from somewhere in my imagination

The Other Side to Starting School

This is Sebastian on his first day of school back at the start of the year.

Happy, excited and ready to take on the world.

Compared to when the girls started school it has been slightly better than a nightmare perhaps?  And, whilst I am fully aware that I shouldn’t be comparing my boy with my girls, the differences have been so marked but that I don’t think they are all gender related.

I have experienced a fair bit of Mummaguilt because I am not there every single morning and afternoon to drop him at his classroom.  That said he loves his three mornings and two afternoons at OSHC.  I also feel bad that he is the one our move seems to have affected the most.

I’ve tried writing about it several times but ended with a jumbled bunch of emotionally charged words on the page, not the way I want to portray him and his first year at school.  I want to celebrate the good stuff not get bogged down in the bad.

He ended his kindy year a happy, confident little guy.  School ready.

Then we moved and he spent eight weeks holed up with his sisters.  He missed his best mate and I don’t think he would have cared if he never saw another girl again. Ever.

Cue, the new school year.  The school the kids go to is entirely made up of composite classes which placed Sebastian in a Reception/Year One class, with only one other new boy and the majority of boys in the class at least a year older than him.  By all reports he is his cheerful self in class, all that blue eyed, grinning charisma has his teacher and every other girl in the somewhat wrapped around his finger.  I’ve seen it when I drop him off in the mornings, they flock to him and he is lovely to them.  He just doesn’t want to play with them, or marry one.  Ever.

The happy, smiling boy unfortunately had not been coming home that way each day after school.  He claimed that he hated school, would refuse to get dressed, yell and cry.  He didn’t play with anyone from his class at lunchtime, thankfully his older sisters have been awesome at looking after him and accommodating towards him in the school yard.

Tears, tantrums, aggression.  The whole kit and caboodle day in day out.  For the first few weeks he had trouble switching off and sleeping, I suspect it is still a problem for him but he is dealing with it better.  He’s tired of course, that happens to all new school kids, and he misses his Dad the days that he’s away onsite plus he still misses his mates desperately.

I contemplated asking for him to be moved to a different class with more boys his age but the answer was a resounding no when I put my feelers out.  I really do like his teacher and so does he.

Things are improving little by little.

Rather than switching and changing seats everyday Sebastian now sits next to the same boy every day.  He’s the same boy that started school at the beginning of the year with him.  They have forged a good friendship.  His friend is coming for a ‘playover’ after school today and both boys have been counting the sleeps and discussing how many more each morning all week.  It makes me smile.

Unlike the big girls the boy has not had an instant affinity for reading.  Reading his reader is not his favourite thing in the world so if he’s fighting it we don’t do it.  We choose books and read to him instead.  More and more he is picking out words and reading along with us.  His one to one correspondence has improved significantly and he is finally starting to get some consistent sight word knowledge.

AUSLAN is the school’s second language and interestingly it is something Sebastian has picked this up at an amazing rate.  He can probably sign as many words as he can read, if not more, and it is something he does with huge confidence.  I suspect that he is a highly kinaesthetic learner and have started doing more literacy activities with him at home that are nice and touchy feely.

He loves to write and draw.  That’s been a consistent love.  He was able to write his own name with nothing to copy by the end of last term and his letter knowledge and formation has really improved.  His imagination is wonderful.

He is excited by what he is learning in maths.  We enjoyed a game of Monopoly on Tuesday night where he demonstrated his counting and counting on skills with every roll of the dice.

He still declares he doesn't like school because it's hard, I tell him 'that's life buddy, you have to work hard for the good stuff'. 

He still misses his best mate.  He tells me every few days how much he misses him.

We are getting there one day at a time, I'm getting better at finding solutions to each afternoons' drama and being able to pre-empt his reactions to different situations.  With lots of love, cuddles, kindness, routine and support we will find our happy little guy buried in there amongst all the angst.

