Wednesday 28th July

Hello everyone! I'm just popping back to wish you all a very happy holiday! 

Whatever you do and whether you stay at home or go away this summer, have a happy, safe and fun time! 

Can you believe that I started writing my diary on the 23rd of March... 2020?! That's a year and a half ago! It was a lot of fun and the best bit was hearing from you about all the great things that you were doing to keep going during lockdown.  

So if you want some ideas of things to do during the summer, just visit my diary! And here's a reminder of some of my favourite moments - all in this little film that I made... last summer! 

Aww, like I said last summer, it's amazing to look back at everything we've done - some of those pictures feel like such a long time ago!

That's all from me for now - but maybe you could write your own diary this summer! Remember, whatever the weather and whatever you do, keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 14th May

It's Friday - so we're already nearly at the end of Mental Health Week. That week just whizzed by for me. Was it the same for you? I really hope that you're having a good week and that you've been trying out some of the ideas from my diary to help with keeping mentally strong and happy.

Today is Friendship Friday and I'm going to celebrate it by spending time with my really good friends Kiki and Derek. We see each other at school all the time but today we're going to do some special friendship things after school as well! I'm so excited! 

Do you remember that yesterday I said I was going to take my best friend Derek to one of my favourite places - to the little stream with the lovely spring flowers growing all around? Well we went there yesterday and had such a great time that Derek asked if we could go again! Of course I said yes (when my mum had said it was ok for me to go there, of course!) But not only that, my mum had an idea about something we could do. She said we could go on a wild flower hunt! She's read about it on the Plantlife website.  We're going to meet up after school and take some snacks. I'm going to take my special magnifying glass, which I love looking at things through.

Then we're going to look for lots of different wild flowers and see which ones we can spot!

Here are some pictures of ones that we might see. Do you recognise them? The first one is easy! 

There are lots of this next one around at the moment - they usually grow in shaded places, like under trees! 

There are lots of these out now, too - and Plantlife are even doing a special survey, just about these wild flowers! 

This last one is a special kind of daisy - it's bigger than the little ones that grow close to the ground 

I'll have to be very organised and remember to pack a note book and pencil! Derek says he might take his sketch pad and draw some of the flowers and Kiki's got a camera to take pictures! It's going to be grrrrreat! 

Hey! Maybe you could ask a grown up to help you organise a wild flower hunt, too? You can do this in a park or some woods - you don't have to live in the countryside to do it because wild flowers can pop up even on tiny bits of grass or land between houses.

Well, whatever you do I hope you have a lovely Friendship Friday and a lovely weekend. I hope you've enjoyed this extra week of my diary. I know that I've enjoyed writing it. It's been great looking back over the last year and realising how much we've all done, how much we've shared and helped each other with fun ideas and ways to keep cheerful and busy, when things were tough during lockdown!

Time for me to go to school now, but thanks for joining me this week and I'll see you again soon!

Remember - keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 13th May

Happy Thursday everyone! Did you have a good workout Wednesday? What did you get up to? Maybe you exercised outside? Whatever you did, I hope you're having a lovely Mental Health week and are moving about a lot, to help your body AND mind stay strong! 

Today is Think of Others Thursday, so I’ve been thinking about all the moments over the past year when we thought about others and gave something back to them! Remember back in February when we gave our family and friends paper hearts with lovely messages on them, to remind them how much we care? You can look at the Jar of Hearts idea, here!

I think it’s very important to show others how much we care about them, every day, but especially today. For Think of Others Thursday this week, I am going to take my best friend Derek to one of my favourite places. I want to share it with him because it is special to me and I think he will LOVE it too! There’s a little stream that runs near my house and it’s a very special spot to me – especially in spring! The grass is covered with little white and yellow daisies in full bloom! It looks like something out of a fairy tale and I just know that Derek will love it when I show him. He’ll probably want to paint a picture of it! He loves art! I might even make him a daisy chain so he can wear it all day long, that way he’ll be reminded of our day together and I can show him how much I appreciate his friendship! 

It’s also very important to be kind to nature though, so I am very careful only to pick flowers that are growing in the wild and in areas where there are lots of them – like daisies! Speaking of being kind to nature, I was looking back at when we made Bird Food Balls during the winter and thinking about doing that again so that the birds are well fed!

If you want to make some Bird Food Balls you can use my delicious recipe below! At least the birds in my garden seem to think it’s delicious – they ate all the oats and barley and currants ha ha! It’s very important to be kind to birds because they are very, very important to our ecosystem. In fact if we didn’t have birds then there wouldn’t be so many flowers and plants, because birds spread flowers seeds! Like little farmers! 

If you want to have a go at making a bird feeder you'll find the recipe here!
Let me know what you get up to this Think of Others Thursday and if you try any of my ideas! I am thinking of you all and can’t wait to see you tomorrow for Friendship Friday! 

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 12th May

Hello everyone! Can you believe it's Wednesday already?! We're half way through Mental Health Week and I am really enjoying it so far. I have loved looking back at my previous activities! What did you get up to for your Try Out Tuesday? Fun things I hope!

Well, as this week is all about Nature, I looked back at some of the Work Out Wednesday moments that we had outside! Here's a picture of me on my daily exercise back in April 2020 (there was more sun then than what we had yesterday)! I always make sure I have a bottle of water with me to stay hydrated - did you know that staying hydrated is good for your mind AND body?! Water is AMAZING! It is like magic! 

Last year, on 24th March, I did 50 star jumps and I did running on the spot for 5 minutes! Today, I gave it a go and I was able to do 75 start jumps and ran on the spot for 9 minutes! Which means I have become stronger and fitter! That's amazing! Last year I tried my best and didn't think I could improve! It shows how much can change when you do things every day. And it's so fun so I don't even want to miss a day!

Here's Finn from last year - do you remember he did some running? Being outside with the fresh air, and the trees and birds gives me so much energy! And hopefully you too. One thing I am going to do today after school is play a scavenger hunt with my friends Kiki and Derek. We are going to take turns coming up with something to find, and we are all going to see if we can find them! Things like a twig that's not straight or 3 different kinds of leaves! It will be fun trying to find them AND we will get worn out from running around! Ha! 

Let me know what you are doing this Work Out Wednesday in Nature - and what difference you feel when you do exercise inside, and outside. Do you prefer one over the other?

Keep smiling and keep moving! I'll see you tomorrow for Think of Others Thursday. Hmmmm. I wonder what I can do to think of other that's connected with nature?! I'll have to have a little think about that! Bye for now.

Love from Harold xxx
PS - I just heard on the radio that it's National Diary Writing Day today! Ha ha! And I've already written my diary for the day! Perhaps you could write a diary for today, too? Byeeee!

Tuesday 11th May

Happy Tuesday everyone. Did you have a good Mindful Monday and get chance to try out any mindful nature activities? Where I live we had some amazing clouds today, so I did lots of cloud gazing! They were so big and fluffy. Like cotton wool or marshmallows! Then a bit later we had a thunderstorm with huge splashy raindrops! Lots of things to notice in nature, all in one day!

Well today it's Try-out Tuesday.  Before I went to bed last night I was thinking about what I could try out that was to do with nature. I thought and thought and thought, but I didn't have any ideas.  Then I had an idea! I know! I said to myself. I'll read back through my lockdown diary and see if there's anything in there to give me an idea.  

And I found something! You might remember it. It's a picture that was sent to me on the 15th of May, 2020 - that's very nearly exactly a year ago! I can't believe it's a year already! Anyway, it was a picture sent by Charlotte and Thomas. They collected lots of sticks, twigs old tree bark - things from nature - and they made an amazing piece of art work from it. Here it is!

I just noticed something, too. I think there's an old teabag that's crept into the art work! Ha ha! I never spotted it last year! Can you spot it, too? I think that Charlotte and Thomas are pretending to be the dinosaur, too. It's brilliant!

My teacher said that today we're going to be making a miniature garden - on a plate! She's asked us to try to find old bits of twigs, leaves, gravel, pine cones - that kind of thing - and we're going to make them into teeny tiny gardens. I'm really excited to do this. I love art - almost as much as my friend Derek the penguin! I bet his miniature nature garden will be amazing!

This made me remember my carrot tops that I grew last year! It was so amazing seeing them grow. I'll show you them again, in case you've not seen them. I've kept the photographs we look last May!

First of all, with a grown-up helper (for safety) and with permission, of course, I had cut the tops of some ordinary bald little carrot tops, like this...

Then I added some water and waited...

...and waited.. (I had to be patient!)

Then eventually, look what happened!

Here's another picture of them...

Although I couldn't actually eat the green leaves, I really enjoyed watching them grow every day.

Well it's time for me to set off for school already!  The time goes so quickly in the morning. I'll have to hurry! I hope you have a creative try-out Tuesday - even if you just do one small thing. Every little thing helps when we're looking after our mental health! And it's a bit like giving plants water - we don't need to give much, but we need to do it regularly!

See you tomorrow for Work-out Wednesday when I'll be thinking of some things we can do in nature to help us keep fit!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 10th May

Hello, everyone! I'm back! Yes - I'm back again, just for this week, because it's a special week. It's Mental Health Week. 

Do you remember us talking about mental health before? We all know that exercise helps keep our body strong - like our muscles and bones. But did you know that we can also help to keep our mind healthy, too! There really are actual, simple, easy things that we can do to help us feel mentally strong. And if we practise doing these things often, our mental health can get even stronger, too - just as our muscles get even stronger from exercise! (Practise makes progress!) 

This year's Mental Health Week is all about nature and how it can help us to feel happier and mentally stronger. Over the weekend I spend some time looking back at my lockdown diaries. It's over a year now since I started writing them! Can you believe it?! I was amazed how many things in my diary were connected with nature, too! So this week I'm going to share with you some of my favourite nature diary days - and hopefully help us to remember some of the things we can do to help ourselves feel happy and mentally strong!

Well, as you might remember, we had special things for each day of the week. There was....

Mindful Monday - all about helping us take notice of the 'now' rather than thinking about things that happened in the past or that might happen in the future!

Try-out Tuesday - when we got creative and tried new things

Work out Wednesday - when we did physical activities

Think of others Thursday - all about giving to others - and

Friendship Fridays - all about connecting with other people.

Well, today is Mindful Monday, so I've been thinking about how nature can help us to enjoy the 'now'. And there are lots of ideas! First of all, there's going for a listening walk. This is where you go for a walk and you listen really carefully to all the sounds around you. Some of these will be sounds of nature - like the birds singing or the leaves on trees rustling in the wind. And if it's raining you can hear even more noises, like the splashing of rain in puddles.

This weekend it rained a lot where I live, so I did some rainy activities. I went on a rain walk - look here's a picture of me from last year, with my umbrella! I did the same thing this weekend!

I also spent some time watching the raindrops dribble down the window. Then I played turned this into a game by trying to guess which rain drop would reach the bottom of the window first! Look! Here's a film of me watching the raindrops!

Another mindful nature activity, is cloud watching! It's really easy. You just look up at the clouds - you can do this when you're outside or even indoors, looking through a window. Then just spend a few minutes watching the clouds move across the sky. You can play a game of spotting shapes in clouds or guessing how long they will take to move out of view! 

Well it's time for me to get ready for school now! And you never know, I might even see some of you when I'm visiting schools, which I love to do! Have a happy Monday and remember to try out some Mindful Moments in Nature for yourself! See you tomorrow for another day of looking after our mental health!

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 5th March

It's Friday!

And it's been fantastic to see all the drawings of your favourite book characters. Here are some of the ones you've sent me today.  We have Harry Potter and a great window display from Oliver and there's another Harry Potter character, Hermione Granger, by Belle! There's the BFG too, by Gethin! All great characters that show so many of the 5 SCARF values - especially friendship, for Friendship Friday!

It's great to see that you all love reading just like me! I hope you keep reading and discover new books. You can visit your library (when it's safe, of course) to borrow books, or maybe you can borrow some from school! 

Remember on Wednesday I posted a picture of me doing my morning shake to get ready for learning? The Sticklebacks class at Fritwell School have coloured some in! Don't I look great, bright and colourful?!  

Oh, and over on the right you can see pictures from the Phoenix family, too! There's a wonderful Angelina Ballerina by Amelia - I love dancing, do you, Amelia? Then there's Josh's Dog Man - you've made it look as if he's really running fast, Josh! And finally, there's Tilly's Penguin Blue! It's a great penguin portrait, Tilly - I  must show it to my friend Derek the penguin. Maybe they're related?! Ha ha! What a lovely last trio of pictures for my last diary.

I've really missed being at school and I'm going back on Monday, so today will be my last Daily Diary for a while! It's been so much fun telling you about what I've been up to, and now I have a record of everything I've done and can look back on it to remember, or for some ideas of activities in the future. Wahoo!

I'll always try to remember Mindful Monday, Try-Out Tuesday, Work-Out Wednesday, Thinking of Others Thursday and Friendship Friday! They are all important and help me to stay happy and healthy. Have you had a favourite Daily Diary moment?

I am just a tiny bit nervous to go back to school as it's been a while...but I'm also so excited to see my friends and teachers again! I know as soon as I see all my friends at the school gates I'll have a big smile on my face. It's all going to be ok. We're all going to look after each other!

As it's Friendship Friday today, I'm going to think of some things I can do with my friends Derek and Kiki in the playground at school on Monday. Maybe we can play hopscotch together, and I'll tell them about my Mindful walks - the ones where I listen out for the sounds around me! I wonder how many birds we can spot during play time, too! 

Well it's goodbye for now, but hopefully I'll be seeing some of you very, very soon! And I can't wait to write my diary again one day and let you know what I've been up to, and hopefully hear what you've been up to, too! 

Thank you for sending me your letters and pictures and emails! They really have cheered me up - I hope they've cheered you up sometimes, too! And if you're ever stuck for something to do, I'm going to leave my diary here for you to visit whenever you want some ideas!

By for now. And remember - keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 4th March

It's Thursday.... at last! That means it's World Book Day and we can all do our pictures or models for this special day. We're drawing pictures or making models this year, instead of dressing up. Something a bit different, which is great! 

Do you remember me telling you about Captain Coram? And the picture of me reading the book about him! Well, reading the book again, earlier this week, made me decide to make Captain Coram my character for World Book Day! There he is on the right. Do you like him? He's part drawing and part model. Can you tell which part isn't drawing? Yes! It's the hair! His hair is made from pipe cleaners!  

In case you don't know about him, here are some facts about Captain Thomas Coram...

1. he was born a long, long time ago - over 350 years, in fact, in Dorset  - that's in the south of England - in a place near the sea, called Lyme Regis. He always loved the sea.
2. He didn't ever really go to school, but he learnt how to build ships and when he was young he sailed to America to build ships there. 
3. He came back to England when he was grown up and was shocked to see that some people were so poor, they couldn't afford to look after their babies - they abandoned them.
4. He raised money to build a special home for babies whose mothers couldn't afford to look after. It was called the Foundling Hospital.
5. The babies that were looked after at the Foundling Hospital were cared for and survived, rather than being abandoned on the streets of London. But life was still hard for them.
6. Many famous people at the time - artists and musicians - helped to raise money to pay for the Foundling Hospital.
7. The story of Hetty Feather, by Jacqueline Wilson, is based on the life of a Foundling - Hetty. She's not a real person, but there were children a bit like her at the Foundling Hospital! 
8. There's now a museum in London called the Foundling Museum where you can visit and see lots of things about the lives of Foundlings. 
9. There's also a special park nearby with lots of fun things to do like climbing frames, swings and roundabouts. It's called Coram's Fields and it's a special place where children can play safely.
10. Outside the Foundling museum is a statue of Thomas Coram. Maybe you could visit the museum one day, and see the statue and play in the park! I've visited it and it's a very amazing place! 

Wow! What a lot he achieved in his life! And as I said in my diary on Tuesday, he definitely wore his scarf! Maybe I should add a scarf to my picture of him! I was talking to my friends Kiki and Derek yesterday about Captain Coram and you'll never guess what? They decided that THEY wanted to draw a picture of him, too! So we decided that we'd all do one! Here's Kiki's  drawing...

And here's Derek's drawing...

As you can see, Derek is very good at putting in detail! And Kiki is very good a making people look cheerful!

Remember, if you have a drawing or some writing for my diary you can send it to me at cle@coram.org.uk and always REMEMBER to check with an adult at home, first, before sending anything.

Well it's nearly time to start my school work, but just before I go I must tell you about the competition! If you want to enter the World Book Day competition you can ask a grown up at home (or your teacher, if you're reading this at school) to find out all about it here!  There are some lovely prizes and you have until the end of today to enter!

Have a great day and I'll look out for your pictures. Keep happy and healthy and I'll see you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 3rd March

Hello everybody – happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week YIPEE – that means it is very nearly World Book Day (remember it’s tomorrow)! I hope you had a lovely Try-out Tuesday.

Did you manage to have a go at making some ‘Natural Art’? I made a very pretty frame with some different coloured leaves and stones that I found on my daily walk! I saw some daffodils, too! I just love daffodils, they always remind me of spring which is when they blossom and come out to say hello! They're bright yellow which I think is a very happy colour and always makes me smile. 

I also called my grandparents and they said that yes, they did see the rover that landed on Mars, they thought it was amazing!! Grandma even told me that Venus has temperatures over 450 degrees Celsius and is the hottest planet in our solar system. Imagine that – 450 degrees – I think it would be a little bit too hot for picnics outside even with lots of water, hats, umbrellas and sun cream! 

Speaking of water, look at Keava’s wonderful drawing of the Little Mermaid! I think that she has done a very good job of drawing the mermaid tail. I would love to have a powerful mermaid tail! I think it would help me swim really fast and then I could keep up with all the fish in the sea and swim with them in their schools! Did you know that a group of fish is called a school? And imagine that – a giraffe with a mermaid tail! I think it would be amazing!! Being able to breath under water would be a very useful skill too, wouldn’t it? 

What are you all getting up to today? As it’s workout Wednesday I've decided to do something a little bit different and try some roller skating! I saw some children doing it in the park the other day and it looked like SO much fun! There is a very flat path in the park near my house, so I can go there with my Mum and she can hold my hand while I practice and get better and better! I think roller skating can be quite difficult though, so I’ll have to be very patient and not get too frustrated if at first it doesn’t go smoothly. 

Remember – resilience! I am going to wear a helmet, shin pads and elbow pads to protect my bones just in case I fall over! If you decide to try roller skating, remember to ask an adult’s permission and for some help! 

Well I hope you have a fun and and remember, if you have a drawing or some writing that I can add in my diary, you can send it to me at cle@coram.org.uk - and always remember to check with an adult at home before sending it to me! 

I'd better go and start my school work now, but before I do I am going to listen to some music and jump about a little bit so that I can shake out all the sillies! I find that it helps me concentrate afterwards! Sometimes mindful moments don’t have to be quiet, they can be a little bit more energetic! You can print and colour the picture of me, if you want a calmer mindful moment! Or you can do your own shake out!

Have a great day and see you tomorrow for World Book Day!

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 2nd March

How was your Monday? Did you have lots of interesting school work?! I love learning, and there's so much out there to learn and know! I hope you were able to guess some answers to my quiz yesterday...here are the answers!

1.   Approximately how many kilometres is it to the moon? a. 384  b. 384,400 c. 3,840 

It's B! 384, 400 kilometres...that's so far! Here's another fun fact: all the planets in our Solar System can fit between Earth and the Moon if they were placed next to each other! 

2.   How many days would it take to drive to the moon, if driving at about 65 miles per hour (driving for 24 hours a day, that is)? a. 153 days  b. 96 days c. 31 days 

The answer is A! 153 days. Do you know how many days are in a year? Is 153 days more or less days than a year?!

3.   What is the moon? a. A planet b. A star c. Neither a planet or a star

C! The moon is neither a planet nor a star. Another fun fact - Saturn (the planet with the rings around it) has 82 moons! And there could be more. Imagine looking up at the night sky and seeing 82 moons! Ha!

4.   Approximately how old is the moon? a. 4.5 thousand years old  b. 4.5 billion years old c. 4.5 million years old?

B! 4.5 billion years old. That's....very old! Older than the dinosaurs! Here's the picture of the moon again - in case you missed it yesterday! It was taken on Saturday night, when the moon was full.

I think that later today I'll call my Grandparents and ask them the quiz questions! I know I usually do that on Thursday, but I'm going to be soooo busy on Thursday because it's World Book day, so I'll be reading, and making my character!  I wonder if my grandparents will know any fun space facts too. I can ask them if they saw the news about the rover that landed recently on Mars. It's called Perseverance which means carrying on even through hard times - in fact it's a bit like resilience, you know, the fourth letter of my scarf. I think we can say that we have all persevered this year! Can you believe that we have made a machine that's now on another planet! What an A for Achievement! 

Shall we try something a bit different this Thinking of Others Thursday, too? As it's World Book Day, I thought we could think of characters for each of the SCARF values! Do you remember them? Some of you probably still have your SCARF pictures that you drew, on the wall or in the window! 

Can you think of any characters from books that you've read that have shown: 

That they think about Safety?

That they are Caring towards others?

