Indoor Plants

I'm trying to gradually bring some nature into the house, using plants.

We have a spider plant in our hallway, but now that the Christmas cards have come down, I have an empty kitchen window sill.... Time for another plant!

Whilst wandering the local garden center, we came across some baby succulents. These are perfect as I don't need to worry about them as such!

Summer chose 3 succulents that she liked and with Nanna, she potted them, ready to go on our window sill. 

Gardening with your toddler is also fantastic for their development, gardening is a great physical development activity. Young children can practice locomotor skills, body management skills and object control skills while they move from one place to the other carrying tools, soil and water. 

Summer loves gardening and getting stuck in. I'm sure that she would spend all day in the garden with the mud and sticks if I'd let her. 

What indoor plants do you have? 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Have a great day! 

Garden Centers

Garden Centers are great places to take a toddler. 

Most of them now have aquariums, which keeps them entertained for 5 mins, especially if they also have small animals and reptiles. 

Summer loves to watch the hamsters, birds, tortoises and lizards in our local garden center.

We visited Dobbies earlier this week. They have a large Koi tank, and a feeding station. You need a pound point and you turn the handle (much like the 20p sweet machine) and are rewarded with a tub of fish food.

Summer thought that this was great fun as the fish came to the surface and splashed about. 

This particular Dobbies has recently opened their Little Seedlings Soft Play Area. It's £3.50 for a play session. We were there for about an hour and a half. They have a cafe inside too, which is lovely for us adults.

Its also nice for the tots to see plants and have a little explore. Summer loves to plant vegetables and get involved, so we are looking forward to spring! 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Have a great day! 

Jobs

Summer has a few jobs around the house. 

This is both to teach her to do certain things, to respect her home and also because I need a helping hand. 

Her regular jobs include:

❤️ bringing the washing basket into the kitchen 

💙 occasionally loading the clothes into the machine

💜 setting the table for dinner with mats and cutlery

💚 sweeping up any mess that she creates whilst eating dinner

💛 tidying her bedroom

At nursery they call this being a "helper" which is something that Summer received an award for last term.

When we go shopping, Summer uses the kids trolley, yes it can be a bit stressful to worry about her crashing into things, but generally she does very well. It allows her to be a part of the shopping trip and to help. She will ask what we need, and will put it in her trolley and at the end she will load it up on the conveyer belt. This is a skill that she need throughout her adult life, why not get her learning the ropes

I believe that it is important for her to 'do her bit' as it were, to help others and not necessarily expect a reward or treat for it, such as pocket money or a sweet, though the odd incentive never hurt anyone.

What jobs do your toddlers help with?

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day! 

Puzzles

Summer loves jigsaw puzzles!

I have recently found myself keeping any eye out for ones that are suitable for her age range.

Its a nice, calming activity that she can either do by herself or with me.

Puzzles are so great for toddlers as they  promote hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and problem solving.

We have recently ordered some Usborne jigsaw puzzles, that come with a book of activities.
 I can't wait to show you them!

If you'd like to get your hands on one please visit Kate's Next Chapter at https://org.usbornebooksathome.co.uk/kates_nextchapter/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?cat=1&series=1735

Thank you for stopping by. 

Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Getting Involved

I like to get Summer involved in cooking and baking.
Yes, it can be a bit messy and take longer than doing it yourself but she enjoys it, and it helps us to spend some time together.

So far this week Summer has helped me to make Apple Crumble, where she stirred the apples and poured in the Cinnamon and Chicken Pasta, where she tipped in the chopped items, tinned tomatoes and stirred the pan. It was also her job to find the pasta and pour it into the saucepan.

Getting your toddler involved in cooking helps them to develop fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, and even early concepts of maths if they are measuring or counting.

I'd love to see what you and your little ones have created!

Thank you so much for stopping by.
Have a great day. 

Keeping my promise

So like a lot of parents, I use bribery!

Summer was told that if she goes to bed nicely, without kicking off, then she could go to her 1st gymnastics lessons in the morning. 

She upheld her part of deal, and so now it was my turn. 

We drove 25mins to the gymnastics centre, to find that over the new year, they changed their timetable and didn't think to inform anyone that had enquired. 

So, there I am with a bubba girl excited to do gymnastics and no lesson for her... Thinking on my feet I told her that I had a job to do in town (5 mins away), so once we have done that, we shall find something else to do.

The car park for town is next to the bowling alley, which Summer noticed and asked if we could do that instead. I agreed, that after our job in town, we could go bowling. 

...1 hour later, they were closed!

Now I have let her down twice in the same morning! So turned to Google for some local kids activities... The results were disappointing. 

