Children's Mental Health Week

 Mental Health Week - Monday 5th - Sunday 11th February 2024

I used Mental Health Week to start looking at Bear's emotions and feelings as we are firmly in the stage of big feelings in this house. I dug out some picture books and some non-fiction titles about feelings along with an invitation to play with some stress balls and feelings monsters.

Bear had seen most of the books before, but I'd kept one or two back so that there was the interest of something new to draw him in.

I paired this month's Book of the Month with the idea of mental health and we used this as a starting point to talk about how people feel and how we should treat the people around us. Wolf and Bear is a stunning book, which will get its own post shortly. 

We used this book multiple times over the course of the month though and it was interesting to see how Bear reacted to the Bear in the book and the idea of depression that it alludes to. 

One of my favourite books about emotions is The Colour Monster and this sorting activity is one that we have used before. We read the book, and the new book which I'd kept to one side ready for this week, and then we discussed what kinds of things made Bear feel the specific emotions as he sorted the coloured pompoms into their respective monsters.

The Cub had a go with this one too, a great way to encourage fine motor skills as there was a pair of tweezers and a couple of other tools to pick up the pompoms.

As a week at the pace of a preschooler and a toddler goes by in the blink of an eye when they are constantly moving at a thousand miles a minute, I decided to continue the theme of mental health and emotions across the course of the month, hence the late post for this one. We have continued to read books with the right themes, use non-fiction books to learn new ways of understanding and managing our big feelings, and we made our own emotions wheels, using the time to discuss Bear's big emotions. 

I have been heavily concentrating on the idea that all of Bear's emotions are valid, and that he is allowed to feel them, it's the way that he deals with them that can get him into bother. He tends to explode quickly, and with his little brother in the mix, who is usually the cause of the frustration, he is also the one who cops for the explosion. Bear is quick to lash out and push The Cub away when he thinks that he is going to get in the way or mess up his play. Nine times out of ten, the issue is perceived even though it isn't there and The Cub just wants to get past him or get to his toys, but Bear doesn't see things that way until it is too late.

We are working on thinking before we react, and more than that, listening to Mummy as I often intervene if I can see it heading the wrong way, but Bear tends to ignore me and continue down the road to an explosion. I am trying to get him to understand that Mummy isn't trying to ruin the fun, she can just see it happening and is trying to help.

Overall, we've had an interesting month, and I hope that Bear retains at least some of what we've learnt. The one thing that I had intended to do, that we haven't actually gotten around it, was set up a calm basket for him to use when he is feeling a little overstimulated. He had one when he was a little younger but tended to just use it to play rather than for its intent. So this is something that I will look into in the coming weeks as we continue on our path of learning how to deal with our emotions.

What strategies do you use to help littles manage their own emotions? 

Momma Bear x

Our list of books

The Colour Monster & The Colour Monster: The Feelings Doctor by Anna Llenas

Feelings by Libby Walden

All About Feelings by Felicity Brooks

How I Feel by Becky Goddard-Hill

Kind illustrated by Sarah Ward

Hippo is Happy, Squirrel is Sad, Sheep is Scared & Alligator is Angry by Rosie Greening

Mummy time

Me time... what do us moms do when the kids have gone to bed?!

Two nights a week, I get the house to myself as Simon hosts the music jam night at the local pub, and I bring out the big guns... my hobbies include reading and writing, so not exactly anything exciting. In fact, most would call it boring. But anyway, on Sunday evenings, I reset the house, do a toy rotation, switch out Bear's learning materials for different bits to keep everything fresh and fun, tidy, and prepare for morning, and then I get comfy with my laptop and get writing.

I write urban fantasy fiction novels, though at the moment I am working on something different! And I self-publish on Amazon under the pseudonym Angel McGregor 😇 

Feel free to check out my books and get in touch with any questions.

After writing, I read! I love fantasy fiction, a good rockstar romance, children's fiction, and my guilty pleasure is a reverse harem. You can check out my Goodreads page for more on what I'm reading and to check out my reviews. Books are my life as I also work in a bookshop, so if you ever need recommendations, please ask!

But for now, my top recommendations are The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer, The Binding by Bridget Collins, and Pages & Co by Anna James. And I have recently been made aware that my go-to recommendations are all books about books... so there is that! It appears my love of books even filters into my choice of books these days too :)

What do you do once the kids are in bed for the night?

Momma Bear 🐻 

Turning Four!

Something non-home-education related for a change... Bear turned four at the beginning of the month!

We had a lovely morning, Bear asked for a fire engine birthday party, and is fire engine and firefighter mad right now, so his main birthday present was a wooden fire station/police station with wooden cars and people. Both he and his brother loved the dollhouse style station and watching them play together during the morning was amazing as they're firmly in the stage of just annoying each other pretty much constantly. 