Someone who made a great Achievement!

Someone with a lot of Resilience (that means able to bounce back when things go wrong, remember!)

Someone who is also a good friend and shows what Friendship means?

Can you think of any that show all 5?! Let me know! Remember to ask an adult before you send me messages. 

I look forward to hearing your answers, I'm going to look through my books and see what characters show all 5 values! In my picture here of you you can see that I'm reading Captain Thomas Coram. He definitely showed all 5!

He thought about the Safety of children, and Cared for them - which led him to Achieve the building of the Foundling Hospital! He found it very difficult, and it took him 17 years to raise the money for this, but he bounced back and showed Resilience! And with the help of his Friends he created a place for children to be safe! Wow!

Well I'd better get going now. I have lots of school work to do and I also want to try out some new things (becuase it's Try out Tuesday, of course, as you know!) and today I'm going to have a go at some 'Natural Art'! That's when you find things from nature - like twigs, leaves, stones, pebbles and so on, collected from the environment, then make a picture within the frame made from twigs laid on the ground. Perhaps you could try that one day, too! Remember to leave the wild flowers where they are though, and not pick them - they're too precious! And they're still attached to the earth, unlike twigs and leaves that have fallen off the trees!

Remember, if you have a drawing or some writing for my diary you can send it to me at cle@coram.org.uk and always REMEMBER to check with an adult at home, first, before sending anything.

Keep happy and healthy and I'll see you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 1st March

Happy Monday and happy 1st day of March! 

How was your weekend. Did you see the sun? And did you see the moon? I saw lots of both of them and they were brilliant! In fact looking at the moon, which was really huge and really bright in the sky on Saturday early in the evening, gave me quite a big mindful moment! Do you remember that mindful moments are about enjoying what you're doing right now - or at the time in the case of me looking at the moon! Just focusing on one thing at a time. It was really magical! 

It was a snow moon. When I heard that I wondered what it meant, so I looked it up - my mum helped me to find out some moon facts online! A snow moon is the second full moon of the year in the northern hemisphere (that's the northern half of the world, which is where we live!), and here's a super-duper photo of it that my uncle took and sent to me...

Reading about the moon gave me an idea for my diary! I've made a short moon quiz for you, with some of the fantastic facts I found out. There are four questions - one for each letter of the word moon! Ha ha! 

1. Approximately how many kilometres is it to the moon? a. 384  b. 384,400 c. 3,840 
2. How many days would it take to drive to the moon, if driving at about 65 miles per hour (driving for 24 hours a day, that is)? a. 153 days  b. 96 days c. 31 days 
3. What is the moon? a. A planet b. A star c. Neither a planet or a star
4. Approximately how old is the moon? a. 4.5 thousand years old  b. 4.5 billion years old c. 4.5 million years old?

I'll let you know the answers in my diary tomorrow!  

I've had a busy weekend because as well as finding out about the moon and having some mindful moments with it, I've also been thinking more about my World Book Day character and practising my drawing! Have you decided which character to draw or make a model of yet?

Well, Imogen has been doing some drawing of her own and has sent me a picture of her Peter Rabbit! I love the story of Peter Rabbit - he's a bit mischievous at times and often quite brave. Sometimes he gets into some tricky situations, too! It's a lovely drawing, Imogen. I love his little feet and his rabbit whiskers! Thanks for sending it to me!

Remember, if you have a drawing or some writing for my diary you can send it to me at cle@coram.org.uk and always REMEMBER to check with an adult at home, first, before sending anything.

Well it's nearly time to start my school work, but first of all I'm just going to have a few minutes with my eyes closed, imagining the moon and having a mindful moment. I think that will help me to concentrate better. I'll look at my uncle's moon picture before I start, too, just to remind me of what the moon looks like, close up, then I can imagine all the craters as I think about it! Maybe you could have a mindful moon moment, too?

Well whatever you do, be sure to have a great day. Keep happy and healthy and I'll see you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 26th February

Happy Friday!

How has your week been? There's only 1 more week until I go back to my school . I am so excited to see my teachers and friends again. I must remember to stay safe at school by washing my hands and following the rules in the classroom, of course. Maybe you'll be going back to school soon, too - or maybe you've never stopped going.  Well, I hope you have a lot of fun as things start to get a bit more back to normal, anyway!

I'm really excited because World Book day is next Thursday! My auntie gave me some brilliant ideas for the competition - I'm so glad I asked her. Have you decided which character to draw yet? I'm still busy making plans for my drawing and will get started this weekend. I've never entered a drawing competition before. Make sure you post your pictures - I can't wait to see them all.  You'll need a grown up to help you do this. My Mum is helping me as there are some important instructions to follow. 

If you'd like to enter the Coram Beanstalk and Very World Book Day competition here's what you need to do:

• Draw or paint a picture, or make a model of a favourite book character
• Post a picture of your masterpiece on social media on Thursday 4th March
• Remember to use #VeryWBD and tag @beanstalkreads so the people running the competition can find your entry!
• Even if you don't win a prize the pictures are being put into a virtual gallery for everyone to see!

Some of you have been very busy and sent in some pictures already. Here is one by Bertie Age 5! Isn't it wonderful?! I love the orange pumpkin and I love Paddington, too - just like you, Bertie!

It's Friendship Friday today, of course, and I am going to call my friends Kiki and Derek to tell them all about this competition and my plans to read and draw all weekend! We're such good friends and we like a lot of the same books, but not all the same ones! That's what makes life interesting - everyone is different! But even with these differences we can still be friends! I wonder which character Derek would draw. He loves art and he's really good at it, too.

Remember that you can send a picture of your character to me. You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk - always remember to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your messages or pictures to me. 

Time for my Friday finishing off school work now.  Have a great Friday and a great weekend! 

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 25th February

Hello, everyone! It's Thursday again, already! Did you have a good Workout Wednesday? Did you get chance to play hopscotch at all? I was going to but then by lunchtime it was pouring with rain, so I put my wellingtons and raincoat on and went for a wet listening walk instead. Do you remember me telling you about listening walks? It's when you go for a walk but keep very, very quiet and listen for all the sounds around you. 

Well, this wet listening walk was very noisy indeed! I heard the rain splashing into puddles, the rain dripping from drain pipies and some swooshes of rain from cars driving through puddles next to the pavement. It was fun, actually and made a change from just chatting during my daily exercise. Maybe you could try it one day?

Someone else who's been having watery fun is Sebby. He's been making a wonderful, underwater world!  He has been learning about sea creatures at school and wanted to make some, as they make him happy. Wow! They make me happy, too, Sebby - just looking at them makes me smile! I love the salt dough octopus that's painted a lovely, cheerful orange colour. Sebby's also made a coral reef for all his sea creatures to live in. Amazing! And fantastic. Hey! Maybe you could make an underwater scene, too, with old egg boxes, some paint and some modelling clay or salt dough! That would be a great thing to do for Try out Tuesdays! Or even Try out Thursdays!

That wonderful underwater world reminds me of World Book Day which is only a week away, now - next Thursday! I've read books about creatues that live in the sea - like The Rainbow Fish. 

I'm still deciding which character to draw for World Book Day. In fact because today is Think of Others Thursday I'm going to contact one of my aunties who lives on her own, so she's likes to have calls from family and friends. She loves reading, like me! And she knows lots and lots of books, so she might have some ideas of a good character for me to draw or make a model of. Yes, that's what I'll do! 

Thanks so much for the pictures that you've been sending me of your World Book Day characters. They're great! I'm going to put them in my diary either tomorrow or one day next week. If you'd like to send me one, you can email me at cle@coram.org.uk - always remember to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your messages or pictures to me. 

Time for my school work now, but have a good Thursday and remember - it's Think of Others Thursday, so perhaps you could do a kind thing for someone else, to make them happy! 

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 24th February

Happy Wednesday, everybody! How was your Try-out Tuesday? Did you do anything different, or try any new vegetables like I mentioned yesterday? I tried some sweet potato for the first time ever and it was deeee-licious! It’s a lot like a normal potato, but bright orange and a bit sweeter, of course! Isn’t that funny?!

I had it with baked beans and a teeny bit of cheese on top. I was a little bit worried about trying it at first, because I wasn’t sure what it would taste like or what the texture would be like, but I am so glad I did! It was scrumptious and might even be my new favorite vegetable! It just goes to show that sometimes trying new things can lead to happy discoveries!

I'm full of beans now -and potato! So I have lots and lots of energy for Workout Wednesday which is today! It's quite warm where I live, so I've decided that I'm going to play hopscotch outside at lunchtime! Have you ever played hopscotch before? It's a lot of fun – you just need a safe outdoor space and some chalk to draw your hopscotch pattern with. It involves numbers from 1 up to 10, under arm throwing and jumping! I'm going to be jumping around like my friend Kiki, the kangaroo - bounce, bounce, bounce! I love jumping and seeing how high I can lift my hooves – it makes me very happy!  If you're not sure what the rules are, and your adult helper doesn't know them (or remember them!) you can watch this film together and find out! Remember to ask permission before watching the film or playing hopscotch! And remember - always find a safe place to play, away from traffic and not in the way of people walking. 

Oh, and speaking of things that make us happy, like jumping for me, I wanted to show you Olivia’s lovely jar of hearts! She sent this picture just before the holidays. She printed photos of the people she loves, cut these into heart shapes and put them in her jar, because they make her feel happy and full of love – isn’t that a fantastic idea?!

Did you manage to try out any new books yesterday, by the way? Remember to join me and send in drawings of your favorite characters from books for World Book Day next Thursday! Remember to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your message or pictures to me. You can email them to cle@coram.org.uk  

Anyway, I’d better go now and get some school work done before I play hopscotch! 

See you tomorrow!

Remember - don't worry if you've sent a picture and it's not been in my diary yet, I'll be putting more in each day before we go back to school! Bye for now, everyone!

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 23rd February

Hello everyone! Did you like my story about my grumpy day that turned into a nice one? What are some things that have made you feel better when you are feeling grumpy and grey?

Well today is Try-out Tuesday! I really like this day because I like trying things I don't normally do. It's easy to do the same things every day, especially when we are staying home and being safe. There are so many things to try, and I like to come up with ideas, or find out ideas from others I didn't even think about! And when you try something new, you don't always have to do it everyday. Sometimes just trying something once is enough! I'm surprised by what I end up enjoying, even if I think I won't! My family tell me to try new types of food, especially new vegetables. There are so many different vegetables, even if you don't like them all you can keep trying new ones and find the ones you do like! Then you can look up recipes that use those vegetables! Even more Try-out Tuesday opportunities!

Yesterday I said I'd tell you all about my school's exciting plans for World Book Day! It's next Thursday on the 4th of March. Have you heard about it? Usually it's a big celebration in school, with lots of stories from all over the world, and everyone shares their favourite books, but this year it's going to be different -  we'll be celebrating from home! Do you read many books? Do you have a favourite one? Perhaps you know one that's a bit different from ones your friends know. I'm going to draw some of my favourite characters from the books I've read and I hope you will join me! Here's one for starters. Do you recognise it? It's quite an easy one!

Isn't reading great? I love it because I learn new words and can imagine myself in new places. I find it easier when it's a book I've chosen. Being able to read is so useful - it means I can read everything around me, things like road signs, so I know where I'm going and instructions, so I know what to do! Because today is Try-out Tuesday, I'm going to find a new book to read on my bookshelf - that way I'm trying something new!

Well if you have time to do a drawing of a book character I'd love to see it! In fact I'll be posting your pictures here in my diary, so we can all see and learn about new characters, and maybe remember ones we already know!

So get drawing and hopefully you can send photographs of your art work! If you'd like to send one, you can email me at this address: cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your message or pictures to me. 

See you tomorrow!

Oh! And just before I go, do you remember I said I was going to be showing you some of the pictures that I was kindly sent before the holiday? Well here are two from Abdurrahman and Abdullah who have been very busy during Internet Safety day back in early February. Abdurrahman has done a great poster with top tips for keeping safe online (so important!) with a really useful traffic light system and Abdullah's made a board game! I've played it with my mum! It's really great! Thanks for sending those, both of you!

Don't worry if you've sent a picture and it's not been in my diary yet, I'll be putting more in each day before we go back to school! Bye for now, everyone!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 22nd February

Happy Monday! I'm back again!

How was your holiday week? Did you get to do anything different at all? It rained quite a lot where I live, so some of my daily exercise walks were a bit soggy.  In fact on Saturday it was raining hard and it was also really, really windy - I have a story to tell you about it! And it's a mindful Monday story, too, although it happened on a Saturday - but of course we can have Mindful moments any day of the week, but today is Mindful Monday, so I thought I'd tell you the story today!

Well, here's what happened.  I set off in the wind and the rain and I was a bit grumpy becuase I was cold and the wind was buffeting me around a lot - that made me even grumpier, and it was uphill, and the wind was blowing me back and the rain was stinging my face and neck! So by the time I got to the place where we turn round and start to walk back home, I was a very, very grumpy, groaning, grizzling giraffe! Humph!

Then suddenly, just as I stopped to get my breath back (I'd been walking up hill for quite a while) I looked up and saw something amazing, through all the rain and the wind. Can you guess what it was? Here's a clue - it had seven different colours. Yes! It was a huge, bright, brilliant rainbow. I just stood quietly for a few minutes, gazing at its amazing colours against by grey sky. 

Then something really suprising happened.  I started to feel more cheerful! Standing and staring at the beautiful rainbow for a few minutes helped to shake me out of my grumpy, grizzly mood! It really cheered me up. Nature is amazing thing isn't it? It can surprise us a lot and sometimes help us to feel better, when we're outside seeing it and feeling it - taking notice of it! When I got home, after I'd dried out (ha, ha!) I decided to make my own rainbow, to remind me of the one I saw. That was the second mindful moment of the day - thinking about the colours of the rainbow again and drawing them. Do you like my picture?

Over the last week I've spent some time looking at all the brilliant photographs of the things that you'd been making before the holidays.  They were a-maz-ing and they cheered me up, too! I'm going to put them in the next week or two - there are too many to include in one day!  

The first one I've decided to show you fits in really, really well today, for Mindful Monday.  

It's by Charlotte, from Uxbridge. She's been very busy making things that I've put in my diary. She's made a suncatcher with holly berries and fallen leaves, which she said was really beautiful. She's also made a jar full of hearts to give to her grandad. But something that wasn't in my dairy which she made is this fantastic Japanese Carp Kite.  She's been learning all about kites as school and she found out this fascinating fact about carp (which is a type of fish)... In Japanese, carp stands for strength and courage. As Charolotte said in her message to me, these are things that we all need at the moment!  How true! Charlotte hadn't flown her carp kite when she sent this picture, because it hadn't been windy enough! That may have changed now as we've had some really windy weather over the last few days, haven't we?! I hope you've managed to fly your carp kite, Charlotte  - and if you did, I hope it didn't blow right away! Thanks so much for sending the picture of it!

Thanks also to everyone who's been sending me messages and pictures. I love getting them. If you'd like to send one, you can email  me at this address: cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your message or pictures to me.

Stay and healthy and happy and I'll see you tomorrow for Try-out Tuesday when I'll also be able to tell you all about what my school is doing for World Book day - I'm really excited about it and I can't wait to tell you, but I'd better go now and get started with my school work. Have a happy Monday - and maybe you could have a mindful moment, drawing a rainbow, like mine. 

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 12th February

Friday again!

How was your Thursday? Did you think of others? I was in a happy, harmonious, handmade, handwritten heaven yesterday. Can you guess why? Well part of the reason was that I was having a good time making the hearts for my special jar. But there was another reason too. I wonder if you can guess it!

Well, I'll tell you the story! Yesterday, I started work on making my hearts, for the Jar of Hearts present, but I was struggling a bit to think of many ideas for the messages. Then an idea came to me. Ping! Just like that! It's funny how ideas can just pop into your head, sometimes when you're not trying at all! I remembered that on Think of Others Thursday and Friendship Friday, it's all about connecting with other people. Not just thinking about them, or even just talking to them but reaching out to them in other ways - including asking for help if we need it! 

So I decided to send a message to my friends.

I asked for help!  I asked everyone if they could help me think of ideas to write on the hearts I've made. I was amazed at how many of them replied and even more amazed at how many brilliant ideas they came up with! I had plenty of ideas in the end. Have a look!

I thought you might like to see some of the ideas that I was sent. You could use them too, if you're making your jar of hearts! There's still time! Here are some of them...

1. Give yourself a hug!
2. You're a star.
3. You're one in a million!
4. Be kind to yourself.
5. You're beautiful inside and out.
6. If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours!
7. Never look down on someone unless you're helping them up.
8. Kindness is free - sprinkle it everywhere!
9. Made of stardust.
10. You are my sunshine and you can't see the shadow.
11. BFF!

And here's a specially lovely thought from my friend Trish, but it was a bit too long to fit onto my hearts! "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you ever imagined!" And another, "How do you spell LOVE? You don't spell it, you FEEL it!" Aaaah. That one made me think! Oh - and I almost forgot this one, "In a world where you can be anything, be kind, because kindness costs nothing but means everything!"

I'm not the only person who's been busy making a Hearts Jar, either! Oliver sent these pictures of his. And look at the lovely jar! He's decorated it with glitter and coloured wool. Genius! I might do that too. Like I said before - it's not too late!

Thanks again for all the messages and pictures that you're sending to me. I love getting them. It's always exciting to see what you've been doing and making.  You can send them to cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your message to me.

Stay warm and healthy and happy. Be kind and caring - I'll try to be, too! Have a lovely time next week during the half term sort of holiday and I'll be back the week after that! Oh! I almost forgot! I'll be telling you all about something REALLY exciting that my school is doing for World Book Day on Thursday the 4th of March! Something that maybe you can join in with, too! I'll tell you all about it when I'm next writing my diary! 

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 11th February

Hello everyone!

It's so cold this week isn't it?! I've been keeping warm with some cosy jumpers and my daily exercise which always help me to warm up!

Do you like these new pictures of frozen sun catchers that I've been sent? The cold weather does have some advantages! We can make things with the ice! There's one from Eloise - I love the patterns that you've made with the berries and leaves, Eloise! And there's a really unusual set of frozen sun catchers from Highfield school - sun catcher boats! I love those, too! They're very unusual and there are lots of different coloured leaves in them. Well done everyone at Highfield by the sea!

The sun's shining this morning where I am, so I'm sure that my daily exercise outside with the crispy snow and shining sun will bring a smile to my face! I saw some little tiny snow drops and other flowers beginning to push up from the cold, cold soil, too - have you spotted any? It made me think that spring is just around the corner...

I'm so happy today, too, because some of you have been sending me your special hearts for the Jar of Hearts activity that I told you about! Have a look at these, from Sharks class, Fritwell school! Aren't they lovely? I am already feeling so much kindness and caring (ha ha - like on my scarf!) out there between you all - and it's not even Valentine's Day yet!

I found out today that the first Valentine's Day was in the year 496! That's over 1,500 years ago! It's so long ago I can't even imagine what life was like in those days. Do you think they had the internet? Hmm... I don't think so! Maybe you could play a game called 'What we have now!' Here's how you play it. With a partner, each one of you in turn has to think of something that people didn't used to have one thousand five hundred years ago. Here are some starters...

1. We didn't have electricity then.
2. We didn't have motorcars then.
3. We didn't have smartphones - or even telephones - then.
4. We didn't have plastic bags then.
5. We didn't have libraries then.

Maybe if you're in a class at school, rather than reading this at home, you could all make a list of things we didn't used to have and then decide whether the things we didn't have have made our lives better or not better - or maybe some have made them better AND not better. Hmmmmm. I wonder...

Well, it's Thinking of Others Thursday today and I am busy coming up with some more ideas for my hearts, but I'll make sure to call my Grandma and Grandad to see how they are and to tell them I miss them. I'm going to tell them about my hearts and hopefully someday soon I can give them a jar of hearts! I wonder if they can see any flowers in their garden yet! I know that my grandma loves planting things and she enjoys the colours and the perfumes of the plants that she grows.

I need to make a few more hearts to fill up my jar because I don't have quite enough, yet - maybe I'll be able to take a picture and show you them in tomorrow's diary, if I have time. Maybe you could send me a picture of your special heart messages, too, if you have time!

Thanks again for all the messages and pictures that you're sending to me. I love getting them. It's always exciting to see what you've been doing and making.  You can send them to cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home or teachers at school before you send your message to me.

Stay warm and healthy and I'll see you tomorrow! 

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 10th February

It's Wednesday and extremely snowy where I am – a lovely white, wintery Wednesday! 

I absolutely love the snow because it makes everything look so pretty! The rooftops are covered too and it looks like icing sugar. The only problem with the snow is that I worry about the ground getting all frosty and the worms and moles being chilly. I told my mum about my worry (it's good to share your worries, remember!) She told me that it's ok because they are used to the cold and have lots of ways to keep warm! She said that moles dig deep, deep, deep into the ground so they are well below the frost and can keep warm and cosy! Did you know that?! Amazing isn’t it!

