Cupcake Mumma: learning

Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts

Our Plans to Home School

On the 29th March it's the last day of school for many children up and down the country as they all break up for the Easter holidays. For L and A it's also the last day but with a bit of a difference: they won't be going back...

The Story Corner Story Cards and Colouring Pages - Review

We love books, we love stories and we love using our imagination. Midge is gradually moving onto bigger and more difficult books preferring to delve into the writers own world of fun characters and their adventures. Little A is improving every term with this reading and I try to encourage him wherever I can.

As A is only 6 he's still really into imaginative play and he loves the visual aspect to stories. At school, stories are shown on projectors. He tries to tell stories by their illustrations before reading the words and we've just started using The Story Corner's story cards. We've got 2 sets of these cards, both wonderfully illustrated and packaged safely in attractive boxes for safe keeping. Midge used one set and found it all quite fun. I sent this set to year 1 which is the year Little A is in. His teacher thought they were great and would come in really useful.

A found it a little harder to get the idea but as I made up names and told my story he soon joined in. He used the space story cards to tell the story of a girl called Dora who went to space with her bunny friend to eat sandwiches and zap aliens who tried to steal her!

We also had some great fun colouring in one of two big nursery rhyme posters from The Story Corner. I actually had a huge amount of fun with this activity. We haven't finished our fairy tale poster yet but I will show you our nursery rhymes one below. We had great fun trying to figure out all the rhymes, then singing them over and over again. A really tried hard to stay in the lines. He's normally one to just scribble and walk off, but because his sister and I were involved and visibly enjoying ourselves he was up for the fun too! We were all really pleased with how these came out.

I had a look at The Story Corners website and have recommended them to my children's school. I volunteer in reception and the class teacher thinks the story cards are fabulous! We were sat one day with some children and I told her how we had been discussing space a lot when she said about making a space themed corner! I said I'd bring in some cards to show her and since then I've shown the children the cards who really like them! Initially they struggled to grasp the concept but with a little modelling they had fun making up similar space themed stories as A did at home.

I think both activities are really fun ideas for home especially for chill out time. I also thought home school parents would enjoy the cards. I really love the story stones which yet again look wonderful with delicate illustrations. The Story Corner kindly sent me some story cards and colouring sheets for this review and I've loved discovering both mine and the children's imagination and creativity all over again.

Cupcake Mumma

*Update 2026: I can no longer find the item for sale but if you search 'story cards', 'story dice' or 'story stones', you will find lots of great products similar to these*

Plymouth Aquarium

A week ago I went to Plymouth Aquarium with year 1 including my little man. We did the panto and Pizza Hut too but it's the Aquarium I want to blog about because I love them.

We were greeted by two members of staff and were soon being shown around by Stu who was lovely and energetic. We started the tour looking at starfish which I love but I have to say I distracted Stu somewhat by asking about the Spider Crabs which I was fascinated by. He didn't mind and all the children who were fascinated along with me got a quick education in rather cool looking creatures. We moved on to a starfish chat and a little story before heading over to the Jellyfish, another sea creature I love.

Lots of lovely Starfish!

Close up of the Starfish

Beautiful Spider crab

The Jellyfish didn't disappoint anyone least of all me. I took to the upside-down Jellyfish because of their beautiful colours. There were slightly larger Jellyfish, some smaller and a tank which must have been full of baby Jellyfish but I forgot to ask. All their colours were amazing.

Upside down Jellyfish

Beautiful, brightly coloured Jellyfish

Next we moved on to the big boys, the sharks. There were some big ol' sharks swimming happily around the plane wreck in their tank with their fish and stingray friends. Enzo the shark was hard to miss given his bizarre shape. Turns out he's a sand shark, one I've never heard about before. It was quite surreal being this far down, trying to imagine how much water was above our heads! Stu gave us a brief chat on the different sharks in this giant tank and a talk about the anatomical structure of some fish.

We viewed another part of the tank, going even further down! Then moved on to the last section of the tour before lunch. The beautiful octopus who stayed still in his corner during a quick talk soon showed his beautiful long tentacles off to us adults the moment the children moved on. Something that looked so bunched up, small and vulnerable suddenly didn't look much that way once his tentacles splayed demonstrating he was easily the length of his tank.

Octopus giving us a show!

