Odds and sods

The latest thing in this house are paper dolls.  Inspired by a Christmas present from her granny, a book called “Black Apple’s Paperdoll Primer” by Emily Winfield Martin (who you can visit at her wonderful blog: “Inside a Black Apple“;  Nin and Ted have been busy copying and printing out paper dolls to cut out and play with.

The book really is wonderful as it has a selection of paper dolls to copy and print out (male and female and also Ted’s favourites: a ghost, a hedgehog and an onion-headed little boy) but also ideas for making your own paper dolls and instructions for making a paper theatre, backdrops and more.

Oh the concentration involved!

And here too:

Lets just say that finger knitting isn’t necessarily Ted’s favourite activity and he’s sat next to the radiator because it’s on and he’s a boy who likes his warmth (although we’ve not needed central heating for a few days since this picture was taken).

He much prefers building.  I walked into the dining room one day to find this (it was apparently set up for their small monkeys to climb on.  They spent quite some time playing with it.

Yachtzy is always a favourite maths activity here. For Nin the emphasis is on her practising her addition and multiplication.

Ted is only just 6, so still in Kindergarten.  However, he would not be one to be left out of a game and so he counts his scores (this can take quite a while in the case of results such as the below!)  He is rather good at basic sums up to 10 (and sometimes up to 20) though – not uncommon for younger siblings, who, although Kindergarten age, will listen in and copy what their siblings are up to.  I have a feeling that come the time he starts Grade 1, maths will be far more of a favourite than knitting ;0)

As the weather dries and brightens there’s been the making of nests (not just a job for birds, Nin is insistant that her small dolls/toys need a home outside too):

I’m really welcoming the sunnier days – they bring with them, not only the increasing warmth and light, the flowers and first greening of many plants, but also a brighter, sunnier mood for me 🙂