Hello September, Hello Autumn!

So we have officially reached the end of summer and what a great summer it has been.  Having my other half working from home most days has been wonderful, it has meant lunches as a family in the garden, evening walks and the odd mid week day out.  The weather has been fantastic, I have been out with the boys every single day visiting playgrounds, parks, friend's gardens, paddling pools, woods and lakes.  It's been too hot for me at times (I am a delicate English Rose after all) but mostly I have enjoyed wearing sandals and skirts and sort sleeves, I have definitely loved the long days and hanging wet washing on the line to dry every day (love the smell of line dried washing) and whaduya know, we are in for an Indian summer!

But I am happy to welcome in the change of the season, bringing with it crunchy leaves underfoot, and that feeling of crispness in the air.  definitely much better to look for the positives in Autumn and Winter than mourning the loss of the summer and moaning about the negatives of colder weather and shorter days. I can quite honestly say that the only thing that worries me about the Autumn and Winter is the washing.  There is little worse on a cold wet day that a living room with wet laundry hanging in it. But while the warm weather lingers I won't worry about that little grey cloud and I will ponder on all the things I have to look forward to in the coming months - Birthdays, meeting friends, new toddler classes, toddler groups starting up again, themed weeks. This week alone holds a 7 day raw food challenge, a visit from my lovely sister and a Lion King theme.  Bring it on!

Mindbomb Monday

In the 1970's the founders of Greenpeace came up with the idea of using electronic media to communicate revolutionary ideas, they came up with the tactic "mindbomb" whereby they would use simple images, delivered by the media, that would "explode in people's minds" and create a new understanding of the world.
On some Mondays I hope to share an image that might be considered a "mindbomb" that could get people thinking throughout the week ahead.  I won't include any words with the image as I hope the image alone will speak for itself.  Sometimes I will use images found online, other times it will be my own photographs and they will reflect something that has spoken to me from the past week.  It might be shocking, inspiring, confrontational or uplifting.
If you would like to join in please share your "mindbomb" in a comment.

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - Corn Flour and Water

Playing with water and cornflour is such a simple activity, just two parts corn flour to one part water, plus a bit of food colouring for fun and you are all set for a sensory adventure.  It's all about the particles apparently.  Cornflour has large particles which 'float' around in the water, the particles are close together but are still able to slip past each other.  If you move the mixture slowly the particles have time to pass each other so it acts like a liquid, but if you move it quickly the water flows out of the area but the particles of corn flour don't have time to move away so it acts like a solid.

My toddler couldn't give two hoots about how and why cornflour and water act so strangely when mixed together but that didn't stop him from being completely captivated my it's magical properties.

This activity was by far the most engaging activity I have EVER done with my toddler, he was mesmerised by it and sat in his high chair for over half an hour playing (and I enjoyed it too!)

Honestly, so cheap and easy to do, the clean-up was easy because essentially it's just cornflour once the water dried up so I just hoovered it up off the carpet where it spilled and it wiped up a dream off the high chair, didn't take long at all.