This summer's fun

If even your husband notices that I haven't blogged in a while, things must be quiet on the blogging front. Well, they're not really because there's this other little blog of mine that did get some attention. But it's true, I've been busy with other stuff. Sometimes I even wonder how I ever managed to produce a post every other day.

So this is what I've been up to:

Knitting. I have 4 projects on my needles, which is unheard of. One is even BIG.

Taking photos. I'm doing the Manual Overdrive e-course, which has kind of finished but I'm still working my way through this new language that manual settings on a DSLR bring with you. I've had a lightbulb moment and have totally changed the way I take photos - technically that is; I still very much take the same kind of photos composition wise, but I'm moving towards having the focus where I want it, the exposure how I want it, and the colours as I see them. I've learned a lot about spot metering and how metering and focus are two entirely different things (who'd have thunk) and that back button focus is my new best friends. There's lots of servo going on because those kids of mine never stand still and evaluative metering will sure please some work colleagues of mine (one of whom is lucky enough to be on the course too). As you can see, nobody can put me in the corner with all those fancy camera terms now! I'm even almost ready to give Lightroom a second chance.

Doing fun stuff with the kids. Making the most of the precious days before Cubling starts school and is institutionalised. I have this strange urge to make sure that she gets to know my version of the world before all is lost and she'll do what the teachers tell her (of course she already does and no, she has no interest in learning how to knit). We have done so much stuff that today I just had to take time out and just relax at home. That was nice.

Buying school uniforms. It's not an easy task if you've never had to wear one yourself.

Dealing with the pitfalls of everyday life. Like a broken washing machine. For anyone reading this who doesn't have kids, it's a MAJOR crisis if your washing machine breaks. I do a wash a day, roughly, and there's stinking cloth nappies in the nappy bucket. I need a washing machine engineer hero.


Work. Not one to be underestimated - it's quietish at the moment but the problem with me is that if work is quiet I come up with stuff that creates more work. Like new programme ideas. I love that kind of stuff and it was totally amazing how one day of not having anything useful to do turned into a creative outburst, while now this needs followed up by the grinding of pulling research together and making a strong case (which I still enjoy very much, just that there's my normal job to do too).

Bumpy Jacket in progress, pattern by Fawn Pea. I did not intentionally try and copy her colour scheme, however it's interesting that 2 out of my 3 projects are in teal.

On the Waverley Pedal Steamer, watching a bungy jumper doing a bungy jump on the Clydebank Titan.

Olympic football in Glasgow - Japan v Spain. I like the Japanese goalie's outfit. How lucky are we, we walked there. And yes, I took this photo, we were really rather close. Snowflake is definitely destined to become a 10 k runner as she was being tough competition running in circles around our living room coffee table. She also quite likes a new discipline which is called sitting on a balloon and falling off it with hysterical laughter.

The Patchwork of Childcare

The BBC article on 8 radical solutions to childcare made me smile this morning. Not because they are so lovely, but mostly because they are so utterly unworkable, that there is definitely a bit of comedy going on. Still, nothing wrong for being a bit radical when really there is a big issue around childcare.

The reality of childcare is more like a patchwork. So I thought things would get a) simpler and b) cheaper once Cubling starts school. That would have been the naive world view of the uninitiated. With less than a month to go before the big day of starting school, I'm awfully smug because I managed to get all my childcare needs met. Yes, you heard me, and I know it'll make some jealous and want to hit, kick and bite me, but the jigsaw is complete.

And this is what it looks like, verion 5.13:

For term time:

Cubling:

• 8-9 am Breakfast club on 4 mornings
• 9am-3pm school
• 3-6pm after school care on 2 afternoons a week
• 3-6pm childminder 1 on 2 afternoons a week.
• late work days: child minder 1

Snowflake:

• 8-5pm nursery on 3 days a week
• (will change to 2 days plus 1 day at outdoor nursery once she turns 3)
• 8-6pm childminder 1 on 1 day a week
• late work days: child minder 1

In service days:

• Childminder 1 or 2

School holidays:

• Childminder 1 and 2.

Total: 6 child care providers between two children. I've not yet figured out the total cost, but we're on the very cheap end of it all and so lucky in that respect, but one thing I have realised is that we'll be paying significantly more on childcare than we currently do with 2 under 5s. Ok, my working hours are increasing so this is probably the bulk of the additonal cost, but still, my hope that once school kicked in, childcare costs would come down was an illusion.

