W Week Fun

So this week was the first of the Summer holidays, and as it was the first time since EJ was born that I would have both boys 24/7, 7 days a week I decided I needed to get organised!

You see when Joey was in Preschool every other day I didn't mind him watching TV and doing as he pleased in the afternoons he was with me at home, especially since we were out in the mornings at play groups. Unfortunately play groups finish over summer, and so does Pre-school, so I didn't want him just wasting the summer away and us not doing anything other than watch Disney films and build a bit of Duplo! 

I also have a slight ulterior motive that I'm trying to get him more in to craft and baking, but shhush, don't tell anyone!

So I remembered reading, a long time ago, a blog written by a mum who home schooled her kids, and she went through the letters of the alphabet week by week and explored all the different things beginning with that letter. I remember thinking it was a great way of getting some structure, but allowing you to be flexible with what you choose to do.

I put all 26 letters of the alphabet in a hat and let Joey choose one...he chose W!

My mind went into over drive. What could we do?

I listed all the things I could think of beginning with W, and as, after all, it is the holidays, all the possible films we could watch beginning with W! (I eventually expanded this to include any film with a W character, as we only had Wall-e!)

I printed pictures of animals beginning with W, characters we like (Winnie the Pooh, Woody,Wendy,Wall-e, Wallace etc). We coloured some in.

We made Winnie the Pooh shaped cookies (with walnuts and white chocolate!), we went for a walk, went to see a windmill. Ate new W foods: Watermelon (didn't like), Waggon Wheels (didn't like!) and Waffles (unsuprisingly he liked these!).

But my favourite thing for this week was making a Whale (with a snail on its tail of course! Thanks Julia Donaldson!)

I'll be honest. 90% of the whale is my work. He stuck about 4 pieces of paper on before he'd had enough, and I had to plead with him to even paint it (but he was pretty good at the in the end!), but he absolutely loves it now its finished!

Here's a picture tutorial to how I made it!

We started with a ballon and some scrap paper which was shaped like the tail. We added paper using a 50/50 PVA and water mix. We then painted him (the last photo shows it stood in a jug to help stabilise it whilst we painted, otherwise it would have meant paint everywhere!). The blue paint is normal poster paint mixed 50/50 with PVA glue to make it more lasting, but the white paint is acrylic, as I was worried it would go muddy if I used poster paint. I used a Sharpie to add the final details

Here he is, proud as punch, and I'm sure he'll be telling everyone he made it!

He's already asked if next week can be W week too!