Skip to main content

Theme: Body

I didn't plan this to be a theme week, but Toby's new refrain has become, "I want to do something else" (how does he know it's the school holidays?)  Something else turned into my digging out my body-themed activities and roll of cheap wallpaper.  So here we go!

First thing to do is draw a body, and fortunately I had a handy template.  Lie down, Toby!

Just ignore the face.  And lack of neck.  I know it's not a great likeness, but he really is that tall.  How on earth did that happen?


He knew pretty much all the body labels already, so I can't really claim it as a learning opportunity.  Still, revision is good, right?  And everyone enjoys colouring on a huge sheet of paper.




Another sheet of wallpaper became a blank canvas for hand and foot painting.  Fortunately it's been great weather, as outside is always the best place to do this.  Even with a strategically placed tub of water for washing off in.

I've gone green!
Time for a different colour
Splat!
Who needs green fingers when you can have green toes?


And we've managed quite a few activities that are good for our bodies.  Swimming (or in Toby's case sitting on the edge of the pool - he's still a bit nervous), a version of Simon Says, and today we went cycling!  First Toby wanted to cycle, so he rode his balance bike to the playground.


Then I coaxed (OK, bribed) him into the child seat on the back of my bike, and we zoomed - er, wobbled - away.  It's only the second time I've used it, and it certainly takes a while to get used to the top-heaviness.  I realised again the paradox of cycling, where the faster you go the safer you feel, even though everything in you is screaming to slow down and be careful!  Fortunately there's a lovely flat cyclepath just near our house, so we didn't have to contend with traffic.  We pedalled to the Trent  & Mersey Canal to watch a couple of narrowboats go through the lock, then turned around and made our way to Alvaston Park, where we rewarded ourselves with an ice lolly, lunch, and the second playground visit of the morning.

Am I really safe in here?

 And in a throwback to the planets theme: Alvaston Park has models of the four innermost planets, and we walked around to see them all.  Here's Toby cosying up to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.  The cycle helmet was for protection from passing asteroids, I guess - he liked it so much he didn't want to take it off!

Mercury

Venus
Earth: You are here.
Mars
 
And a human sundial brings us neatly back to the body theme.  Toby's stood on June so it's a bit off, but when I stood on July it said just about 12:30 BST, which it was.

Comments

I love reading about your adventures. You're such a great mom! Looking forward to seeing yall in just a couple weeks.
And that looks like a great park. Cool sundial - I've never seen one that accounted for the months!

Popular posts from this blog

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor   Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as

The Churnet Way: bells at Alton

Alton village and Alton Towers are perched on opposite banks of the Churnet, with the river cutting a deep valley between them. Most people drive straight through the village on the way to the theme park. But I have a great liking for walks and no fondness at all for rollercoasters, so I found a large layby to park in at Town End, in Alton, and pulled on my boots. The church bells were ringing as I set off. I vaguely wondered if there was an event. A wedding? Unlikely on a Tuesday morning. Maybe a funeral. I followed a footpath across a few fields to reach Saltersford Lane. This was the width of a single-track road, but mostly overgrown and muddy. I was grateful for the strip of stone flags (and some more modern concrete slabs) which provided a dry surface to walk on. Presently I came out into some fields and dropped down a slope to the old railway line, at the point where I left it on my previous walk .  bit of old rail   There followed several miles of walking along the railway path.

The Very Persistent Widow, or, We're Going on a Judge Hunt

Image by Pexels from Pixabay   At church this morning I was leading the kids group for the five- to seven-year olds. We are studying parables at the moment - the short and punchy stories that Jesus told. Today's was about the persistent widow, who kept on going to the judge's house to demand justice. As I read it, echoes of The Very Hungry Caterpillar came into my head: "...and he was STILL hungry!" as well as images from We're Going on a Bear Hunt: "Mud! Thick, oozy mud!" So here is the version of The Persistent Widow that Jesus would, I am sure, have told, if his audience had been a group of infant school kids. They seemed to enjoy it. I hope you do too.  If you have a small child to help with the knocks and the "No!"s, so much the better. The Very Persistent Widow Lydia was a widow. That means her husband had died. She didn’t have any children, so she lived all by herself. Now someone had done something wrong to Lydia. Maybe someone had