Scooter Streamers

OK - TEST YOUR AGE TIME!!!

1) Did you drink Lilt growing up?

2) Do you know what spokey-dokeys are?

3) Did 20p pocket money buy you 2 packets of chewits or a chocolate bar?

4) Did the kids in the films you watched all have streamers on their bikes??????

If yes to any of these... you are probably a child of the 80's. An interesting time of history where fashion was not at its greatest.... BUT... they did have bike streamers.

TEST YOUR AGE TIME

1)  Does 20p pocket money only buy you (ironically) a 1p sweet?

2) Do you get around by scooter rather than foot

3) Do you drink water because sugar has now been proved to do NOTHING for your teeth?

4) Do you know RAWL and AETUC? (Roll Around Laughing and Abbreviate Everything U Can?)

If yes, you are probably a child of the Naughties!!! So instead of bikes scooters are your favoured mode of transport and you Mum or Dad is probably reading this blog and not you!

Today we made Scooter streamers, a seriously easy activity!!! 

1) Rip fabric or cut ribbons into lengths

2) Hide them all over the place and get the kids to find them

3) Tie them equally onto 2 elastic bands and then attach them on to the end of your scooter!

4) If you have no scooter, tie them on to a bike or your wrists.

 This activity is super simple, super fun, the kids loved that they were making something for their scooters which are, to be fair, extensions of themselves.... and the sun... oh sweetness and joy, the sun was with us today. The world hath become a better place!

See you next week everyone!!!

Endoscopy's and Snake Bubbles

There is something slightly wrong, in a funny kind of way about giving my weekly blog a title that should be inappropriate for a boys club... hahaha!

This week the wonderful, DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS met without me. This fills me with a deep sense of pleasure, not dissimilar to seeing your child do something without you for the first time... I guess the CLUB has learnt to walk without me... to all who are involved... WELL DONE!!!!!

So I was not there this week because I was having an endoscopy. This is quite possibly one of the most offensive procedures I have ever experienced. They basically ram something in your teeth to stop you being able to talk/object, then inject you with something that stops you being able to talk/object and then as you try to talk/object they ram a FREAKING camera tube down your throat as you writhe around and make noises that should only come out of a labouring cow!!! 

Anyway... It is now Friday and I have gotten over the hideousness of it and the humiliation of the doctor writing on my notes that I 'coped very BADLY' with the whole thing (You don't say Dr?).

Onto happy things... the darling DANGEROUS CLUB met... 11 in total and they did something called Sock Snake Bubbles. A great activity. 

To do this....

• You get an empty bottle and cut off the large end
• Place a sock, taught, over the large end and use an elastic band to hold it on
• Dip the sock end into a little water with washing-up liquid (this can also have a bit of food colouring in it).
• Then carefully blow through the mouth end of the bottle and watch the bubbles come out.

You can be super clever and change the colour of the water as you go along and make rainbow snakes!! 

Send in your pictures for the longest and most colour snakes!!! I DARE YOU!!!

Cold, Cute and Courageous

This morning I lay in bed procrastinating, as the rain drizzled down the window and I could almost feel the icy wind gusting through the holes in our windows. The reason I did the DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS, was not, I admit, my staunch commitment to my children, but because i was meeting other people... and THIS is the reason why it is good to do things in groups. We had an amazing morning and I am so grateful I did not follow my desire to stay inside, but instead follow my F.O.L.P.D.I (Fear of letting people down instinct), which although a rubbish instinct, did mean we had a gorgeous morning!!

Our activity today was to go on a walk and collect things to put in our bag. The reason why this is great is because it gives a focus and an aim for a walk, keeps the boys looking and observing their surroundings and also, lets face it, everyone loves collect things to put in their bags, even if it is an old leaf and a piece of plastic. We explored, hedges, trees, went through bushes and into clearings and really did cover ground that we would never usually have covered!!

A MORBID ASIDE: I always think I will stumble across a dead person when I go into odd places, which is redicks, but when i shared this to a lovely fellow mum, instead of putting my mind at ease, she told me she actually had once stumbled across a dead body!!

The final thing on the list was a biscuit which the boys found towards the end of our freezing cold walk, eating it was prize indeed for their courage in surviving the -29 degrees wind chill that had been whipping their faces all morning.... WELL DONE little Dangerous Boys!!!

Teddy Bear's Picnic

If you are reading this in Hong Kong, Hawaii or even the Australian Desert  (which I am sure many of you will be, because of course you will need some good ideas for your cute little Aboriginal Boys, being in the outback with absolutely 'nothing' to do) you may wonder why the British are so tediously obsessed with weather... well let me tell you this...

Each week I try to do my blog explaining that spring has sprung, and then it unsprings and we all feel very depressed and have to deal with snow falls, sleet storms and hurricanes... hence our mild obsession!!!!! Last week due to freezing temperatures and a rather violent D&V bug, we did not make THE DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS, so this week, wrapped up warm, I was as determined as an eskimo is to fix his igloo after accidentally peeing a hole through it, to make it work... and work it did!!

The boys were invited to bring a bag along with a favourite teddy in it. Tigers teddy is a Tiger called Le Tigre, which is he has shortened to LaLa. It was a huge treat to let LaLa out of the house and thus much joy was had in our house this morning!! We all went on a great walk, the boys chatting and scootering and racing along. We then stopped beneath a naked tree that had a few brave crocuses underneath it.

