To be fair, its a 10 year old’s paradise. We were lucky in that we got a bright, albeit quite cold December afternoon for the party. But the boys had an absolute blast. Finbar, head honcho at West Cork Secret, recommended the boys wear very old clothes or a wetsuit  if they had one and to bring a change of clothes and footwear and a towel so they could avail of the hot showers after all the play.

The day started off with the boys being split into 2 teams and tackling puzzles and and go kart races in one of the fields.

Then came the race to see which team could transfer enough water along the pipes to fill the container at the finish line. This initially was quite a test for the boys but it ended up a very close finish as they began to cooperate very well.

By this stage they were fairly wet but none seemed to mind. Next the army obstacle course. Under the netting, balancing on the ropes over the water, through the tyres, over and under the wooden logs in the water. They ran around and around. The finale was the monster water slide. They loved it and I lost track of how many times they went down it. By this stage, soaked to the skin and covered in suds but having a ball.

As it was getting dark, they decided they’d had enough and headed to the warm showers and changed into dry clothes. Finbar served homemade pizza cooked to order in the wood burning oven. Needless to say, demand was very high after all the activity. The pizza was delicious.

Oisín had a brilliant unforgettable party.

Many thanks to all at West Cork Secret. Would highly recommend it. There is no doubt that we’ll be back!

Some runners were assigned to be “prisoners” and they started the run a minute before the runners who were assigned to be “guards” took off in pursuit. Each guard was supposed to try and catch the same bib numbered prisoner. Alas I was the guard who was supposed to catch my prisoner brother who had recently completed the Paris marathon. No chance. The sibling rivalry kicked in and he took off!

It was great fun. The morning was gorgeous, sun out, bluebells growing in the forest. Some of the trail was along the lake so plenty of lovely vistas to keep us distracted from the running. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. For €25 registration fee, everyone received either an orange prisoner or a navy guard t-shirt, a handcuff shaped finisher’s medal and water en-route and at the finish line.

I would definitely recommend this trail run and intend to take part again next year. Good craic and a lovely way to start the day!

photo credit: subewl

The day includes:

• Demos of Traditional Skills such as baking and sausage making
• Horticultural Talk on Fruit Trees by John Hosford
• Kid’s Colouring Competition – themed “In the Garden with Granny and Granddad”
• Real Lemonade Making – A hands on session especially for children (of all ages!)

As part of this year’s theme  – we have 20 apple trees to donate to schools in West Cork and Cork city.  We would love to see the next generation growing and nurturing trees for their own fruit in the school yard. Teachers and those interested in receiving a tree for their school should email slowfoodwestcork@gmail.com or call 086 067 6249 for further details.

Hosfords is located on the main Bandon to Clonakilty road. This sounds like it’s definitely worth popping into if you’re in the area next Sunday.

Santy brought him the Toy Story 3 ebook as he had recently seen the movie in the cinema and was ever so slightly obsessed with anything related to it.  He took to Storio like a duck to water. No problems or confusion whatsoever. The interface is very simple and there are voice prompts when needed. In “Watch the Story” mode, the story is narrated as the words being spoken are highlighted in a karaoke style.

The reader can also highlight any word to get a definition of it.

In addition to the story, there are educational word games which Fionn enjoys. The other feature of this system that I am impressed with is that additional free stories can be downloaded from the vtech website on to a SD card which slots into the Storio. So now Fionn has a range of stories to listen to and interact with.

The unit itself is fairly robust. Unlike the Nintendo DS, it has withstood the everyday rough and tumble of our home to date.

Would definitely recommend the Storio.

]]> https://manicmammy.com/2011/02/07/once-upon-a-time/feed/ 0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ https://manicmammy.com/2011/01/05/a-couple-of-interesting-taster-days/ https://manicmammy.com/2011/01/05/a-couple-of-interesting-taster-days/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:19:50 +0000 Manic Mammy https://manicmammy.com/?p=2497 Happy New Year to all!

Lately real life has gotten in the way of blogging. I hope everyone had a lovely festive season. Our children are still off school but we’ve returned to Bandon after visiting Kilkenny and Cavan, both of which were without running water at times due to the icy weather and its effects. Definitely glad to return to hot running water!

In the post recently I received the following notifications which I thought may be of interest.

The first is the CTYI taster day  for 8 to 12 year olds to be held in DCU and UCC on the 15th of January 2011.

This is a one day event to give children a “taste” of what it is like to attend a course at one of our centres. It is to give potential students an idea of what happens on our Saturday and summer program and helps give these students an idea whether they would enjoy coming. It also gives students who already come a chance to try out new subjects.
DCU: 10.00 – 12.15pm or 1.00 to 3.15pm
UCC: 1.00 – 3.15pm
Cost is €10 per child for morning or afternoon or €20 for both DCU sessions.

Two subjects will be studied on the day and there is a good range to choose from including:

• forensics and vet science
• film studies and creative writing
• computer animation  and science in space
• architecture and astronomy

I would definitely recommend these CTYI days. Our eldest son thoroughly enjoys attending and learning about a wide variety of subjects. For further information, please contact Eleanor Cooke at eleanor.cooke@dcu.ie or 01 7008977.

The second is a free trial day at the Gaiety School of Acting.