I hope you're well! Have you managed to try my idea of creating a jar of hearts with lots of lovely cheerful messages yet?  I've made a start on mine but I need to make quite a lot of hearts to fill a small jar! If you're making one, perhaps you could let me know some of the things that you're writing on your hearts - to give me and others doing it some ideas! And remember to send me a picture of it, too!

As today is Workout Wednesday, I decided to get up a bit earlier, before I'd even written my diary, so I could go on a lovely long walk with my Dad and guess what… we went sledging on the hill near my house! Look at the tracks I made in the snow!

It was so much fun and great exercise because after sledging down the hill I had to climb all the way up again. I was huffing and puffing, but at least all that activity kept me warm. If you go out in the snow, make sure you are very, very careful because it can be quite icy! I was slipping about a little on my hooves, luckily Dad's hooves are a bit rougher and they gripped the ice and snow well, so I held onto him and didn’t fall over!

Speaking of the ice, look at Jessica’s beautiful Sun Catcher! Isn’t it stunning? She told me that she used tulip petals – purple and yellow – what lovely colours! 

Well I'd better get started on my school work. I feel full of energy after doing my daily exercise early this morning! Remember to keep sending me all your ideas, especially your cheerful heart messages for your jam jars! You can send them to cle@coram.org.uk – hearing from you all and seeing what you are getting up to makes me so happy!

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 9th February

Hello everyone! How was your Monday? Did you try some mindful exercises before you did some work? Did you find it helpful?

You keep sending in your amazing pictures, check out the ones to the right by Amelia! And check out Oliver standing proudly in front of his SCARF - thumbs up indeed! What an A for Achievement to both of you! Thanks so much for sending these to me! 

Well, today is Try-out Tuesday, and can you believe I am still finding new things to try?! It seems like there's an infinite (that means never-ending) number of things to do!  So I was thinking, since we're still wearing our SCARF, we could try something that reflects some of the 5 values, following on from all our thinking last week in Share Your Scarf week.

Here's my idea, that a friend of mine, Katie, told me about. It's Valentines Day on Sunday - have you heard of it? It's a day that people use to celebrate their loving and caring feelings for each other! I love my friends and family, and I love letting them know, too! It's so nice to hear that someone loves you or cares for you, isn't it? So I thought we could spread a bit of this care and happiness! 

The idea is to draw lots of hearts and cut them up (my Mum and Dad will help with this part, so make sure you get a grown up to help you, too!).  When I have lots and lots of hearts, I'm going to colour and decorate them, then write cheerful messages on each of them!

When I've done enough, I'm going to find an empty jam jar (or other small jar), clean it up - maybe get the label off it - then fill it with the happy hearts. Then I'll screw the lid back on and hey presto! A present for the people in my family that I love! They can take turns in taking out one of the happy heart messages, either each day, or just on days when they would like cheering up a bit. 

Look! Here's is a set of blank hearts for you, which you could use if you can print them out. If not you can just draw them yourself!

You can also draw your hearts onto old pieces of paper or cardboard (to show Caring for the environment)! Just remember to ask permission before using paper in case it is important! I found some really colourful card in our recycle bag! And I'm re-using it before it gets re-cycled, which is even better than just putting it straight to be recycled! Have you heard for the Three Rs? Reserve, re-use, recycle! Ha ha ha! I can't remember who taught me that - but I've remembered it. 

Well, have a lovely day and remember - you can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings so I can share them in my diary for everyone else to see. Just send them to cle@coram.org.uk 

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 8th February

Hello again! How was your weekend? Did it snow where you live?

We have some snow and it's lovely, but it's so cold with a very chilly wind! When I went out for my daily exercise yesterday the snow was hard and made a lovely crunching sound as I walked!

Well, this weekend I also had some fun looking through some more of the SCARF pictures and ideas that you’ve been sending me. There are still lots that I’ve not yet put in my diary, but keep looking out for them because I will try to fit them in!

You can see one of them here - it's a full SCARF, from Aurelia who goes to Cropredy C of E school, near Banbury. Aurelia and her mum worked as a team on their SCARF! What a great picture!

Someone else who was very busy last Friday, the fifth of February, on Friendship day (that's a lot of Fs!) is Ollie, who goes to St Peter's C of E school in Chippenham. This poem really made me think because it's full of carefully chosen words and ideas. The theme is Express Yourself, which is what we were all doing last week for Share your Scarf week. Ollie has expressed these ideas amazingly!

Anyway, today is Monday, so it's Mindfulness day. When I was looking through the different things that some of you sent me, I found this really useful Mindfulness ideas poster by Abdullah. There a lots of really good and really varied ideas. Thanks for sending it, Abdullah!

So for Mindful Monday, I'm going to try some of these ideas. In fact, I think I have a squashy, squeezy ball somewhere, so I'll go and have a look for that, then I can try it out. 

I might even do that before I start my school work, because I've remembered that having a mindful moment before starting school work can help concentration. It's certainly worked for me in the past!

Well, have a lovely day and remember - you can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings . Just send them to cle@coram.org.uk 

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 5th February

Hello! Wow - can you believe it's Friday already? I have been having so much fun going through the 5 SCARF letters and what each one means - their values. The time has flown by! 

What has been your favourite day? They're all so important and helpful...I'm not sure I can decide! Actually, we haven't really done the fifth day which is Friendship. Hey! It's Friendship Friday! My friend Alex drew this picture for me. Can you see my friends Kiki and Derek? I can't wait to be back at school so that I can play with them again. I'm just being patient before then. I do talk to them on the phone and with video calls I can see them, too! So it's not too bad.

It's been so fun seeing the letters you have been sending me! I have seen some new ideas that I've not thought of before...and they are so colourful! I've made a special video of some of the ones that were sent over the week - aren't they great?!

Well, back to today, which is Friday and the last day of our Share your Scarf week which means it's all about Friendship! Today I'm going to be thinking about what friendship is. Why is friendship important? What makes a good friend? Can you remember a time a friend did something nice for you? What was the last thing you did with a friend?

At the moment, because we are in lockdown, I am doing lots of video calling with my friends! It helps a lot because we can still laugh together and talk about how our days have been! I'm really looking forward to seeing them in person as well so we can run around and play games!

Even though it's the last day of Share your Scarf, that doesn't mean it's the end! You can use the 5 SCARF values - which I like to think of as wearing my scarf - every day! 

You can think about: 

S - How to stay safe,

C - How to care for yourself and others,

A - What goals you want to achieve,

R - How to build resilience, (and bounce back!)

F - And how to be a good friend to others! 

These 5 values all help us every day to stay happy and healthy both physically (that means in the body!) and mentally (that means in the mind!). I hope you can keep these values in your every-day life and also share them with others!

Put your SCARF letters in the window or tell a friend or family member who doesn't know about SCARF what our values mean! They might find them very useful too!

I really hope you enjoyed this week as much as I did. Please keep sending me your letters as you do them! I always love to see your creations. 

Have a lovely day and remember to look at my special gallery film before you go, with all your the lovely pictures that people have sent to me.

Even though it's the last day of Share Your Scarf week, you can still email me your posters and ideas about Friendship. I'd love to see them and I'll try to put them in my diary for everyone to see, next week. You can email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 4th February

Happy Thursday! The days are just flying by this week for me. Is it like that for you, too? Already it's the 4th day of Share your Scarf week! 

How was your Achievement Wednesday?  I had sooooooo many brilliant pictures and photographs from you yesterday. It was so great reading about all your achievements! One person achieved an amazing amount yesterday! Bonnie who is 9 and from Halifax (that's in Yorkshire) sent me ALL FIVE of the SCARF letters! So she's achieved her full scarf even before the end of the week! This is a picture of Bonnie with her five letters, hard at work on them. They are full of inspiring messages and ideas. 

As you can see from the gallery, there are SO many picture. The Reception class at St Hilda's school in Bushey - that's in Hertfordshire - have been very busy, making some Fruity Faces from the special Share Your Scarf week activities in their school (I think that maybe some of them are at school and others are at home, like me!) There are some really delicious looking healthy snacks - all really important for our C for caring letter of our SCARF... caring for our body! Giving our body healthy food which also looks so nice! If you'd like to have a go at making Fruity Faces, you can find the instruction in my first lockdown Daily Diary on June 2nd. It's all still there - you just have to scroll down to that date!

Well, St Hilda's Reception class certainly achieved a lot, yesterday!

Now, today is Thursday, the fourth day of the week. The fourth letter of my SCARF is R for Resilience, so it's resilience day! 

Boing!

Yes, as I said on my video diary, resilience is all about bouncing back when things go wrong. Not that it's always easy to do that. It's not as easy as just bouncing a ball. Sometimes when things go wrong, it can take a while before we feel ready to bounce back. We might need to take time just to be sad sometimes. But then, sometimes slowly - or sometimes more quickly - we start to feel better. We laugh at funny things again and we enjoy things more. 

I've been thinking. It would be so great if you could share your scarf today by sharing your ideas of what a person can do to bounce back (that's be resilient!) when they're feeling a bit down in the dumps - like if something sad has happened to them, or if they're finding it hard to learn something new at school.

I'd love to hear your ideas for this. Shall I tell you mine?

Well, here three of them...

1. REMEMBER AND REMIND! I remember some happy times - and I remind myself that I'll feel happy again, soon.
2. TALK AND TELL!  I talk to someone. Tell them about what's making me sad and also about something that makes me feel happy. Talking is so helpful if I'm fed up!
3. GET GRATEFUL! I write a little list of things I'm grateful for. Do you remember the gratitude lists from last week's diary? That's a reeeeeeally good way of helping me to feel better - and it only takes a few minutes to write a gratitude list!

It would be fab-u-lous if you could make a Resilience poster and put on it your top tips for how to bounce back. You can display it next to your S, C an A posters, then you've got four fifths of a whole SCARF - and that's a great proper fraction!

Have a lovely day and I really hope you enjoy looking at my gallery today. Remember - you can email me your ideas, pictures and drawings. I'd love to see your posters and I'll try to put them in my diary for everyone to see. You can email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 3rd February

It's Wednesday. That means it must be the third day of Share your Scarf week! Already half way through the week, time flies!

I hope you had a good Caring Tuesday. I know someone that thought a lot about how to care for herself and for other people, too, and that's Olivia, who was at home with her mum being caring. Together they came up with this brilliant list of ways that we can be caring for ourselves and for others. And then Olivia made a lovely picture with some of the ideas from the list. What a brilliant idea! Here they are...

As you can see, I've been getting lots of pictures from different people, all around the country! Some from Northumberland, some from Coventry and some from London. Hey! I wonder if you can find all those different palces on a map? 

It's so great that people all over the country are thinking about the same thing - being kind and caring. It's also great that people are kind enough to send me their pictures! I hope you enjoy looking at my little Tuesday gallery!

Now, today is Wednesday and that's Achievement day.

I've been thinking about some of the things that I've achieved during the last year! Of course it's been an unusual year and it's been really hard at times - I've not been able to see my friends much and I can't visit my grandma and grandad either, because of lockdown. But being in lockdown has also meant that I've had time to try some new things, like growing things in the garden! I'll never forget the day that we dug up the potatoes that we'd grown in a little patch of garden (my friend Derek grew his potatoes in a bucket! So you don't even have to have a garden to be a successful gardener!)  We washed them, then cooked them and they tasted deeee-licious!

Then there's been my guitar. I started to learn the guitar. I'm not brilliant at it, but I can play a few songs and it's really fun! The more I practise, the better I get!

Oh, and I've done a lot of reading too. I've got soooooo much better at that, just because I've done a lot of it! It's great reading a book because you can escape into a whole different world.  

Well, for Achievement Wednesday, maybe you could make a poster of some of your achievements. You can display it next to your S and C posters, then you've got more than half your SCARF!

I've also put a certificate in my diary for you today! If you can print the certificate you can write in some extra special things that you've achieved. And remember - it's not about being the best at something - it's about doing your best! By doing that, you'll get better and better at the things you want to achieve! Just a little bit of practice every day and we will get better at things. 

Have a lovely day and remember - you can email me your ideas, pictures and drawings. I'd love to see your Achievement posters and I'll try to put them in my diary for everyone to see. You can email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 2nd February

Happy Tuesday! As you know from yesterday's diary, this week is Share Your Scarf week! Did you enjoy your Safety activities yesterday?   

My friend Alex drew me an S for Safety featuring me and all the things that make me feel safe. Do you like it? He's so talented! I especially like that he included staying safe online as that's so important!

Mia also sent in her S for safety. It's amazing, well done! I always remember to look before crossing the road too Mia! And Abdullah sent a fantastic picture. Oh, and there's also one from Amber-May! Can you see which things they've all drawn or written about? I noticed that all three of them wrote about being safe online, such as not sharing personal information. Thanks all of you for reminding us about that!

Remember, at the end of the week we will have all the letters that spell out SCARF, and we can put them in our windows to show to everyone and hopefully give them ideas for looking after themselves and for keep their body and their mind healthy, too!

Now, today is Tuesday, and that means it's C for Caring day! It is so important to care for others, but it's super duper important to make sure you are caring for yourself too! What are some ways that you care for yourself? I like to sit quietly for a few minutes so that I can feel calm, strong and focused. This helps me with how I act towards others and it even helps me to concentrate better on my school work.

When I sit quietly, sometimes I take 5 minutes to just think about 1 thing! Yes only 1 thing! It sounds easy, but it can be very difficult. For example, this morning I thought of a circle. Just a circle. Every now and then other things popped into my mind, and that's ok! I l just let those thoughts float away and focused back on a circle. I suppose it's like training your muscles...but this time it's training your mind to be calm!

To begin with, it might feel very strange to sit still and think of 1 thing. Our lives and minds are filled with so much going on, sometimes all at once! But this is a really good exercise to do to take care of yourself, and your own mental health, which is what this week is all about! By doing this little calming exercise, it can really help me to enjoy the day better. You could try it, too. 

Hey! I've just remembered! Our friend Susan send us a special calming recording last week! We've not been able to see Susan during lockdown, but she sent us this special recording of a calming activity. You can try it to. You need to have a small object that will fit into your hand easily, like a little toy or maybe something like a shell or a pine cone. Then you need to get comfortable - maybe on a chair - and then you're ready to do the calming activity! When you're ready, just click on this link for a lovely calming 5 minutes... Susan's Calming Activity to share. We've not been able to see Susan during lockdown, so it's lovely to hear her calming voice.

For Caring Tuesday, you can use today's letter C to draw or write the ways your care for yourself, and others! 

Well I hope you have a great day thinking about Caring. I can't wait to see all your 'C's!

Have a lovely day and remember - you can email me your ideas, pictures and drawings. I'd love to see your Caring posters! And I'll try to put them in my diary for everyone to see. You can email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 1st February

Happy Monday! Or should I say happy and safe Monday? Because today is the first day of my special Share Your Scarf week! So it’s Safety day. 

Shall I explain?

Well, as you probably know, I love my scarf. It keeps me warm and its cheerful colours brighten my day when things feel a bit dreary. Some of you may even have seen me in your school, wearing my scarf, when I visited you!

Look! Here’s a picture of me with my scarf and all its lovely colours!

But did you know that there’s something extra special about this scarf? Let me tell you about it…

You might have spotted that there are five different colours – one for each of the five letters in the word scarf. And more than that, each of these letters is the first letter of whole other word. Put these first letters together and they spell SCARF! But can you remember the five words?

S is for Safety – all about keeping safe and helping others to keep safe.

C is for Caring – that's about how I can look after myself and help to look after others – like being kind and helpful.

A is for Achievement – this one is about trying my best and improving at things, even when they’re hard, and eventually getting better, then celebrating success!

R is for resilience – that long word is all about bouncing back when things go wrong or I’m feeling a bit sad.

F is for friendship – which is all about appreciating my lovely friends and also being a good friend to others, because to have a good friend, you have to be a good friend

Every day this week, I’m going to think about one of these words. This will help me to remember to do things to keep happy and healthy! And safe! Because today is Day 1 which is Safety!

For Sharing Your Scarf week and Children’s Mental Health week, I’m making a special poster all about the people who help to keep us safe! Look! Here’s one that my friends Lucie and Maisie have sent me!

I’m going to get creative and think of lots of different things to put on mine! That will also help my mental health, because doing creative things helps us to feel good! And that’s an important part of keeping safe. Hey! You can print this letter S for your poster – or just draw your own letter S on some paper – and make your own poster! Maybe Lucie and Maisie’s poster will give you some ideas!

There’s so much to do and I haven’t even told you about my Great Garden Birdwatch, yet! That was great fun, yesterday afternoon. It was a really cold day, but the birds didn’t seem to mind! They were out and about, looking for food as usual. I’ll tell you more about it another day.

Have a lovely day and remember - you can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings. I'd love to see your Safety posters! You can email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy... and SAFE!

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 29th January

It's Friday! It has been a great week, with lots to do!

And I have some more very exciting things coming up for Children's Mental Health week which starts on Monday.

Have you heard of mental health? It's like physical health, but for our brain and our mind.

We look after our physical health by doing things like exericse, eating healthy food, drinking water and sleeping enough, of course. And we need to look after our minds - or our mental health - too!

And it's just as important to look after our minds as it is to look after our bodies!

So next week I'm going to be sharing some special activities every day that will help us all to keep our minds healthy!

In fact, my school is having a special Share Your Scarf week! I’ll tell you about our school scarf week – and my scarf – on Monday, at the start of the special week!

I’ve loved seeing your gratitude lists, by the way - do you find they are helping, if you’re feeling a bit fed up? I know they definitely help me. I love seeing what other people write because it gives me even more things to be grateful for - things that I might take for granted if I’m not careful!

Do you like the picture of Tiarna writing her Grateful list. I love the pen, Tiarna – it looks so fun - and that's a lovely, special book, too!  Oh, and there's me and my diary, on the computer! Ha ha! Thanks for sending your ideas to me!

Well, today is Friendship Friday and so I’m doing something fun for Derek and Kiki. I love video calling them and talking about what we are doing at home but I really miss seeing them in person. Today for Friendship Friday I’ve decided to work on my writing skills and create a poem! In case you don't know, poems are pieces of writing that can use things like rhyming words and special descriptions to express feelings and emotions! Can you think of some rhyming words? Dog, fog, hog, log!

Here is my poem about me and my friends Derek (he’s a penguin in case you didn’t know and Kiki who’s a kangaroo:

I have two best friends who I miss a lot,
We like to play outside when it is hot!
Kiki the Kangaroo bounces like a bunny,
And when I try she finds it very funny!
Derek the Penguin can swim very fast,
Whenever we race I always come last!
I hope I can see them again very soon,
I think I will call them – this afternoon!

Do you like it? Can you write a poem about what you are doing, or what you like to do? The best thing about poetry is it's great whatever you do!

Maybe you could write a poem too! If you do and you'd like to see it in my diary, you can email it to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from a grown-up first!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, maybe you're joining in with the Big Garden Birdwatch, like me! It's not too late to join in. It just takes an hour of bird counting sometime over the weekend and it helps the RSPB to look after birds. You can find out all about it at the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, here!

Stay safe and see you for some very exciting activities starting on Monday, when I’ll be sharing my scarf with you all!

Stay happy and healthy.

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 28th January

Hello again! Thursday already! And I am very, very excited to tell you about something that arrived in the post for me yesterday.

Do you remember last week that I told you about the Big Garden Birdwatch and that my mum had helped me to send off for a free pack, full of things to help me with my bird counting for the BIG event?

Well yesterday my free pack arrived in the post!

It's brilliant! In fact it's tweet-tastic!

Here's a picture of some of the things inside the pack - and another one of me, reading the instructions for the Big Garden Birdwatch, which I think I'm going to do at the weekend, maybe on Saturday.

Counting the birds sounds easy, until you realise that you have to try not to count the same bird twice - or three or even more times! That's the tricky part! One sparrow looks very much like another one! Well, I'll do my best.

Someone else who's been studying birds is Quinn. He sent me a beautiful drawing of a really colourful bird - it's called a blue tit. I love the bright colours on Quinn's picture! Thanks so much for sending this to me, Quinn!

Quinn isn't the only person to send me something this week, either. Evangelos and Tiara both send me their lists of things that they're grateful for. Evanglos wrote "I'm grateful for my friends, for being happy, for my brother, sleeping with my mum, getting strong and feeling healthy." Wow - they are really great things to be grateful for, Evangelos. I'm really grateful for my friends, too! And Tiara sent me her list, too. I'll save that one and tell you about it tomorrow!

But now it's time to get to work on my school things. Have a lovely day and remember - you can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings . Just send them to cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 27th January

It's Wednesday - it's a wet Wednesday where I am!

Isn't it strange that some of us have rain, while others are having snow and then some people are having sunshine - all on the same day and sometimes not even very far away from each other! I do think that the weather is interesting!

I really like the rain. I know that some people don't like it. But I love to put my wellies on and splash about - there has been lots of rain to splash through recently where I live! In fact there was so much rain one day, that it was running down a road like a mini river! That was fun splashing!

Have you ever been on a listening walk? It's when you go out for a walk and instead of chatting you walk very quietly and try to spot sounds that you might not have noticed if you were talking.