We have a tradition of going on a birthday adventure, checking out sculpture trails and this year we went to Pontefract Park to follow Peter's Lost Peregrine Trail. Nannie and Pops always come with us, and this year, because his birthday landed on the weekend, we got to take Daddy too! We had a lovely day, walked miles, found all the sculptures, had a picnic, jumped in puddles, took lots of photos, played in the park, ate ice cream despite it being cold and even had cake with a candle... We couldn't get the candle to light but we still sang and Bear pretended to blow out his candle, which caused plenty of giggles all around.

We also had a little family party over the weekend too, which was the fire engine-themed birthday Bear had asked for... We had decorations, handmade (by me) props, a fire engine photo cut out for everyone to pose in, and a little fire engine box for the boys to use to run around in. They are better than they sound, honestly... I put together an assault course in the garden which, with his new firefighter outfit on, Bear had a go at and both boys had fun with fire extinguisher-shaped water pistols to try and put the fire out at the end :)

And last but not least, thanks to the amazing talents of Bear's uncle, we had an amazing fire engine cake! This time we did get the candle lit, and after blowing them out, Bear took a bite out of the cake which made everyone laugh. Thumbs up for the cake too!

After the event, Bear shared with us what he had wished for with his birthday candle wish at Pontefract Park... He'd wished for a cat! A black cat, to be specific. Bear has had a thing for cats for a while, which is odd bearing in mind we are a dog family and he has very little contact with any real cats. But after watching a tv show for a while, some time ago now, he has had a love for them. We had a very grown-up conversation about why we couldn't have a real cat, and he was incredibly understanding, but what we did agree on, was that with some of the birthday pennies he'd received, we would look for the perfect cuddly cat for him. He chose it himself, and waited very patiently for it to be delivered, and now he is a very happy, and very proud owner of a black cat... meet Meowchi :)

All in all, a very well-loved little boy, and an epic birthday weekend!

A huge thank you to everyone who wished him a happy birthday, sent cards and/or presents and to everyone who came to his party :)

Love, Momma Bear x

National Storytelling Week

National Storytelling Week - 27th January to 4th February

As National Storytelling Week started during the weekend of the Big Garden Bird Watch, I didn't start any activities until Monday. I kept it simple with lots of their favourite books and some story baskets. 

The obvious ones were a couple of Julia Donaldson books as I have props. We have wooden story spoons with the characters from The Gruffalo on, as well as a couple of soft toys, plus we have the soft toys from Stick Man, so they were the first ones out.

The Cub loves the wooden spoons so when we started telling stories with them he was in his element. They both loved listening to the story and getting to act it out.

Another favourite is We're Going on a Bear Hunt, so I dug out a bear and our family characters and found some props to use for their journey. We had some felt for the swishy swashy grass, a play silk for the river, some tissue paper for the mud, some packing peanuts for the snowstorm, and some plastic trees for the forest.

Bear absolutely loved this, and it makes me want to do more of these, especially with some messy play. I need to do more messy/sensory play with the boys, but bizarrely it isn't the mess that stops me, it's the thinking ahead and setting up part that usually means they never see the light of day, despite how many I have saved as amazing ideas!

One of Bear's favourite movies is Toy Story, and whilst setting up some of the obvious favourite books, I came across the book for this and added it last minute with all of his toys. Watching them both with this one was lovely to see, Bear is a huge Buzz Lightyear fan, they both love Mr Potato Head and The Cub likes Forky, so watching them play alongside each other made a nice change from their usual huffing at each other for being in each other's space.

To round off National Storytelling Week, I bought Bear some Story Cubes from Waterstones which are dice with images on to prompt story ideas. I have always loved the idea of these and when thinking of ways to assist Bear's storytelling, as it is something he loves, and does regularly, it made perfect sense. I picked them up while at work and he has absolutely loved them. 

His stories are still very basic, but he is still only little. His imagination and creativity astound me daily, so I can't wait to see what these encourage. 

And I will leave you with the first story out of the tin today which was adorable... "A buzzy bee crossed a bridge and then a star would break the bridge and then a lock would toddle up to the bridge and like "Oh no!" And that was the story." I'll let you guess what images were on the dice :)

Momma Bear x

January Focus Book

Waiting for Froggo by Alice Courtley

A hilarious, minimalist story about patience and the ups and downs of waiting from author-illustrator, Alice Courtley.

Rabbit is waiting for Froggo, quietly and patiently. Mouse is also waiting for Froggo, but not so quietly or patiently... 'What's a Froggo?' Mouse asks. 'When will they get here? What do they look like?' Rabbit urges Mouse to wait but as more animals show up to join them, things start to get more busy and chaotic.

Just as Rabbit is about to lose his temper, Mouse asks the biggest question: what if Froggo doesn't come? Inspired by Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Alice Courtley's Waiting for Froggo is a minimalist story of the ups and downs of waiting with brilliantly expressive characters and charming deadpan humour. Froggo is definitely worth waiting for!

