Non Fiction Reading Problem – Solution

Thank you to everyone who commented, tweeted, emailed about yesterdays blog post.  I’ve got many good ideas now thank you

Today we had to go grocery shopping. I decided to feed the children lunch before we left reasoning that hungry children and grocery shopping are a bad mix. Annie was in the middle of scribbling circles on a piece of paper, ‘I’ve made a new language’ she declared.  We had a discussion about could it be a language if no-one else could read it whilst she scarfed down her baked beans.

Then it was off to the grocery store.  As we walked into the shopping centre I saw a bookshop and decided to pop in and have a look for something for Annie to read between now and when we next get to the library.  The incessant sibling bickering is driving me barmy and Annie with her nose in a book is a good way to stop the bickering.

As Annie headed directly to the ‘Rainbow Magic’ books I went to the childrens non-fiction.  My eye was caught by this fabulous little book

The Word Spy is a fantastic book about the English language.  Annie was initially not interested – the lure of Rainbow Fairies being far stronger, then I started reading her the chapter headings ‘How to make your own alphabet’ and that was it, Annie was sold

So I made purchase of The Word Spy (and two Rainbow Magic books for sibling bickering emergencies), we did our grocery shopping and then got in the car to come home.  The bickering started almost as soon as we got in the car so I handed over to Annie a copy of The Word Spy and she has been walking around with her nose in the book ever since.  Even the much anticipated to trip to the swimming pool was declined once she realised that she couldn’t take the book with her I’m pretty thrilled to discover the book also has a blog – click here for blog.

The perfect book for a young lady who reads the dictionary at bedtime for fun.

From Dec 09

Wanted – Book Recommendations for 6yo

Annie’s end of year report from school came with some recommendations for summer activities.  One of them was to borrow NON fiction books from the library.

So I’m looking for recommendations of non fiction books that others (or their children) have enjoyed.  I thought we’d borrow a wide range to start with and see where Annie’s interests are. She is 6yo but reading a couple of years above her grade level.

Thank you

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas 2009.

My gift to you – the recipe for Mothers fabulous stuffing balls.

STUFFING BALLS

 

Ingredients

4.5 cups Fresh White Breadcrumbs

½ Cup of Freshly Chopped Parsley

1 ½ teasp. dried marjoram

1 ½ teasp. dried thyme

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Finely grated rind of 3 lemons

3 eggs

90mls milk

75g melted butter

Oil and Butter for frying

Method

To Make the Stuffing Balls. Mix the breadcrumbs with Parsley, marjoram thyme, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon rind, Beat the egg lightly with the milk and melted butter and stir into the breadcrumbs. Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls

Open, flash freeze, until solid then put into a freezer bag. Seal label and return to freezer.

To thaw. Unwrap and fry balls from frozen in a mixture of hot oil and butter until they are crisp and golden brown.

To serve. Serve around the Roast turkey or directly onto the serving plates.

Recipe taken from

“Encyclopaedia of Home Freezing”

Backyard Envy

I seriously envy my brother his amazing backyard

Pretty impressive for the middle of suburbia.

Plane Flight

Notes that I wrote inflight from Melbourne to Brisbane.

Thank god Annie had an empty seat in front of her and Heidi had a child sitting in front of her. Both could wriggle their hearts content.

Neither child was much interested in the childrens colouring in packs the Qantas crew handed out.

Heidi

Had the window seat.
Wore her face mask for most of the flight (I purchased lovely soft silken masks from Cotton On PJ store). It wasn’t always over her eyes but was always on her head.
The sun coming in the window was strong, blind down for most of the flight.
Heidi got distressed when we flew into the clouds and she couldn’t see the land below.
Hugged her soft fluffy flower pillow.
When Dad booked the tickets he did not advise Qantas of her nut allergy. Breakfast was muesli with nuts. Must ring and advise for flight home.
She enjoyed crunching on bag of apple pieces.
Worried about where our suitcases and the car seats had gone.
Wanted crunchy chips to eat … thankfully I’d gotten some from vending machine in gate lounge. Mummy win!
Yowie toys a hit – they were inside plastic egg, required assembly and had little info sheet with pictures.
Pokemon toys also popular, came in Pokeballs from vending machine at shops… unfortunatly they were Diamond and Pearl pokemon that Heidi not familiar with so we didn’t know their names.
Max and Milly toys in lunch box were big hit, they’d been hidden away for some months at bottom of sensory bag and Heidi really enjoyed playing with them again.
Glad we got bottles of water at airport as Heidi drank much of hers inflight.
She freaked out a little at the airplane toilet as her poo disappeared with out her flushing. I’m pretty sure all the passengers on the plane heard her asking ‘where’s my poo gone’.
Asked as we were taking off ‘are we there yet’.
Generally happy and eager to please.
Couple walks up the aisle to toilet and back helped with wiggles.

Annie

aisle seat
Restless and anxious.
Needed to know all the details about everything.
Spent a long time reading in flight safety card and kept referring back to it.
Counted seats to exits in either direction.
Checked on location of life jacket several times.
Worried about leaving Daddy behind on his own and talked about him a lot.
Yowie toy also a hit for Annie, especially info sheet.
Pokemon toys abandoned when I didn’t know the names.
Managed to distract her with Christmas sticker book for a while.
Lots of baby talk.
Held her special toy Sarebear and her cat in a hat… which was a small soft toy cat inside one of her sun hats.
I think maybe small hand held puzzle or worry beads might help in future flights.
Walked down aisle to toilet by herself, was a bit nervous but very brave.