Maybe you could try it, when you're out doing your daily exercise? You could make a mental note of all the different things you can hear - and count how many there are!

Talking of going outside, have you had time to do any bird spotting? Well I know someone who has! Because I had a really amazing picture sent to me by Year 3 children at Highfields Primary school - from the special Mole Class and Owl Class mix!

The whole class have been doing a garden bird watch - they are near the coast (how fab to be near the sea!) so they spotted garden birds and lots of sea birds, too! They're really enjoying it.

Thank you so much, Moles and Owls!

Thank you to your teacher for sending me the wonderful bird watching chart that you're making. too! And thank you for reading my daily diary! I was so pleased to hear that you are enjoying it and that one of your 'things you are grateful for' is...MY DIARY! That's brilliant!

Here's a little quiz question for everyone: can you work out which of the birds on the list are sea birds, not garden birds? Maybe you could email me if you know the answers! I have another picture from Highfields school, too, who've also been busy making frozen sun catchers. I'll show you that picture another day.

But I really must get going now, I've done my daily plan and it's time to start! I'm going to do school work this morning and at lunchtime I'm going to do my daily exercise. Today's Workout Wednesday of course, and I'm going to do a listening walk for my exercise and see how many birds I can spot. I wonder if I'll see any sea birds! That would be great.

And remember - you can email your ideas or things you’ve been doing to cle@coram.co.uk for me to read and even share with everyone else. 

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

See you tomorrow, when it's Thinking of Others Thursday - I'll be back then with some more of the things you've told me that you're grateful for - because some of you have kindly emailed me your ideas! So be sure to look out for that!

Keep happy and healthy!

Love from Harold. xxx

Tuesday 26th January

Hello everyone! How was your Monday? Did you get to play out in any snow at all? I know that a lot of places have had snow over the last few days. I love it when it snows! Everything looks so clean and - so different!

Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for the birds though, when there's a thick blanket of snow over everything, because they find it harder to get food. Then I had an idea! I decided to try and make a special recipe - just for feeding the birds! It's called a Bird Food Ball! Not a football! A food ball!

Bird Food Ball recipe

Ingredients

Vegetable suet or vegetarian lard

Use at least 3 of the following:

• Sunflower seeds
• Bird seed (N.B some seed packets may have warnings that the seed is prepared/packed in a factory handling nuts)
• Oats
• Barley
• Sugar-free cereals
• Bread crumbs
• Grated cheese
• Currants
• Raisins

Equipment needed

• Gardening string/twine
• Cupcake cases (ideally paper) or yoghurt pots
• Scissors
• Mixing bowl
• Saucepan/microwaveable bowl
• Spoon
• Cup for measuring ingredients

Method

Use 1 part suet/lard to 2 parts dry ingredients.

Prepare moulds:

If using yogurt pots, make a hole in the bottom with a nail/needle or scissors (make sure you have an adult to help you with this). Thread string through and tie a knot on the inside of the pot. Pull the string through and cut so there is a good length for tying on to a tree or fence.

If using paper cupcake cases thread the string through the bottom of the case using a knitting/crochet needle as above. Put the cases in a muffin tin so they keep their shape

(If using a plastic cupcake case you may not want to cut holes. In this case the cakes can be popped out and left on bird tables or in holes/gaps in trees).

Melt the suet/lard in a pan or bowl, with help from a grown-up.

Meanwhile mix your dry ingredients in equal measures in a large bowl.

Once the suet/lard has cooled so that it is safe to touch (though not solid) mix it with the dry ingredients with your hands.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake case/yoghurt pot.

Refrigerate the pots/cases overnight.

Once solid, remove cake cases or yoghurt pots (if cold enough they should come away easily). 

You can see what it looks like from the pictures I've put in my diary for you! Isn't it great! And the best thing is that when you hang a bird feeder outside, it attracts lots and lots of birds! Oh, that reminds me - a school sent me a picture of a chart that they're making to count the birds for their very own Big Garden Birdwatch survey! It's fantastic. I'll find it and put it in my diary tomorrow.

Well I'm going to dash off now because I've got quite a lot of school work today. I hope you have a happy Try-out Tuesday and I'll see you tomorrow for Work-out Wednesday! The weeks just fly by!

Just before I go, though, I just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU to all of you who wrote to me about the things that you're grateful for. I loved reading your lists and in fact I think I'll include some in my diary later this week, for other people to enjoy. Thank you!

Maybe you could write to me and tell me the things that you've been up to so far this week! If you want to you can email your ideas to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from a grown-up first!

Stay happy and healthy.

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 25th January

Happy Monday! How was your weekend?

I practised my guitar and learned a new song! Sometimes it takes me so long to learn a new song and I get frustrated, but if I just keep  going and do lots of slow repetitions I finally get it right - and it feels like a huge achievement! Then I work on speeding it up! Practice makes progress!

Today is Mindful Monday and I’ve started something which has helped me a lot recently, something that helps me when I’m feeling a bit glum. I get out my notebook and I write down 3 things I'm grateful for. I do this every day now! It really helps me appreciate what I have, rather than what I don’t have.

Today the 3 things I am grateful for are my friends, flowers, because they are so colourful and make me happy when I look at them, and satsumas, as they are so yummy and a healthy snack!

What are 3 things that you are grateful for?

I also think about my SCARF! Do you remember the 5 special words that go with my scarf? Well there’s a letter S for safety – all about feeling safe, followed by the letter C for caring – that's about caring for other people or about things, oh, and caring for myself of course! Next comes the letter A – that’s for the things I manage to achieve, like learning a new song this weekend! Then it's the letter R for resilience – that’s a long word. It really just means bouncing back when things go wrong. And finally it's the letter F which is for friendship. That’s another thing I’m grateful for – my friends.

I sometimes call these five special words my scarf values - because they're things that are precious and valuable to me. They help to keep me safe, happy and healthy! Even when I’m not wearing my scarf they’re still there, just like the stars that are there in the daytime, but we can’t see them because it’s not dark!

REMEMBER to ask permission from a grown-up first!

Have a happy Monday!

Stay happy and healthy.

Love from Harold xxx

Friday 22nd January

Happy Friday Everyone! We've had some crazy weather but it's been really fun to watch the birds, out of the window. I wonder what they think about all this wind... Maybe it helps them fly higher!

Well, today is Friendship Friday, and I’m really missing my friends. So I've decided to think about some of the best times I've had with them and write them down! I always laugh when I’m with Derek and Kiki, in fact when I think about the things they did that made me laugh in the past, it makes me laugh all over again! If I write these memories down in a special place I can read them when I feel sad, to cheer me up a bit!

I remember once we dressed up, putting on different hats and coats! We looked ridiculous! I'm laughing thinking about it now! Can you think of something that made you laugh really hard? Another time was when we had a dance off, and took it in turns to make the others laugh with our dance moves. I think Derek won that one! Kiki once told a joke in the school talent show and had the whole school laughing - even the teachers!

I'm going to call Derek and Kiki to see if they remember some of my favourite times together. Maybe they’ll remember some things that I’ve forgotten! We can also think about what we want to do when we see each other again. I’ll write down our ideas so that I remember to do them! Maybe you could do that too. Write down the things you’d like to do with your friends, then tell them about your ideas when you next speak to them. Or send them a message - or maybe even a postcard!

Remember, if you have any ideas for activities I could do, or anything fun that you’ve done during lockdown, be sure to email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home (or at school, if you're reading this there) before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 21st January

Hello everyone! How was your Workout Wednesday? Did you manage to squeeze any exercise into your day? I’ve found that my days are quite busy recently, what with doing my school work and writing my diary, but my mum always tells me how important it is to try and do a teeny bit of exercise, even if it’s only a 10 minute walk! And yesterday of course, I did my bird dancing! It was soooooo fun!

Anyway, today is Thursday and before I forget, I’m going to give you the answers to yesterday’s bird quiz. Did you have a go at colouring in the picture from my friend Alex, and did you try to guess any of the types of birds? Well if you did, here are the answers to let you check how you did:

1. Pigeon
2. Goldfinch
3. Magpie
4. Greenfinch
5. Starling (that one was especially tricky!)
6. Blackbird
7. Collared dove
8. House sparrow (male)
9. House sparrow (female)
10. Blue tit
11. Robin
12. Penguin! Yes! It’s my friend, Derek! Did you spot him, swinging on the tree?

Well, there were some birds in that list that I hadn’t even heard of! I guess you learn something new everyday. Come to think of it, one person who would definitely know all of those birds is my Grandma. She loves bird spotting and she often looks out her window and into her garden to see if she can see any! She knows so many facts about them, too.

Hey! Speaking of family, that reminds me! It’s Thinking of others Thursday today, when we try to connect with other people, something which can be especially hard in lockdown. Well, I’ve had an idea. My friend Alex has sent me another picture of some birds - but bigger ones - so I’m going to colour them in and send it to my Grandma in the post. She’ll love that since she loves nature and wildlife, and guess what - she’s also taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch! Perfect! Why don’t you print out the picture too and have a go at colouring in the birds, or if you can’t print things off just draw some of your own birds. You could use the pictures from the RSPB in yesterday’s diary to give you some inspiration!

Another person who’s been doing some bird spotting is Harris, who goes to Hill of Banchory school in Aberdeenshire. That’s in Scotland. He sent me a picture of a robin!

Thank you ever so much Harris, I love seeing pictures from my readers! Remember, if you have any ideas for activities I could do, or anything that you’ve done during lockdown, be sure to email me at cle@coram.co.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Well that’s all for today, I’m going to colour in this picture and walk to a post box to post it to grandma. Hey! That’s my daily exercise, too! Have a fab Thinking of others Thursday, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 20th January

Tweet, tweet! Tweeeeeeet! Chirrup, chirrup! Caw! Caw! Cheep, cheep!

Can you guess what I’m doing?

T-wit t-woo, t-wit t-woo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Ha ha! Yes! I’m being different birds.

I hadn’t realised how many different sounds birds made but yesterday, on Try-out Tuesday, you might remember that I was trying out being a bird detective. It was amazing! There are SO MANY different birds – tiny ones, big ones, colourful ones, plain ones, fluffy ones, shiny ones, round ones, long ones! They all seem to be able move really quickly, too! They dart and swoop and dip and dive and drift and float and flap and flutter and peck and preen and roost and ruffle and… probably lots of other things, too! Can you think of any more words that describe birds and how they move?

I’m glad that I started getting ready early for the Big Garden Birdwatch because I think I need to practise spotting them! Here’s a picture from the RSPB to help me learn some of their names.

I’m going to look at this so that I can match the pictures with the birds that I can see from my window. Hey! That gives me an idea. Do you remember the picture of me with my bird spotting notebook from yesterday’s diary? Well I’ve turned it into a quiz! There is a number next to each bird. There are 12 birds in total. Can you name any of them? Maybe you can name all of them! They’re tricky because they’re not coloured in, so that makes it harder to work out what they are. But my friend Alex, who drew the picture, said he has the answers and he’s going to tell me them tomorrow! If you want to you could send your guesses to me! I’ll put the answers in my diary tomorrow, too.

Oh, I’m so busy thinking about bird spotting, that I almost forgot! Today is Wednesday, so it’s my workout day. I try to do exercise every day, like going for a walk with my mum, or sometimes riding my bike, but today I’m going to carry on with my bird theme! I’m going to do some energetic dancing to some music, and I’m going to do some bird actions like flapping and hopping! That should get my muscles working hard. Perhaps I’ll dance to the Birdie Song! Ha ha!

Well I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and maybe do some bird dancing yourself! And remember to have a go at my quiz! If you do, maybe you could let me know how you get on.

You can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings – or bird quiz answers! Just send them to cle@coram.co.uk.

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 19th January

Hello! Did you have a good Mindful Monday? I listened to some lovely gentle guitar music. It really helped me to be calm. And guess what! I think it actually helped me to settle to my school work, so I finished it in good time.

Well today is Tuesday and that means one thing – try something new! I’m so excited because I’ve found something really different to try out. I wonder if you’ve heard of it?

My mum’s friend Jane told us about the Big Garden Birdwatch. The funny thing is, you don’t even need a garden to take part in it! Yes! I’m going to be a bird detective. Lots and lots of people all over the country will be doing the same thing, too. My mum went to the RSPB website (that’s the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds!) and we found out all about the Big Garden Birdwatch.

It all happens at the end of next week. You choose an hour you want to spend bird spotting and you write down what you’ve seen. Then you tell the RSPB how many birds you’ve seen, and what types. Then they add your bird spots to everyone else’s. This gives them a HUGE lot of information about which birds there are lots of and which are more rare. The best bit is that they use this information to help make sure that birds get looked after. That’s important because birds are VERY important for lots and lots of reasons. Can you think why?

My mum has signed us up for a free pack. Maybe you could ask a grown-up if you could join in too. It’s free! You can find out about it at the Big Garden Birdwatch.

I’m going to try out bird watching today – and practise writing down the birds I spot. Hmmmm. Maybe I could make a chart! I’ll have to think about that and check how to do the counting. When I get my pack I’ll be able to tell you more about it!

Well, have a very happy Tuesday and maybe you could try something new today, too. You could even join me in practising bird watching. Well if you do, let me know how you get on. I’ll tell you more about it when I get my pack – remember, you can get one, too!

You can email me with your ideas, pictures and drawings of things you’ve been doing. Just send them to cle@coram.co.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me. Now, where did I put my special notebook and pencil for my bird watching?

Love from Harold. xxx

Monday 18th January

Welcome back to my diary everyone! How was your weekend?

I see a lot of the country had snow - did you? I had a good weekend. I did lots of walking, and some reading. I even helped cook dinner on Saturday!

Did you have a go at making a card to send to a special person? I know that some of you did because some people sent me a picture of theirs!. In fact Eloise made two! Look!

Today is Mindful Monday. Every Monday I make sure I think about something that is nice and simple - and calming! Something like the waves going in and out at the beach, or a bird flying in the sky, letting the wind take it somewhere. I wonder where it will end up? It's easy to start thinking about lots of things at once, especially at the moment with lots going on. But I like to take a deep breath in...1...2...3...and deep breath out...1...2...3... as I picture the waves. This makes me feel much calmer. I don't just do this on Mondays, either! I do it on other days as well. You can try it, too!

I like to use Mindful Mondays to think about others around me and what they are up to. I remembered my Grandad is learning the guitar, just like me! So I gave him a ring earlier and asked how he was doing. He said he is still enjoying it and he can't wait until we can play something together! That's something nice to look forward to.

I know a lot of people don't have access to an instrument, but guess what? You can use your voice as an instrument too! Tra la laaa!! Sometimes I sing without realising, like when I'm tidying my room. I just start singing and forget that I'm cleaning! Do you have any favourite songs?

Hey! That gives me an idea! Here's a video from Sesame Street where they are singing a song - check it out!

https://www.sesamestreet.org/videos?vid=26913

I'll see you tomorrow for Try-out Tuesday! I always love trying new things!

And remember - you can email your ideas or things you’ve been doing to cle@coram.co.uk for me to read and even share with everyone else. Maybe you have some ideas for Try-out Tuesday?

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Love from Harold. xxx

Friday 15th January

Hello everyone! It’s another snowy day! I absolutely love the snow - it just makes everything look so pretty. What’s your favourite weather?

Well, as you might remember it’s Friendship Friday today and I thought I could call my friend Derek the Penguin. Do you remember Derek and Kiki from last time I did my diary? I hope you do - they still remember all of you and all the fab pictures and ideas you sent in!

One of them which they especially remembered was Sophie’s Armpit fudge from all the way back in July. Doesn’t that seem like such a long time ago… ahh, summer days!

Anyway, I know how it sounds - you’re probably thinking ‘ew’, but I promise it’s not smelly or disgusting at all, although I’m not sure Derek agrees! I rang him just before I wrote my diary and told him that I was thinking of making it again and he pulled the funniest face ever, look!

(Maybe if you have a printer, you could print this out to colour in. But if you don't then you could draw you own picture of me talking to Derek!)

I think he’s being a bit dramatic! Maybe you fancy having a go at Sophie’s recipe if you’re looking for something to do while we’re stuck inside.

If you do, here it is:

Look - she’s even written ‘Warning: very delicious’!

Friendship Friday is all about connecting with others. As we all know, actually seeing people is a bit tricky at the moment but there are so many ways we can still connect with each other. The card that I sent my grandad yesterday is one way, but of course there are lots of other much quicker ways, too, like texting, phoning and video calling. In fact my mum has said that I can video call Derek and Kiki later for an end of the week catch up. Have you been doing anything like that with your friends or family? Or have you got any other ways of connecting with people even though you can’t see them in real life?

If you do, let me know! In fact, if you have any ideas for things to make, bake or create please let me know - I’m always looking for ideas! You can email your ideas or things you’ve been doing to cle@coram.co.uk for me to read and even share with everyone else.

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Well, that’s all for today - I need to do some school work and then I might even have a go at armpit fudge! Have a super-duper fabulous Friendship Friday, and an even fabber weekend! I’ll see you next week for another Mindful Monday.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Thursday 14th January

Harold's NEW daily diary

Hello again! How was your Workout Wednesday? Did you do any working out?

Well today is Thinking of Others Thursday. One person I've been thinking of a lot recently is my grandad. He’s been very poorly in the last week or so and my grandma has been taking care of him. I have phoned him a few times for a chat to try and cheer him up a little bit, but I thought today - since we’re thinking of others - I could make him a 'get well soon' card. Hey - I can post it in the letter box I showed you yesterday, too.

When we’re all stuck inside at home it can be a bit boring and a bit glum, so I thought not only would a super duper special home-made card be nice for my grandad to receive, but it would also be a fun thing for me to make.

Maybe you could make one! Specially for Thinking of Others Thursday, why not tell someone you care about how much they mean to you, or that you're missing them! It would brighten up their day… and maybe even yours, too!

If you can’t make a card to post, you could make a colourful poster to brighten up your room (it’s been a bit grey and miserable the past couple of days), or you could draw something for someone in your home.

Hey - you don’t even need to make anything! Just telling someone how much you care about them would do the trick!

Well anyway, do you remember the ice suncatcher that I showed you on Tuesday? I was super duper excited when I got an email from Violet with a picture of her next to a really pretty suncatcher she'd made! And she’d hung it up… that's even better than what I did! I hope yours doesn’t melt too quickly, Violet - mine has already turned into a puddle!

Remember, if you decide to make a Try-out Tuesday suncatcher, or maybe a Thinking of Others Thursday card, be sure to send me a picture so I can show everyone your amazing work. If you've been doing anything else interesting or fun that's not one of those things, be sure to tell me that, too - I'm always looking for daily diary ideas! You can send your activities, ideas and creations to cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

That's all for today, I’ve got a lot of school work to be doing, but have a wonderful Thursday, and try to show someone else how you're thinking of them today!

Stay happy and healthy.

Love from Harold xxx

Wednesday 13th January

Hello!

It's the first Work Out Wednesday of my latest diary! I did a lot of exercise over the summer as the weather was great and I could go outside a lot of the time. But now that it’s dark and cold in the mornings and evenings, I find it very difficult to motivate myself! I have been going for a walk every lunch time and sometimes I just like to be calm and mindful when I’m walking, but on Work Out Wednesdays I walk a bit further and a bit faster! And I’ve decided to turn my Wednesday walks into treasure hunts, too!

I like to find out what the roads are called near me. I know MY road name, but even though I often walk down the other roads nearby, I’ve never really noticed their names! This is so much fun! There are Crescents, Roads, Gardens, Lanes, Avenues. Some roads don't lead to other roads, and I have to turn around. Do you know the name for these "dead end" roads?

I also like to see how many post-boxes I can find! Fun fact – every post box has a sign that shows which King or Queen was alive when it was made! This is called a "Royal Cypher", like this one for Edward VII...

Can you spot any different ones near you? Can you run from one post box to another? Always be careful if you’re running on the pavement or near roads, so that you don’t bump into anyone! My mum says it’s ok for me to run if it’s safe. She helps me to check whether it’s safe, too.

Let me know what treasures you find on your walks - while you are looking around you won't even realise you are exercising! I also need ideas for how to exercise in my room that won't disturb my family or my neighbours (sometimes I jump too high and it’s a bit noisy!) Can you give me any ideas? If you send me some, I’ll try them our and share with everyone next Work Out Wednesday! You can email me with your messages, or ideas about what you've been doing by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

See you tomorrow for Thinking of Others Thursday which I am really looking forward to. I miss my friends but I know we are all staying home to make sure everyone can stay safe. Lockdown is all about Thinking of Others!

Love from Harold xxx

Tuesday 12th January

Hello everyone! I’m back for the second day of my daily lockdown diary, eeeee… it’s so exciting!

Did you have a super-duper mindful Monday? As I mentioned yesterday, I went for a walk and tried to look out for some nice things in nature. I heard a couple of birds, chirruping, saw loads of pretty plants and a few other animals too, like the sheep I showed you yesterday as well as some cows… no giraffes, though - I must be pretty special!

Well, today is Try-out Tuesday which involves experimenting with something new.

