April Recap

 Is it me, or did April disappear in the blink of an eye?

April saw a lot of repetition for learning as we are still working on solidifying Bear's knowledge of numbers 1-10 and letter names and sounds. Bear is getting the numbers now, and we have the beginning of the alphabet down. I need to come up with some new ways of going over them as we have been using the same couple of ways and it is becoming obvious that Bear is getting fed up of doing the same things.

We signed up for The Bear Can Read literacy program which we had our first delivery for at the start of the month and Bear's excitement for this was amazing - you can read my blog post all about this here.

Our outings for the month included a trip to Sherwood Forest for their Easter Fairytale Trail where we took a lovely walk around the forest and followed the clues, encouraging Bear to look at the boards to recognise the letters and numbers involved at every opportunity. We took a trip to the National Space Centre where both Bear and The Cub had an absolute blast! A few outings to general outdoorsy places, some with friends, some just me and the boys. We made it down to Grimm & Co in their new Emporium of Stories in Rotherham, a beautiful place and a stunning Feastery, well worth a visit with or without children!

We added an afternoon trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park looking for big cats, which we didn't actually see many of but still had a great time, including a lovely encounter with a gentleman taking photos who spoke to Bear for a little while, showing him some of the pictures he'd taken and chatting about the animals.  Some more proof that a child definitely does not need school in order to be socialised!

On some of the warmer days that we saw, we made it out for picnics with friends and finally got back to the rides in Clifton Park - an afternoon of fun was had that day and it was nice to see Bear trying some new rides with his friends.

Other educational trips included the home education day at The Deep, which, in my opinion, wasn't that great for the younger ones, but I have it on great authority that the workshops for the older ones were much better. What we did get out of it, was a lovely afternoon checking out the aquarium with friends as we usually do it with Nannie.

The month was finished off with an afternoon out for just The Cub at Grimm & Co's Curiouser & Curiouser toddler group. He was better this time around and a little more adventurous about checking things out. We have another session this month too which Bear may or may not be attending with us, so we will see how that one goes.

Along with all the trips out, we also spent a lot of time in the garden where the boys have enjoyed a lot of water play on the tuff tray. Bear found a piece of wood that he decided looked like a boat and they have had alsorts on there since, including plenty of dandelions. We spent some time at the caravan but didn't make it to the beach, but spent plenty of time on the parks there instead and of course, there was a skate park trip too where Bear tried out his cousin's two-wheeled scooter instead of his three-wheeled one and loved it. Now I'm on the hunt for a new scooter!

And lastly, our April focus title was The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage which is the first book I've chosen that Bear didn't seem to enjoy as much as the others. There will be another post all about this so watch this space for that :)

As for other books, we outdid ourselves on new reads this month, including moving onto chapter books with Bear after his love of the one we read from World Book Day. We have read a few now, and he is brilliant at just reading a chapter or two and is brilliant at recalling what we've read the night before so that we can continue where we left off. Once finished, he can tell me what happened in the story which is lovely to hear him recount.

What did you get up to during April?

Mama Bear x