CHILDRENS TRY FOR FREE

Have you a Saoirse Ronan or a Jaden Smith in your house? A child pestering you to let them go to drama. Here’s you chance to bring them along and see what’s what. This term we’re running our TRY FOR FREE classes in Temple Bar, Bray, Wexford and Castleblayney.

Classes will run on Saturday 8th Jan.

Call us on (01) 6799277 for the scheduled times and to guarantee your place. Alternatively just call down on the day.

Gaiety School of Acting, Temple Bar – 4 years old – 18 years old

Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray – 7 years old – 18 years old

Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford – 6 years old – 13 years old

Iontas Arts Centre, Castleblayney – 6 years old – 13 years old

Again, I would recommend these days too as one of our children did a Saturday course in Cork with the Gaiety School of Acting a year or so ago and enjoyed it.

Running on both Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st of October from 10am to 5pm.

photo credit: shawncampbell

Hallowe’en events are as follows:

• Pumpkin Olympics

Come and test your strength, guile and skill (or just have a laugh!)
Pumpkin Golf, Pumpkin Skittles, Pumpkin Shy, Pumpkin Races, Guess the name of the Pumpkin

• Pumpkin Carving Competition

Bring your carved pumpkin and enter it in the competition to be judged on Sunday.

• Witches String Trail

Suitable for all ages from toddlers up. Follow the trail of string and see what surprises unfold.

• Orienteering for Ghouls

Dressed in your scariest Halloween costume, follow the orienteering trail, through the check points, and hope you make it back in one piece.

• Show us your Brains!

Solve the themed puzzles and riddles, such as word scramble and word search.

• Family Adventure Trail

Departing from the courtyard at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, through the ancient woodland, you and your family must negotiate the obstacles, including Spider’s Web, Rope Walk, Slack Line plus much more.  Adjustable difficulty, so suitable for all ages.

All activities are included in the €5 entrance fee, which is a donation to INFF,  a registered charity. Family tickets are available for €15 for 1 day or €20 which includes admission for both days.

How to make your own cutout paper vertical sundial.

This page is about Sundials. Sundials are instruments that tell you the time with the shadow of the sun. To design a sundial you need to know exactly where you are going to put it, i.e. you need to know the longitude, the latitude and the orientation of the wall with respect to North.
I have designed this page and integrated Google Maps. It helps you to easily find all the parameters needed and finally produces a printable page with a cut-out paper sundial, that can be cut and folded to give you a vertical sundial.
This page allows you to make your own Cut Out Paper Vertical Sundial customized to your place on earth and the declination of the wall you are going to put it on.

All the instructions appear to be straightforward and easy to follow. Alas, we stumbled at the first hurdle as Google maps couldn’t see our house. Will try it again next week when we’re at a relative’s house and fingers crossed it’ll work.

Would love to hear if anyone else has tried it and been successful.

Oscar has just completed this summer camp and is raving about how good it was and how much he enjoyed it. It took place on Garrettstown beach. We were fortunate that the weather was relatively good this week and there were some waves. All equipment was supplied by the surf school. The children were kitted out with wetsuits, booties, boards etc.

So from  10am to 3pm, Monday to Friday himself and 15 other kids aged 8 to 12 years old had a blast on the beach. They had great fun learning to surf, kayaking, coasteering and cliff jumping. The instructors were excellent, I had no worries regarding Oscar’s safety. He was taught safety procedure, what to do if in trouble and good surfing rules and etiquette. After this camp he is now at the stage of being able to judge the waves and get up to standing on the surfboard.

It was an action packed week,  he was exhausted most evenings. He made some good friends and most importantly had a really fun time. There was a good mix of boys and girls participating in the camp. Would thoroughly recommend it. The SuperSea camp cost €150 which initially did seem expensive. But after seeing what he got out of the week, I reckon it was good value for money.

He is now talking about saving to buy his own wetsuit and surfboard as he intends to  continue surfing.

It was held in the Bandon Grammar school grounds which was great as in addition to outdoor running track and facilities, there was access to indoor halls should the weather turn inclement.

The three aged 5, 6 and 8 years old had a brilliant week. They really enjoyed the range of activities which included:

• sprints
• long jump
• high jump
• relays
• javelin
• hammer throw
• discus
• shot putt

The camp cost €65 for the first child and €50 for each subsequent sibling which I rate as good value for money. It ran from 10am to 2pm, Monday to Friday. I found it really well run. There was  plenty of supervision and coaching. Each child recieved a certificate of attendance and a medal on the last day. They were chuffed.

Would definitely recommend.

* This was Fionn’s query when his older brother suggested he attend the summer camp for running training

Take it away Osc:

Today I did an experiment with a product called Sugru. Sugru is colourful silicone rubber used for fixing items. I tried to fix a pair of broken scissors. What was wrong with them was one of the handles snapped. So I got a small packet of Sugru to fix it. I first opened the packet and felt the play-doh like substance. It was surprisingly very soft. I then applied it to the broken part of the scissors. I spread the Sugru so one could get their fingers in the handle. Then after 24 hours I checked the scissors and the Sugru on the scissors. The Sugru had turned hard in the 24 hours that it was setting but it was still feel the rubberiness in it. So in other words it was a complete success. I am giving Sugru a rating of 5 stars. Excellent. I would recommend it to anyone.