You might remember me saying I was going to make a frozen suncatcher, and that I was going to collect some bits and bobs for it whilst on my walk. I found some pretty things, like lots of different coloured leaves and some bright red berries. My mum said it was ok to use these berries but to check with her before touching any berries because some are poisonous!

The frozen suncatcher was really easy to make, so I thought I could show you the instructions in case you wanted to have a go, too! You will need:

1. Some little trinkets from nature, like leaves - check with a grown-up which ones are ok to take.
2. A container - I used an old round, foil tray but I’m sure any shape would work - and a plastic container works well, too.
3. Cold water.
4. Space in a freezer or the freezer compartment of a fridge.
5. Something to hang it with - this is optional depending on how you want to display your finished suncatcher! 

Now for the method:

1. The things you've collected from nature - remember to check with a grown-up that the things are safe to touch!
2. Put these into your container Fill the container with water - not quite full as the water slops and sloshes!
3. Carefully (keep it steady!) put your creation in a freezer
4. Leave this to freeze for a few hours - maybe overnight, until it’s completely solid.
5. Once frozen, get a grown up to help pop your frozen suncatcher out of its container. Be really careful because sometimes frozen things can stick to our skin and burn it - especially if the skin is damp or wet - yes it’s true! Very cold things can damage skin, not just very hot things!
6. You can either leave your suncatcher like this, or you can make a hole in the top of the ice, then hang it up outside, though there’s a high chance of it melting! 

The weather has warmed up a bit now where I live and the snow has all gone, but when it’s really cold again I’m going to make another suncatcher to see if I can hang it up outside and keep it there for a few days until it melts. Here are some pictures of mine:

Well, there you have it - my wonderfully wintry Try-out Tuesday activity. If you do decide to have a go, I’d love to see what you’ve made. If you have any other new activities, or even any New Year resolutions, I’d love to hear those, too!

You can email me with your messages, or ideas about what you've been doing by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

That’s all for today - I have some schoolwork to be getting on with now - maybe you do, too!

See you tomorrow for Workout Wednesday! Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Monday 11th January

I'm back!

I've really missed writing my diary and although I'm a bit sad that we're in another lockdown, I'm really excited to write my diary again - and share it with all of you! I've missed hearing about all the things that you've been up to.

I love this time of year – do you?

It's a time of new beginnings. Erm, let me think...

1. It's a new year – it's 2021 now!
2. It's a new month – January.
3. New things to see in nature – I love going for walks for my daily exercise!
4. Soon there will be new shoots growing up from the bulbs I planted in Autumn.
5. Soon there will be new buds on the trees.
6. And soon there will be new lambs in the fields!

Oh! I think I'm getting a bit ahead there – it's only January and the new buds and lambs probably won't be here until March! But I can think about them and look forward to them, just like I'm looking forward to writing my diary again!

Do you remember our diary activity days from before? We had

• Mindful Mondays – all about taking notice of things, calmly.
• Try-out Tuesdays – trying new things!
• Work-out Wednesdays – doing some exercises.
• Think of others Thursdays – all about giving to others, and
• Friendship Fridays – connecting with people, like family and friends! 

Hey! I remembered them all!

And look! Here’s a picture to help you remember them, too!

Well, talking about new beginnings and at this time of year, sometimes people make New Year resolutions. That means doing something differently, like maybe taking more exercise or reading more books.

I've made some resolutions too, I'm going to try NEW things this year and tell you about them in my diary.

Tomorrow is try-out Tuesday, so I’m going to try some nature art! When I go for my daily exercise I’m going to collect some leaves and things from nature. Mum says that we can make a frozen sun catcher! I’ve never made one before but I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!

I’d better get ready to go out now but before I go, I need to tell you about Mindful Mondays! On Mondays I try specially to think about being mindful. That means taking notice of things around me, not trying to do lots of things at the same time, but being calm and peaceful. I’m going to go on a Mindful walk. I’m going to take notice of things in nature like listening for birds singing!

Well I’d better get going. Time for my Mindful walk! I hope you have a lovely Monday and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Love from Harold xxx

Do you like the pictures from my daily exercise this weekend? You’ll never guess what happened. I looked over a wall and saw some sheep – and then they came running towards me! They were so sweet!

Friday 8th January

My NEW Daily Diary! - by Harold

Helloooooooo!

I'm really excited because I'm going to be writing my diary and sharing it with you again from next Monday - that's Monday the 11th of January!

I've got to dash now, because I've just looked out of the window and... it's snowing outside! So I'm going to see if I can make a snow angel! If there's enough snow I'll make one and put a picture of it in my dairy on Monday - like the one below!

I can't wait to get started on my diary and to share some fun things that we can all do if we're not able to go to school! And maybe you'll be able to share some of your ideas, too, like you did last Spring and Summer!

Wheeeeeee! I'm so excited! 

See you on Monday! Now, where did I put my scarf?!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 70 - Friday 17th of July

Well, here we are - day 70, the final day of my daily diary! And what an amazing 70 days it's been! We've been up to all sorts of things, from baking to cycling and painting to gardening. You name it, we've done it! Of course, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as interesting if you hadn't emailed me with pictures and ideas - so thank you ever so much! Together, we've made it so much fun!

I've made a little video recapping the past few months for you to watch... I hope you enjoy it!

Aww, it's amazing to look back at everything we've done - some of those pictures feel like such a long time ago!

Well, I couldn't let the last Friendship Friday slip by without showing you one of my favourite activities. This one's a crafty, creative one, so if you're getting a bit bored in the holidays and fancy a bit of art, you know where to look!

Click on the picture below and follow the instructions, if you don't have a printer, you can just draw your own template:

Here's a picture of the one I made:

Well there's your weekly dose of friendship!

I also have one more activity for you, all about memories. Ahh! It's a great chance for you to look back at the past few months and think about all the things you've enjoyed, even if it has seemed a bit strange and scary at times.

Just click on the picture below to print out the sheet, or if you can't print, think about the question in your head!

Here's a picture of me with my special memories from the last few months. You can print and colour it if you want to! Or draw your own version!

I have one last thing to mention before I sign off for summer, and it's all about my SCARF. Can you remember what SCARF stands for? It's Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship.

Can you think how we've show all these things over the past few months? Here are my thoughts:

• Safety - we've been super-careful about sticking to the rules of lockdown and also been washing and hands and wearing face masks to protect ourselves and others.
• Caring - we've cared for people (and plants!) in so many different ways, whether it be cheering our friends up when they're sad, or ringing our relatives to make them happy!
• Achievement - I think we've all achieved so many different things! The different sporting, musical and creative accomplishments we've all attempted are just a few of the achievements we've made in lockdown!
• Resilience - this is a big one! There have definitely been some tough moments during the past few months - it's not all been easy. Distanced-learning, not being able to see friends and family, being stuck inside - and the worries of Covid-19 are just a few of the challenges we've faced. But guess what? Together, we've helped each other to cope - and I'm sure you'll keep doing so, in the future. Give yourself a big pat on the back!
• Friendship - well, even though we've not been able to physically see our friends for most of the past few months, we've overcome that by video-calling or telephoning, to keep our friendships good-as-new!

Well, we've certainly been wearing and remembering our SCARF... always try to remember it! Keep thinking about the SCARF values over the summer holidays to make sure you have a fabulous few weeks!

Once again, thank you sooo much for all the emails you've been sending me - I couldn't have done this without you!

Have a great summer and remember - stay happy and healthy - and remember to wear your scarf!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 69 - Thursday 16th of July

Ahh, Thursday again! How was your Workout Wednesday? I hope you managed to do a bit of exercise, and maybe even make a healthy snack or two! Hey - if you did the quiz, what did you score? Did you improve on your score from last time it was in the diary?

Well, you'll have probably guessed - today's the last Thinking of others Thursday. Aww, that makes me a bit sad!

Hey ho, at least today's diary is a celebration of all the thinking we've been doing over the past few months. Just like the past few days, today's diary is going to include some of my favourite activities from all the Thinking of others Thursdays we've had - then, if you find yourself bored with nothing to do, you can do some of these activities.

So here's the first of my favourite activities - this activity sheet really is all about thinking of others. What do you think makes a good friend?

Well, I hope that's got your brain in gear for Thinking of others Thursday!

Next up is an activity from all the way back in May! This one's about giving advice - that's a super important skill to have when thinking about other people. Can you help Misha with her dilemma?

And now onto a slightly happier note - this final activity sheet is a celebration of us all, you might remember it from a couple of weeks ago. Not only will this activity have you thinking about others, but you'll be learning knew things out about them, too!

Well there you have a few activities all about thinking of others. There not the only things that are great for that, though. Lots of books are all about thinking about other people's feelings. You might remember me mentioning one of my favourite books, 'No Matter What' by Debi Gliori. 

Click on the picture below to watch the story being read, and think to yourself how it relates to thinking of others.

Do you know any other books which are about thinking of others? Reading is a great way to spend your time during the holidays!

Well there you have it, my Thinking of others Thursday highlights! Which have been your favourite bits? In fact, I should say that all the emails you've been sending me over the past few months have made me so happy... it's nice to know you've been thinking of me, too!

Well - I'll see you tomorrow for Friendship Friday and the grand finale of my daily diary!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 68 - Wednesday 15th of July

Did you have a good Try-out Tuesday? I made another fruity face... mmm, so tasty!

I expect you're picking up on the pattern now - today is the last Workout Wednesday so I'm going to make it an exercise extravaganza!

In today's diary I'll show you all of my favourite moments from our wonderful Workout Wednesdays. That way you'll have loads of different things to do over the summer, then you'll never get bored of doing exercise - and keeping healthy! Yay!

So, let's start with one of the first activities from the entire diary - Animal Exercises! This sporty saga will have you forgetting you're human... click on the picture below to follow the instructions.

Can you thing of an action or exercise for a giraffe? I think I can! Hmm, I must ask Derek if he can think of one for a penguin!

Next up is another activity from quite a while ago, all the way back on April 1st! Rate each challenge out of 10 for how much fun it was, which is your favourite?

See, who said exercise couldn't be fun?

Well there you have some exercises, but as we know, staying healthy isn't all about exercise. Healthy food habits are just as helpful! Hey, that's a real tongue-twister: helpful, healthy food habits!

One of my favourites was these energy bars, they were great for giving me a big energy boost to do my exercise.

As well as doing exercise and eating healthily, knowing about how our body works is pretty important to keeping in tip-top shape. Here's one of my favourite quizzes from previous Workout Wednesdays.

And here are the answers, in case you decide to do the quiz:

1. The answer is A. Most brains weigh about 1.3kg - that's just a little bit less than the weight of a big bag of sugar!
2. The answer is B.
3. The answer is C. Cleaning the blood is just one of the 500 jobs that your liver does... that's a lot of jobs!
4. The answers are both B and C. Alcohol damages brain cells and it can also harm the liver and heart if a person drinks too much.
5. All three answers are correct - A, B and C! Cigarettes can damage the lungs from the build-up of tar and gases. Nicotine, the drugs in cigarettes, causes the heart to beat faster and can even cause heart disease. Plus, there are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke which travel round in the blood stream, taking the place of oxygen which the body really needs.

Well there you have it, a great selection of Workout Wednesday highlights from the past few months. Have a nice relaxing summer, but keep exercising! And remember it's Workout Wednesday!

See you tomorrow for our final Thinking of others Thursdays!

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 67 - Tuesday 14th of July

How was your final Mindful Monday? I hope you had lots of mindful moments, maybe you even did some of the different activities I showed you!

Well, as you perhaps know, today's our last Try-out Tuesday, so just like yesterday, I'll be showing you some of my favourite bits from all the very many Try-out Tuesdays we've had! 

I'm going to start with something which I've discovered my love for during lockdown... baking! Yes, I absolutely love baking and I've made all sorts over the past few months. One of my personal favourites was these mini cheesecakes. Although they're not the healthiest, the fruit on top counts as one of your 5-a-day! Click here to watch a video on how to make them. They're so easy to make (they don't even need an oven) and even easier to eat...

Something slightly healthier is another one of my foody favourites - fruity faces! These are a fun and fabulous way to get your 5-a-day! Click on the picture below to see the instructions for these fab fruity faces!

Here's a picture of the one I did a few weeks ago, a bit of inspiration for you!

Of course to balance out all that food, I've been trying out another new skill, can you remember what it is? Yes, cycling! There are so many sports and different types of exercise that you could try out over the summer if you fancy learning a new skill. Here are a few that you can do by yourself (or at least socially distanced):

• running
• cycling
• skipping
• hula-hooping
• kicking a ball about

There you go, if you're ever feeling bored try one of those!

The last of my Try-out Tuesday highlights is something that lots of you have been doing at home! Gardening and growing! A few of you have sent me pictures of the things you've been growing over the last few months and you might remember that I've grown my own potatoes, too!

Despite it being called gardening, you don't actually need a garden! All growing plants needs is a pot or bucket, plus a few other bits and bobs. You can watch this funny video clip to learn about everything a plant needs to survive, just click here. So there you have another activity idea - you'll be growing your own plants in no time!

Well, I've loved seeing all the things you've sent me for your own Try-out Tuesdays over the past few months. There has been so much great artwork, baking, plant-growing and musicianship, too! All of that relates to the Get Creative section of our Wellbeing Wheel, and I think we've been getting really creative, so a big well done!

There you have it, my Try-out Tuesday highlights - I hope that gives you something to do if you're at a loose end over the summer!

See you tomorrow!

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 66 - Monday 13th of July

Hello! How was your weekend? Did you get up to anything interesting?

Well, it's Monday again. I don't usually like Mondays because it feels like the weekend is ages away - and I like this particular Monday even less! Can you guess why? This is the last week of my Daily Diary before I leave you to have a fab six weeks of summer holiday!

Wow - I can't believe how much we've done over the past few months. Over the weekend I read through what I've written in each of the 66 (yes, 66!) diary entries. 

I thought that this week I could pick out some of my favourite activities for each day of the week, and then if you're feeling at a loose end over the next few weeks, you know what to do! All the best activities will be right here, waiting for you!

Well today's Mindful Monday so I'm going to select some of my favourite mindful activities from the diary and share them with you,

I thought I'd start with my friend Alex's three top tips for staying calm if you ever feel worried, stressed or angry! These breathing tricks will have you relaxed in no time, and they're super-duper simple, too!

There you have three super-duper useful mindful activities.

Next up is the bedtime star which makes you think about all your favourite things! If I'm ever feeling gloomy, an activity like this really helps! Click on the picture below to print out the sheet. Remember, all these activities can be done without a printer. Get creative!

Now, you might remember this next thing from when I showed it you right back at the start of June. It's a book called Everybody Worries and I remember it being really comforting at a time when lots of things seemed scary and stressful!

If you have a bit of spare time, why not read it? It's great for Mindful Monday! Just click on the picture below to read this book.

If you prefer, you can watch the book being read, by clicking here!

Well finally, I've got one more small activity. It's not really an activity, but it certainly helps me to do some deep thinking! Plus it's great if you ever feel stressed or anxious. I give you... pufferfish breathing! Do you remember this from very near to the beginning of lockdown?

Click here to watch some super-duper calming pufferfish breathing. 

Well, I think that's a great selection of mindful moments for Mindful Monday.

Have a fab, thoughtful day and I'll see you tomorrow for the last Try-out Tuesday!

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 65 - Friday 10th of July

Friday, again! Yippee!

Before I talk about Friendship Friday I need to show you some lovely drawings that Khadijah sent me. They are from Derek's gratefulness scavenger hunt that I talked about on Monday and I absolutely love what she's drawn.

Wow! That's such a colourful page, Khadijah, and some lovely and thoughtful ideas. Thanks so much for sending it to me. We have the same favourite colour, too!

As you know, I'm always trying to think of ways to stay busy during lockdown, and Khadijah has told me loads of the things that she's been doing. Here are a few:

• Drawing pictures
• Reading Jacqueline Wilson books (she's one of my favourite authors! Which is your favourite book?)
• Playing on her scooter (that counts for Workout Wednesday!)
• Helping with jobs around the house, like drying the dishes.

That's a great list of things, Khadijah - it's great that you've been doing things to make yourself happy and helping others too by doing chores!

Well, it's also Friendship Friday so I've been thinking about my friends a lot... as you would expect!

It made me sooo happy when I saw Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin the other day, and it made me realise how much I appreciate them. They always make me laugh and if I'm ever sad they're great at cheering me up!

Sometimes we do fall out, but we always make up very quickly! I suppose it's normal to argue, but being able to make friends again is the sign of a super-duper, fab friendship!

All this reminded me of an activity sheet which you could do - it's all about thinking about our friends.

You can click on the picture below to make the activity sheet bigger, and then you could either print it out or think about the questions in your head. 

If you do the activity sheet, be sure to send me a picture! I'd love to hear about your friends, plus learn your top tips for solving any fallouts!

Well, it's almost the weekend. Do you have any plans for the next couple of days? I think I might go on another bike ride and try to go even further than last time. I might also do some baking. I'd love to hear about your plans for the weekend and also next week... the last week of the school term for lots of you, I think!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 64 - Thursday 9th of July

How was your Workout Wednesday? Did you get up to any exercise? I went on a bike ride (I've been practising, as you know) but it was sooo windy - again. It made it very tricky to balance - my neck kept swaying about all over the place, a bit like the last time, but I think I'm getting better and I went a bit further this time before I had to stop!

I also helped to cook my home-grown potatoes for part of my tea - they were delicious and gave me lots of energy to replace all the energy I'd used on my bike ride.

Did you have a go at the Health Factory crossword? I thought some of the clues were quite tricky - how did you get on?

Well, today it's Thinking of others Thursday and it made me think of an email I received earlier this week, from my grandad!

He sent me a picture of a super-duper cute giraffe that was watching him practise his guitar. (You might remember my grandad has been teaching himself to play the guitar during lockdown.)

The giraffe is tiny, in fact it looks a bit like I did when I was a little baby! Here's the picture:

Awww, so sweet and fluffy!

It made me happy, because as nice as it is showing other people that you are thinking of them and care about them, it's so lovely when someone does the same to you! In fact I think I'll ring my grandad and grandma later to say thanks for the picture, and also to have a catch up! That's very suitable for Thinking of others Thursday!

Of course, Thinking of others Thursday doesn't only apply to our family - friends are very important, too!

Thinking about how we can look after our friends reminded me of a board game you could play with people at home. It's all about my friend Brenda when she was poorly. Along with Brenda's dad, I helped her to get better, which is certainly suitable for Thinking of others Thursday!

If you click on the picture below you can print the two sheets and stick them together to make the full board game. All you'll need is some counters to track your progress. If you can't print it out, you could even make your own board game about helping and thinking of others!

Well I'd better get going, first things first I'm going to ring my grandma and grandad for a chat.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 63 - Wednesday 8th of July

Wednesday again - half way through the week!

How was your Try-out Tuesday? Did you get up to anything new?

Hey - do you remember the potatoes I'd grown which I showed you yesterday? Well my dad said we can use them in our tea tonight. I'll let you know how that goes - hopefully they'll be super-duper tasty! Potatoes are also pretty healthy, too, which is a bonus. They have lots of important vitamins in them.

Well today is Workout Wednesday. As I'm sure you know by now, I try to do exercise every day  - not just on Wednesdays, so I think on Wednesdays I can also tell you about all the different things that make our bodies work - not just exercicse. After all, bodies are very complicated things - making them run smoothly isn't always easy, but the more you know, the healthier you can aim to be!

Thinking about this reminded me of an activity you could do, called Health Factory. 'Health Factory' just means your body is like a factory. There are lots of different sections and lots of different jobs to do. Lots of different things have to be done to keep everything running smoothly, just like in a real-life factory.

The Health Factory is a crossword with sixteen clues - lots of facts about our bodies and how they work. If you click on the picture below, you can print the crossword and fill it in. If you can't print it at home, perhaps you could just think of the answers in your head.

You might have noticed the answers are on the bottom of the sheet, so you can check your brains on those bodily facts!

Oh, I've just remembered! I put the pinecones which I collected from the scavenger hunt on my windowsill and you'll never guess what happened... they actually predicted the rain! I noticed that they'd closed up, and sure enough it started to rain a bit later on. Wow!

Well, that's all for today - I've got lots of exercise to be getting on with, plus my school work.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 62 - Tuesday 7th of July

Did you have a nice and thoughtful Mindful Monday? As promised, I did Derek's scavenger hunt and found lots of different objects:

1. Something that makes you happy: a puddle of water to splash in, wearing my wellies of course!
2. Something to give to someone else that'll make them smile: an acorn - I think my grandad likes them, there used to be a big oak tree near his house.
3. Something that you love the smell of: a lovely flower, like a rose or some lavender - I wouldn't pick the flowers though.
4. Something you think is pretty to look at: a beautiful leaf.
5. Something that's your favourite colour: foxgloves - my favourite colour is purple, but you must not touch foxgloves - they are poisonous!
6. Something that could be made into a present for someone: a nice smooth rock to paint for a friend or someone in my family.
7. Something that could be made useful for yourself: a pinecone. Did you pinecones can be made into weather predictors? Apparently, if it's dry the pinecone opens, but if it's going to rain, the pinecone knows and closes up! So I can have my own little rain forecaster!