For the past few months, I've had headaches and near head explosions about how to get it all organised and make sure there are no pieces missing and not gaps. Thankfully, our current 2 childminders (who we fall back on for anything additional) were able to pick up the missing pieces and it all worked out just fine.

However, looking at this it becomes clear that childcare isn't the simple "just put your child into a nursery" situation. My work is not strictly 9-5pm, there are commuting times to consider. After school, school holidays and in service days.

And even if it is all looking good, I still have the conundrum that I need Snowflake to be at nursery 8.30-5.30 and the nursery will only offer me 8-5pm, leaving me half an hour short for being able to have a full working day.

One of the suggestions are taking your baby. Have you tried it? Well I have and to be honest, not a lot of work gets done and I'm not sure if the work I do manage to get done is offset by the distraction from work that my colleagues surely experience (open office). A parent co-op? All I can say that whenever I tried to organise child activities , as soon as it goes over the 2 hours threashold it has to be registered, inspected and a whole lot of regulations, paperwork sets in which includes the necessity for any workers in this scheme to be disclosed and training towards a child care qualification. Not doable for working parents.

I do like the idea of combining care for the elderly and childcare. Of course I might be naive not having experienced the ins and outs of this, but it sounds like a solution which would benefit both children and older people, so I'd like to hear more about it.

As to schools being open all day, I've been arguing for a while how it would be good to have a one stop point for childcare, i.e. a child care provider located at a school and integrating preschool and after school care. Here in Scotland at least, pre school is delivered in half day sessions, so the nurseries that are attached to schools will mostly only offer 2.5 to 3 hours a day for 4 and sometimes 3 year olds. Which is no good if you're working. There are exceptions to this but these nurseries are notoriously difficult to get your child into. After school and holiday care would be best delivered as a standard at each primary school (I've not yet even found out what holiday care there is available and how much it costs as we're lucky enough that one of the childminders can step in).

Integrated childcare. The magic word. Sounds so much better than having to stop at 6 addresses during the course of a week.
Universal childcare. The end of worries and financial strains on families, which demonstrably has led to more equal societies and happier children in the Scandinavian countries - thus actually saving money in the long run rather than costing the taxpayer (through lower rates of crime, reduced mental health costs, lower health budgets, less prison sentences, less vandalism, less substance abuse, and the list continues).

The thing is, it can be done. It's not a distant dream. It does depend on political will and public support for the idea that children are an asset for the whole of the society and not just the parents' issue; that universal and integrated childcare reaps benefit for all of us, whether we choose to have children or not. And looking at the comments on the BBC article, we are a looooong way off such public support.

Mummy according to Cubling, aged 5 and 3 months

I saw this little interview a long time ago on Kids Craft and Chaos and tried it out at the time. Alas, Cubling would now play game and didn't just not give any interesting answers, but actually walked away. So when Clair posted an update, I took the opportunity of Cubling being sat next to me and all cuddled up to try again. I think she enjoyed the game but made up a few things, as she does.

1. What is something mummy always says to you? draw

2. What makes mummy happy? When I tidy up

3. What makes mummy sad? When I don't tidy up

4. How does your mummy make you laugh? Making funny faces

5. What was your mummy like as a child? silly

6. How old is your mummy? 77

7. How tall is your mummy? super tall!

8. What is her favorite thing to do? do work
9. What does your mummy do when you're not around? She doesn't do anything

10. If your mummy becomes famous, what will it be for? pennies (???? I don't think she understood this question)

11. What is your mummy really good at? Writing

12. What is your mummy not very good at? Drawing cows

13. What does your mummy do for a job? Typing at the computer

14.What is your mummy's favorite food? Spaghetti

15.What makes your mummy proud of you? Kissing her

16. If your mummy were a cartoon character, who would she be? Princess on the pea

17. What do you and your mummy do together? Play hide and seek

18. How are you and your mummy the same? our noses

19. How are you and your mummy different? hair colour

20. How do you know your mummy loves you? Because she loves me

21. What does your mummy like most about your daddy? talking about things

22. Where is your mummy's favorite place to go?  To other countries. Germany.

I'm obviously not 77 and she knows it. I'm not that fussed about a tidy house but this girl just flings everything everywhere so I am on about trying to keep things off the floor so we don't break our necks. I definitely don't like spaghetti that much, and if anyone is silly in this house it's little miss chatterbox not me, but she is spot on, I can't for the life of me draw a cow.

