Advent adventure: 24th December

Today we opened the last drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Let's watch Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells

Advent adventure: 23rd December

Today we opened the twenty-third drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Decorate biscuits to hang on the Christmas tree

Advent adventure: 22nd December

Today we opened the twenty-second drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make your own gingerbread house

[We used royal icing to stick everything together, and to look like snow, then decorated the whole house with marshmallows, chocolate buttons and lots of edible glitter]

Advent adventure: 21st December

Today we opened the twenty-first drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Let's decorate the tree!

Advent adventure: 20th December

Today we opened the twentieth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Use some festive stickers to make a comic strip story

[Excerpts from brand new comic Bauble Weekly; the fantastic story of THE PENGUIN WHO FLEW!  (above) and the sweet tale of a lost reindeer called SANTA'S SLEIGH STORY! (below)]

Advent adventure: 19th December

Today we opened the nineteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Design your very own bauble for the Christmas tree

Advent adventure: 18th December

Today we opened the eighteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Write cards for school friends and wrap gifts for teachers - tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas!

Advent adventure: 17th December

Today we opened the seventeenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Write your letter to Father Christmas

[This is an extract from my son's letter. I think the sweetness of it might just work in his favour, don't you?]

Advent adventure: 16th December

Today we opened the sixteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Learn to dance the Argentine Tango in the ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall

Advent adventure: 15th December

Today we opened the fifteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Go on a walk to find the best Christmas tree in town

[We checked out (clockwise from top left) the Christmas trees at Somerset House, Covent Garden Piazza, Trafalgar Square and St Pancras station and scored them according to their height, lights, decoration and situation]

Adventure advent: 14th December

Today we opened the fourteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Sort out and set up our Nativity scene

[Daisy took this activity to a brilliantly imaginative place - there were auditions, judges and then the story was dramatised on camera. Here's a selfie of the actor playing Mary on set, just after the show]

Advent adventure: 13th December

Today we opened the thirteenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Watch a festive film

Advent adventure: 12th December

Today we opened the twelfth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Enjoy THE BEANO Christmas Special

[image copyright The Beano]

Advent adventure: 11th December

Today we opened the eleventh drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Put on a show!

[We were treated to an exciting ice-skating show in the living room - here are the poster and ticket]

Advent adventure: 10th December

Today we opened the tenth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make a few festive decorations for our kitchen window

Advent adventure: 9th December

Today we opened the ninth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Solve these Christmas-themed anagrams: CENIM SIPE, SATAN SULCA, MR REY THIS CRAMS, WON S, FLODUR THREED DONSE IN REREDE

Advent adventure: 8th December

Today we opened the eighth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make a festive wreath

Advent adventure: 7th December

Today we opened the seventh drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Have fun at the school Christmas Fair

Advent adventure: 6th December

Today we opened the sixth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Visit the rooms - all decked out for Christmas - at the Geffrye Museum of the Home

Advent adventure: 5th December

Today we opened the fifth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Act out the story of THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Advent adventure: 4th December

Today we opened the fourth drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Gather all the Christmas books from around the house and share some festive stories with Nan and Grandad

Advent adventure: 3rd December

Today we opened the third drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make new words from the letters of the phrase WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Find more than twenty to win a prize

Advent adventure: 2nd December

Today we opened the second drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make and play with a fresh batch of winter-spice play dough

Advent adventure: 1st December

Today we opened the first drawer of our tabletop Advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. Here's a photograph representing today's little Advent adventure.

Make your own Advent calendar

'Get Stuffed' - making Victorian versions of ourselves

We're a family that love a good outing, especially if it's something active and outdoors, it's culturally stimulating or it's got something to do with food. We love it even more if it's free, so when we heard that the Museum of London were running a Sunday session called Get Stuffed where families could dress up as Victorians and transform themselves into stuffed dolls - totes gratis - we were just about the first in the queue.

The session lasted an hour, in which time the museum's lovely Rosie Fuller gave us a little history lesson about Victorian photography and a few tips on how to pose in a manner appropriate for the era. After a brief explanation about how to use a couple of editing Apps on the museum iPads - we were off; let loose on a heap of replica Victorian costume; posing, photographing and printing images of our Victorian selves onto fabric with aplomb.

Unfortunately, we couldn't actually do the 'getting stuffed' part of the activity within the time - but we were each given a little bag with a kit containing some padding, backing fabric, pins and a little length of cotton to complete the job at home. Straight after the session, we visited the Victorian Walk and sang, still feeling a little Cockney in character, Down at the Old Bull and Bush whilst in the reconstructed public house.

We had great fun back at home trimming, pinning and using Grandma's sewing machine to make our little dolls. To make them even more special, and to go with the whole Victorian theme, we added some dried lavender in with the stuffing. 

Now we have four little Victorian-style, sweet-smelling, dolls; firm favourites with the children. They're so proud to have made them themselves - and I love that we had all this fun for free thanks to Rosie and the Museum of London. When's the next Sunday session then? We're keen, very keen.

Summer break?

We seem to have got to the last day of July in an awful hurry. How do I let myself get so busy when it's supposed to be the start of the summer break? I can already feel the end of the holidays looming towards me instead of stretching away into the distance. Others, according to the media anyway, have the opposite problem - they have the boredom of the holidays with which to contend, the coping with the kids, and the entertaining of them without breaking the bank and so on. Here I am, desperately trying to find two minutes together to just be with my children, and savour their summer. I can't be the only one who isn't dreading the holidays, but the speed with which they'll fly by, can I?

