wordless wednesday # 19

book sharing Monday: Helping at Home

One of our vintage books today, something from the shelf at my parents house that I used to enjoy when I was young - 'Helping At Home' in the Ladybird 563 series by M. E. Gagg with illustrations by J. H. Wingfield.

I can't find a modern version of this, which doesn't surprise me really...it's dated in just about every way possible. The friend I mentioned last week would be outraged if she knew I was letting Scarlett leaf through this, with it's 'perfect' family sharing the chores in a neat, gender-stereotypical way!

Here's what those lucky kids get up to with Mummy - lay the table, wash up, polish, cook, hang out washing, feed the pets, plant bulbs. The girl gets to make beds, dust, sweep and pick flowers.
They help their Dad clean shoes, weed the garden, carry logs, pick apples, dig potatoes, wash the car, rake leaves, sweep paths and tidy the shed. The boy helps his Dad mend the fence and paint the gate.
The whole family goes shopping and makes a bonfire together.

In several scenes Dad is smoking his pipe. Mum wears some lovely pinnies whilst she's busy.



What is so great about this book, like all the others in the series, is the quality of the illustrations. They may not reflect real life today, but they are rich, colourful works of art that did capture life back in the 1960's when the book was first published.
As it says on the Wee Web page about the illustrator -
"The books were aimed at the predominantly white families who were moving from the back-to-back terrace housing of their childhood to the newly built, green-field council and private estates of the 60's and 70's."
We were one of those families and the scenes in the book are pictures of my childhood. Although we were a bit scruffier!

There are some nice copies of the pictures here on Flickr.

Ladybird books are popular collectibles, ours were too well thumbed to be worth anything now, the Wee Web gives great advice on dating your edition, and a history of Ladybird books.

I am two and a half and...

I know lots of colours, my favourites are yellow and pink.

I love making lists...'who did we see today Mummy?', 'what other things are crunchy?'

I still like doing jigsaw puzzles but now my favourite thing to do is play games like Dotty Dinosaurs and Match-up People.

I can count to 10, recognise numbers 1-9, and have a strange fixation with the number 7...I look for it everywhere, in shops, on car number plates, on the cd player...

I recognise the letter 's'...I look for that everywhere too.

I can take my trousers and pants down...but I can't get them back up yet.

I can run, but I still look more toddler than little girl when I do.

I can jump, just one jump at a time.

I love going round in circles.

I have an amazing memory.

I love words.

I know which is my left eye and which is my right, but I don't know my left from my right anywhere else. (All those games we play at the hospital!)

I like dancing especially to songs by Will Young and Take That(!)

I used to like raisins, currants and sultanas, but now I pick them out of buns and scones.

I still eat nearly anything but by choice I'd have chips every day.

a quiet day

Some days I wonder what we do. It feels like so very little. And then I think back over the minutiae of the day and realise we've discovered, looked at, touched and talked about quite a lot really.

This morning we met friends and went on a walk through the orchards of a local fruit farm. We saw badger footprints, threw stones into the icy lake, splashed in a stream and squelched in mud. We looked at tractors in a barn and saw piles of apples crated up ready for delivery.

Back home we made a picture for Nanna and Grandad out of chocolate wrappers saved from Christmas and walked up to the post box to send it on it's way. On route we saw the cockerel and the horse, as we always do on these trips.

In the garden we stopped to smell the soggy walnut leaves, put our tongues out to catch raindrops, discovered mounds of snowdrops peeping out under the trees, played with an old red kettle.

I hope these simple pleasures last for many years to come.

whatever it takes

Despite having several lovely pairs of gloves Scarlett has been reluctant to wear them, no matter how cold it gets.
These jolly fellows have worked a treat though, can't get them off her!

book sharing Monday - Fantastic Daisy Artichoke

A friend recently bemoaned the lack of strong female role models or central characters in books for young children. She feels her feminist vibe coming through all the more since becoming the single Mum of a girl. It wasn't something I'd really given much thought to, but I promised to keep my eyes open and report back to her any time I discovered something which I thought would fit the bill.

And here is the first book I'm recommending to her.

Fantastic Daisy Artichoke by Quentin Blake is a funny poem about a quirky woman who becomes friends with two children.

Blake's illustrations are lively, colourful, full of movement. They look as if they were drawn in a flash, a quick scribble here and a splash of paint there, yet they convey such humour and detail and warmth. And it's the same with the text - so few words create a funny story, great to read aloud, a perfect introduction to poetry.

Daisy is 'not like other folk' with her unusual hobbies and pets and that is what makes her such a brilliant friend to have. She's full of life and energy and just likes to do her own thing. And she looks great too, big smile, long pig-tails, choker round her neck. She introduces the children to her fat cats, her croaking raven, her sleepy pig. She rides her bike with them, lies in the pond, leads them on walks, drinks tea with them.

Daisy is a great female role model, full of energy, happy to be herself and she captivates the children with her jokes, cartwheels and banjo playing. We are captivated by her too, she's fantastic.

confidence regained

My gorgeous, confident, smiling, independent, delightful little girl has returned.

We've had five days now without all that mixed up contrary behaviour.

And this weekend has been lovely because on both days there have been times when all three of us have been happily doing our own in thing different parts of the home.

Instead of shadowing one of us, Scarlett has cheerfully played with all sorts of toys inside and out, chatting to herself, making up games. She's dipped in and out of helping one of us - Dad with washing the car or making roast dinner, me with pruning the apple trees and cleaning out the chickens, and then gone back to whatever she's been up to. Just like she used to.

She's back to doing things she could do a month ago, but which she just seemed to stop doing - climbing the stairs alone, putting her shoes on, entertaining herself. There's a lightness to her again.

I'm taking this as a sign of wellness, of confidence restored and am so pleased to have her back.