Did you try the gratefulness scavenger hunt? It was really fun! It's not too late - you can do it any time!  

Well, today is Try-out Tuesday and I've been trying something new over the past few weeks - growing potatoes! 

They were actually super-duper easy to grow. At the beginning of lockdown I found a potato that had started to sprout shoots. My mum and I decided to plant it in the garden and see what happened, like an experiment!

This weekend we noticed the potato plant was starting to wilt, where it goes all droopy, so we decided to dig it up and see what had happened over the past three months. 

When we dug through the soil we found that loads of potatoes had grown - there were some teeny-tiny ones and some bigger ones, too.

Here are some pictures of me digging them up. The first one is of me with my big garden fork. My mum had to help me start digging.

This next one is when I spotted the first couple of potatoes. Exciting!

Finally, here I am with all the potatoes that had grown. They were very muddy so we washed them thoroughly, don't worry!

Potatoes are a great thing to grow because you don't need a lawn or even or a garden to grow them - a big bucket or plant pot of soil will do the trick, as long as you take care of them by watering them every day!

Do you have any plans for Try-out Tuesday? If you do, I'd love to hear about what you're getting up to.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 61 - Monday 6th of July

Ahh, Monday again - there are only a couple more weeks left till the end of term!

I had such a lovely socially-distanced meet up with my friends Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin this weekend!

I went prepared with everything I needed to keep us all clean and safe (a mask and hand sanitizer), plus things to prepare us for any kind of weather. I took a sun hat, sun cream, an umbrella, waterproofs... everything! Better safe than sorry!

As promised, Derek told us about the special activity he had planned (do you remember me telling you about it in Friday's diary?) It turned out to be a fun way of thinking about things we're grateful for in day-to-day life. In fact, I thought that it seemed ideal for Mindful Monday!

So, I present to you: Derek the Penguin's Gratefulness Scavenger Hunt!

Here's a list of things for you to find, either inside or outside, which might help you think about the things that you're grateful for, perfect for Mindful Monday. Whilst we were doing these we were careful not to touch anything or pass anything to each other in order to stay Covid-safe, but if you're with people who live in the same house as you, the you can use all of these ideas on your Gratefulness Scavenger Hunt! Remember to check with a grown-up though, to be sure! Or you could take photographs of the items for a Gratefulness Scavenger Album!

Find:

1. Something that makes you happy
2. Something to give to someone else that'll make them smile
3. Something that you love the smell of
4. Something you think is pretty to look at
5. Something that's your favourite colour
6. Something that could be made into a present for someone
7. Something that could be made useful for yourself.

I think there are some fascinating things to find there - it really makes you think about and appreciate the little things that make us happy. If you do decide to do this mindful and meaningful scavenger hunt, you could even add some of your own categories. 

Plus, you could take or draw pictures of the things you find, and send them to me in an email - I'd love to see what you think of and find!

I'll do it today with my mum and dad, and tell you what I find in tomorrow's diary!

Well, there you have a good activity to keep you busy on this Mindful Monday - remember I love hearing about any ideas you have for activities, too.

I'd better get going now - as well as school work and exercise, I need to start thinking about this list of things to find!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 60 - Friday 3rd of July

Hello! Did you have a good Thinking of others Thursday? I followed the activity sheet from yesterday. Do you remember it? I asked my mum and dad if the had any special talents and as it turns out they do - and I never knew!

My mum can whistle with her hooves and my dad can tap dance... who ever knew?!

Do you or any of your friends or family have any special secret talents? If you do I'd love to hear about them - remember our individualtities are what make us special and unique!

Well, today is Friendship Friday which is all about connecting with other people.

I think I told you before that I'm hoping to meet up with my friends, Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin soon, so I've being trying to list in my head everything I'm going to need to stay safe - while still having fun!

• A mask (my aunty has made some and sent them to us, so I can wear one of those - they're really snazzy with patterns)
• Hand sanitizer - to keep my hooves clean
• My own special blanket to sit on
• A selection of healthy snacks to nibble on (including lots of my 5-a-day! Hmmm maybe some carrot and cucumber sticks)
• Water - to keep me nice and hydrated
• Sunhat - to protect my ears from the sun
• Suncream - to protect my skin and fur from the sun.

If you can think of anything else, let me know!

Well, Derek tells me he has something exciting planned for our get together - I can't wait to hear what it is! I'll be able to tell you about it on Monday! Until then, I hope you have a fab Friday and wonderful weekend!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 59 - Thursday 2nd of July

How was your Work-out Wednesday? Did you do any exercise? Maybe you did some brain exercise, like the memory game I showed you. If you did, did you find it difficult or do you already have a super-big brain?

It's Thinking of Others Thursday today, so I've been thinking about what I could do, and maybe what you could do, too.

Thinking of other people, like my friends and family, got me thinking that although we're all similar - in that we all got on well and love each other - we actually have lots of differences too!

For a start, I'm a giraffe which is pretty different to Kiki who's a kangaroo and Derek who's a penguin. But if we were all giraffes it would be boring when we're all together - plus our differences help us do different things, for example Kiki is super-fast because she can bounce everywhere. I can reach really high-up things with my super-long neck, and Derek is waterproof! Did you know that penguins are waterproof? So if it's raining, he doesn't mind going outside and running errands for people (if it's safe, of course).

I suppose they are some pretty obvious differences, but even those of us who are more similar, like me with my mum and dad, have our own differences, too!

Of course, whilst we have many physical differences, not all of our differences are visible - our likes and dislikes might be complete opposites to our bestfriends! For example I love red peppers but Kiki refuses to eat them! 

The activity sheet below is all about thinking about our differences. You can click on the image to print it out, or if you don't have a printer you could just think about the differences between yourself and the people around you.

Just imagine how boring life would be if we were all identical, all good at the same things and all had the same opinions! Dull!

Well, I think that's made me have a good think about others! What about you?

Since Thinking of others Thursday is all about caring for other people, I am going to call Kiki and Derek later, then we can plan our day for when we see each other soon (socially-distanced, of course)! I'm so excited!

What plans do you have for today, the rest of the week or the weekend? I'd love to hear what you're getting up to! And did anyone make Sophie's Armpit Fudge yet?!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 58 - Wednesday 1st of July

Hello! Did you have a good Try-out Tuesday? As for my cycling, I made a good start. As I exepcted, it was pretty tricky (my neck kept swaying about in the wind) but by the end of my ride I'd already improved a lot!

I can't wait to go on another bike ride soon - hey, maybe I could do a socially-distanced cycle with Kiki and Derek! Though I'm not sure how good they are at cycling... Derek might struggle to actually get on the bike, never mind pedal, steer and balance! Life's hard when you're a penguin.

Well, Sophie emailed me about something she'd done at Brownies before lock down... it was certainly something very new - at least I'd never heard of it, perfect for Try-out Tuesday!

Now, this might sound a bit strange but Sophie promised me that this brave baking venture actually turned out to be extremely delicious!

So, here's the recipe for Sophie's Armpit Fudge... I know what you're thinking, but give it a chance!

Look, she's even written 'Warning: very delicious'! Well, maybe I'll have to give that a try. Thanks so much for sharing that with me, Sophie. I love hearing all the different things you've been doing, no matter how bizarre (or smelly) they might sound! 

Well since it's Workout Wednesday I thought I could go on another cycle ride! As well as that though, I've got another activity for you to have a go at. As you know, Workout Wednesday is all about keeping fit by doing exercise, but I also think it applies to other things like eating healthily and knowing how to keep our bodies and brains in tip-top shape!

Hey - did you notice that I mentioned our brains then? Staying healthy isn't all about the neck down! The brain is super-duper important when it comes to staying happy and healthy, so it's important to train it, just like we do with our bodies! 

Here's a brain training memory game for you to play! You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

How did you find that? Just like me with my cycling, practising things like that and doing games like that over and over again will improve how well your brain works too!

Well, I'd better get going - I've got cycling to be practising!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 57 - Tuesday 30th of June

Wow - it's the last day of June, already! You know what they say - time flies when you're having fun!

As you know, yesterday was Mindful Monday and as well as practising my mindful breathing I found something else all about mindfulness, too.

I'll show it to you, then you can do it, too!

It's called My New Normal poster. It's all about thinking about how we've adapted to life in lockdown over the past few months.

There are spaces for you to write down the new positive and healthy habits which you've stuck to - or are trying to stick to - at the moment. There are also some pretty patterns to colour in. Although I find colouring in a bit tricky, I also find it soooo relaxing! Now that really is mindfulness!

Here's the poster - you can click on the picture to make it bigger, and print it out too, to colour it in and write your healthy habits.

If you don't have printer, you could just write down your ideas on a piece of paper, or even just think about them in your head!

Since there are five spaces, I decided to write about each of the Five Ways to Wellbeing - can you remember those?

Here's a reminder:

• Take notice (Mindful Monday)
• Keep learning (Try-out Tuesday) 
• Be active (Workout Wednesday)
• Give (Thinking of others Thursday)
• Connect (Friendship Friday)

Can you think of a habit you've got into which applies to each of those?

Well, that leads me onto today, which is of course Try-out Tuesday. I got today's idea from a drawing which someone sent to me. I'll show you the drawing and then you can guess what I'm going to be trying today!

Yes - it's riding my bike! I absolutely love that drawing, too!

Now, there's a story about this, in fact some of you may have read it at school, all about me learning to ride a bike. If you think cycling's tricky as a human, try it as a giraffe with a super-long neck. It's pretty difficult!

However, if you've read the story you'll know that the only way to improve is by practising, so that's what I'm doing.

Slowly, I'll get better and better - by next year I'll be ready for the Olympics! (Good job they got pushed back a year, isn't it!?)

Well, that's my Try-out Tuesday sorted! It even combines a bit of Workout Wednesday! A double-whammy!

What plans have you got for today - are you trying anything new?

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 56 - Monday 29th of June

Hello! Did you have a good weekend? It was sooo windy and rainy at my house - it made my daily exercise very horrible!

The bad weather also meant I couldn't see my friends Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin, which made me very sad. I got quite annoyed and frustrated, but doing the 'calm palm' breathing from last Monday calmed me down!

It's all okay though - we're going to see each other when it's much nicer weather, so I'm super-duper excited for that! I've decided it'll be much more fun in the sun! Hey - that rhymes!

Well anyway, another week, another Mindful Monday!

Before I show you this week's mindful idea (drawn by my friend Alex) I thought I'd share with you a couple of pictures sent to me by George and Katy-Rose. They saw the 'calm palm' idea last Monday and decided to give it a go themselves!

Here they are:

They both said that the 'calm palm' breathing exercise was a really useful thing to know... now they know what to do when they're feeling stressed or annoyed! I'm so happy you found it useful - I'll be sure to let Alex know too!

Well, since that one was a success, I'll show you mindful top-tip number 3 from my friend Alex. This one's called 'square breathing'. 

Click on the image below to make it bigger - if you want you could even print the picture off and colour it in.

This is a really simple trick - all you need is a piece of paper. As the drawing shows, breath in, hold your breath for four seconds, breath out, hold your breath for four seconds and repeat, all whilst tracing the paper with your finger. So simple yet so effective!

If you do try it, let me know if it works for you! Even better, if you have any mindfulness tricks and tips of your own, email them to me! I love hearing the different things you're trying out!

Well today, other than practising mindful breathing and doing my school work and exercise, I don't know what I'm going to do! Since I've been stuck inside sooo long I've really run out of ideas!

If you have any ideas for me to try please let me know!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 55 - Friday 26th of June

Ahh, Friday already! My favourite day of the week! 

As I think you'll know by now, it's Friendship Friday so I've been looking back on some of your amazing art work and poems from last week's Great Get Together.

I love how they're all about caring for each other - that's so important with friendships!

I'm also looking forward to the weekend because I'm hoping that I'll be able to see my friends Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin, staying socially-distanced of course!

We could even do a socially-distanced band practice, like the drawing I showed you on Tuesday.

Of course there are still lots of things we need to do to keep ourselves and each other safe, like washing our hands with warm, soapy water, staying the right distance apart and staying outside... hopefully it won't rain - I'll need to take my umbrella in case, though!

One thing to remember is that friendship isn't always fun and games - sometime friends are sad and might even be unkind to each other, sometimes they even fall out. I know Kiki and Derek certainly do! But one skill that is important to practise is helping to sort out the fallouts!

In fact I've got an activity sheet you can do, all about helping our friends to make up. It's a story about me, my friend Jocko the Elephant and.... you!

In this story, Jocko and I have had a bit of a disagreement... it's your job to help us become friends again!

Click on the sheet to print it - cut out the pictures and stick them under the correct story sentences and fill in the blanks with your name and ideas!

If you can't print it out, why not act it out instead, with people in your family? Or just think about different ways of looking after friends.

Of course Friendship Friday is mostly about friends, but I suppose the same things apply to family too - like caring for each other. So I'm going to ring my grandad at the weekend too, I'll see how he's getting on with learning the guitar!

Well, I'd better get going - I think I need to plan for the busy weekend I have ahead of me.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 54 - Thursday 25th of June

Wow! Wasn't it warm yesterday! The fruit salad that I made was sooo refreshing! Ahhh!

Well, before I tell you about today, I need to give you the answers to yesterday's quiz, here they are:

1. The answer is A. Most brains weigh about 1.3kg - that's just a little bit less than the weight of a big bag of sugar!
2. The answer is B.
3. The answer is C. Cleaning the blood is just one of the 500 jobs that your liver does... that's a lot of jobs!
4. The answers are both B and C. Alcohol damages brain cells and it can also harm the liver and heart if a person drinks too much.
5. All three answers are correct - A, B and C! Cigarettes can damage the lungs from the build up of tar and gases. Nicotine, the drugs in cigarettes, causes the heart to beat faster and can even cause heart disease. Plus, there are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke which travel round in the blood stream, taking the place of oxygen which the body really needs.

Well, how many did you get right? Hopefully you've learnt something new!

As you know, today is my school's special day, all about sharing the books we love about love!

As well as all the ideas for books that you've been sending in (which I've loved reading), I've been thinking of my favourite books about caring for each other, kindness and friendship.

One that I thought of is No Matter What by Debi Gliori. It's all about loving someone and caring for them all the time, no matter what they might be like! It's one of my favourite books ever - it makes me all happy and sad... at the same time!

Here's a picture of me with it, maybe you could read it too!

I thought of a couple more books about caring and friendship, too (hey - they are two of my SCARF values!), like Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Dave's Rock by Frann Preston-Gannon.

Those books also link to Thinking of others Thursday, as they're all about looking out for each other!

Well, that's all I've got time for today. I've got a busy day ahead of me, which I'll tell you all about tomorrow!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 53 - Wednesday 24th of June

Hello everyone! Are you having a good week so far? Did you have a good Try-out Tuesday? I'm going to be trying to bake something new later in the week. I've loved hearing your suggestions - so far, I'm loving the sound of gooey chocolate brownies!

As we know, food like chocolate isn't exactly the most healthy, so it's important to balance it out with healthy things. And we all need to try to eat plenty of vegetables and fruit each day, so I might make a tasty fruit salad too, to help me get my 5-a-day!

It can also include doing exercise as part of a balanced, healthy life. Hey! That reminds me - it's Workout Wednesday!

Do you have any exciting exercises for today? It's important to do exercise as it is super-duper helpful in keeping all our organs healthy, like our heart, lungs and even our brain!

In fact, I've got a quiz all about the jobs that the different parts of our body do. It's called Doctor Harold's Body Quiz. (I'm not really a doctor, but I like finding out facts about the body!)

Click on the picture below to make the quiz bigger and then you can have a go at the questions:

I'll include the answers in tomorrow's diary... do you think you can get 5 out of 5! You can ask other people in your family, too - I wonder if they'll know them all?!

Well, even though I'm not actually at school, my school is having a special day on Thursday where we all share the books that we love, about love!

I've been thinking of all the books I like that are about things to do with love - kindness, friends, family and caring (hey - that's the second letter of my SCARF!). 

I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me which books you love about love, too, then I can share them all on Thursday's diary! I've already thought of one very special one. I'll show you tomorrow!

Well, I'd better get going, I've exercise to be getting on with! I hope you have a wonderful Workout Wednesday - let me know if you try any exciting exercises - I'm always looking out for new ideas!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home - and about books, of course - by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 52 - Tuesday 23rd of June

Hello, did you have a good Mindful Monday? Perhaps you tried the second mindful activity. If you did, did it make you feel calm or relaxed? I hope it did. 

If not, have you got your own top tip for relaxing? If you do, be sure to send it me - I'm always looking for ways to help you all!

Well, today it's Try-out Tuesday, and as you know I always try to include something - be it a photo or a story - about learning something new!

Last week we had a musical memo from Ethan (can you remember him playing guitar?), so I thought I could carry that on into this week!

You'll remember my friend Alex, who's really amazing at drawing. Well, he's sent me this super awesome drawing of me and my friends, Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin.

Look, it's the three of us in a socially-distanced band, all 2 metres apart, of course! If you want, you can click on the picture to print it out and colour it in.

As you know, I like singing - hopefully you've heard some of my songs, like I Believe In Me - and I also like to play guitar. But I'll tell you what, doing both at the same time would certainly be a challenge, and definitely a new thing for Try-out Tuesday. 

Plus, unless Kiki has a secret drumming talent that I never knew about, that's a brand new thing for her to be trying, too!

Have you got any plans for Try-out Tuesday? I've loved seeing all the new ideas and skills you've been sending me throughout lockdown, like baking, painting, gardening and doing sports - if you try anything else, let me know!

Hey, that reminds me! In lockdown I've discovered I love baking, and I'm not that bad at it... so I want to do some more this week. The only problem is, I've run out of ideas for what to make! I've done biscuits, cheesecake, energy bars and fruity faces (though I know that's not strictly baking!). I've also showed everyone all sorts of brilliant bakes that some of you've been sending me - plus Derek the Penguin's formidable fairy cakes!

So the question is, can you think of anything for me to make... I'm taking requests now!

If you have any suggestions for me for activities which don't include baking, I'd love to hear them too!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 51 - Monday 22nd of June

Hello! I realised something when I was writing my diary on Friday...we're up to day 50 of my diary (well, 51 today). That's half way to 100! That's a lot of days... and some of you have read it every single day! I hope you've enjoyed reading it and doing all the activities as much as I have writing it.

Well, that's another weekend gone! Did you have a good couple of days? Did you do anything for The Great Together? Hopefully you watched my Great Get Together Gallery, I was sooo extremely happy to receive so many amazing pieces of art, poems and photos! 

Thank you ever so much to all of you that sent in something, we really did have a great Great Get Together!

We're back to Monday again, so it's Mindful Monday. You might remember last Monday I showed you a picture that my friend Alex drew, all about ways of staying calm and relaxed if we begin to feel stressed or worried.

Here's another one from him!  Relaxing tip number two (I think Kiki the Kangaroo may have helped him think of it!)

For this easy breathing exercise, all you need is a 'calm palm'! 

Trace around one hand with a finger from the other hand, breathing in every time your tracing finger goes upwards towards your fingertip, and breath out every time it goes downwards towards your palm. 

It's not as complicated as it sounds, just follow the picture of Kiki's palm on the right. Remember to go slowly around each finger. It's not a race!

Well, this week isn't going to be as exciting as last week... I certainly won't be as busy, so it would be fab if you gave me some ideas for activities I could do!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 50 - Friday 19th of June

Hello, everyone!

Welcome to my Great Get Together Gallery! Here it is!

I'm feeling very happy today, just thinking about all the lovely, kind and caring things that you've been doing in your community.

Have a look at my special film showing your lovely pictures, poems and photographs.

I hope you enjoy looking at all these as much as I have! 

You can press pause on the poems, so that you have time to read all the wonderful words that have been written.

Thank you sooooooo much for sending me your masterpieces!

Have a happy Friday and a great weekend.

Stay happy and healthy - and I'll see you on Monday!

Love from Harold xxx

Thank you for all the lovely pictures and poems that you've sent for my Great Get Together Gallery! 

It's been so exciting seeing them all!  It made me feel very happy, thinking about how much you care about the people in your community.

I'm busy putting all the things you've sent into a special film that you can watch.

I'll be back soooooon! And the film with all your wonderful art work, photographs and poetry will be here, in my diary's Great Get Together Gallery for you to see at 10 o'clock.

So come back then to watch it!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 49 - Thursday 18th of June

Ahh - Thursday again! It's almost the end of the week, and you know what that means! Tomorrow is our Great Get Together. I've loved seeing all the artwork and poems you've been sending me over the past couple of days!

If you want your community celebration creation featured in tomorrow's diary remember to send it to my by 5 p.m. today!

Well, today I've got some super-cool drawings to show you that my friend Alex did. They're both from last year's Great Get Together. Here's one:

This was me, Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin putting up bunting. Look! Can you spot Derek who's got himself into a bit of a sticky situation?! He got stuck in the tree! Kiki used her brilliant bouncing (with the help of a trampoline) to reach the high up bits for tying the bunting (but don't try that at home! Kiki has extra special bouncing powers, being a kangaroo!)

