific investigation into the therapeutic effects of amber is ongoing.

Currently, there are two different theories that attempt to explain how wearing amber on the skin can have a soothing and calming effect on teething babies and toddlers.

One theory suggests that when amber is worn on the skin, the skin’s warmth releases minuscule amounts of healing oils from the amber which are then absorbed via the skin into the bloodstream.

Amber’s anti-inflammatory and therapeutic properties are also recognized by allopathic medicine. In Austria, Switzerland and Germany, you will find amber teething necklaces sold in local pharmacies. Pharmacists and doctors have long known about the healing properties of amber which include calmative, analgesic, antispasmodic, expectorant, and febrifuge (anti-fever) functions.

A second theory is based on scientific findings which have shown that amber is electromagnetically alive and therefore charged with a significant amount of organic energy. Its special attribute is the fact that it is electronegative. Wearing amber produces negative ionisation on the skin’s surface. This, in turn, has a positive influence on the human body. The negative ions assist in the in the prevention of illness. These health-promoting effects apply to babies, children and adults alike.

http://www.amberpumpkin.com/amber-teething-necklaces-do-they-work.html

David and I have tried Calpol and teething powders on Willim and Esther with very little effect and so we were, or I was, keen to try something new.  I asked Amber Pumpkin if I might trial one of their products and wrtie about our experiences on my blog.  They kindly agreed and sent me two tiny amber anklets for Esther and William to try.  They sent anklets rather than a necklace to ensure that the babies could not pull them off of themselves or each other as the anklets will be safely hidden in their baby gros. 

We are going to start wearing the anklets tomorrow and I am going to write on my blog each day about how we are getting on.

I have to admit to being a bit sceptical but also really hoping that they do work as I love the idea of them.

If anyone else has exprience of using amber jewellery to help with teething then I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to know more about Amber Pumpkin then you can visit their website at http://www.amberpumpkin.com/

Here’s hoping that an end is in sight for the terrible twin teething troubles!

Esther and William’s First Author – Oliver Jeffers

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When Esther and William were born I bought them each a book.  Because they are twins I wanted the books to be by the same author and so I chose Oliver Jeffers.  I wanted each baby to have a story chosen especially for them, that could mean something to them all of their lives. I also wanted them to have a story to share.  The three books that I chose are: The Way Back Home; Lost and Found and How to Catch a Star.

Lost and Found was William’s book.  It was first read to him on the day that he was born by his Daddy.  David and I sat by his incubator and shared this story with our newborn son, who weighed in at just 2lb 11ozs and could not open his eyes or breathe without assistance.  We read to our little boy lost hoping that he would find his way, that we would find a way to be together as a family.  Lost and Found is about a little boy who finds a penguin.  Penguins (along with giraffes!) are my favourite animals and I want to pass that on to my children, to share it with them.  The little boy thinks that the penguin wants to go home and the boy does all he can to help him find his way but then he realises that the penguin was not lost at all but was lonely, he didn’t want to go home, he wanted to find a friend.  It is a very touching story about friendship, told very simply with beautiful illustrations.  It explores loss and loneliness which seemed very apt for our William who was all alone in a plastic box when he should have been in our arms with his sister.  It tells how two people can find comfort in one another and help each other along the way.  it is a story of the journey of friendship, through words and pictures it shows the strength and determination of one little boy to help another. We dedicated this to our Mr Strong, our braveheart, our William.  This is a wonderful first story for a little boy.  For our little boy.

Our daughter’s first ever story How to Catch A Star.  I chose this for Esther because one meaning of her name is ‘Star’.  I read her this book for the very first time on the day she was born.  I sat beside her blue lit incubator and read it to my 2lb 4oz baby, who I had known just hours but already loved with all my heart.  This was the prefect choice of story for Esther.  It is about a boy who loves stars and tries everything that he can to find one.  This is a story with the message of never giving up, of doing all you can to achieve your dreams, of fighting for what you believe in, of striving for your goals, of being strong and reaching for the stars.  This was the perfect message for my tiny, fragile daughter fighting for her life in an incubator rather than celebrating the start of her life in my arms.  I read this story with broken voice and eyes full of tears.  My little star was going to need all the strength she would muster and all of our strength too.  This book is so beautifully illustrated I just know that it will be treasured for always for its message and devoured time and time again for its lovely language and exquisite illustrations.  Thank you Oliver Jeffers for helping us give our children such a lovely start to life and the world of literature.

The final book , I bought for the twins to share.  It is called The Way Back Home.  Inside the front cover I wrote:

Dear Esther and William

We can’t wait to show you the way home to our house, your house, your home.  We love you now and always.

Mummy and Daddy

This Oliver Jeffers book is about finding your way home.  This was all we wanted for our two babies, to find a way to bring them home.  This story is about a young boy who gets stuck on the moon with an alien and together they must find a way to get each other home.  It is a tale of friendship and what can be achieved when friends work together.  I hope that Esther and William will be life long friends as well as twin brother and sister and whenevr they fight or fall out I am going to remind them of this book, the first time we shared it and how far they have come.

Oliver Jeffers is a brilliant writer and illustrator of unique and exciting books for children that can be enjoyed by all the family over and over again.

Simple stories with complex messages and meanings, filled with heartfelt love and warmth.

Please, if you have not yet discovered these books and enjoyed them with your children, please do, I am certain that you will not be disappointed. 

Thank you Oliver Jeffers!  Keep writing please!

I Love You, Sleepy Head – Book Review

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I Love You, Sleepy Head written by Claire Freedman and illustrated by Simon Mendez I bought this beautiful book for Esther and William on their first month birthday.  I read it to them everyday, beside their incubator and then their … Continue reading →