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Granny's Top Tips |
Taken from The Good Granny Companion:
Keeping busy in the summer
If both the parents of your grandchildren are at work, no doubt you will be much in demand during the school holidays.
DAISY DAISY You won’t want to be out and about with the children all the time, so here are one or two things to do with them at home: if you have a garden and your lawn is anything like ours, there will be plenty of daisies to make Daisy Chains. To make it easy, choose the daisies with the thickest stems.
Teach them to sing:
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,
I’m half crazy all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage,
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle made for two.
When they tire of making daisy chains they might like to search for a lucky four-leaved clover or tell the time by a dandelion clock or see if they like butter by holding a buttercup up to each other’s chin.
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
It's unlikely the sun will shine every day. Spend a rainy afternoon playing cards. Start them off with a game of patience, so that they can amuse themselves while you take a well-earned rest.
Clock Patience
Shuffle and deal the full deck of cards, face down, into 13 piles of 4 cards each, laying them out in a circular clock shape. You should have a pile of cards at each position from 1 o’clock to 12 o’clock and one at the centre. Turn over the top card of the centre pile. See its value, which will be any number from 1 to 13, aces being 1, knaves 11, queens 12 and kings 13.
Place the card you have turned over face up beside the pile that corresponds to its number on the clock, for example, if it’s a 3, place it beside the pile in the 3 o’clock position (kings go in the centre). Then turn over the top card from this pile. See its value and do the same as before. Do this as many times as possible. If you manage to reach a situation where no card remains face down, your game has ‘come out’ and you have won.
All you need is paper and pencil…
If you don't have a games cupboard full of board games, jigsaw puzzles and packs of cards with no cards missing, don't despair. Some excellent games only need some scrap paper and a pencil or pen for each player.
In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how Hangman works:
Players try to guess a word by filling in the blanks. Each wrong guess brings them closer to being ‘hanged’.
One player chooses a word or phrase and marks a dash on a piece of paper for each letter of the word or words. The word 'dictionary', for example, would have ten dashes. Then they draw the gallows – an upside-down 'L' with a short line, dropping down from its top end, for the 'noose'.
The other players then guess the word, one letter at a time. Every correct letter guessed is filled in on the appropriate dash. If it appears more than once, it is filled in each time. So, if the guess was ‘I’, the 'dictionary' example would look like this:
_ I _ _ I _ _ _ _ _
Each time the letter chosen is not in the word, a body part is added to the drawing, starting with the head (a circle at the end of the noose) and adding the torso, two legs and two arms. The player who guesses the word first is the winner. If the whole 'hanged man' has been drawn before the word is guessed, the player who chose the word wins.
Boxes
This game has much in common with noughts and crosses, but it lasts longer and is not so weighted in favour of the payer who goes first.
On a piece of paper make a grid of dots. There can be any number, but 8 horizontal x 8 vertical is about right.
The players take turns to draw a line joining two dots. The aim is to make as many squares as you can, and to prevent your opponent making them. Every time you complete a square, you write your initial in it. When the whole grid has been filled in, the one with most squares is the winner.
Jane’s tips for Hallowe’en
When I was a child, the nearest we got to celebrating Hallowe’en was having to go to Church the day after, on All Saints’ Day (1 November). There were no parties, no dressing up as witches and ghosts, and definitely no trick-or-treating. Call me Granny Spoilsport, but I am rather dismayed by the recently imported American custom of children knocking on strangers’ doors and blackmailing them into handing out sweets.
Grandparents of a nervous disposition draw their curtains on Hallowe’en, switch off the lights and pretend there is nobody at home – in itself quite a spooky experience. Braver GPs, or those who live in nicer neighbourhoods, keep a big bowl of sweets by the front door to hand out to the pint-sized ghoulies, ghosties and skeletons who come calling.
However they feel about Hallowe’en customs, today’s good grannies are always willing to enter into the spirit of the preparations with gusto.
To make a witch’s hat:
You will need:
2 large sheets of black card, not too stiff
A sharp cutting knife, or Stanley knife
Scissors
Silver tinsel or wool for the ‘witch’s’ hair
A stapler, or tough electrical tape
A tape measure
Instructions:
Measure the child’s head and allow an inch or so extra for the necessary join.
Cut the card into a large triangle shape, with a curving bottom edge, which should equal the child’s head measurement (see above).
Bend this into a cone shape and staple, or tape with masking tape up the inside. Place this cone in the centre of the second piece of paper.
To make the brim of the hat, draw a circle around the outside of the cone on the paper with marker pen and then remove the cone. Then draw a second, outer circle 3 or 4 inches from the first, either freehand or using a large round dish as template. You should be left with a kind of halo, marked on the card, which, once cut out, will form the brim of the hat. Use a sharp cutting knife to score around the lines and then press out the circular ‘brim’.
Take the cone and insert it through this “brim,” so that the bottom inch or so of the cone is showing below the paper plate ‘brim’.
Cut small slits every few inches in this sticking out part to make tabs and then fold them and tape them securely with masking tape to the underneath of the “brim”. You now have the hat.
