Colouring, Clay and Superheroes!

Miss M (4) looooooves to do art.  She loves to paint, draw, create in all sorts of ways.  We have a wall full of art, that is now literally full and it is a massive negotiation talk to swap any old stuff for new stuff.  Have you seen our wall? I'm sure I've shared it before.. anyway here it is again.

There's two in the middle there - a house and a weird bird like thing - they were drawn in an iPad app and then I printed them.   It took me ages to figure out how to print them - little bit proud of myself for figuring it out.  There would be heaps more up there...but we ran out of ink.  And then came the massive negotiation to take down the old art and put up the new... parenting should be an automatic qualification for an entry level lawyer or hostage negotiator!

Miss M also loves to draw on skin.  Her skin, her sister's skin, my skin.  Loves it.  So sometimes we let her, and sometimes we find her covered in paint, or texta, looking like a blue smurf (it's usually blue) or a tiger with stripes.  Often when I'm tired (blaming the shift work here) and the girls are wanting attention, I'll lie down and give them a texta and a leg each - keeps the occupied for ages and I can doze with a lovely tickling massage on my legs.  Lol!! Parenting win right there!

This was a very intricate design of a caterpillar becoming a beautiful butterfly.  💜

We also love playdoh - lately however we have run out of playdoh and just haven't got around to making any more (in truth I keep forgetting to add "salt" to the shopping list).  However I found this stuff at Spotlight (how much do we love spotlight!), this amazing air drying clay.  We made christmas tree ornaments (although we forgot to add them to the tree this year - maybe next year?) which the girls can paint next time they want to paint something random, and some beads that we can paint and turn in to a necklace one day.  The clay is a bit gooey and the girls both took a while getting used to it leaving a brown slimy cover on their hands, but it was heaps of fun once they got over that.  

                                     

Also found at spotlight was a kit that made super hero masks (it was all felt and could probably be done cheaper just buying the stuff not the kit - will try that next time).  Miss F (2) needed some help with hers, but Miss M enjoying being completely independent and even made me one.  Once they dried the game of 'catch the villain' started and they literally ran around in circles trying to catch each other.  

I took a photo with all of us wearing our masks and smiling - it makes it look like we haven't been arguing all morning doesn't it? Love how photos are deceptive like that.  😀

                                     

Counting, Yoga and Stop signs

Miss M (4) is all about numbers, and colouring and craft at the moment.  She is desperate to learn how to read, letters and numbers, but isn't interested in being taught.  So finding new and 4 year old accepted ways to help her learn the things she wants is a non stop challenge.  

This week, and most likely ONLY this week, colour by numbers was a massive hit! I am a big child myself and love doing my big kid colour by numbers, so I found a website (education.com) that, for a small subscription fee, has heaps of printable worksheets - including colour by numbers.  I may have got a little excited and printed heaps of different worksheets for the girls - I'm almost completely sure that I will get more enjoyment out of completing them myself, but we'll give it a go.

The colour by numbers ones were a hit - that is once I started colouring in one myself and asking Miss M to help me find the numbers.  She had a ball finding all the numbers for me to colour in.  I think we made a good team!

Miss M then came up with the idea of making a colour by numbers for me.  She chose a unicorn picture and then wrote  numbers all over it.  I was then instructed on what colour each number was.   For her first time writing numbers, I think she did a pretty good job, and it was so beautiful seeing her so proud of herself.

Miss F (2)  joined us in doing some colouring, but it's not really her thing.   Still trying to figure out what her thing is, other than throwing and tackling and jumping.  She definitely much more physical than Miss M.  I love how two siblings can be so completely different.

In a way to get Miss M more aware of her movements and body - a fairly 'typical' thing for Aspie kids is a lack of coordination - is yoga.  She loves showing off her yoga tree or down dog.  My beautiful sister bought her a yoga matt not long ago, but it's plain blue much to Miss M's disappointment (mine has a florally pattern all over it).  Well, this week Miss M found a way to fix that, and now she is even more proud of her mat and her yoga time.  She gets out her yoga mat every evening with her Mumma and they do some yoga together.  Sometimes Miss M only lasts a few minutes, and then goes back for the relaxation at the end, other times she lasts longer, either way it's a lovely way for her and her Mumma to bond, and gets her moving and aware of her body.

As Miss M is getting bigger and taller she is able to now open our house doors when they're shut.  This can be very useful now she is wanting to use the toilet more - she is able to take herself and seems to be much happier with that independence instead of having to rely on an adult to take her.  However, it also means she can open the door that leads to the garage. We have a tradition in our house, whenever one of us comes home from work, as soon as the garage door is heard going up, both the girls (and usually the dogs) run to the internal door leading to the garage and knock on it until the homecoming parent knocks back.  Now that Miss M can open the doors she has started opening the door herself.  Until this week that has been ok, as we have implemented the rule that the door doesn't open until the car on the other side is heard to stop (i.e. engine is off).  And as both of us are aware that she can open the door we are vigilant about watching it as we drive into the garage (for safety).  This week that rule was forgotten about and Mumma had a nasty shock when the girls and the dogs ran into the garage before she had finished driving in.  Luckily we are hyper aware of this safety issue and she was watching the door and stopped - no one was injured, or honestly even close to being injured.  But the risk is there, and very scary.

As Miss M doesn't respond very well to being lectured, no matter how calm or nice or gentle you approach it, talking to her doesn't do much.  In the effort of trying to solidify the rule of not opening the garage door we combined it with art.  Brilliant I thought! Miss M and I googled what a stop sign looks like, then I drew one on some paper and Miss M had a great time painting it.  While she painted we talked casually about what the word "stop" means and what a great reminder it will be for all us to stop at the garage door until the car noises stop so that no one gets hurt by a moving car.  Fingers crossed it works!

Here's to kids giving us regular moments of pure terror, followed by moments of pure joy and love.  Crazy kids!