Tatum xx

Sugar, Salt, Fat and All That

Last year when I attended the Adelaide Kellogg’s Bloggers Brunch there was much discussion surrounding the sugar, salt and, to a lesser degree, fat content of processed cereals.  I kind of felt like maybe I wasn’t being diligent enough because I don’t tend to check these things on the packets.

But, then I had a long think about why I don’t.

For as long as I have had kids I have always made a significant effort to feed my kids good food.  All of my little people are healthy and energetic.

By good I mean plenty of fresh food and as little as possible in the way of processed food.  Over the last 12-18 months I’ve been kicking it up a notch, introducing more organic and wholefoods and limiting refined foods.  By good I also mean a wide variety of foods and a shared family mealtime.

It also doesn’t mean that I sit in the corner and rock if the kids eat things here and there that don’t quite fit in my good food category, or I have to use a tin of something here and there in my cooking.  I’d probably be in the corner rocking if I didn’t, let’s be realistic.

I love good food and I love being able to develop that in my children too.  Although, kids being kids they still find it hard to stretch beyond a basic sandwich in their lunchboxes!  We spend time together cooking, talking about food, visiting the market and perusing cookbooks and food magazines.

Since we moved to the city I have been taking great delight in kicking things up a notch.  We have been eating more whole foods.  Somehow I’ve managed to turn my whole family, including my husband, into lovers of brown rice, chick peas and lentils.  I cook them from dried now that it’s an option rather than buy them in a tin.

More of our meat comes from the butcher and fruit and vegies from the market or F&V shop.  We haven’t lived in town with a F&V shop in the last 12 years.  I make local and organic selections whenever possible in preference to imported and non-organic. 

Cereals come in bulk from my favourite wholefoods store where I can get them with as little as possible added during the processing phase.  They have the most amazing porridge with cranberries and cinnamon with no added sugar or salt.  It is divine.

I love it.  The kids love it.  I haven’t bought a box or bag of pre-packaged snacks since we moved (in the past shapes and muesli bars were the only things I would regularly); they aren’t in the pantry now so the kids don’t ask for them. 

For snacks we eat fruit, brown rice crackers + vegies with homemade dips or cheese, greek or natural yoghurt  with fruit and home baked snacks and treats.  Nothing new, but I’ve been focusing on staying consistent and staying away from the shop bought processed stuff.  You can find a selection of ideas here and here.

The change from run of the mill peanut butter to a 100% peanut no-added-anything option has been telling.  At first the kids found it unpalatable but now it’s the norm and the brand we used to buy tastes like eating sugar coated peanuts.  Gross.

To be honest I haven’t been cooking much that’s new or complicated lately, I’ve just been enjoying cooking the same things using fresher, higher quality ingredients than I have typically had access to previously.

I realise that processed foods are often cheap options when compared with the fresh options.  That really makes me cross because it shouldn’t be that way.  Some of the ways that I combat this are:

• Buying what is in season, it’s always cheaper. 
• Better still if you have the option to get it from the source at local farmers markets. 
• I don’t fix my menu plans for the week in stone.  I’ll often go to the market and buy my fruit and veg before I decide what we are having for the week.
• Where meat is concerned I choose to buy the best I can, buying free range or organic whenever I can, but I buy less.
• In reality an adult portion of meat should only be 100-150g so if you need less than 500g of meat is heaps to make dinner for a family of two adults and two kids.
• Buying meat from a butcher gives you more control over how much you buy rather than having to work around the portions they prepackage in the supermarket.  You might pay a bit more per kg but you aren’t buying extra that you don’t actually need so it balances out.
• Buy in bulk, you are eliminating all that extra packaging and cost.  Invest the money you save in good storage containers for your pantry though J
• Bake in bulk too.  I make double batches of cookie dough, roll the second in baking paper, stash it in the freezer and hope Steven doesn’t find it.  When I make museli bars I make a second dry mix and store it in the pantry.  The little things like this can make all the difference.