Those special childhood moments - collected and captured

For the past 6 weeks, I've been part of a wonderful photography ecourse - Collect the Moments, run by Kat and Kat from Capturing Childhood. When I first heard about their new endeavour, I was instantly drawn to it, simply because I love their photography, and who can be a better teacher than those whose art you admire?

I've been taking photos as long as I can remember. I used to be even quite ambitious, and geeky about it. Yes, I did darkrooms and went totally manual when there were automatic SLRs on the market, and then I got totally into sports photography (I still struggle to bin those thousands of tennis photos that I took). Somehow though, all that I once knew, had become a bit rusty. Yes, I picked up the camera much more once I got my DSLR a couple of years ago but it was more hit and miss. Sometimes I was totally happy with my photos, other times they didn't live up to my expectations. Trouble was, I couldn't tell what had gone wrong.

It was the perfect timing for me - still on reduced hours and holiday time, which means that work, while still busy, isn't taking over my life. So I signed up.

Well, what can I say? I loved it. The course did so many things for me. It brought back my lost knowledge of how to work and be in control of aperture and shutter speed. For the first time I learned about composition and really looked into how light affects the photographic outcome. I analysed my shots, and was inspired by those taken by my fellow students. I found out about free tools out there that I didn't know about, and nailed down the problems that previously led to disappointing photos. I started using the tools of my camera, one at a time, and could even be found reading the manual!

By week 2, I was sitting at my computer waiting for new posts or waiting for people to upload their most recent assignment shots to the flickr group to admire them. It was so refreshing seeing childhood through so many eyes, so many perspectives and with so much love and tenderness.

I've taken away a theoretical knowledge that I never had, refreshed the knowledge that once upon a time I did have and lost on the way, and the motivation to dig deeper into the potential of my DSLR. The latter translates to having registered for the next course, the Manual Overdrive bootcamp which will be all about going manual on the DSLR (and registration is still open). I'm also now making more of an effort to have the camera with me all of the time, so I don't miss those special and fleeting moments of childhood. Yes I may have been the annoying papparazza on our recent holiday, but hey ho, it was worth it! Now that I know what works and how to overcome photographic challenges, all that is left is putting it into practice. And mastering the beast of the manual settings!

In case you were wondering - I do take photos of my children's faces of course. Some of the best shots are in fact the moments captured. However, these are the pictures which I'm happy to share publicly.

Holidaying

It almost feels as if we hadn't actually been on holiday. It all happened rather quickly, and I don't think I've ever stumbled into my holiday this badly organised. Sometimes though it works out anyway.

We'd been to Devon, in the hope of some warm but not hot weather, some sunshine and beach.

It rained. It poured. It rained some more.

And you know what? It was just fine. We'd stayed at a place that had an indoor swimming pool right next to it, a play park and a trampoline too, and a toy and DVD library. And I'd brought not one, no two knitting projects. We can do rain.
Still. It was nice to also have a hire car and explore Devon and Cornwall.

There was a lot of knitting in cars while manoeuvring through hedgerow lined roads. The manoeuvring was done expertly by t'hubby, the knitting similarly expertly by me (cough cough).
There were many trips to the pool and the kids loved it. Apart from Snowflake who liked to watch and throw balls instead which was fine by me, not being a pool fan myself.
There were visits to the Eden Project, Dartmoor, Clovelly, Bude, Holsworthy.
There was a lot of playing by 4 cousins without the need of adult interference.
There was a lot of TV - DVDs, tennis (Snowflake calls it Fussball which I find quite cute) mainly.
There were long train journeys and one ugly interchange station.
There were late nights for the kids.
There was a duck pond with ducks and geese ready for bread.
There were donkey rides, market days.
There was wool from a local Devon sheep. Could I resist? Rhetorical question. I still buy yarn quicker than knit it up.
There were lovely country inns, woodland walks, and about 400 pictures taken.

