Mince pies and all that!

I invited our home school group round today for the children to make mince pies and play together, it was a real success although I may have a pastry carpet for some time to come. We let the kids just play with the pastry dough after a good session mixing it and as been as S preferred making snowmen and women with hers I didn't expect any mince pies to get made. She made some lovely figures and covered them with snow (flour) after a good long mess with the dough we had a few cut out shapes for the base of the pies while J cut out some star shapes for the lids. The children who had been playing with the dough had shaped, rolled, cut and played with it for over an hour and had loved it. Thinking it over now makes me more aware of my previous jobs in childcare settings where the result was more important than the process, making mince pies in nursery or school would be a production line, the finished result not always the child's work and just a show piece to prove to parents that the child had actually 'done' something! Well our kids did do something today, something wonderful and it wasn't the mince pies lol.

Busy Busy!

OK so I'm not the worlds best at keeping a journal, It's just the nature of Home school I'm so busy doing it I can't always write about it!!
We've been to 2 pantos which were both brilliant it was great to watch the girls as they launched into 'he's behind you' and oh yes it is' shouts!
Even baby B got involved she was clapping and bouncing around on my knee.


We've also been to a couple of birthday parties, J's friends from her baby group are all turning 5 this month so she's aware its her turn soon too. She keeps changing her mind about what cake to have! They helped make Dad's monster cake (full of chocolate!) so she's more clued up about what goes in and what can go on a birthday cake!

I had my jewellery stall at a Victorian Christmas market over one weekend, it was straight out of Dickens Christmas Carol I looked like Bob Cratchit's wife!! I had a great time and made a bit of money for Christmas presents although unfortunately the car failed its test so I had to use up the money for that! But its never 'half empty' with us and I managed to get most of our Christmas presents from a charity shop so we're back on track for a 'proper Crimbo!', its amazing what things you can find in these treasure troves.

This week has been party after party and yesterday S seemed to be on sugar meltdown however its turned out to be a cold virus and she's been very poorly today. Her temperature was up so she stayed home with Lee while J, B and I went to the voluntary work. Tonight she's still a bit feverish and has had a couple of bad dreams.
After giving the max dose of medicine all you can do is cuddle and she's settled a bit now so we'll see what tomorrow brings.