So, there in a nutshell, is why I don’t stress about the Sugar, Fat and Salt content of our diet.  I keep it fresh and whole and cook from scratch as much as possible. I buy as little processed and pre-packaged food as possible and I make sure the kids know the difference between everyday food and treat food.  We all know what proper good food tastes like and it means that the little guy knows when the pasta needs some pepper to give it a lift.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you keep the sugar and salt content of your families’ diet in check.  Do you read all the packaging?  Can you taste the difference when you eat something overloaded with sugar and salt compared to the unprocessed equivalent? What are your best tips for managing your families’ intake?

Tatum xx

Suzie Homemaker Me - Featuring the Tefal Steam Iron

A few months back I was having a quick cuppa with a friend when, being an excellent multitasker, she asked if it was okay of she got on with her ironing while we chatted.  I sat, mesmerised by her steam iron in action.  I think I even went home and declared my desire for a steam iron to replace our poxy old one.

Steven raised an eyebrow, we've been married for more than 11 years, he knows how little ironing I do.  However, now that I am working in the grown up world again.  In a corporate environment, by contrast with the boots and jeans uniform of a mine site, my need for the ironing board and a decent iron has increased.

When the lovely people at Nuffnang were looking for a few bloggers to try out the Tefal Steam Iron and put together a Product Talk by Nuffnang I couldn't email back fast enough to say 'pick me'.  I was pretty chuffed when they did.  Seriously?  I got excited about an iron, I must be growing up!

Steven picked it up for me on Monday but I didn't even get a chance to open the box until sometime after the kids were in bed.  My ideas of putting together a vlog with Steven doing the ironing went out the window. Doh.

Tuesday night, after not sitting down all day other than to eat or drive, the last thing I wanted to do was even think about ironing when I put my feet up around 10.  Such is life for a mumma sometimes.

Finally, tonight, Sebastian asked if he could get the new vacuum cleaner out of the box.  I managed not to laugh to loud, I didn't want to dissuade him from showing an interest (at least) in ironing.  I said know but told him he could watch while I tested it out.

I pulled a few items from my wardrobe.  The kinds of things that often hang there for months at a time because they require such heavy duty ironing to get them back in to a wearable state.  Removed the iron from the box, set up the ironing board and got to work.

Filling the water well is easy enough.  You can just use normal tap water in the iron, it has a built in anti-calc collector (as well as an autoclean function...yippeee to anything that cleans itself!).

The retractable power cord is another winning feature.  No getting the power and steam cords in a tangle.

Once I had it filled up and plugged in I took the time to skim the instructions.  Then, I handed them to my sister to read.  Switched it on, waited for it to heat up then called it some names when it started spitting water everywhere when I was hitting the steam button.  Thankfully there is a troubleshooting list on the instructions which suggested the spitting was normal behaviour for first time use.

I promptly got stuck in to the ironing but continued getting water everywhere.  This prompted more careful reading of the instructions, revealing that it takes two adjustments to get the temperature/steam balance right.

Once I had this sorted things went smoothly and before I knew it I had nice, wrinkle free clothes back on their hangars.  Winner.

I can honestly say that the Tefal Steam Iron makes much shorter work of the ironing with a better result than a run of the mill standard iron.  It's heavier to work with, and the location of the steam buttons (there is one on the top and one on the underside of the handle) will no doubt take some getting used to.  I found myself inadvertently pushing the top one from time to time.  Oops.  I do like the weightiness of it though, and the bursts of steam make it glide across the clothes you are ironing.

The steam lasts for much longer than I expected.

The iron locks onto the base, giving it elements of safety from tipping and security against falling off when you are moving it.  Or maybe that's just me that needs that?  I'm a touch clumsy.

I'm looking forward to spending some more time getting to know my new Tefal Steam Iron, but first I need a new ironing board to replace the old poxy one that goes with the old iron!

All in all I can happily reccomend the Steam Iron...so much so I'd still love to vlog it in action if you think you might like to see it?  I'll wait for a day when I don't look quite so tired as I do right now!

I'm off to bed!

Tatum xx