I had to turn off a BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour article this morning when I got very angry with Carol Vorderman of all people. She was promoting the use of her Maths tutoring website over the summer (well, she would, wouldn't she) and was arguing a case for keeping up learning standards during the holidays so our kids don't revert to 'where they were' at the end of the spring term - the so-called summer slide. She was implying that without using such websites or providing them with a holiday tutoring programme, our children would not read, write nor do any Maths, not really learn anything, over the summer. Really?

I shouted at the radio before switching it off that they learn all the time. Yes, Carol, even out of school - imagine that! Why doesn't she know that children don't limit their learning to within school hours - it's simply not how they work. It may not be formalised, classroom-based, attainment target-adhering learning, but it IS learning. And it's important to give our children this different pace. If we say that learning can only take place in formal settings with screens, or pen or paper or teachers and white boards then we have a very narrow and incomplete view of learning indeed. Learning in the summer vacation can be the most marvellous, unique, holistic, progressive, penetrating, enduring kind there is. 

I will not be fooled by the advertisers' boredom-buster solutions that insist we need to keep our children entertained or learning Maths or otherwise occupied to stop them from driving us insane. Most parents know that giving their school-aged children time is the best thing they can do for them over the summer. Time for sports and games, for playing outside till it's too dark to see the ball, for reading what they like for fun, for making and tinkering, or learning to shuffle cards. Time for perfecting their tying of bows, learning the rules of backgammon, for creating masterpieces with Lego, or for baking biscuits. Time for learning a few chords on the guitar or playing a harmonica in a hammock, helping with chores, or for taking day trips to new places. All these experiences can feed into their learning, and actually consolidate their school-gained knowledge and skills across all curriculum subjects and beyond.

This radio programme was a wake-up call for me; reminding me to take a step back and not feel guilty about the fact that I'm not tutoring or providing school-work for my children during the summer break. Instead, I choose to reflect on what my children are learning during their time off. When they're out digging in the dirt, collecting snails, counting how many times they can bounce that ball against the wall, or reading endless comics - they're learning. And when September comes around, I know they'll be ready - with their pencils sharpened, their shoes polished and with renewed academic energy. That back-to-school feeling can be great - but only if children have had a chance to actually leave the place, and that kind of learning, behind for a bit.

We absolutely love, love, love Hotel Birthday

When Daisy first told me that she'd like a hotel-themed birthday party - inspired by the stories of Kay Thompson's Eloise (a rawther posh six-year-old who lives in The Plaza Hotel, New York) - I must admit I couldn't quite imagine how it was going to work. But once we'd plotted and planned a while, we knew exactly how to temporarily transform our house into a rawther posh hotel, and we knew that all the party guests would absolutely love, love, love to attend its grand opening.

Hotel Birthday's exterior looked very smart indeed - with a bunting-style sign, a red carpeted entrance and a smartly dressed Bell Captain (actually Daddy) waiting to welcome everyone. All rawther grand, oui?

Once inside, the visitors were invited to ring the bell for service - *ting*, and sign the Guest Book.

Then it was out to the cool and calm Courtyard Garden for a drinks reception; classical music tinkled sophisticatedly in the background, and a make-your-own cocktail bar sat ready in the corner. The guests loved, loved, loved creating their own concoctions with fresh fruit pieces, sprigs of mint, ice cubes, fruit juice topped off with lemonade or fizzy water. And yes, those personalised glasses were oooooo - rawther popular and taken home by the guests at the end of their stay. 

Once refreshed, the guests played a few jolly team games in the hotel Lobby. First up was Over and Under - where sets of hotel keys were passed backwards between teams - over the head of the first person in the line, then between the knees of the next - and so on. This was all rawther difficult - especially for those guests wearing frothy skirts; the keys kept disappearing amongst the frills, frills, frills.

This was followed by a hectic and hilarious hands-on game called Towel Team. Here, the guests helped out Housekeeping by folding and piling up the hotel's fluffy towels as quickly as they could. The team with the neatest pile won, won, won the game. 

Then each team had a chance to make a tower of luggage in the Lobby - the tallest tower won the contest. The cardboard-box-suitcases were rawther light and tricky to stack - so the teams had to use their ingenuity to come up with a design that would win the competition, staying up by itself until the adjudicator had measured its height.

After a short general knowledge quiz in the hotel Lounge, the guests played a special version of Roll-a-Six. When a Six was rolled, the successful guest put on a hotel bath robe, shower-cap and a sleep-mask before trying to retrieve a hotel chocolate from a pillow without using their hands. Not at all sophisticated, but the guests had lots of silly fun and they all loved, loved, loved having a sweet treat or two.

After an elegant tea of sandwiches and the like, served in the Garden, the guests retired upstairs where they could enjoy a foot bath and cucumber eye-treatment in the Spa Room, and they could propahly prepare for the Dance; accessorizing and beautifying themselves in the Dressing Room.

At last, the happy and energised guests tumbled back downstairs and had a laugh, a dance and a well-deserved ice-lolly in the Garden Ballroom till the end of the party. All agreed that the whole affair had been rawther wonderful. Ooooo - we all love, love, love Hotel Birthday.