Vegie Smugglers

'B' is for 'behind', 'beyond' and 'blocked'.

I love the parenting truth that once a stage or phase has passed, you totally move on and forget all about it. Or perhaps block it out of your memory, depending on how awful it was. Like the entire first eight weeks of having a newborn. Or the four months that I had ongoing mastitis (and a dependence on cabbage leaves). Or the 4.30am wake up stage, which lasted for a year or two (now of course, I can’t really remember specifics).

When you’re in the middle of these stages, they feel eternal. You are obsessed with them, googling specific questions like “3 month old baby poos only green moss-like substance”. Luckily someone else, somewhere in the world, has already had these issues and usually there are a stack of relevant answers to advise you. God knows what people did before the internet.

For a solid year, Mr Meat & Potatoes had night terrors. It was harrowing. Despite all my research that told me there was nothing we could do about it, and that it would pass and that there was no point trying to sooth him, we spent hours in his room, for nights on end, trying to pat, cuddle and talk away the unsoothable. It was a particular parenting lowlight that had us almost broken with lack of sleep and worry. But sure enough, in the space of two weeks it stopped. And we’ve never had to go back to it. Although on the rare occasion my children cry in the night, my heart immediately begins thumping and I feel the adrenalin surge again.

So too, now that Mr M&P is in kindy, I haven’t given school readiness another thought. Which is funny since last year I was so focused on it and made so many worksheets for him.

Possibly your kids were too young for them last year and you didn’t notice them. But this year, perhaps it’s your turn to focus on scissors and pencil grip and the alphabet. So here’s a rehash, of some of the sheets that I needed last year, that you might need now.

A lovely easy start to learning with some fun ‘spot the difference’ type visual discrimination pages…

Is your little monster ready for school?

Basic scissors & numbers here…

A Midnight Oils album cover? Maybe not, but numbers 1-10 nonetheless

Basic alphabet sheet here…

Don't worry, the actual download is perfectly alphabetical.

More scissor work (with a certificate) here…

Another award to stick on the fridge....

Basic shapes…

Because a circle is always MORE than just a circle

Some numbers and colours here in a pixel colour-by-numbers…

What will it be??? You'll have to download to see!

And no, I never did finish off the detailed alphabet sheets. On a quiet day I will though, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are letters A-F, letters G-L and letters M-R.