In the end, we drove 30 mins to Truro to have a game of bowling, as promised. 

Note to self ... Check everything before bribing the bubba! 

Total Spend: £10.75

Adult Bowling : £6.00

Child Bowling : £4.75

Thank you for stopping by. 

Have a great day. 

Klodsmajor!

We love board games, but finding games that Summer can also play can be a bit tricky.

That is where Klodsmajor comes in! 

It is effectively Jenga, but with a dice. 

You roll the dice and it tells you which colour you need to remove from the tower. 

This game is great for Summer as it teaches her a number of things:

♦️ recognising colours

❤️ taking turns

💋 fine motor skills

🍎 that winning is not everything

It's also a rather short game when playing with a toddler so you can squeeze it in before bed or just before you start on dinner. 

Summer is a bit obsessed with playing it lately, but it's great to be spending some quality time with her! 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Have a great day! 

First Pet

Ever had an impulse buy?!

Well I had one on Thursday... 

Meet Iggy the Syrian Hamster! 

Whilst on an outing to Curry's PC World, of all places, Summer naturally became bored of waiting for Grandad to finish his TV purchase and to save myself from going all Hulk on the fact she wouldn't keep her bum on the damn chair, I took her next door to Pets At Home... 

Well that was where she fell into fit's of giggles watching a Hamster carrying a piece of carrot around and burying it in various places. Her laugh was infectious and before I knew it, I had agreed to take him home! 

He is very cute and I hope that she will learn some responsibility when it comes to feeding him and cleaning the cage etc. 

No doubt you will hear more about Iggy in future posts! 

Spend

Hamster: £10.00

Bedding: £3.99

Harry Muesli: £1.99

Woodshavings: £3.49

Wirehome: £25.00

Total Spend: £44.47

Thank you for stopping by. 

Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Day Out: Eden Project

Before our family split, we bought the Eden Project Annual pass and it occurred to me that we haven't used it since...

 What am I thinking...

 I should use and abuse the free access whilst we have it, so that is what we did last weekend!

We made ourselves a packed lunch, jumped in the car and set off on an adventure. 

The Annual pass gives the member (me) free entry along with a guest (my sister, Aka Auntie Mima). Summer is currently free as she is under 5.

Our first visit was to the Mediterranean Biome, followed by the (far superior - in my opinion) Rainforest Biome. 

Summer enjoyed walking through the "jungle" and spotting the ants and birds doing their thing. 

On our way back to the Visitors Centre we noticed the temporary Ice Rink, my first thought was How much are they going to rip me off for that? So I was pleasantly surprised to see it was only £7 per adult and £5 per child for a 40 min session, or £5 per adult and £4 per child for members!! 

We couldn't turn this down. 

Summer had never been ice skating before so we jumped at the chance and had a fantastic time. 

I would highly recommend taking a look at The Eden Project and the Special Events that they put on. 

Total Spend: £14

Thanks again for stopping by and have a great day! 

Crabbin'

What a fine sunny Saturday we have had today! 

With such beautiful weather making a break through all that rain over the past week, we decided to make the most of it and try our hand at crabbing.

I personally had never done it before, so Grandma took the lead!

We picked up some cheap bacon and chopped it into bits. This is the bait!

Then we needed the net and line, along with a crab bucket, which are in abundance at the moment around here. Ours are from Morrisons, Newquay.

Off we went to Padstow Harbour, sadly the park and ride was closed, but we enjoyed the walk from the council car park on Link Road, with our picnic in hand.

We parked our bums along the harbour edge, dangling our feet over the side! The bacon bait went into the nets and we flung them over the side and into the Harbour. Grandpa scooped up some water in the crab bucket ready for our catches of the day!

It wasn't long before we were attempting to reel in a crab or two but the pesky things kept jumping back into the water. We enjoyed a good few hours before calling it a day with a happy crab in our bucket to show off our efforts!

A couple of passers by peeked in to say hello to our crab, which Summer named Noodle. We set Noodle free after giving him a buffet of bacon bait.

I for one had a fabulous day and can't wait to do it again. Summer enjoyed herself too and didn't want to leave.

Grand total spend: £13.50

Bucket £1

Bacon £1.50

Nets £6

Parking £5

Don't forget to keep your nets and bucket for the next crabbing adventure and cut down your costs even further!

Thank you for stopping by! 

Have a great day!

Hello There!

Hello there,

My name is Amy and I am Mumma to Summer, aged 3 (going on 13).

I would like to share the fun, stress, love and tears that go into raising a toddler!

I hope that you enjoy this little blog, and I thank you for stopping by! 

Xx