Both girls decided they needed to go to the toilet just as I got my first cup of coffee for the day. That was interesting, juggling three tray tables with breakfast, toys and my coffee to get the girls out to the toilet.

Last day of school

Prep is over!

WooHoo

The first day of school doesn’t seem that long ago.

Annie on her last day of school walking confidently up to the classroom by herself. More often than not I say goodbye to her at the school gate as it is too embarrassing to have mum come to the classroom with you. Some days Annie likes me to go still but they are fewer and further between.

From Dec 09

The school bag has been ditched in favour of the more fashionable High School Musical bag from Nana J.

I snuck this picture of Annie in during the first hour of class – I was in the room helping out with tidying up the puzzles and games.

From Dec 09

Which epitomizes the changes that this year has brought to our family. Finding out during the year that Annie has Aspergers has undeniably caused some changes in our life. More appointments and people to see being the one that springs to mind first. It also explains so much. Why Annie was coming home overwhelmed and distraught at the end of school days. Why homework was always such a battle, why somethings which seemed so simple were so difficult to explain to Annie.

I’m so proud of her, despite all the difficulties she has still made some friends, gotten an exceptionally good report card and generally enjoyed school.

Next year Annie will be in Grade One and is in a combined Prep/One class. I’m a little upset she is not in a combined One/Two class as academically she is already performing above her grade level. But it is the opinion of the school that socially Annie needs the greater level of support a Prep/One class will provide. I am *very* happy about her classroom teacher for next year. So we will play it by ear and see what 2010 brings to our family.

The last day of PreSchool

We had Heidi’s final day of PreSchool today.  I’m so glad my friend J was there to support me and witness my baby saying farewell to her PreSchool years.

At the start of this year Heidi was very clingy, she would hold my hand while I carried her bags as we walked up to PreSchool.  Today shows how far we have come as my independent little girl stepped out the gate on her own, carrying her own bag as she has done for months now.

From Dec 09

From Dec 09

From Dec 09

The excitement was running high as we waited outside the doors of PreSchool for the very last time. Christmas cards were exchanged, childrens laughter and excited chatter filled the air.

From Dec 09

Inside we adults were treated to the nativity story, here is my little angel. Last year we didn’t even go to the 3 year old PreSchool Christmas Party, it was too much, too overwhelming for Heidi. This year not only did we attend but Heidi played her role in the nativity play with no problems.

From Dec 09

From Dec 09

After the nativity play it was time for some Christmas songs all of which Heidi joined in for, noise sensitivity… what noise sensitivity?

From Dec 09

My baby girl is growing up too fast!

Emergency Breakdown Kit for Parents

On Facebook today and I posted

To which my friend A replied

and I answered

and that got me pondering what exactly would be in the parenting emergency breakdown kit?

I know mine would include chocolate and coffee.

What else?

and don’t forget to pop over and visit A’s blog HomeAge I’m in awe of your creativity A.

Sita Sings The Blues – Free Movie

Heidi has been demanding the movie with “The Pink Princess and the Blue Man” fairly frequently over the last three days.  After some initial confusion I was able to figure out that she meant Sita Sings the Blues.  For those wanting a recap of the plot / storyline Wiki has done it far better than I ever could, so I’m just going to rave here about how much we enjoyed it and why .

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but I studied Indian in Literature and Film and university and it was very probably my all time fav. topic of study with such depth and richness that I would willingly have dropped all the required economics subjects to spend more time immersed in Indian literature and film.

But I digress, Sita Sings the Blues is a fabulous film that is available FOR FREE to download (click here to go to download page – or you can watch it online).

My girls love it for the amazing soundtrack (getting them into Jazz early, thank you very much ) and the variety of animation styles used.  For children who are very much into everything visual this is a real feast for the eyes.  But it is not just for children, for adults also, this is an amazing film, read Roger Ebert’s review here.

There is a little bit of adult content in the film, not enough to cause problems with my girls but if you are worried then just watch the film by yourself first and then watch it again with your children… and again and again because it does stand up well to repeat viewing and the soundtrack is really enjoyable.

Feeling a little proud of myself

I’ve been making gifts for the girls teachers.

Heidi’s Early Intervention Teacher is leaving at the end of this year ::sob:: and I wanted to do something special for her to say thank you for all the amazing help and support that she has provided us over the last two years.

For her I made a little Christmas Ornament to go with the gift bag I’d put together.

From Dec 09

From Dec 09

Mum had sent down this cute little tin to use for teachers gift and the ornament fitted into it just perfectly.

From Dec 09

Over the weekend Heidi got her hands on my PVA glue and decorated these gift bags I’d put out to use for teacher gifts. Apart from having to clean PVA glue off other surfaces I was very impressed with the job she did.

From Dec 09

I’d gotten these plain paper bags from Lincraft sewing supplies store and they were just perfect size for the gifts.

Last month the girls and I made biscuits and I’d put them in the freezer ready to use for gifts. I printed out the recipes for the biscuits using red and green (Christmas!) fonts and stapled them to the ziploc bags which had 6 biscuits each in them.

Remember the amputated hand? I got some cardboard hands from K-Mart craft dept and Heidi decorated them and I wrote on the back ‘Thank you for the helping hand’. Simple hole punch in the top and some curly ribbon, ta-da hand made Christmas ornament.

From Dec 09

There were some super cute biscuit tins available from Coles that I also included, more because the tin was so cute than for the biscuits.

Feeling pretty happy with these gifts, they turned out much better than I’d anticipated and didn’t break our budget which is a good thing as money is a little tight thanks to scary large tax bill which arrived recently.