Cubling cried when we said goodbye. She wanted to stay in her new home, the Badger House, forever. So with one grumpy child and one under the weather with a nasty cough child we returned home, just in time for the Wimbledon final. "Fussball, Fussball, Andy, Andy!"

The challenge of the week is to dry the holiday laundry. I can do rain, but the laundry doesn't like it.

PS you can see some run downs on our outdoor adventures on my other blog, Nature Kids.

Growing wings

On Monday, it was the last meeting this term of our German playgroup and six of the children are off to pastures new and will be starting school in August. Cubling was one of them, and the eldest at that. For a few weeks now, she had lost a bit of interest in going to the Kinderclub, she was getting bored, so it was really the right timing.

The mums of the 4-5 year olds had met one evening to make the must have for any German school starter, a Schultüte. This is a cone shaped container, nicely decorated, which bears sweets and items for school, and which children take along on their first day at school. I have no idea where this comes from, but it is such a quintessential starting school thing that it has a lot of meaning to me, and I would assume, most German mums. More meaning than the British equivalent, the graduation ceremony (which we had at the forest kindergarten and also at the pre-school). Cubling has known for a while now, at least a year, that as a German\Scottish child she would get a Schultüte, and the prospect has had a definite effect on her wanting to be German (whereas before she was just English or Scottish).

She didn't know though that she would get it early, namely at the last day of Kinderclub because I can't really send her to school with the Schultüte, that would totally single her out, possibly in a negative way or in a way that would make her too aware of being different rather than special.

We had been busy making it, decorating it, and finally filling it. I had gone through hoops trying to buy the contents without her noticing it. And finally, the big moment was there. The look in her eyes as she realised what was about to happen was priceless. Utter excitement, delight and pride all in one. She wouldn't let go of the Schultüte. And when I explained that she'd have to wait until daddy was home to open it, she sat on the stairs watching the clock for 3 hours, keeping herself busy with this and that, so that she wouldn't miss the time that daddy comes home, which she knows is 7pm.

With daddy eventually home, she proceeded to unpack her bag, and suddenly I saw a pre-schooler turn into a school girl. There was something so grown up in how she had waited without a moan, how she unpacked the bag and went through every item in good time, how she shared the chocolate equally with us, and how she made plans of how to use each item that made me rather emotional. Pens, have been used, as have all kinds of rulers, and she is now doing "work" and copying words, and even writing them from memory.

For a moment I could see her wings. It won't be long now until she takes off into the world and will move further and further away from us. I can only hope that we've given her enough grounding to support her on her flight, and that she'll be able to find her way back here to refuel whenever she needs to.

So this is it, a few weeks of summer and then she'll be at school 5 days a week. What a horrible and wonderful thought. She needs a new challenge, and yet I already mourn that she'll spend more time with her friends and teacher than with me. She of course takes it all in her stride. "what will you miss most when you go to school?" "Playing with my old friends" "What are you looking forward to at school?" "Playing with my new friends".

Oh man, how she has grown up.

of transitions, graduations, inductions and headaches

We have officially entered transition to school territory.
This is what it looks like:
2 one-hour sessions at school, perfectly placed in the middle of the day.
A graduation at the forest kindergarten (in the early afternoon)
A graduation at the pre-school (perfectly placed in the middle of the day).
A dress rehearsal for the latter (morning)
3 parent meetings, two of which are also during my working day.

That's a total of 7 half days during my working week (they always fall on my working days of course) in one month. Which will be followed by a full 3 weeks of part time schooling in August. Transition to school is definitely not made for the working parent. If I miss out, the school will have me down as a non caring or even bad parent. But really, it's all a bit much even with the best of will.

I'm losing my hair fast and quick. How do working parents manage? There is a real chance that I will have to send Cubling to her big graduation at pre-school by herself because daddy is abroad and there's a REALLY IMPORTANT training day on, that I'm sure many think I shouldn't or even mustn't miss.

Of course, I'd rather be at her graduation, then find out all about data protection (which is very important for my job, no doubt). Be there for an important day in her life, or be at a training session which in theory can be repeated but in practice may well not be. Either way I feel bad.

Now can someone make a decision for me AND make me feel ok with that decision? My head is hurting big time and I can't think anymore.

