Catch Up

I have had one of those weeks this week where I have been too tired to keep up with blog writing. My brain hasn't been working well enough to get the words down properly. Hopefully I will get down the most important things of the last few days.

You may remember I said to keep an eye on the bits and pieces collected from our walk in Norfolk Park. Here is the picture D made.

The inspiration for this came from the fact that when D saw the twigs in the park, they were laying crossed over, looking just like a fish. The leaves were chosen to look like seaweed and the body was filled in using acorn cups to simulate the scales.

J's MEND nutritional target every week is to make a MEND friendly meal. Tuesday he made tuna pizza. He served it with corn on the cob-which he had to remove from the husk-and carrots. This was a scone based pizza so was quick to make.

J did all the weighing out and made the scone base. The tomato sauce he made from scratch too. It was a very delicious dinner and there was enough pizza for two days.

On Tuesday at MEND the children learned how to read food labels and for next week they have taken 10 items and checked the fat and sugar content to decide if they were MEND friendly or not. The target is to eat food that has 5% or below fat and sugar content.

The adults discussed the external triggers there were for good and bad food and activity behaviours. This was in preparation for the discussion on Thursday about the importance of the parents example.

Both boys have fulfilled their targets for activity and nutrition this week, so they got their reward of going to the park and their star. Every child on the programme succeeded this week.

J went swimming before MEND Tuesday and both the boys went Wednesday. D's Spanish was cancelled Wednesday, so it was an ideal time to go. Yesterday, we went to Hillsborough Park before we went to MEND.

D has started reading the book on Kenya and was surprised at the age expectancy of the population there.

J wants to do a project on what he has been learning from his survival books. On Monday we will go to Hobbycraft and get some card to make their displays.

As we were coming home the other day we were talking about animal tracks, so I have to do some printouts so they can try to identify them. I thought I would do the same with fungi and other plants. All this may have to wait for a week or so as it is Film Education week next week, and they are at the cinema three times.

J cooked dinner again today, but I forgot to take a photo. He did a cheese omelette with mash potato and swede, carrots and broccoli. It makes a lovely break for me and he enjoys doing it.