Stanley says… #2

“I’m not willy obsessed anymore.”

Stanley, aged 4 1/2

I’m sorry darling, that’s a lifelong affliction.

Painting pebbles

Stan is off school sick again so we are back to trying to find enough activities to fill a day that feels very long when you can’t go out and have no visitors. Inspired by the fab Red Ted Art’s blog, today we made these cute little fellows:

The idea is that they are props for singing ‘Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day”. We collected the stones from the garden – possibly the bit Stan enjoyed the most – making sure we had a mummy and daddy (in our sexist version mummy duck quacks away and no little ducks come swimming back, but when daddy duck gets on the case they all come rushing home).

Uncomfortable questions from a 4-year-old

“Why are willies sometimes straight and sometimes bendy?” Stan’s reasonable question when he woke up for a wee last night with an erection.

Erm, anyone know a four-year-old-friendly version of that one? I’m all up for straightforward, no-nonsense answers when it comes to kids’ tricky questions, but seriously, any suggestions?

Call out for local kids’ events

I want to compile a list of the regular kids’ events and activities in and around Haringey. Every time I find myself with a spare half hour with the kids I have to trawl through several children’s centre timetables or conduct an online search. So I’ve decided to try to list all the events in one place, by day. I’m nearly ready to publish it – I have pretty much all the children’s centres and libraries, but if anyone knows of any groups, please message me or comment below so I can add them. I’m mainly interested in under-fives at the moment, and I’m not including courses, like swimming or football.

In Praise of … Markfield Park, Tottenham

Despite having grown up in Seven Sisters and having lived in N15 for the past year, I have only just discovered the wonders of Markfield Park. Tucked down off the one-way system at Tottenham Hale, about half a mile down the canal from Springfield Park, is a little unexpected delight.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat – alternative lyrics

Before you go any further: this is not a post about rude, lewd or inappropriate manhandling of a nursery rhyme. Disappointing I know.

At a singing session at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green (highly recommended, by the way) I heard several new verses to Row, Row, Row Your Boat… I realise you don’t need Lennon’s songwriting skills to adapt this ditty, but I was pleased nonetheless. Gertie loves rowing away and I get bored with the four verses we already know. I’ve typed them up below – please add others if you know any, my enthusiasm is boundless.

World Book Day – less is more

Stan gave me a get out of jail free card by requesting a Fantastic Mr Fox costume for World Book Day. A  brown woolly tail, some converted rabbit ears, a cardboard and felt nose, et voila!

The apple was Stan's idea and very important, apparently

Stan seemed very proud of his costume – look how he signed his name on the board at school.

The games we play: five fun activities for four(ish)-year-olds

Apparently the average attention span of a four-year-old is still no longer than 5-10 minutes, which in theory means 6-12 activities are needed for every hour they are awake. Coming up with 124 nuggets of amusement each day is an undertaking beyond my capabilities, but I am always on the lookout for new simple games I can play with Stanley. Here are a few we have devised recently:

1) Musical statues with ‘freezing categories’. Like normal musical statues we dance to the music and freeze when it stops, but as we dance we pick a category that we are going to freeze as. Today’s categories included animals from the zoo (Stan a gorilla, me a meercat); firemen poses (me holding a hose, Stan rescuing someone from a window); Australian animals (a rather limited category this one, but I was a koala and Stan was a kangaroo). We also had Winnie the Pooh characters, princesses and members of our own family. The best thing about this version of the game is it is just as much fun with only two players as you can guess who or what each other are.