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loocyloo
13-02-2018, 09:01 PM
Goodness ... everything is happening this week!

Shrove Tuesday/pancake day today, Ash Wednesday/Valentines Day tomorrow, Nirvana Day (Annual Buddhist festival that remembers the death of the Buddha when he reached Nirvana at the age of 80. It is also known as Parinirvana Day. It is celebrated by some Buddhists on February 15th. On Nirvana Day, Buddhists think about their lives and how they can work towards gaining the perfect peace of Nirvana. They remember friends or relations who have recently died and reflect on the fact that death is a part of life for everyone. I think I took this info originally from the bbc schools site) and Friday is the start of Chinese New Year. It is also the winter Olympics.

Pretty much any one of those could take up a week of activities ( obviously Shrove Tuesday/Ash Wednesday are always together ) but this year ... WHAM! they all fall in the same week! At least it is half term for us, so more time to do something.

To be honest, I don't usually do anything for Nirvana Day-I just have it on my list of special days ( and as its always the 15th Feb, its always after Valentines Day ) and we might talk about people who have died ( as a follow on from thinking about people we love ), and I think it is on my list as a 'hang over' from days gone by when it seemed to be the thing to have a zillion and one special days to celebrate.

These days I only make fuss/do anything for the days/events that actually impact on the children in my care ( or mean something to me - hence we always celebrate Australia Day, because I lived there for a few years ) I did put some of the Olympics on television for the children today, but no one was that interested :(

Is anyone doing anything exciting this week?

mama2three
13-02-2018, 10:25 PM
We’ve merged a few things together but only loosely ; the gloop is red and has glass hearts in it , chopsticks added to the loose parts , hanging Chinese lanterns in the reading nook , pink and red free art bits a few petals and hearts in the tinker tray.
Today we flipped pancakes and skipped in the garden. Did you go skipping loocyloo.?

loocyloo
14-02-2018, 08:43 AM
NO! I FORGOT!!!!

but to be fair .... it was throwing it down with rain all day and freezing cold!

DOH!!!!

Bumble Beez
14-02-2018, 08:49 AM
It is super busy isn't it!
And I'm only working 3 days this week too which makes it worse (or better ;))
So we've focused on Valentines, Pancake day and Winter Olympics.
Chinese New Year we will focus on next week as I'm working five days and have a good mix of ages :thumbsup:
Enjoy xx

Maza
14-02-2018, 09:45 AM
I remember the post about skipping last year!

I miss not having little ones around when there are festivals. Our family made pancakes yesterday and talked about why they are traditional. DD made some pretend ones for her toys (30 cats and dogs) and then did a chart recording their favourite toppings. It was initiated by her, but I couldn't resist throwing a few data handling and fraction questions in there!

We talked about Ash Wednesday today. DH's brother arrives from South Africa this evening and he wants to go out for dinner. Hope we're not surrounded by loved up couples! We did a few heart crafts a couple of days ago because DD got a valentine's craft book from the library. I bought a 'hearts and crosses' wooden game from Tiger and so we'll have a few rounds of that later on, along with our Connect 4 which happens to be heart shaped. Not romantic at all, but 'special' days remind us to get out certain activities and games which otherwise might live at the back of our cupboard.

DD has got a couple of friends coming over and she wants to do some Chinese New Year activities with them, so I had better get my thinking cap on. All of my CNY resources are packed away and I'm not digging them out this year.

I've never done anything for Nirvana Day. The Winter Olympics hasn't grabbed us. I do want to do a bit more on other countries with DD as her general knowledge in this area isn't great. When it was Australia Day I asked her what the capital of Australia is and she said 'Israel' - then she corrected herself and said, "Oh no, that's the capital of Scotland".

We are still working our way through the 'abc' of outings/activities that FloraDora suggested a while ago. We are going to do 'P' today. We are going to a pottery café to paint a cup or plate.

Happy half term everyone. x

FussyElmo
14-02-2018, 05:23 PM
Not half term here till next week and I haven't celebrated any of the dates this week. Well we did discuss shrove Tuesday and ash Wednesday this morning but we have decided not to give anything up but to try and be better people. So if we see someone alone at school to talk to them etc.

I'm off tomorrow in the day so I may do some major decluttering