We learnt that octopus can stick their tentacles up their noses and can reach around up there fairly easily. There were some other gruesome facts but they made me feel a little sick to be honest! The final stop was to look about the reef where the children spotted their favourites (Nemo! Dory!) It was sad that the turtle had passed away but she lived a much better life with Plymouth Aquarium than she would've done in the wild; something to do with her shell I think but I forget. It was a great tour, I really enjoyed myself and really want to go again with my family so we can look around the whole aquarium and take our time (the one luxury you don't get on a school trip with 5 year olds!)

Little crab walking along his tank

Cupcake Mumma

*Apologies for the photo quality! Understandably you can't use a flash as this upsets the fish..and my isn't what it was *laughs*

10 Reasons to Smile ~ May

May was quite a nice month. I got a photo through on the school app of my Little A looking all pleased with himself. I'm so happy to say that A is now officially blending 3 letter words and I'm so proud of him. Now he's started he feels more confident, I can just tell. Apparently his teacher showed all the reception staff then went around to the heads office plus various other parts of the school to share her pride of my boys progress, she's awesome!

Very proud Little Man in his phonics class

Midge has been riding her bike to school most days in May and I've been quite surprised by her confidence. She has been waiting ages for a helmet so when I finally bought one she was desperate to ride her bike to school and she's been loving it everyday.

I've had some Comping wins which I'm pleased about, I'm hoping 2 outstanding prizes turn up this month,fingers crossed! I won a huge ball from Wicked Vision which the children find hilarious to use on the trampoline and an instant BBQ which gave us our first spontaneous BBQ of the year.

We've had some lovely weather in May, there were more wet and miserable days than gorgeous basking-in-the-sun days but when the sun came out it really shone and that's been lovely. The house is warm, Midge is in shorts,my flowers are growing and bees and birds are visiting my garden again. Lovely!

I love pink flowers

Mr B has officially left his bacon factory job of 5 years and has a new job starting this week caring and supporting young adults with learning disabilities. He'll be really good at this job and I love that he has a sense of direction now too.

We enjoyed a wonderful 2 and a half hour walk which included country roads, horses, pretty houses, fields of growing corn and blooming trees, plus streams and a happy family.

Stroking horses

We visited the Seal sanctuary in Gweek which I haven't been to since I was little and didn't even live in Cornwall! It was wonderful to return and see how much it's changed. Pops and Grandma treated us to our first half term adventure and we had a great time.

A looking at fish close up

Mr B picked me up a new bike in May and I love it! I'm really nervous on the roads so want to avoid any main ones but otherwise I really enjoy cycling. The day I got it we all went on a family bike ride to a local pub where Mr B treated us to squash and crisps before collecting his well deserved trophies from football.

Mr B with his football trophies

Happy mail always makes me smile and I have had a few really lovely letters and packages land on my doormat in May. I'm really behind yet again on my snail mail but luckily I have a great group of snail mail friends who get that life gets in the way or that you just don't always feel like writing!

Pinterest is a strange thing to be happy about but I've filled my recipe folder with some great looking recipes that I've printed off, it's inspired healthy recipe ideas and given me workout routines too. I'm planning a 60th birthday party next year and it's proving very handy for inspiration.

Cupcake Mumma

A-Z Challenge: O

O is for One Body. Learn to Love it.

I bet you can name all the parts of your body you dislike. Just for one moment I decided to stop thinking about all the things I don't like about my physical self and focus on all the parts of my body I do like. I tried to find positives in the parts that make me feel I'm not as attractive as I'd like to be for what ever reason. Here is what I came up with:

Thousands of words have passed through these lips of mine. Thoughts that I believed could never spill out into the spoken word tumbled out and helped me when I really needed that help the most. The amount of times I have said the words 'I love you.' 'You mean everything to me.' 'I miss you.' My lips, a part from my hands, were the first part of my body to touch my newborn children with a tender, loving kiss to their fragile little heads. I sealed my vows with these lips.

My breasts have obviously changed and will continue to do so as I age and change each year. My children were placed gently upon my chest as soon as they were born. They fed for the first few days, drinking their milk and placing a small finger to stroke my soft skin and comfort themselves. I chose to not continue with breastfeeding, my breasts never let me down if anything they begged me to bring my infants to them. I was too tired and too sore to face the discomfort but I have never felt my body has in any way let me down.

