A shift in priorities

I have been so very slack with blogging of late. I do have things I've been meaning/wanting to share with you but the motivation has gone....................or should I say has temporarily been put on the back burner. My focus has shifted at the moment to my eldest daughter Miss A, who you may recall, started Kindergarten this year.

Miss A reading at the Mother's Day School Mass

she said: My mum is the best. My mum helps me make cupcakes. I love my mum.

Awwwwwwww!!!

Although Miss A settled in well and seemed to be enjoying school on the most part, I was finding it increasingly difficult in getting her to do her homework.

Now we're not talking about anything major here, just reading 4 - 5 sight words and a short home reader book each day, all up about 5 minutes worth.  But each day she would winge and moan and sook and cry. Each day it got progressively worse until eventually I was the one in tears............What was I doing wrong??? - things aren't meant to be this hard in Kindergarten, surely????

A new approach was definately in order!! I am so, so lucky to have a dear friend with children the same age as my two and who is also a primary school teacher. She came to the rescue, giving me tips and hints on how to make learning/homework F.U.N.

It's not rocket science folks, it's all about, wait for it........................playing. Making a game out of it.

So now, just about every afternoon we play "schools" - on Miss A's request!!! I've made a variety of games to play; simple games which concentrate on reading, writing and maths.

What a turn around. I can happily report we are all feeling much better about things : D

And although this is primarily a craft blog, I thought I might share afew of these with you over the coming weeks.

But for now, a quick catch up on the last month!

May was such a lovely month for me - what with both Mother's Day and my birthday to celebrate.

As seen in the photo above, Miss A took part in the school Mother's Day Mass, reading reciting a few lines about how she loves her mum, my heart melted xoxoxoxo

On Mother's Day, we went to visit Rouse Hill House and Farm. I love a good stickybeak around an historic homestead and this one even had something for the kids - the opportunity to feed some cows and collect an egg from the onsite chicken coup. The girl's were scared to death of the cow's (they are rather huge and scary up close) but loved collecting an egg. The weather was beautiful, we packed a picnic lunch and made a day of it - just the four of us - perfect!

On my birthday, my husband whipped me up a birthday cake,

presented me with a beautiful bunch of flowers,

and treated me to not one but five delicious, delightful new craft books I had on my wishlist!!!!!

I am sooooooo itching to get started on some new projects out of this lot, itching I tell you!

And I did manage to finish the Phannie hat I started back in April.

I tried and tried to get a good shot of it on my own head..........

then plonked it on Miss B's head.

Ahhhhhhhh, much better.

I am not a fan of itchy, scratchy wool against my skin and as I have dust allergies which seem to flare badly whenever I pull out all the winter woollens I steer clear as much as possible.

The yarn I used was Moda Vera Cupcake, which is 50% Nylon 50% Acrylic.

Part of the reason for making this hat is that the beanie I've been wearing for about the last 15 years is made from sheeps wool and every year my eyes water, my forehead itches like mad and I swear I'm going to replace it - that and the fact the beanie has a bell attached to it - cute when I was 18ish, not so cute now I'm 33 with two kids attached :)))

Hope you have a pleasant weekend wherever you are.

And if that happens to be Sydney, hope it's not too wet!