Here's another pitcture:

Wowza! Look at those desserts! My icecream was bigger than Kiki and Derek standing on top of each other! 

Aaaw... last year's Great Get Together really was great!

You can print out both of these pictures and colour them in if you want to - just click on the one you want. If you do, please send a picture of it to me - I'd love to see it!

Well that brings me onto today - which is of course Thinking of others Thursday.

I suppose tomorrow is all about thinking of others - as the last few months have been. Tomorrow is like a celebration of all the thoughtfulness and kindeness that has been shown by sooo many people over the past few months.

Loads of the pictures you've been sending in have been about thinking of other people, and thanking them, too.

Why don't you create something which is about thinking of others - like a drawing or a poem (it can be a really short one!). Then you can send it to me and I can put it in tomorrow's diary, in celebration of everyone in our communties who've been thinking of each other!

Well I'd better get going - I've got a busy day ahead making preparations for tomorrow's Great Get Together.

Grown-ups can find out more information about how you can be part of our Great Get Together tomorrow, by clicking here.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or send me your Great Get Together community celebaration creations by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

Remember, the deadline is 5 p.m. today!

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 48 - Wednesday 17th of June

Did you have a good Try-out Tuesday? I decied to try my hand - or should I say hoof? -  at writing poems, so I can write one for The Great Get Together on Friday. I tried something called an acrostic poem. Have you ever heard of that? It's just a poem where you choose a word - I chose 'community'. Then you write a line that starts with each letter of the word. Hmm... that sounds a bit complicated, so I'll show you mine!

Maybe you could do one for our Great Get Together. If you do write one - or do anything else for that matter, like a picture or photo - be sure to send it me!

Well, Today is Work-out Wednesday. Do you have any plans for today's daily exercise? I'm still trying to make mine fun so that I enjoy doing it.

Sometimes, though, I feel sooo tired that I don't want to carry on, but I've found a recipe for home-made energy bars which give me loads of energy for doing exercise! 

If you want, you could make it, too! Then you'll be able to do lots more stuff throughout the day without feeling all tired! Yippee!

Click on the picture below to make the recipe bigger and have a go yourself - remember to ask your grown-up before you do anything in the kitchen!

Well, I'd better get going - I've got exercise to be doing and I might try a bit more poetry!

Remember - I would love you to send me poems, artwork, photos or anything else for my Great Get Together on Friday - that's the day after tomorrow!

For more information for grown-ups, click here.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or send me your Great Get Together community celebration creations by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 47 - Tuesday 16th of June

Ahh, Try-out Tuesday again! Are you going to be trying out anything new today? Or have you been trying something new during lockdown?

One person who has learnt something new is Ethan, who's seven. Can you guess what new skill he's been teaching himself? Here's a picture to help you:

Yes, he's been trying the guitar! He told me that he started playing his dad's old guitar last week... the guitar is almost as big as you, Ethan! 

Thanks so much for sending me that, I love seeing what you've been getting up to!

Well as you know, I'm spending this week preparing for The Great Get Together which is on Friday.

Because we can't actually go out to celebrate with our communities, I'd love to put some celebrations in my diary on Friday instead. So in preparation for that, I'd be so grateful if you could send me some things for it.

It can be anything that shows communties coming together and supporting each other - here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Pictures of a special place near where you live that your community takes care of, like a garden or park.
• Pictures of a special community group like Brownies, Cubs, Rainbows or Beavers.
• A local sports team or group that you're part of.
• A picture of a lovely memory you have from a community event - like a delicious cake you ate at a summer fair!
• A game that you played at a fun community event.

If you are going to send a photo, it's super-duper important that we have permission from your grown-up at home to use it. Permission forms can be downloaded here.

Why not do something that doesn't need a photo? For example, you could write a poem, or draw your own picture... the possibilities are endless!

For any of these things, you can use a special template, which you can print by clicking on the picture below.

Well, I can't wait to see all your community creations! 

For more information for parents about my Great Get Together, just click here.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or send me your Great Get Together community celebration creations by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 46 - Monday 15th of June

Did you have a good weekend? I had a bit of a disaster - I went out for my daily exercise in bright sunshine and half way through it started raining sooo heavily - and then it even started hailing! Crazy weather!

Well it's Monday again, which as you know means it's Mindful Monday. Being mindful can help us with our thoughts and feelings. It can help us to be calm and to be happy in the moment, rather than worrying about things in the past, that we can't change, or things in the future, that we can't control!

Sometimes we can feel a bit worried and stressed, especially with COVID-19, but I've been learning lots of ways to make myself feel better if I ever feel like that! 

In fact, my friend Alex (who is super-duper good at drawing) has done some drawings of things we can do to chill out. He's given me three fab ideas, so I thought I could share these with you - one each week for three weeks, then you can try each one and tell me your favourite!

So here's number 1:

As you can see, one of Alex's ideas is to think of something soothing that you like - for example, the light of a candle - or something pleasant - like strawberries - and really, really imagine them. Can you smell or taste a strawberry just by thinking of it?!

Of course, don't use a real candle to do this... we don't want any burnt noses!

Hey! I've just thought of something that's super special about this week, too. It's The Great Get Together event. Have you heard of that? It's a day that happens every year and it's all about people in communities coming together - neighbours, families, friends, pets... everyone, and getting to know each other better.

Last year we had a street party where loads of people joined in to have a big tea party. There was lots of tasty food - cake, biscuits, sandwiches and lots of great people. In fact I spoke to people that live near me who I'd never even seen before.

There was even a 'Conversation Menu' with loads of ideas for things to talk about, in case we were a bit shy! They helped us to  realise we all have so much in common!

In fact I'll show you it, so you can be thinking about some of the questions on there. You could discuss them with your friends and family (virtually!) and see how much you have in common! (Click on the picture to make it bigger.)

Some of those questions had the older grown-ups chatting for hours at our tea party last year!

Anyway, all through this week I'm going to be coming up with lots of ideas for things to do for a socially-distanced Great Get Together. Hmmmmm... this is going to be tricky!

Help!

Do you think you could help me? If you have any ideas, could you let me know them? Or did you take part in any celebrations last year? If you did, I'd love to know what you got up to!

You can tell me your ideas by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 45 - Friday 12th of June

Yippeeee! It's Friday again - almost the weekend!

Well, did you do anything special for Thinking of others Thursday? Perhaps you drew or coloured-in some of those pictures I showed you. If you did I'd love to see them!

As you know, today is another Friendship Friday, which is all about connecting with others. It's great that we can still feel connected with people even if we can't see them properly!

In fact, this morning I've done some craft which is all about connecting with friends! Can you guess what I've done?

I've made some paper chain friends. You might have made something similar before, like paper chain dolls.

If you've never heard of or seen them, they're just lots of little people all holding hands, all connected to each other!

I'll show you the ones I've made already, and then you can make your own, either using the template that I'll show you or just by starting from scratch!

Here's mine, I just did stick people as I'm not the best at drawing... my hooves get in the way! I wanted to draw Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin but I thought they might be too tricky, so instead I did little people.

You can have a go, too. Here are the instructions and template - if you want to use it. Just click on the picture below to make it bigger and print it off if you want.

If you make one, be sure to send me a picture of the finished product!

Well, what plans have you got for Friendship Friday and this weekend? Let me know... I still need ideas for things to keep me busy and entertained until I go back to school!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 44 - Thursday 11th of June

Hello! Did you have a good Work-out Wednesday yesterday? I video-called my friend Kiki the Kangaroo and we did exercise together. It was really funny - and tiring - but it made it soooo much easier! It was also great to speak to her... I miss her loads!

That reminds me - today is Thursday, and you know what that means! Yes - it's Thinking of others Thursday! As you all know, I really miss my grandparents. Hopefully I'll be able to see them soon, though!

Something that makes me happy is remembering some of the fun things I used to do with my grandma and grandad before lockdown started, like playing with them in the park.

I love playing in the park, especially sliding down the slide and swinging on the swings! Weeeeeeeee!

Another thing that makes me super-duper happy is looking at photos in my photo album. I found some the other day, look!

I can't wait to play football with my grandma again! I also miss my cousin, Daisy. We always have great fun playing together but I've not seen her in ages.

If you want, you click on one of my photo framed pictures to print them all off, then you can colour them in. Plus, there are two blank photo frames so you can draw pictures of yourself with family or friends that you miss!

If you click on the picture to print it, you'll notice that I've been cut in half on some of the pictures! Once you've printed out the two sheets, use glue or sticky tape to stick them both together.

If you can't print out the sheets, why not just draw your own pictures on scrap paper?

I think that's a lovely thing to do for Thinking of others Thursday, you could show the person who you decide to draw, then they'll really know you're thinking about them! Ahh!

I'm going to do that and send it to my grandma and grandad - I think they'll really like that!

Well, I'd better get going - I've got colouring-in to be getting on with, plus lots of school work!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 43 - Wednesday 10th of June

Ahh, Workout Wednesday - already! The weeks seem to go by so quickly! Today I'm going to do some more fun exercises, like last week when I did loads of hoola-hooping!

Are you going to do any Workout Wednesday exercise today? Did you know, we are supposed to try to do at least an hour of exercise each day?

Now, that does sound like quite a lot, but there are loads of ways to make it feel quicker and more fun - for example you could do exercise whilst you watch your favourite programme on TV, or video call a friend and do exercises together.

As we know, exercise isn't the only thing that keeps us healthy. Food is super-duper important too. It's good to always eat your 5-a-day of fruit and veg each day.

In fact, do you remember the fruity faces from last week? Well Rameen and Raima sent me some fruity faces which they've made. Here they are!

They are absolutely fab! I love the detail of the eye brows and also the spikey hair! Super tasty and super healthy! An ideal combination! Thanks for sending them to me!

Rameen also mentioned doing drawing and colouring during lockdown - I love colouring in, though sometimes I struggle to stay in the lines... my hooves are just so big and clumpy! But I've really improved during lockdown!

Anyway, did any of you do the mind bending puzzles from yesterday? If you did, I've got the answers here:

1. The vertical lines are actually straight - they just look curved!
2. You may see a vase or a pair of faces... but you can't see both at the same time.
3. Both lines are actually the same length, if you don't believe me, test them with a ruler!
4. You could either be looking down on a stack of rings or up a tunnel of rings... but again, you can't see both at the same time.

Well there you go, my mind is well and truly bent - and hopefully my brain's getting bigger, too!

Well I better get going - I've got lots of exercise to do today!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 42 - Tuesday 9th of June

Well, today is Try-out Tuesday - are you going to try out anything new today? 

I thought I might try a new way to grow my brain - you can do it too! Did you know that our brains are similar to muscles, so just like muscles in our body, brains grows bigger the more we use it, especially if we use it for hard work!

So I thought that even though school work helps my brain grow, I could do some extra brain-boosting activities!

Here's one all about optical illusions... that sounds a bit fancy but it just means tricking our eyes.

Have a look at this sheet (click on the picture to make it bigger) and I'll tell you the answers to it tomorrow!

Ahh, they make my eyes go all funny!

Well, you might remember me asking you all for ideas about what I could do for keeping in touch with friends and family on Friendship Friday, last week. 

I was super-duper happy when some of you from Flamingo Class at Highfield Primary School sent me the ways in which you've been keeping in touch with friends and family!

Edward, Amelia and Jack told me their ideas:

- Texting, phoning and video calling their grandparents

- Messaging friends on online games.

They are some fab ways to stay in touch with friends and family when we can't see them, thank you sooo much for sending me them! Remember if you're messaging friends or other people on online games be nice, be kind and always tell a grown-up if you receive a nasty message. 

Thanks so much, Flamingo class and Ms King, for your lovely messages to me!

Well I'd better get going, today I'm going to try some brain-boosting activities and maybe I could even create my own and test it on my mum or dad! You could do the same, and even show it to me!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 41 - Monday 8th of June

Ahh, Monday again! What did you get up to over the weekend?

I thought I'd start today's diary by showing you something totally awesome! As you know, I've discovered that I love baking, and someone who's sent me some brilliant biscuits is Finn. 

I absolutely love those, Finn! And they're the best animal too - of course!

Has anyone else been doing any baking? I'd love to see your creations!

Well, it's also Mindful Monday, so I've been really thinking about the past couple of months and the good and bad bits of lockdown. Obviously the saddest part is not being able to visit so many of you in schools (I can't wait to be back!). But it's also got me thinking about how I've enjoyed myself in lockdown and kept myself happy. As well as baking, I've loved reading story books and playing with my toys. What about you?

If you click on the picture below, you can print out the sheet and make your own bedtime star with pictures of some of your favourite things on it. It'll get you thinking for Mindful Monday!

If you can't print that sheet out, you can draw and cut out your own star from some paper or cardboard, like an old cereal box.

If you're not feeling particularly creative or crafty you can just have a think about some of your favourite things that make you happy!

If you do make a bedtime star, be sure to send me a picture of it, I'd love to find out about all of your favourite things!

Well I'll have to leave it there for today - I've got a busy day ahead, but I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 40 - Friday 5th of June

Wow, Friday - the end of the week already! Have you got any plans for the weekend?

Did you do the exercise poem from yesterday's diary? Two people who's hearts have certainly been going 'pumpety pump' are Poppy and Finn, who've both sent me a picture of them running!

Here's Poppy. She's been doing the Miles for Mind Charity challenge, and she set herself a target of doing 40 miles in the whole of May - plus she aimed to run 26.2 of them. (That equals a whole marathon!) Poppy, that is super-duper impressive - not only are you doing loads of exercise to stay healthy but you're also doing it for a great cause!

Here's Finn, who has also been running lots of miles - he did 15 in just one week! Can you spot his dog, Milo, who's been his running buddy? Awww!

Well, some absolutely OUTSTANDING efforts from both of you! Well done!

Now onto something a bit less healthy... I've finally got round to making my cheesecake! It was really simple - I didn't even have to use the oven! Unfortunately, it all got eaten before I had a chance to take a photograph! Oh well, there's always next time.

If you want to have a go at making your own mini cheesecakes with a fruity twist just click here and watch the video!

One last thing... today is Friendship Friday but I've completely run out of ideas for it! My best friends are Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin. During lockdown, we've done all sorts of things (away from each other, of course) like online calls, quizzes about each other, sending each other cards and judging each other's baking! I'm completely lost for ideas now - what can we all do?

I'd be ever so grateful if you could send me ideas for Friendship Friday and friendship in general! Thanks in advance!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 39 - Thursday 4th of June

It's Thursday again... almost the weekend!

Well yesterday I had an awesomely active afternoon for Workout Wednesday, I did some exercises in my bedroom. But there's a twist!

Since I'd got a bit bored of normal exercise like running or star-jumps I decided to try something new... hoola-hooping! My mum said that it's great for staying healthy because it uses loads of my energy.

Sometimes exercise can feel really hard work and a bit boring, but actually we can make it fun - for example by doing something more exciting, like dancing or in this case... hoola-hooping! (I found that I'm especially good at that, thanks to my extremely extensive neck!)

In fact, I've got an exercise-poem that you can do (I bet you've never had one of those before!) to make your daily exercise a bit more fun! Here it is, read the poem and then do the actions it says - or do both at the same time! (Click on the picture to make it bigger.)

Well today is Thinking of Others Thursday, so I'm going to call my grandma and grandad for a chat! How are you still showing people that you care about them even when you can't see them properly?

Anyway I'd better get going because today I'm finally going to be making that cheesecake that I keep mentioning! What have you got planned for today? I'd love to hear what you're getting up to.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 38 - Wednesday 3rd of June

Ahh, Wednesday - we're half way through the week, already!

Do you want the good news or bad news first?

I'll get the bad news over with first... I ran out of time to make my cheesecake! But now for the good news... Anna has been baking instead! She made some AMAZING cupcakes - they look like piglets and dogs! They're fab, I love them and your decoration is superb, Anna! Thanks for sharing!

She also made a lovely Victoria sponge cake. Has anyone else been baking? I'd love to see your culinary creations!

Although I didn't have time to make the cheesecake, I did make the fruity face that I mentioned yesterday - here's a picture, can you spot the four different fruits I used?

I've also got some exciting news - did you guess which famous illustrator had drawn some pictures for my Daily Diary? It was Nick Sharratt! You might remember me telling you about one of my favourite books, You Choose, a few weeks ago. Well all the pictures in there are drawn by Nick, too!

Anyway he's drawn some fab posters about washing our hands, which is super-duper important at the moment!

There's one that's already coloured in, plus a blank one which you can print and colour in yourself. Here they are - just click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Well I'd better get going, I've got a lot to be getting on with - after all, it's Workout Wednesdayso I need to get going and do some exercise!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 37 - Tuesday 2nd of June

I read the Everybody Worries e-book yesterday, it really helped me not to worry about all the unusual and different things going on at the moment! Have you read it? You can find it in my diary from yesterday. 

It's Try-out Tuesday again, so today I'm going to try out a brand new recipe. Can you guess what I'm making? Cheesecake! My mum said she loves cheesecake, but it sounds funny to me - cake and cheese? Surely not! She told me it has a special kind of cheese in it though, cream cheese, not cheddar cheese - phew! I'm not sure that would be very tasty...

Have you done any baking in lockdown? If you have, I'd love to see your tasty treats! Maybe you've not been baking, but you might have learnt a new skill or taken up a new hobby. My Grandad is teaching himself to play the guitar!

Anyway, I'll let you know how my cheesecake goes tomorrow, with pictures, of course!

I've been thinking though... looking at the recipe, it seems that cheesecake has loads of sugar in it.  So it's ok to have a little bit - but not too much, because our bodies don't really need added sugar. So that gives me an idea - I could balance it out with something healthy! Here's an idea (click on the picture to make it bigger):

Fruit is super-duper healthy, because it has loads of incredibly important vitamins and minerals in it, which both do super-duper important jobs in the body! It also gives us lots of energy so we don't feel tired or hungry.

If you decide to make a cheesecake, you could even decorate it with the fruity face, or just make a fruity face by itself. Can you get some of your 5-a-day in there? If you make one, be sure to send a picture of it to me!

Well anyway, I'd better get going - I've got baking to be getting on with, as well as my school work!

Oh! I nearly forgot - make sure you visit my diary tomorrow (that's Wednesday!) because I have an extra special picture to show you, drawn by a very famous artist! And it's especially for YOU! Here's a clue about the artist - his initials are N.S. Can you guess who it is?!

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 36 - Monday 1st of June

Wow! It's Monday again and the first day of June! 

Well, did you have a nice week - what did you get up to? The weather where I live was super sunny and warm so I spent a lot of time outside. One thing I did outside was look after some potatoes I've been growing. Since it's been so hot and there's been no rain at all, it was very important that I watered them every day, otherwise they'd die!

It's the start of a new half-term, and some people from my school are going back some time this week - though I'm not one of them, I have a bit longer at home. It does make me sad that I can't see my friends, but at least I can still call them and speak to them, even if it's not in real life!

Perhaps some of you are going back to school this week, or in the next few weeks. There'll probably be some new rules to keep us all safe from COVID-19. It will all be a bit different, I think.

My friend Kiki the Kangaroo (do you remember Kiki? She's the one who likes to bounce!) told me about a book she read all about not worrying too much about the virus, even though it can sound a bit scary!

Would you like to read it? You can also watch it being read by the author, Jon Burgerman.

Click on the picture below to read the e-book, or click on this link to watch the video!

It's Mindful Monday today and I've been thinking of things I do if I feel worried. One thing I can do is talk to my mum. She always comforts me and makes me feel better! I could also do my pufferfish breathing that I told you about a few weeks ago, that's great at calming me down! 

What do you do when you're feeling worried? Let me know, I'd love to hear your ideas to share with everyone!

Well I'd better get going, I've got school work to be doing and I'm also going to practise some mindfulness activities today.

You can tell me your ideas for activities or what you've been doing to stay busy, either at school or at home, by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 35 - Friday 22nd of May

I can't believe it's Friday again, already! And... it's the holidays starting from this evening, yay! 

Well, since it's Friday that also means that we're coming to the end of Mental Health Awareness Week, and Kindness week. But that doesn't mean we stop being kind! I hope this week has helped you to think about kindness, I know I've learnt a lot from you, too!

As promised yesterday, I've finished my rainbow kindness sheet so you can have a look. Click on the picture to make it bigger:

I thought to wind up Kindness week, I could leave you with a few easy tips and tricks for making yourself and others happy during lockdown! They've worked for me! Ha ha!

Here are some ideas:

• offer to clear the table without being asked
• offer to help with jobs or chores at home
• write a letter or card to a friend or family member

Well, can you remember what I was doing this time last week? Yes, making biscuits! So this week, I thought I'd show you a picture that Arthur from Wescott Primary School sent in of a brilliant biscuit he made!

Can you guess why I absolutely LOVE it... because it's a giraffe! And everyone knows giraffes are the best animals! 

You might remember me telling you about my friend Derek the Penguin, and his love of baking. Well, he's a great biscuit-maker, so I showed him Arthur's biscuit and he said it was fabulous! So thank you and a big well done!