My stomach. The home to both of my children from conception until 39 and 38 weeks pregnant. What a wonderful job my body did in keeping my babies safe. Protecting them from knocks. How wonderful that my body grew to accommodate another life. My stretchmarks represent every month, every jab, kick, punch and flip my children did whilst growing inside me.

My hands. Where do you even begin? Each and every day I wake and reach out to my partner. To feel his physical presence. I feel my children's soft skin. Pinch their cheeks and run my fingers through their soft, blond hair. My hands hold theirs tightly, gripped with the responsibility of another life who could slip from me in a second. My hands; sometimes they hold my children so tight as if to say 'I'll never let you go.' My hands delivered my children into this world. My skin is changing, I can see it ageing but it doesn't matter.

There are other things I like. The freckles on my ears, the hidden mole on my head and the chicken pox scar on my chest that never went away. Those are the little things that no one would see unless they could get so amazingly close to appreciate my quirky additions. I love those too.

What do you love? I dare you to love your body today.

CupcakeMumma

What We've Been Up To..

It's a very cold evening here in Cornwall so I'm typing this under my lovely quilt on the sofa! The whole week has been pretty cold, winter is on its way. This week I've been doing crafting and planning our upcoming Halloween party which I'm looking forward to!

Midge has had both a golden ticket at lunch time for observing the school rules (she got the ticket for her manners) and also received 'star of the day' on Tuesday, so I'm a very proud Mummy. Today her class celebrated all things French. She came out of school with her face painted as a mime artist and her little hands clenching a chocolate chip croissant. She's always refused to eat them but seems to have found a love for them...I bet she doesn't eat the ones I've bought from Iceland earlier!

Enjoying her snack

Little Man has been on some growth spurt this week. I'm not sure what I've added to his milk but he's just shot up out of no where! He's dancing around and making his Dad and I laugh so hard. He was amazingly good at the dentist receiving a sticker for having very clean and healthy teeth! He's added 'Uh, Oh' to his cute vocabulary as well as more normal words such as 'Daddy' and 'Bye.' I'm loving every moment of watching him grow and thankfully I'm not finding it too fast.

I recently received a craft box of goodies the other day so started on my first make which was a little notebook with instructions on how to do Japanese Stab Stitching. I found this a bit fiddly but overall I'm very happy with the result! Midge helped me by pulling the thread through the holes.

Showing off our work

The finished notebook

Tomorrow, the Husband has a football match which I would go and watch with the children but I'm a bit worried about the weather! I think we'll go for having a nice lay in, baking a hazelnut and chocolate cake and finishing my November Thanksgiving Calender with Midge. Hope you've all had a great week and have a wonderful weekend.

CupcakeMumma

What I've Learnt Today..

1.It's National Chocolate Week this week. This is good for many, many reasons but it also leads me to believe that every week is a National 'something or other' week...

2. Children really do ask you some interesting questions. 'Mum, where does water come from?' Good question Midge, let me briefly pop back to 2004 and pretend I was listening in Science because, lets face it, there is a proper answer here!

3. Oven jacket potatoes ain't all that and a bag of chips...Or i'm just doing them wrong.

4. If you leave your phone laying around your 4 year old WILL take photos:

5. I owe £6.80 to my local library for a book I cooked from twice and then forgot to return. Serves me right really but how bloody long have I borrowed it?! I'm sure it wasn't that long!!

6. That you can't remember everything. I forgot 'Show and Tell' today but in my defense i did remember letter writing, math homework (early), £1 for the Halloween party and to bring a drinks bottle to class!

CupcakeMumma

First Day Success

''First day at school: When I grow up I want to be a
baker!'

Today my Little Miss (also affectionately known as 'Midge' until she grows taller than me) attended her first full day of school. Yep, my beautiful baby girl is actually an ever growing 4 year old taking her first steps into the world of education. I'm really excited for her.

I loved school and even when I started finding things difficult later on with bullying I still loved to learn. English, history and art were among my favourite lessons and I think that was reflected in my overall results in year 11. I hope this is the beginning of a love for learning for my Midge.

We thought we'd do something different to mark the beginning of her learning journey. After we had all eaten breakfast and got dressed I set about doing the usual 'Mum' thing and took lots of photos of my baby girl on her first day. I then sat down and noticed my chalk board. A while ago I was going through Pinterest and I found, but never 'pinned' this cute little idea to write what year your child is going into. I thought I'd make it a bit different and ask Midge what she wanted to be when she grows up!

