Grizedale Forest Ridding Wood Trail

On Friday I managed to get a loan car so after a month of being carless we are finally mobile again! I need to be able to drive places to work and my daughter relies on me to get her around. Today she wanted to get out into some of the beautiful forests we have so I took her to Grizedale Forest. We had a bit of a fraught drive over as poor Sherlock was sick and then just as we were about to board the Windermere car ferry it broke down! So we only made it to the forest about 2:15 and then had a long wait to buy lunch.

All the delays meant that we only had time to follow the shorter Ridding Wood Trail and not the Grizedale Tarn Trail I had done in July. Luckily for us the weather stayed dry and at times it was pretty warm in the sun:

The route included plenty of Grizedale's famous art works. With it being all terrain route it also included a family orienteering route for younger children:

Reasons to be cheerful Flaming June #R2BC

This has been one of those months when focusing on the small positives has provided light at the end of the tunnel! Being able to smile and laugh when things aren't going well means that it's not all doom and gloom. So here are the things that have kept me sane this week:

1) Splat

You can't help but smile when your child gets a face full of cream when playing a silly game (he laughed when I got hit too!):

2) Super long run

I braved the heat to achieve my longest run for over a year with 7.5 miles through beautiful countryside:

3) Proud mum #1

My son did a fell race on that hot day and tried his very best:

He also had sports' day and helped his house to their first victory in 13 years! 

Reasons to be Cheerful: Smiling despite sneezing! #R2BC

Having suffered from a hideous cold for most of the last week I am so glad that I have this linky to hunt out the things that have made me smile from behind my tissues! Thanks Michelle for hosting. So here are some of the things that have made me cheerful this week:

1) Proud Teacher

Coming in after lunch break to discover that 2 boys from my class had, on their own initiative, built a model of the old Barrow shipyard from stickle bricks:

2) Proud Mum

My son and his athletics club represented Cumbria in the North West Regional finals of the Sportshall Competition. For many of them it was their first season in the club and they tried their hardest against stiff competition:

3) Being Looked After

Review: Original Spirograph

Sponsored Post

When I was offered a chance to review am Original Spirograph set I jumped at the chance having loved our original one in the 1970s! Its a toy that has stood the test of time and I wanted my children to have a go like I did. The set we were sent was a deluxe set which looked a lot different from the old red box our old one came in:

What is great is that the set included everything you need to get designing:

The instruction book was very clear (my daughter eventually read it after a couple of fails!). The special putty helps to keep the wheels in place whilst you design to prevent slippage like we had on this page:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to School #R2BC

The lovely Jo is still hosting the linky this month so please go and say hello on her blog! I have a few reasons to be cheerful now school is back:

1) Teaching

I have been enjoying my first week on my final teaching practice. Teaching the life cycle of butterflies with pasta:

Lots of fun with English too re-enacting the Bad-Tempered Ladybird and being inventive with sentence openers.

2) Fell Running

My son's running training restarted this week and its now up on The Helm near Oxenholme. It was a glorious evening up there and I was glad to be a parent helper. In fact I enjoyed it so much I have now signed up myself so I can alternate between running and helping:

3) Migration

My daughter was involved in a Migration arts project with her school. They made dolls who all had migration stories. Tonight the project was put on display with other parts from schools in Kendal at the Brewery Arts Centre. My daughter and I went to the special preview with other families. She was so proud of her work and was very good at explaining it to people there:

Art at the library

Our local library has a regular art club for children one Sunday a month. The only time we have managed to go is when it coincided with my book club! Today when we nipped into the library there was a special day on with the resident artist getting children to help create a haunted house backdrop for this summer's reading challenge:

Of course my children were straight in there without even pausing to roll up their sleeves! They had a lot of creative fun painting one of the house walls:

They were having such fun I had time to take out a couple of books and sit reading one whilst drinking a coffee! It took them a while but eventually they produced this:

My daughter then had had enough but my son went on to do some turrets:

It was good old fashioned messy fun:

And I had a chance to notice and admire son of the great bits of art in the library building itself:

What a great way to attract families into libraries and I hope we can make t for the next session at the start of the holidays!

The Educational Value of TV

It is amazing what my children have picked up from watching certain programmes on the TV. Yes some of what they watch appears to have no educational value whatsoever but they have learnt an amazing amount about history and art. 

Like many families we love Horrible Histories my children have been brought up from an early age to have a keen interest in history and the way this show is presented is perfect for them. They love singing along to the show especially the Kings and Queens song:

Such a fun and catchy way to learn English monarchs. Its a show I don't mind them watching over and over again.

Amazingly The Sarah Jane Adventures introduced them to the Mona Lisa:

And the show Leonardo is a fictual account of Leornado da Vinci's teenage years with amazing inventions and art.

Then there was an episode of Dr Who that introduced them to Vincent van Gogh:

They can now recognise some of his paintings such as sunflowers:

We are going to be visiting Paris in the summer and the children at age 9 & 6 are really excited about the thought of going to the art gallery that they saw on the television to see van Gogh's paintings. They also want to go and see the Mona Lisa (hope they aren't as disappointed as I was by her size!

What have your children learned from watching television?

Not just the sport

Yes the sport is fantastic during this Olympics and we are racking up the medals but it's not just that that will stick in my memory after visiting London this week.

There are so many happy people in the city many decked out in their national colours:

There are lots of police everywhere but luckily they are able to concentrate on PR rather than dealing with problems. My children certainly enjoyed their conversation with West Midlands police officers in Trafalgar Square:

So much of London has been decked out for the games and their are art installations in all sorts of places celebrating London 2012:

The statues of Trafalgar Square are sporting hats:

Around Westminster Abbey there are some beautiful gymnasts:

And the house of flags in front of the Houses of Parliament has the flags of all the Olympic nations:

So if you can get to London but not an event then go soak up the atmosphere!

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