The siblings project – October 2017

I absolutely love the fact that these photos for October’s siblings project post were taken just last weekend, and it was warm enough for us all to be out without coats.  We spent a sunny afternoon at Swansea bay, mainly building sandcastles.

In my living arrows post on Monday I wrote about how the children normally build sandcastles together, but on this particular trip to the beach they chose to build their own, separate ones instead.

When I saw them playing like this, both caught up in their own little worlds, I just had to snap a quick photo.

I love that they are happy to play on their own, as well as with each other.

There’s a lot to be said for being happy with your own company, for having the ability to create your own entertainment and fun.

With their sibling relationship it seems that Rhys and Nerys have the best of both worlds.  Because when they get tired of playing alone, they can come together.  And that’s just so lovely to watch.

I love how Rhys looks so protective of his little sister in these photos, with his arm wrapped round her shoulders.

The long break from school over the summer seemed to really do him a lot of good.  He’s settled well into year two at school and seems better able to control his emotions, or walk away from situations if they get too much for him to cope with.

He’s always been a loving child, and his caring side is shining through more and more as he gets older.  He’s starting to become really empathetic, which isn’t all that surprising when he’s as sensitive as he is in general.

It’s just so lovely to see, when he reacts with such care to other people being hurt or feeling sad.

There are, of course, times when he’s not quite so empathetic.  Like when he’s absorbed in Minecraft or desperate to tell us about something he’s read in one of his books, and doesn’t even seem to notice that his sister is crying about something.

Anyone else have a little one who seems to tune out everything else around them when they’re really focused on something?!

In general though, he really looks out for Nerys and cares about her so much.  And she in turn really looks up to him still, wanting to do everything he does.  She wanted to do some of his times tables questions the other night, and I had to gently remind her that she needed to learn all her numbers properly before she could start doing sums like that.

I think she might know her times tables soon enough though because I’m planning on getting Rhys chanting them with me as often as we can.  Which will most likely mean going over them in the car on the way to school in the mornings, so Nerys will probably be quite familiar with them too before long!  That’s the thing with second children isn’t it, they’re exposed to things much earlier thanks to their older sibling.

If you have more than one child, what things have you done earlier with your second than you did with your first?