She said 'maker' and upon further questioning she explained that she wanted to make things like cupcakes. 'Oh! A baker?' I said. 'Yes Mum that's what I said, a maker!' *Big sigh.* We took a few successful shots but she fell in the toy box on our second one so, naturally, I had to include it in my blog.

Finally, just before leaving I got this lovely photo of both my babies together. Midge is a very proud big sister which is just lovely to see. Little Man missed her today which I thought he would being they've made a lot of noise the past six weeks!

As for Little Man, we kept him occupied by having a quiet breakfast before the late morning rush of Mummy meet ups! He really enjoyed dipping into ketchup which went everywhere!

How did your Little (or not so little) Ones get on with their first day back?

CupcakeMumma

America Day!

I've been a bit off the radar with this impending wedding of mine and I'm definitely missing my blog so I'm back to write up a couple of posts which will probably be it until after the wedding, we'll see.

Last weekend Little Miss, Little Man and I had an 'America Day!' During the summer holidays I have made a point to still make sure there is some learning to our fun (well, sometimes- lazy days are pretty good too!)

We started off our America Day with making flags. I printed some flags off and asked Little Miss what the colours of the flag were (expecting to have to tell her) and was surprised when she said 'red, white and blue Mum!' Now, I think she may have chose those colours because of the fact our flag has been paraded around everywhere (including the bunting in my kitchen!) but who am I to argue? After all, she was right!

We made the flags and talked about America. We put on some fake accents which was very funny, Little Miss was in fits of giggles (evidently I don't put on a convincing American accent!) we discussed various states and I explained to her about all the stars on the flag. That was enough for a 4 year old I thought!

We then took ourselves to the kitchen to bake a fantastic recipe mailed to me by Reecea who blogs at Fresh juniper. She very kindly shared with me a delicious Peach Cobbler recipe. We put our Cobbler together and once done it was the first treat on our table!
To the table we added some chips, hot dog sausages and buns, an American potato salad and pasta dish plus some marshmallows and Hursheys chocolate syrup. very yummy!

Peach Cobber, soya ice cream and home made banana ice cream!

Fruit Flag!

The children tucked in more than ever before so I reckon our America Day was small, but fun and more importantly- a big success!!

We're currently deciding on what country is next, we think we might go with China Day which would be good. However, lets get this wedding over with first!

Would you have a 'Country Learning Day'? I'd love to know if you do!
CupcakeMumma

My Saturday: Family time and Museum fun

We all decided to have a family day out today. Both Other Half and myself don't feel that we spend enough quality time together as a family these days so what better way to rectify that than head out bright and early on a Saturday morning.

I wrote yesterday about living thrifty and being as cheap or budget conscious as possible these days and how sometimes, for me at least, it doesn't always feel good. At the end of this post I featured some photos of my most thrifty finds. I found that today, with my £30 pound budget in my purse for any shop finds, something to eat and bus fare, I kept this post in my head particularly my past finds and I started to feel good again. I remembered how I felt to come across a really good 'find'.

Anyway as usual I digress...We hopped on the bus (for once was cheaper than the train although hideously boring so I did wish now and then that I spent double amount on the train fare! Glad I did not though!) We eventually arrived and first set about something to eat. I used some spare change in my purse to pay for lunch. It was in a superstore and it was absolute pants. I'm sure all you pay for is the packaging these days huh?

Other Half wasn't happy- here he is in one of his ~~rare~~ immature moods scribbling 'rip off' all over the receipt. Oh dear.

After lunch we pushed on and got down to going in and out of a few shops. We went around the indoor market which is full of all sorts of stores. Other Half bored us rigged with his exchange stores after that we we visited a couple of charity shops before setting our sites on the local Museum. I had this on my Project Zero list and completed it a little while ago (here) but never got round to viewing upstairs. I loved it. Little Miss was a bit too hyped up to enjoy it, but she liked the art gallery and the children's section. Being 4 I can't expect her to fully appreciate the Ancient Egyptians or Cornish Heritage just yet can I?

We got home at half past six both children still wide awake, both parents slightly worse for wear! Other Half crashed out in bed same time as i settled Little Miss and has only just resurfaced (as I go to the pit.) I'll leave you with the photos of our day. Have a good Sunday,

Cupcake Mumma