Benny Bear Newsletter - April 2012

Brilliant News!the newsletter for the Benny Bear Club

April 2012 bennysblog.co.uk

Hi Benny Members,

I hope you enjoyed the first edition of ‘Brilliant News!’?

Did you love my Benny postcard, complete with my very own Benny stamp? Don’t forget to write to me with all your news and photos – I love photos!

Did you all see my photos at St. Paul’s Church of England School in Nuneaton? I had great fun and would love to visit your school or nursery. Why not ask your Mummy’s and Daddy’s to help you to organise a visit?

Now back to business …

Benny is a bear with

hydrocephalus.Benny helps children to understand

what it is like to live with the

condition

Benny’s story time!Did you all manage to read a book in March, or ask a grown up to read to you? I love to snuggle up to Mummy and Daddy Bear and listen to their stories. Sometimes they don’t read from a book, they just make up stories and we take it in turns to imagine and say what might happen next. Mummy and Daddy says it helps with my memory skills and my imagination.

Here is a story about me – perhaps you could make up your own ending – what you think happened next …

‘Easter time again’, said Benny, ‘lots of fun in the garden playing Easter egg hunts and eating yummy chocolate.’

‘Yes’ said Mummy Bear, ‘but we have to look after our teeth to make sure they stay clean and sparkly.’

Benny thought for a moment – ‘And we must eat lots of vegetables to keep us healthy and water to help keep us hydrated - especially for me with my hydrocephalus’.

‘Great stuff’ said Mummy, ‘you are learning quickly. Perhaps we could grow some of our own food to eat, carrots perhaps or even a Cress Head’.

continued on the next page ...

Benny’s Easter story continued ...

Mummy Bear collected two old yoghurt pots and told Benny how she was going to grow some cress to put in his sandwiches. She laid out the paper towel and cotton wool she needed and Benny sprinkled half the packet of seeds into his pot and Mummy put the other half into her pot.

‘Right’, said Mummy, ‘now we need to be patient, in about seven days the cress will start to grow.’

‘Let’s give them a name’, said Benny, ‘I am going to call mine Monsieur Cress, that’s French for Mr. Cress!’ ‘In which case’, said Mummy Bear, ‘I shall call mine Madame Cress, that’s French for Mrs. Cress! So now we can both speak French! ‘Merci’, said Benny, ‘and that means thank you.’

Now, what Mummy Bear had forgotten to remind Benny was how he needed to water his cress when the cotton wool became dry, and to keep his pot in a nice warm place, so the seeds could germinate.

She thought she would just wait and see if he remembered. Benny knew that it was important to look after yourself, water, warmth, and food to make sure you stay healthy and strong. Seeds are the same; they need to be looked after, kept warm and have plenty to drink – otherwise …

Seven days went by and Benny bounced into the kitchen where Monsieur Cress had been basking on the window sill in the April sunshine, next to Madame Cress. ‘Oh no’, squealed Benny from the kitchen, ‘Monsieur Cress doesn’t look very well. He only has a few bits of hair and those are all floppy and brown.’

‘Well, look at Madame Cress. Lots of hair, with lovely upright green leaves and shoots. Did you remember to water your pot Benny?’ Benny looked sad, ‘I didn’t remember did I? I should have written a note to remind myself. Can we help him grow Mummy?’

‘It’s a bit like forgetting to clean your teeth. Never mind, I think a good drink of water for Monsieur Cress and he will look a lot happier.’ Benny sprinkled the cotton pad with water, every morning he checked that Monsieur Cress was warm and that his cotton wool hadn’t dried out.

Three days later, Monsieur Cress was indeed looking so much brighter; his limp leaves were beginning to stand upright and were turning green. He was no longer bald and had grown a head of spiky hair!

Benny felt sure that Monsieur Cress winked at him and said …

What do you think Monsieur Cress Head said to Benny? Do you think he reminded him how important it was to look after himself to keep healthy ... without his Mummy or Daddy always reminding him?

April - What’s A Month!

I bet you ate loads of chocolate eggs didn’t you? So did I! But remember too much chocolate isn’t good – we all want to stay fit and healthy don’t we guys?

So, how about looking at the eggs we eat and things we can do with them?

My favourite thing to eat for tea is a boiled egg, but not just because it tastes lovely - I can also do creative things with it after I have eaten it all up.

I sometimes ask Mummy Bear to boil an egg for me so that it is hard boiled inside (that means the yellow yolk inside isn’t runny anymore). Ask a grown up to do this for you, then, when the egg is completely cooked and has cooled down, that is when the fun starts!

I love to decorate my eggs with felt-tipped pens or paint and put names on them. Daddy Bear loves hard-boiled eggs, so I put his name on an egg and he takes it to work for his lunch.

Another good fun activity to do when you have eaten your egg is to grow a Cress Head. Ask a grown up to carefully cut the top off your egg, eat the white and yolk inside, making sure you don’t dig your spoon in too hard and break the shell.

Then wash and clean the empty eggshell. You could also try doing this with an empty yoghurt pot. Paint your pot or shell, let them dry and then add happy faces to them. With some scrunched up kitchen roll, push it carefully into the bottom of the shell or pot and add a very thin layer of damp cotton wool. Sprinkle on some cress seeds on top of the cotton wool and press down lightly.

Put the shell/pot in a warm place, like a window sill and look every day to see how the cress grows. But remember to keep the cotton wool damp. Remember what I said last month – water is important to keep us hydrated, all seeds need water just like us. It will take about 7 days for the cress to grow, but when it does, the shell/pot will look like a face with hair! Perhaps I better sprinkle some cress seeds on my head – I haven’t got hair, just fur – ha ha!

Send me your photos and we can see whose Egg Head grows the most hair!

Shine InformationDon’t forget to tell everyone about Shine, my blog and now the Brilliant News! newsletter. See who can tell the most people and next month I will let you know how many new members we have. Also, don’t forget to tell us what you think of my newsletter and what you would like to see and read about in the next few months. After all Benny Bear members, it is your newsletter.Last month I went along to St. George’s Neighbourhood Nursery in Brighton, East Sussex, to visit one of our members and her friends. They have asked me to go back in July to have a Teddy Bears Picnic – what fun. I will share the pictures with you soon. I also joined 16 families at the Family Opportunity Weekend in Leeds. We had so much fun, making cards, swimming and a huge Benny Bear Birthday Party too!

Thank you everyone – I had a great picnic and a lovely day at a new school.

Be brilliant! - Benny

Next Month ...May and lots of May Day celebrations – dancing round the maypoles and looking forward to the summer. In the meantime, don’t forget to log onto the Benny Bear Blog to see what I have been doing.

Benny’s ‘Tip of the Month’I am going to try and make sure I keep healthy this month. I will have a few chocolate eggs, but every time I eat anything sweet, Mummy Bear makes sure I clean my teeth. Teeth are really important and to make sure they stay healthy, we have to clean them regularly. That means after breakfast and after lunch if you can. If you are at school, try taking a healthy cleaning snack in your lunch box. A piece of carrot, cucumber or celery are my favourites. Then, always, always clean your teeth before you go to bed – sweet dreams!

email: [email protected]: 01733 555988

Benny Bear Club website: www.bennysblog.co.ukShine website: www.shinecharity.org.uk