Return of the hamster and entertaining a school-age child

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Hello there,

it has been a proper sunny summery week, so excuse me for not blogging! Schools are out and it's a tad difficult to continue working with a five year old at home all day who expects endless excitement. My daughter's school excels in stimulating creativity and love of learning through a huge number of structured activities, but as there is just me and her dad, both trying to squeeze some work here and there - keeping her occupied and happy is a daily challenge. 

So how do I cope? Well, since it's summer I can easily wake up at dawn (or before) every day, so I can clock in some work before my daughter wakes up. Trouble is, I'm dead at 8pm and fall asleep on the sofa after I have eaten my dinner. My partner had to tap me now and then last night so I could watch the Olympics' opening ceremony as I was dozing off every ten minutes. I eventually went to bed after 1am, woke up at 4.30, then decided today I should sleep till at least 6. I have been down here for an hour and half now checking my emails and applying for an interesting local job. I still have work to do, but as I put in some hours at weekends, I will catch up today or tomorrow. 

I have resisted the urge to book Michela into a holiday club, with her father around, it doesn't make sense and it's such a long day from 8.30 till 6pm! I have booked a few craft parties, a couple of hours here and there so she can enjoy building things and making jewellery. She has already a box of treasures with all her makes and is looking forward to the school's show and tell coming this autumn as she will have things to boast about. Aren't children competitive? We played a game of snake and ladders the other day and she was very angry when I won. Her father lets her cheat or give her unfair advantage to humour her. 

We are teaching her about money, she has a money box and she likes to get money out and go to the newsagent to buy cheap sweets (love hearts is her favourite as she can now read the messages). We also visit charity and cut-price stores for inexpensive toys. Yesterday she got a toy unicorn and an inexpensive Hello Kitty PJ courtesy of Aldi. My partner then found a cheap paddling pool at Asda (unusually for a man, he likes going around shops and is an addict of B and M, the new cut-price store in our area).

So I was quite taken with this article that landed in my inbox, with the appealing headline: 20 kids' gift under a fiver. To read it, click here.

Enjoy the sun while it lasts! 

School blues - yes, literally

Michela getting some mouse practice in time for school

My daughter is starting school in September and I have been rushing around to buy clothes and shoes in the right colours - blue and white. Most supermarkets and children's stores sell clothing in black, white and grey, which doesn't help.


Apparently I left it a bit late for black shoes as I went two weeks ago and the choice was limited to say the least. All the good stuff had gone and I was lucky to find something in Primark that was the right size and colour. The pinafores, tees,  jeans and white socks were bought in Sainsbury's, while the leggings came from Primark. Having received a massive bag of clothes from my brother, I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on school clothes, especially since the colour is a bit boyish.

It's quite a challenge to find blue trousers for girls, I had to buy jeans and a pair of gym pants from the boy's area. Luckily I got a few bits with the school logo from the school fete earlier in the summer, the second-hand uniform stall was a fab idea!

I'm told Asda is very good and very reasonable, I didn't manage to get that way this time but I will check it out when I do.