*Description and image taken from waterstones.com - no copyright intended*

During January, I used Books are my Bag's Children's Book of the Month as a focus title for us to explore at home. Waiting for Froggo by Alice Courtley is a beautifully simple picture book about patience which we enjoyed reading together, multiple times I might point out, and I love that Bear is so into books. He loves studying the illustrations and often notices things that I don't at first, then after a couple of reads, he begins to remember the repetitive bits and often joins in :)

My intentions were to plan activities around the themes of the book, the main one being patience, but I struggled to come up with much. So instead, I made sure to point out when we were using patience at home, not just with Bear, but pointing out when myself or The Cub showed patience too. 

We also had fun with a story basket during National Storytelling week where we had the characters to use alongside telling the story, which both boys really enjoyed.

To end the focus on this title, Bear and I did a book review, which we have done for a few books before this in my approach to having Bear think about what it is we've read before we move on to chapter book read alouds that will take more than one sitting. He generally enjoys writing these, and I love hearing what he remembers and which parts were his favourite. 

We print and cut out the front cover to stick on, and then I ask Bear what the title was and I remind him of the author. Bear gives the book a star rating, which he colours in... I think all books have had 5 stars so far!

Then I ask him what the story was about, and for this book, he needed very little prompting from me, though he did look through the book and told me from the illustrations. I also ask him what his favourite part and/or character was from the story, and I loved his answer for this book :)

I realised at the start of February, that Books are my Bag's Children's Book of the Month is not always going to be a picture book, and this month's book is not age appropriate for Bear and The Cub, so we have improvised and I have chosen a title from the new releases at work that have made the shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. In my opinion, it's a strong contender too!

February's book is Wolf and Bear by Kate Rolfe, which I will post more about at the end of the month so you can see what we get up to :)

Have you read Waiting for Froggo? We'd love to hear what you thought!

Momma Bear x

RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch 2024

Friday 26th - Sunday 28th January 2024

I set up a bird watching station next to the window as part of their toy rotation at the beginning of the week that would end with the bird watch weekend. I dug out their binoculars and Bear's bird identification books, as well as a couple of books to do with birds and the garden. I also had a bird identification poster and some flash cards so that we could learn what birds we might see in the garden when we did the Big Garden Birdwatch. 

Our first move during the week, apart from learning the birds, was to buy some bird seed to fill up our current bird feeders, and to buy a new one for the fence. Both boys had fun in the garden helping to fill up the feeders, though The Cub just preferred sticking his hands in the bag of seed to be fair. 

Bear can now confidently identify most birds by their picture that could come into the garden. He already knew blackbirds, robins, crows, pigeons, and blue tits. He can now add jackdaws, chaffinches, great tits and collared doves to that list.

The boys loved watching for birds with their binoculars out of the window, despite the fact that Bear insists on using them back to front!

On the Saturday, Bear and I spent an hour in front of the window, looking through the RSPB Activity Book that I'd gotten from Waterstones. He had a blast doing the activities and using all the stickers - one of his favourite things to do! I was so proud of his willingness to try the new types of activities, including some writing and drawing. He drew the view from the window, including his bird feeders, and then added some stickers. He was so proud of his drawing, as was I, as until now, his drawings tend to always be the same few things, trucks mainly!

So... for the hour that we classed as our official garden bird watch, Bear and spotted a grand total of zero birds in the garden! We did however, get a cheeky squirrel that came to check out the new bench feeder. He is quite a regular in the garden and despite the lack of birds, Bear was excited to watch him scurrying around the garden looking for what we assumed to be his buried nuts as well as stealing the seed from the bird feeder on the fence.

The following day, we spent some more time in the garden and made some pine cone bird feeders with peanut butter and bird seed, and Bear hung them on the tree at the bottom of the garden.

Bear isn't much of a 'getting sticky' kinda kid, and quickly decided he'd hang all the feeders after I'd made them... The Cub however, doesn't have the same hang ups and was quickly covered in peanut butter and had bird seed stuck to him. Maybe the birds would have come to check him out if we'd stayed outside long enough!

Since then, we have had an overconfident pigeon and a pair of male blackbirds that have been in and out of the garden to check out what we have to offer, but other than that, we are still bird less.

Since the weekend, we have done Bear's journal page in his nature journal. He drew another bird, copied the word and we stuck in his chart from the watch, which we filled in with the pigeon and the blackbirds even though they didn't come during our official watch. Then we used some of the left over stickers from his book to add to the page. We picked the ones that we hoped we would have seen in the garden, and put plenty of pigeons on there!

Bear also filled in some more of the activities in his activity book, and in the back, we found a certificate which Bear wrote his name on to deem himself a Brilliant Birdwatcher!

Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch? We'd love to know what birds visited your garden :)

Momma Bear x