We set up camp and then hid a few treats behind other neighbouring trees. Note to reader at this point. I  say this in a VERY non WRONG way, but I liken Boys to Dogs... Nice dogs of course, but boys need to be well exercised and regularly eat... so in essence the further the snack is away, the more exercise they get, but the more motivated they are to getting it... catch my drift?

Anyway, the boys came back with various snacks, which we proceeded to then eat and occasionally share with our visiting teddy bears. Such a simple idea but this has been one of my favourite CLUBS!!!

To the lovely man Stefan who contacted me regarding his Dangerous Club for Boys.... it sounds amazing!!!! I will definitely be getting some tips from your web site.. Thank you for contacting us!!!!

Stomp dem Rockets!

15 Degrees today... am I right in saying that that is practically a Jamaican summers day?????? Stuff spring... welcome summer!!!

Beautiful glorious sunshine greeted us this morning and it made for a great DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS. The babies got chance to roll around in the grass and the boys, for the first time in ages, did not combust with coldness. I even found myself removing a layer or two!!!

I loved today on several counts. One of the reasons, apart from the chance to drink in the Vitamin D, was the fact that one of the other mums organised the whole CLUB today. It felt amazing!!! I loved that she came prepared and organised and managed to give the 8 boys a fabulous time and even bring the most delicious home made snack... it was bang on for the DANGEROUS CLUB and I felt really proud that we have got to this place!!!

Our activity today was Stomp Rockets... these are brilliant contraptions that is to a boy, what a ball is to a dog! A device that is thrilling and also makes you burn a LO-HO-HOT of energy!!!

For those of you interested they currently cost £8.99 on Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stomp-Rocket-Junior-Glow-Kit/dp/B00000K3BR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362577296&sr=8-2

To operate this marvellous energy inducing gadget, one 'stomps' on the base, forcing the air to go through the pipe and shoot the rocket in to the ether!! When it lands, the boys went running after it... genius!!! We spent the whole morning and more, shooting them high in to the air and collecting them again.

A video of said Rocket

Wacky Races

I am going to be entirely honest with you! The idea I had today for the DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS, was one of those ideas I thought would be a flop. It would thus provide us with an activity and me with a funny story - but actually it worked.

OK, So spring has not sprung, that was a lie from last week from the pit of hell. It was so cold today, the boys, one-by-one, went off like little time bombs with cold noses and painful toes.

Our focus for today was RACES!! I really didn't expect the boys, who are on average ranging from 18 months to 3.5 years to be that competitive and I didn't expect them to want to follow our 'race' instructions... I was wrong on all counts!

The first race we did was a scooter/bike/running race. It felt like the boys had every reason to call unfair advantages on their fellow race-ees but alas they went as fast as their short little legs would carry them... way past the finishing line and into the distance... they were fabulous and really got the whole concept.

Next we did the egg and spoon race. It was unbelievably hillarious. One of the mums supplied boiled eggs, and with a stroke of genius, a few ladles to carry the eggs... the boys were slow, focused and definitely found that participating was the name of the game as the timings of each boy to cross the finishing line was so completely different.

About 21 seconds after the Egg 'n' Spoon race, the boys lost the plot. The cold had been working its way from the youngest to the oldest, and enough was enough. We made our way to the cafe and then spent the next 20 minutes doing a chocolate egg treasure hunt for our snack and then made as much noise as we possibly could.

A lovely cold DC4B today!!

Treasure Hunts

OH SWEETNESS, GOODNESS & BLISSFUL AMAZINGFULNESS!!!!!! Spring is on its way!!!!! I cannot express more strongly how good it is to drink in the sun, photosynthesise and let my body start to adjust to daylight once more. Is it me or has this winter been a tough one???

A whole group of us met up with a far greater ratio of kids to adults, in the 'almost' spring sunshine!! A couple of us were looking after other peoples children so there really were not your average number of Mums and Dads to kids... it was great. The kids ran in a pack and felt so much more secure... for the first time since the DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS was birthed, we watched with joy as our kids ran, without us, over the horizon - confident and together!

We sat on some picnic benches and I handed out some camouflage notebooks. Please note: this was just a nice touch... your notebooks, if ever you do this activity, do not need to be camouflaged!!

We drew in each child's book, animals that they may find on our walk.... worms, deer, dogs, cows, snails etc.... the drawings were hilarious... my deer looked like a pylon and someone else's squirrel - bore the resemblance of a crab! Art aside, the boys then went on the walk with notebooks in hand, spotting the things we had drawn. If repeated, we would have added helicopter, tractor etc... but who knew we were to stumble across a tractor in the middle of a tiny country pathway!!! (I told all the Parents that I had hired it for the kids.... don't tell them I am liar!!! hehe!!!)

We dug for worms, held snails and really enjoy our romp through the English countryside! At the point of vague fatigue we hid a stack of chocolate eggs (thank you easter, for your early eggs!!!), to which the kids spent a while finding them and a brief time consuming them. 

Today has been a great success - my feeling is that the smallest idea - like a treasure hunt can transform a simple walk and in this case make us look up, down, out and around!