It has a table which gives each category a description - Minimalist, Moderate and Plenty. There's a suggested number of items for each type of clothing, for example shirts, sweaters, pajamas, dresses and shoes, and I was really interested to compare the amount clothing that mine have to the charts.
I always feel that the children have too many clothes. I wash quite frequently and so the only time that they need clothes for more than a few days is when we go on holiday. Perhaps I don't allocate enough space in their wardrobes for clothing, but Mia's drawers in particular always seem to be jammed full. I find that if there is plenty of space in the drawers it's much easier to put clean washing away rather than leave it piled up, so I much prefer to have less.
We are often lucky enough to be given clothes, both new and second hand, and I don't feel that I buy them a huge amount of clothing. I usually pick up bits in the sale, buying extra underwear when we are about to go away and I realise they don't have enough.
So according to the list, I think that my children fall somewhere in between Minimalist and Moderate. They have a few more tops, because I like to have 7 to 10 to allow for a couple of weeks away. I struggle with finding them trousers that fit, so they don't have very many of those anyway. One area where we are way over though is dresses as Mia has ended up with quite a few - especially when you take into consideration her sizable collection of princess outfits! She does wear them all regularly so I don't mind!
Each of them have plenty of pairs of pajamas because they like to have varying thicknesses and a combination of long and short to allow for seasonal variation - they'll often change a couple of times during the evening before they go to sleep! They also have more underwear - it's cheap and it doesn't take up too much space!
I like to think that they are quite limited when it comes to shoes, but they each have a pair of school shoes, trainers, slip on shoes, wellies, sandals, flip flops for swimming and crocs for the garden, and Mia has a couple of pairs of sparkly party shoes - placing them well into the Plenty category!
During the week in term time they are wearing school uniform, which this chart doesn't take account of, and as their uniform is kept separately I don't really count it as part of their clothing. In terms of uniform they each have a clean shirt for every day and one spare, two jumpers, then Harry has two pairs of trousers and two pairs of shorts and Mia has two tunics and two summer dresses. They are generally quite clean children, and I've never had to do an emergency wash because they didn't have clean uniform for school the next day, so we've managed with that amount so far.
What do you think of the graphic? Where do your children fit?
. The book is packed with crafts to do with Ancient Egypt which all use materials that are readily available and are really imaginative. The mummies were made using tin foil pieces, scrunched up and placed together to form the shape of a person and a cat, then covered with more in foil to hold everything together firmly. Then the children used thin strips of kitchen roll, dipped in water and wrapped around like bandages.
for her birthday and she was really pleased with her finished jewellery box. The box comes with lots of numbered gaps on the outside for you to place corresponding jewel stickers, and it kept her occupied for ages sticking them into place. The one problem was that as soon as she had finished the stickers started falling off, causing some frustration. So I watered down some PVA glue and gave the entire box a couple of coats. This stuck the jewels down really well and we've not lost any since. It's a nice big case with a felt lining, perfect for all her little bits and pieces.
. She received two very similar ones for her birthday so we chose one to start with and one to save for later in the year. It's a really simple concept, and of course you can make your own, but it was so much more fun to have all the tiny fairy bits and pieces. You need to put your own compost in, then you sprinkle in grass seed and add other bits like a path of coloured stones, a little house, a pond and a washing line, and there are fairy and mouse figures too. We made it a couple of months ago and the grass is still growing well as long as it's regularly watered, I'm always having to give it a trim!
from the Science Museum. There are some bits and pieces in the box and most of the other things that you need are easily found around the house (cocktail sticks and so on). He was able to work out some of the tricks by himself and put on a little show for us, and he also enjoyed adding to it with some of his other 
over the last few years. It's a brilliant idea, but all the ones that we've had have turned into 'parents extracting the gems' kits after the children have tapped away ineffectually for a few minutes and then got bored.
! If you want any kind of excavation kit, we did get on quite well with this 
which produced a really nice dinosaur model that could be putt together and was a bit more exciting to excavate.
, about a group of children that run away from their unkind aunt and uncle and set themselves up living self-sufficiently on a remote island, complete with chickens and a cow. I read the Famous Five books over and over, and I also have fond memories of the books about Mr Galliano's Circus. I didn't mind that many of the stories had similar elements, and that although the names were different the children didn't change much. Perhaps it made them a comforting and easy read before I moved on to more challenging books.
to him a couple of years ago and he's since read them to himself, as well as 
. He recently enjoyed a few of the Secret Seven books but he didn't get on with the Famous Five. I'm hoping that I can either rekindle his interest, or that perhaps Mia will want to read them when she's able to read more confidently!
and I'm hoping that he'll go on to enjoy some of her other books. I've also got a long list of other books that I remember enjoying as a child, and although some of them might appeal more to Mia in a few years I'm looking forward to seeing what they think. Fortunately these days, even though many are now out of print, they are often available digitally, sometimes very cheaply or even for free.
are both sets of books that I bought and read when I was in my twenties, and that Harry has enjoyed reading recently. I've also seen some re-imagined versions of childhood classics for sale. For example the other day I spotted 
in the shops which seems to be a modern version of 
. I loved that series of books when I was little, and although I'm not sure I like the idea of rewriting a beloved story, I am very tempted to check it out!
(affiliate link). The sets come with lots of pre-cut printed shapes that you can pop out and assemble. Some, like the blocks, are very easy, and others are a bit more challenging. He's built some of them but has plenty left to go. He spent ages making some up, and then Mia played with them. We also found some printable Minecraft paper crafting on the Twinkl website which are available for subscribers. The Simple Adventurer Paper Model really was very simple and Mia could put him together easily. The Block Pig Paper Model is also very sweet, and Twinkl has a wide range of other Minecraft based paper crafting projects, including lots of different types of blocks.