Printing away

I'm not one of those deal addicts. But when I saw on Facebook that there was a special deal going on a beginners workshop of screen printing, I had to explore it. And bought it.
The trouble with these deals are that you then have to use your voucher, and the weeks go past, busy as busy can be, and the end of the validity is nigh. Not one to waste a voucher, I made the time, even though I couldn't really afford to, so I was not in the best of places to start the workshop.

It may come as a surprise but I didn't actually know what screen printing was, or what you could create with it. Not that it's anything complicated, but if I were to do it again, I'd bring lots of boring t-shirts or other fabric to embellish. As it was, I had to use the thin cotton and one plain tote bag that was provided, while others printed really cool t-shirts for themselves and their families.

The venue was the Bespoke Atelier at the Glue Factory, which was actually a glue factory originally. It's one of those massive factory buildings, or rather, the rooms are massive, the building itself isn't particularly big. The venue is managed by 7 artists of different fields and through their work, this old building is being maintained and worked on bit by bit. It's still freezing cold in it and I can't see how anyone can survive a day in the winter in there, but apparently people don't get frostbites.

The process of screen printing was much easier than I expected, literally it's about cutting out a design which serves as a template or stencil, and then it's fabric, stencil, screen (which is effectively a mesh), colour and a squeegee transfers the colour through the mesh and stencil onto the fabric. It's all quite easy and the results were fab. I was pretty pleased with my own creations (considering that I'm not great at drawing and I had to draw the stencils freehand and then cut them out with a carpet knife freehand too), but when I saw what some of my art school graduate neighbours had come up with, I was green with envy extremely impressed.

My plan is to stick my creations to simple wooden frames and make them into canvas to use them to decorate the yet empty wall of the girls' bedroom. I'm very tempted to get a small screen printing kit to decorate t-shirts and the like but considering that I already have arts and crafts supplies for a) knitting b) cardmaking c) felting d) sewing and e) crochet and pretty little time to do any of them, or in fact not enough space to store all of the stuff, I may file this for now.

 

That Dress

I'm a sucker when it comes to handmade. I mean really, does my 5 year old need another piece of garment, apart from a school uniform maybe? No, clearly not. But can I resist beautiful fabric made into beautiful swirly dresses? Rhethorical question. Knowing my dress loving 5 year old, I also knew that she would have to have an input into the choice of fabric.

You know, I tried my best.
There were the cutest fabrics to choose from.
And what did she go for?
Who would have guessed.
PINK.

I mean, it's a niceish pink. I do love the fabric. But it's pink flipping pink again. Sigh. She will grow out of this right?

Check out Anna's, aka Tiny Viking's facebook page to admire her wonderful creations and dream of your own perfect dress/babygrow/hat - she's go photos of all available fabrics up so it's literally pick and choose. You can also find her ware at Merry Go Round Glasgow in Nithsdale Road. I won't take any responsibility for your bank balance.

As for Cubling: She luuuurves her dress and would wear it to bed if I let her. However she decided that her hat isn't so cool after all and has gifted it to Snowflake. The benefit of having two children...

Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored. I paid full price and probably will again.

The Launch

The park is a 20 minute walk from us.
In theory.
But life with children is life in slow motion.
With 4 children, of which two are discovering treasures and shouting words that contain a lot of "poo" and "bum" to one another, one who happily is pushed in a trike and one 20 month old who has to walk all by herself while pushing her dolly pram, the trip to the park took well over 6 hours. And we even took the bus back.

Yes, we only walked to the park. That's what we adults did.
The children, they did an awful lot more.
They picked flowers and explored the pattern of petals.
They collected stones, sticks, tiles, flowers, treasures and what not in their pockets and the trike storage space.
They found bizarre treasures and wondered where they came from and what they can become in their pretend play.
They watched the river run below them.
They watched the ducks swimming on the river.
They pushed toy buggies.
They rode a trike.
They had sword fights with sticks.
They tested the pond for depth.
They collected pond mud.
They climbed on the climbing frames of the swing park.
They went down the chute, hopped on the trampoline and were upset that the swings were forever busy.
They slept (some).
They had picnic in the sunshine.
They played hide and seek.
They fell off picnic benches and bumped their head.
They climbed mountains.
They pretend played with all they found.
They checked which of the sticks collected might float and which might go under.
They found feathers and discovered the different textures at the tip and at the butt end.
And, above all, they launched a purple paper boat.