Decide the length of your witch's hair and add a few extra inches for taping it to the inside of the hat. Cut the tinsel into lengths. Tape the ends of tinsel up under the inside edge of the cone, leaving the front of the hat free for the witch’s face. The hat can then be decorated with glitter and moons and stars cut out of kitchen foil. Cellophane and coloured foil sweet wrappers, cut or scrunched up, look very glittery and effective when stuck onto the hat with a dab of glue.
Black material can be attached to the witch’s shoulders as a cloak.
Use baby powder to make a ghoulish white face or use face paints.
The cone shape of the witch’s hat, minus the brim, and with some extra silver foil crescent moons, makes a perfect wizard’s hat.
Wands, for witches and wizards
Place a long wooden spoon on some kitchen foil and wrap it up into a silver wooden spoon shape, securing with sellotape. Cut out two identical star shapes in stiff card. They should be larger than the ‘spoon’ end. Glue silver foil onto the ‘stars’. Then attach a ‘star’ to either side of the ‘spoon’ end, using double-sided sellotape. Staple the points together to make them into one star. A witch might like streamers of black ribbon tied around her wand, underneath the ‘star’.
The book also includes instructions for making a black cat costume, a Hallowe’en spider, and a luminous skeleton.
The witch might be accompanied by a black cat.
The ‘cat’ could wear black tights and a long sleeved black tee shirt. Its tail could be the leg of a pair of black tights stuffed with other old tights and safety-pinned on. A black hair band with two small triangles, cut out of cardboard for the ‘ears’, paint black and glue to the hair band. Paint some whiskers with eyeliner or face paint, to complete the ensemble.
A small grandson might like to be a Halloween spider. Dress him entirely in anything black and then attach ‘spiders legs” to his back.
The legs can be made from a pair of black tights, stuffed with other old tights or scrumpled newspaper. Sew, or staple the ends to keep the stuffing from falling out. Attach the legs to his clothing by sewing or with safety pins. A balaclava, again cut out of old black tights, and some ski goggles complete the spider.
A luminous Halloween skeleton
You need black opaque tights, a long-sleeved tee shirt and white iron-on backing fabric. Draw the outline of a very basic skeleton in separate pieces - legs, arms and ribs - and cut them out in the backing fabric. The children can colour them in a luminous green. Iron these onto the front of the black tights and tee shirt and complete the costume with black gloves and socks.
Easter Eggs
We all celebrate Easter by giving each other decorated eggs, usually, nowadays, made of chocolate. The custom goes back a long way. The ancient Persians painted eggs for Navrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the Spring equinox, a tradition that is at least 2,500 years old. Sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Navrooz to the king.
In the Christian tradition, eggs symbolize rebirth. For Orthodox Christians, Easter eggs dyed red are blessed by the priest and distributed to the faithful.
For us, the Easter Bunny (originally a hare) brings the eggs and hides them for children to find. In the North of England, a traditional game is played at Easter, where hard boiled eggs are distributed and each player hits the other player's egg with their own. This is known as "egg tapping", "egg dumping" or "egg jarping". The winner is the holder of the last intact egg. In Scotland and North East England painted hard boiled eggs are traditionally rolled down steep hills on Easter Sunday.
TIP Parents will be grateful if, instead of adding to the avalanche of chocolate, you give your grandchildren small Easter presents. You can buy pretty cardboard or tin eggs to put them in. Or give each child a prettily painted wooden egg each year, so that gradually they build up a collection. Look for them in shops selling ethnic handicrafts.
An Easter Egg treasure Hunt
A simple Easter Egg Hunt is easy to organise indoors or out. The Easter Bunny, disguised as Granny, hides the eggs before the children arrive, or while they’re having lunch. For this, there is no substitute for chocolate: small, foil-covered eggs are best. To make sure each child gets his share, hide the eggs in ‘nests,’ with the same number of eggs in each nest as there are children. The rule is that each child may take one egg from each nest. There can be an extra prize for the one to find all the nests first. Intended for under-fives, children up to 10 or older will enjoy taking part.
A Very Simple Easter Bonnet
In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade.
I'll be all in clover and when they look you over,
I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter Parade…..
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet,
And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter Parade.
Written by Irving Berlin and sung by Judy Garland in the film Easter Parade
You will need:
Large paper plates
Crayons, markers, paints, sequins bits of old lace, glitter-stick, Feathers.
Glue
Elastic or ribbon
Children can decorate a paper plate any way they wish by sticking on paper flowers, drawing and painting on the plate, sprinkling glitter etc. Pierce a hole on either side of the plate and thread through pieces of ribbon or elastic to be tied under the chin to hold the bonnet on.
Easter Eggs
To decorate eggs you need to work on either hard-boiled or blown eggs. Blowing eggs needs patience and some skill but even getting it wrong is fun for children and grandparents alike.
Duck eggshells are tougher, slightly larger and their beautiful bluish tinge makes a better background for egg painting. Otherwise hen’s eggs are perfectly good. Keep the box they come in for putting each egg to dry after painting.
A box of half a dozen decorated eggs, the carton itself painted in poster paint and with a message from a child drawn on the lid, would make a wonderful Easter present.
To blow an egg
Yes, granny, it’s your turn to teach someone how to suck egg!.
Carefully poke a small hole in each end of the egg with a large darning needle or bodkin. Push the needle into the egg and twist it around to break the yoke. Hold the egg over a bowl and blow hard through the top hole until the shell is empty. Wash the empty eggshells carefully and allow them to dry. Save the raw eggs and scramble them for breakfast.
Sponge painting Eggs
Don’t be disappointed if the results are not up to Faberge’s standards – perfectionists don’t make good grannies.
You will need:
Eggs, hardboiled or blown
Non-toxic poster paints
Saucers (for each colour)
Finger-sized pieces of sponge cut from a kitchen sponge
Large safety pins (one for each colour)
Eggcups
Old biros
Place the prepared eggs in eggcups. Partially fill saucers with various colours of paint. Clip a very small piece of bath sponge to a safety pin and dip into paper cups, using the safety pin as a handle. Lightly dab the sponge over the top half of the egg. Let dry. Turn egg over and repeat procedure. Let the egg dry completely. You can then dab a second colour randomly on top to give a pretty, mottled effect.
Remove and discard the inner filament of an old biro and carefully press a tiny ball of kitchen sponge into the hole at the pointed, writing end of the biro casing. You then have a sponge paint brush, which can be dipped into the paint and dabbed gently onto the eggshell.
With spring on the way, it’s time to get the grandchildren into the garden, or take them to the park. Here are a couple of outdoor games to amuse a wide span of ages.
The Matchbox Game
Give a child an empty matchbox and a list of small things to collect – a grey pebble, a petal, an empty snail shell and so on. If there is more than one child the first one back is the winner. Another way to play this is to give them a time limit –five minutes, say – to collect as many interesting things as they can.
Grandmother’s Footsteps
This one is for you! Turn your back to the children who must all stand an agreed distance away from you. The aim of the game is to be the first one to sneak up on you without being seen. You can catch them out by suddenly turning round and if they haven’t managed to ‘freeze’ before you see them, they must go back to the starting line and begin again.
From The Good Granny Companion,
If the bad weather keeps you indoors your grandchildren will enjoy…
Making a Map
Children love simple picture maps in books, showing the location of Dolly the carthorse’s field in relation to the railway line, or the spot where the Pirates’ treasure is buried.
Getting a child to make a map of where they live can also be an engrossing project: a map with the important things in life on it, and none of the boring stuff.
You need: Crayons, a large piece of stiff white card, scissors, glue.
Encourage the child to think about the world around their home, what they like and don’t like, and where things are in relation to each other. They are likely to note things like the local sweet shop, the nearest park – with swings and pond – and perhaps where their friends’ houses are. On the map they can mark school, the doctor and the house with the whacky pink door up the road – whatever they want.
It doesn’t matter whether things are in scale or not – school being a tiny building compared to the sweet shop is all part of the fun. If they are not confident about drawing yet, teach them how to trace images from picture books or magazines.
Sometimes, rather than try to capture something in its entirety, you might encourage them to focus on smaller details. For example, they could trace a horse chestnut leaf from a book on trees, to mark their favourite tree in the park; and use a picture of a duck to show where they feed the birds in the park.
When the map’s complete, hang it on the wall with pride.
Taken from The Good Granny Companion which includes instructions for lots of other traditional pencil and paper games, such as Consequences, Battle Ships and Squares (or boxes). To buy the book, click here.
A great recipe from Libby:
Granny Jane, I am not a grandma but a mum of 3 very small children. I really love your book (got it first from library and now have a copy myself, and got a copy for mother-in-law) and have tried many recipes. I wanted to share with you a recipe inherited from my dear late mother. Feel free to copy it into a future book. It is truly lovely.
Breton Style Pork Chops
4 pork loin chops
0.5 oz butter
3 firm tomatoes – skin and seeds removed
0.25 level tsp mustard
0.25 Level teaspoon Tomato puree
Good pinch paprika
0.25 pint dry cider
2 large oranges squeezed
Salt and pepper
Fry chops to brown. Chuck in everything else and cook for hours and hours til meat is falling apart. Lovely.
Grannie Turley’s TV choice:
I have watched a t.v. programme recently which I had previously dismissed without a care. Piffle, I thought, Rubbish, Tripe, A waste of Air Time. Then, horror, I was semi-forced to watch it. WHY? I hear you asking, Bad day at work, gasping for a cup of tea and a few minutes sit down, no, I can't go to bed in the day! Guaranteed Headache! So, there I was, sitting by my grandson while he watched one of his favourite programmes. What’s this???? A story line!! A meaning!! Yes this programme has a hidden agenda, and I don't think many people who like me have said that they can't stand it, realise. So do watch this programme a few times and see if you agree with me. Each story has a moral attached or a life learning statement. Futhermore, my grandson is quick to point them out. Did I hear you say WHAT'S THE PROGRAMME? Oh silly me! Well, here goes, hope you are prepared because folks … its
THE SIMPSONS.
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