Well it's Friendship Friday, too, which is all about connecting with family and friends. I think there's quite a lot of overlap between being kind to others and connecting with them. For example when I sent a card in the post to Kiki and Derek, it was being kind and connecting.

I thought of an idea to connect with Kiki and Derek for Friendship Friday! Later on I'm going to call them and ask them for Five Friendship Facts, all about themselves. Doing this will help me to learn even more about them, even though I can't actually see them.

Here are some questions I might ask:

• What is your favourite food?
• What is your biggest achievement?
• What is your favourite book?
• What do you like most about lockdown?

Why don't you do that? You could call a friend or relative (with the help of a grown-up) and find out a few things you never knew about them! You could even just ask the people in your house.

Well that's all for today. I hope you have a super-duper great holiday next week - I'd love to see what you're going to be doing so pleaseeee send me anything you've been getting up to, then I can share it with everyone in my diary after half-term!

You can tell me your ideas for activities, what you've been doing in lockdown or what your plans for the holidays are by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk

As always, REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy - see you soon!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 34 - Thursday 21st of May

Ahh, it's almost the end of the week. It's super sunny where I live so I'm going to go on a walk later on to get some exercise and fresh air! I find that a bit of exercise and fresh air really helps my concentration with school work.

Well, today's the fourth day of Kindness week and it's Thinking of Others Thursday! I think being kind to other people is pretty similar to 'thinking of others', so today's a Double Day of Decency! (The word 'decency' is a new one for me - it means being thoughtful and respectful to others.)

Anyway, I had a lovely email from Emily in response to Misha's problem from last week (can you remember? She'd fallen out with her friend Sasha and needed advice). I thought it was ever so kind and really showed how Emily was thinking of other people's feelings - perfect for Thinking of Others Thursday! Here it is:

It says:

"I am sorry you fell out with Sasha. Why don't you tell her you are sorry and that you want to be friends? Good luck! Love, Emily."

Ahh, that's so kind and thoughtful, I'm sure that would help them make friends again!

Anyway, I thought that in Kindness week we've been doing lots of things ourselves to be kind, so it would be nice to hear about someone else being kind! Here's a story for you to read, all about how important it is to be kind! Just click on the picture below. There are some blank spaces in the story which you can fill in using the pictures at the top. (You can print the sheet out or just fill the gaps as you're reading it.)

You could even write your own story about kindness and leave some gaps - then you could get someone at home to try and fill them in! My mum says that she used to make up loads of stories like that - with missing words - with her sister, then they had to fill in the gaps with drawings.

Remember... it's cool to be kind!

Well I'd better get going, I've got a busy day ahead!

Oh - I've just remembered, I've been filling in my Rainbow Kindness sheet from Monday all week, with kind things that I've been doing. I'll show you it tomorrow as we come to the end of Kindness week. Have you been filling in yours?

You can email me with your ideas for activities, about what you've been doing, or your ways to be kind by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 33 - Wednesday 20th of May

We're half way through Kindness week already! What have you been doing to be kind?

I thought I'd make some cards today for my friends Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin. I can post these to them. I know that will really make them smile!

As well as being kind to others, it's super-important to be kind to ourselves, too! We can do this by not putting ourselves down and congratulating ourselves whenever we achieve something - even if it's only a small thing! Next time you get a job done, like school work or chores, give yourself a little pat on the back and say 'Well done!' Ha ha!

In lockdown it's easy to get fed-up or frustrated, so being kind to yourself and people you live with (who might also feel a bit fed-up or frustrated) is super-duper important!

Someone who has been feeling a bit like that is James. He emailed me saying that he loves all kinds of sports, so it's very sad and frustrating that he can't really play them at the moment. But then he said today he's feeling very happy because he played his first cricket match in his alleyway - and although it was hard work it was REALLY fun! Look, here's a picture:

Well that's given me an idea for Work-out Wednesday! I'm going to practise some catching and throwing with my mum. I'm not great with hand-eye coordination (although that's not being very kind to myself!) but you know what they say... practice makes perfect!

Anyway I'd better get going, I've got cards to be making and throwing and catching to be practising! AND my school work!

I'd love to see what you've been doing for Work-out Wednesday or work-out any day of the week! Have you managed to carry on playing sport during lockdown, like James has?

You can email me your ideas for activities, what you've been doing in lockdown, or the ways or ways you've been staying sporty at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Day 32 - Tuesday 19th of May

Ahh, another Try-out Tuesday and the second day of Kindess week!

Did you do the sheet from my diary yesterday and think of lots of ways we can be kind? I had a few ideas, here are some:

• Remember to use my manners, say 'please' and 'thank you'
• Compliment others, for example 'I love the jumper you're wearing!' or 'Your hair looks nice today!'
• Apologise if I say something or do something unkind (although try not to do those things in the first place).

What else did you come up with?

For Try-out Tuesday I thought I'd try something arty, inspired by Noah and Benjamin who sent me some fab pictures, look!

It's called Hand Pop Art and it's inspired by the famous artist Andy Warhol, have you heard of him? Well if you want to have a go at creating some Hand Pop Art (or Hoof Pop Art in my case), here's what to do, (remember to ask your grown-up at home before you do this as it could be a bit messy!):

You will need:

• Paper or card in bright, contrasting colours
• Big piece of paper (any colour)
• Paint (this can be black or another colour)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue

And here are step-by-step instructions:

1. Draw round your hand on some coloured card, using the pencil.
2. Then cut around the hand very carefully, you might need an adult to help with the scissors.
3. You can use that cut-out to make three more hands  - draw round the cut-out and then cut those out too.
4. Once you've done that you should have four cut-out hand shapes.
5. Glue each of these onto a piece of different colour card, as you can see Noah and Benjamin have done in the picture, (look underneath the black paint).
6. Stick these four pieces of card to your big piece of paper and trim off any excess from the big piece underneath.
7. Paint your hands with black paint.
8. Carefully place your hand onto the cut-out hand to make the print, then carefully (again) peel your hand away.
9. Now leave your masterpiece to dry!
10. Lastly, send a picture to me!

Phew, it's tired me out just writing that!

Well I'd better get started on my Hoof Pop Art. After I've done that I'm going to be all arted out!

I'd love to use another one of your ideas for the next Try-out Tuesday, so please keep sending them to me!

You can email me with your ideas for activities, about what you've been doing, or your ways to be kind by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 31 - Monday 18th of May

It's Monday again! Did you have a good weekend? 

Now this week is a special week - do you know why? It's Mental Health Awareness Week, and it's all about kindness! Our mental health just means how we feel inside, so it's a bit different to our normal, physical health - though that's still important too! 

How we feel inside involves all our feelings and emotions - if we feel happy, sad, excited, lonely... the list goes on! These feelings are often affected by other people, too, and that is why it's super important to always be kind to people!

Since it's Mindful Monday, I've been thinking about how we can be kind to other people and ourselves. If you click on the picture below, you can print out (or draw your own version of) the activity sheet. I'm going to write down some ways in which we can be kind, and maybe draw some ways too - you can do whichever you prefer!

Why don't you send me all your ideas? I'd love to see them. 

Thinking about being kind reminded me of something! Corban emailed me telling me about loads of things he's been growing at home, including herbs, flowers, carrots and tomatoes! That's loads, and he's only 4! It made me think, we can be kind to plants too. 

Now that might sound a bit silly - but plants will only grow if we care for them, giving them water, light, space and air, just in the same way humans need food and fresh air to grow! Corban has been checking the seedlings every moring, and watering them every morning, too! He has obviously been very kind and caring to all his different plants, or they wouldn't have grown so well! 

Here's a great picture of them from a couple of weeks ago - I wonder if they've grown much since then.

Well anyway, I'd better get going - I'm going to start my day by doing the kindness sheet, and then I'm going to make sure I'm super-duper kind to my family all day... and all week... and after that too, of course!

You can email me with your ideas for activities, about what you've been doing, or your ways to be kind by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 30 - Friday 15th of May

Wow! It's day 30 of my diary already - that's a whole month! I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it.

And another Wow!... because it's Friday, already!

That means it's Friendship Friday, so later on I'm going to call my friends Kiki the Kangaroo and Derek the Penguin. I could even show them the baking I've been doing. (Derek loves baking, he'll make a great judge for my biscuits!) 

That reminds me - I must show you what I've made. I decided to make SCARF biscuits to celebrate our week of telling you about my SCARF. They're a bit messy... but VERY tasty! Have you been doing any baking in lockdown? I'd love to see your culinary creations!

Look, I tried to do the SCARF colours too - can you tell? I did some stars as well, since we're all being stars in lockdown (and not in lockdown, too) but they burnt a bit - whoops!

Well anyway, since it's the last day of the school week, it's the last day of me telling you about my SCARF. And you'll never guess what the last letter 'F' stands for... it's Friendship! Yes that's right, today is a double-whammy Friendship Friday!

It's important to remember that even if we can't actually see our friends and play with them, we can still communicate and have fun together! That's why I call Kiki and Derek. We always have such a laugh! How are you keeping in touch with your friends? 

Well we're almost at the weekend, hasn't this week gone quickly?! What are you going to be doing this weekend? I've had an idea for a project, inspired by Thomas and Charlotte. They sent me this magnificent masterpiece of a T-Rex which they made from just twigs and sticks. 

It's ROARsome! You could even say it's T-rex-iffic!

I think I'm going to try and make a giraffe - although that could be a bit tricky! Why don't you have a go and send me a picture of your creations? I LOVE seeing what you've been doing, it brightens my day!

Well I'd better get going - I've got friends to call! (I'm making the most of Friendship Friday - though I'd say it's Friendship day every day of the week!)

You can email me with your ideas for activities, about what you've been doing, or your fantastic creations by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 29 - Thursday 14th of May

Ahh, it's Thinking of Others Thursday again! Thursday is one of my favourite days because sometimes I call my grandma and grandad so they know I'm still thinking of them!

I think it is very important to show your friends and family that you care about them, and there's lots of ways we can do this! Why don't you have a go at this activity sheet - it's all about thinking of other people's feelings.

You could even send me the letter you write!

Another way I'm going to be thinking of others for Thinking of Others Thursday is by doing Clap for Carers at 8 o'clock this evening. It's a little bit past my bedtime but mum says it's okay because it is for a very good cause! My next-door-neighbour is a nurse and she says it's lovely that people appreciate all the hard work they are putting in, and the risk they are putting themselves at to help all of us!

Well anyway, as you'll remember I'm telling you all about my SCARF this week. I can't believe we're nearly at the end of it! The fourth letter of my SCARF is 'R' for Resilience. Resilience is all about picking yourself up again when things go wrong, or bouncing back when you've been feeling sad. I think I've been resilient in lots of ways during lockdown - and I'm sure you have, too! For example, it makes me sad that I can't see my friends, but when I start to feel lonely I call them online or do something else to distract myself - then I'll feel happy again! Sometimes I find my school work a bit tricky and want to give up! But instead of quitting I ask my mum or dad for help and we work it out together - that's resilience! How do you think you show resilience? I'd love to hear all your ideas - please send them to me!

Well I'd better get going - today I'm going to do some baking! I tried to make biscuits yesterday but unfortunately they went a bit wrong... so in the true spirit of resilience I'm going to try again today! I'll let you know how it goes!

You can email me with your ideas for activities or just about what you've been doing by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 28 - Wednesday 13th of May

It's Work-out Wednesday, what exercise are you going to do today? Lily and Alfie sent me this picture of them riding their bikes, Alfie's only just learnt how to, but they both cycle six miles every day! Wow!

I find it quite hard to ride my bike... my neck's a bit long... I'm great at dancing though! Today I'm going to make up some dance routines to some super songs that Conall sent me for my 2.6 challenge. I loved them so much that I'm going to use them again!

Maybe you could make up a dance to one of them, too! Here they are:

- Cha-cha Slide

- Macarena

- Uptown Funk

Some fab songs, thanks Conall!

Do you remember my word search from yesterday? Did you try to do it? Well here are the answers in case you did! Click on the word search to make it bigger.

How did you do?

It's the third day of the week (already!) so I'm going to tell you about the third letter of my SCARF. It's 'A' for Achievement. Since lockdown started I think I've achieved lots of things, even if they're only small! Growing my carrot tops, completing school work and doing my 2.6 challenge have all been little achievements for me! Every time I achieve something I feel very happy inside. What achievements have you made in lockdown - or even before lockdown? Let me know!

Well, I'd better get going, I've got dance routines to make!

You can email me with your ideas for activities or just about what you've been doing, and your achievements, by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 27 - Tuesday 12th of May

Another Try-out Tuesday! Today I'm going to try something completely new to me - FRENCH! Logan sent me one of his favourite songs, Frère Jacques, which is sung entirely in French. If you click here you can listen to it and sing along!

Since it's the second day of the week, I'm going to be telling you about the second letter in my SCARF - 'C'. Can you guess what it stands for? It's Caring! I always try to be very kind and caring. You can be caring in lots of different ways, too - big and small! One way we can care for people is by helping them. In fact that reminds me of a song Libby sent to me, which is 'I'd do anything' from the musical Oliver Twist. It's all about doing things for others and helping the people you care about! Ahh!

What sort of things do you do to show that you care about people? Let me know! It's especially important at the moment to help and care for other people. That's what all our key workers are doing, as well as grown-ups at home. In fact each and every one of us are all helping each other in different ways.

You'll remember from yesterday that I was going to make a word search from my favourite book, Captain Coram. Well I did it today, and now you can try and find the words, as well as making your own. (You can use the blank grid below, or draw it yourself!) I'll reveal the answers in my diary tomorrow, so in the meantime let me know if you can find all my special words! (Click on the picture below to try my word search - you can print it out or try it on your screen.)

Click on the picture below to make your own wordsearch!

Thomas also sent me a word search that he made all about VE Day, which was on Friday. Click on it to make it bigger or print it out. Can you spot all the words?

Well I'd better get going, I've got a busy day ahead of me! What are you doing to stay busy this week?

You can email me with your ideas for activities or just about what you've been doing by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 26 - Monday 11th of May

Ahh it's Monday again! Did you have a good weekend? It was very sunny where I live so my daily exercise was lovely and warm!

Today it's Mindful Monday so I've been thinking about what I could do this week to keep myself busy, as well as school work of course! I thought I could tell you all about my SCARF - why I wear it and what it means.

Did you know that each letter of SCARF stands for a different word? I think I will tell you about a different letter each day of this week. If you think you know what any of them stand for, or you think you can have a good guess, let me know!

So the first letter is 'S'. Have you got any guesses what that stands for? It's Safety.

There are a lot of things we can do to stay safe at the moment. Most importantly I stay at home and inside, but if I ever go out (like to the shop) I wash my hands very thoroughly with warm soapy water.

That's not the only way we can stay safe, either. It's important to stay safe on the internet, like when I call my friends or grandparents. My mum is great at helping me stay safe online, but she helps me to stay safe with other things too, at home, like using scissors if I'm cutting something out, or using a knife if I'm chopping fruit or veg.

Do you remember Connor's book review word search idea from last week? Over the weekend I read one of my favourite books, Captain Coram. So for Mindful Monday I'm going to put my tablet away and focus on thinking of some words to create my word search. Why don't you have a go too at making a book review word search, like Connor. You can test it out on people in your family... and me! I'd love to see your word searches, and the books you've been reading.

Well I'd better get going, I need to start picking out important words from my book to create the word search.

You can email me about what you've been up to, or any ideas for what I can do this week by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 25 - Friday 8th of May

I'm back - and ready to write my diary!

Here's my bunting! Do you like it?

My mum helped me a bit with it. It wasn't too tricky. Maybe you'd like to make some. Here's what you need to make it:

• Some odd bits of cardboard - nothing fancy!
• Some felt tips or coloured pencils or paint. Or you could even stick things on it like bits of old wrapping paper or things cut from magazines!
• A hole punch - if you don't have one, you could make the holes using a sharp pencil. If you're using a pencil, put something soft or squishy underneath the card, like Blu-tac or a sponge, and rest this on the table. Push the pencil through the card - this way you won't prick yourself.
• A pair of scissors (ask a grown-up which ones are safe to use!)
• A ruler and pencil.
• A bit of old ribbon or some string.

And here's how I made it:

1. First I cut out some triangle shapes. My mum helped me to measure these out - we used a ruler and pencil for this, to make sure that they were the same size, but you don't have to. And you don't have to make triangle shapes, either! You could do squares, circles, rectangles, parallelograms, trapeziums... dodecagons! (Ha, ha, ha! Can you tell that I've been learning about different shapes from my school home learning pack?!)
2. Then I decorated the shapes. Do you like my rainbow theme?
3. Next I made holes in them, ready to thread the ribbon through so that I could hang my bunting.
4. Finally, I threaded them all onto a ribbon. Hey presto! 

Some people are having VE Day celebrations with bunting today. I'm using mine for my thank you to key workers! I'm going to hang it in my window. I found some facts about VE day from the brilliant BBC Newsround website. Click HERE if you'd like to read them, too!

Today is Friday - so that means Friendship Friday. It's all about connecting with others. It's the day that I always try to talk with Grandma and Grandad.  Now I come to Connor's second idea from his message to me! Do you remember that I mentioned it yesterday? Well, Connor really likes reading and sometimes - for his school work, I think - he has to write book reviews.

He's come up with a brilliant idea for a book review with a difference! Here's what he does... When he's finished a book he makes some of the words from it into a word search. Then he gives this to his mum! She has to complete the word search challenge! 

The words he chooses are all particular ones from the book. Not just any old word like 'the' or 'very'! He chooses special words, like people's names, places and special or important objects from the story.

That's so brilliant!

And I've decided that I'm going to make a word search today for my grandma and grandad! I can send it to them in an email. They love doing puzzles - especially my grandma - and it will show them that I'm thinking of them. I might even hide the words 'grandma' and 'grandad' into my word search! And maybe 'Harold', too!

That gives me another idea! I could put a book word search into my diary and then you could do it - and you could guess the book that it's from! 

I'd better get started! This is going to take me some time!

You can email me with your ideas for activities or just about what you've been doing by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 24 - Thursday 7th of May

It's Thinking of Others Thursday - again! The weeks seem to be going by quite quickly.

Did you have a good Workout Wednesday? I did over 100 skips with my skipping rope! I used to only be able to do 50 before getting in a tangle! I've been practising, though, and I'm getting better at it! Practice makes perfect as they say!

I need to say thank you to Connor for today's diary idea - in fact for TWO ideas! Connor wrote to me and told me about all the things he's been doing while his school is closed. I can't believe how much he's done! Here are just some of the things...

• Planting sunflowers, peas, beans, chillies and courgettes (I hope they all grow into wonderful big plants, Connor!)
• Taekwondo using Zoom! 
• Walking 
• School work (like me!)
• Cooking pizza and spaghetti
• And....Making bunting for VE day!

So that has given me an idea. I'm going to make bunting today and maybe you could make some, too. I'm just going to make it by cutting out triangles from pieces of card or thick paper - maybe I could use some old cardboard boxes! Then I'm going to decorate the triangles and finally stick them to some string. I wonder how I can fasten them to the string. I'll have to think about that! 

Here's what bunting looks like - have you seen any?

Lots of people have been making bunting - like Connor and his mum - for VE day. I don't know much about that so I'm going to find out some VE day facts today! Perhaps you know some already and could tell me some facts that you know? 

I'm going to decorate my bunting with rainbows then hang it up outside to say thank you to all those people who are helping us now, like the NHS, and teachers who are still going into schools, and people who work in shops and the police and fire services. All of them are working so that I can keep safe and I think that's very kind. So my rainbow bunting will be to say thank you to all those people who are keeping us safe. Just right for Thinking of Others Thursday! Perhaps I could hang it in my window.

I don't know whether to paint my rainbows or draw them with felt tips - or maybe coloured pencils! I'll have a think.

Anyway, Connor also had another brilliant idea for an activity - but I'll save that for another day! Because now it's time for my school work. Then it's bunting time!

You can email me with facts about VE day or about what you've been up to by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

This is me, falling on the grass after my hundred skips! Ha ha ha!

My daily diary

Day 23 - Wednesday 6th of May

Would you like to see the carrot tops that I've been growing? You might remember that I mentioned them in my diary, yesterday.

Look! Here they are! Perhaps you'd like to grow some. This is how to do it:

First of all, with a grown-up helper (for safety) and with permission, of course, cut the tops of some ordinary bald little carrot tops, like this...

Then add some water and wait...

...and wait (you have to be patient now!)

Then if it all goes well, this should happen...

Here's another picture of them...

I like the bright green of their new leaves! Mum says we can't eat them, but it's fun to watch them growing with the water, air, light and space that they have.

I'll take some pictures of the potato we planted and show you those soon, too!

Well it's Workout Wednesday again already! I'm going to do some more skipping challenges today. What are you doing for your daily exercise? Sometimes I do my daily mile walk but I don't do that every day at the moment because I'm staying at home. But skipping is great fun and it really tires me out! 

You can email me about what you've been up to by writing to me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 22 - Tuesday 5th of May

It's Try-out Tuesday again! I'm going to try growing something today. This idea came from some photographs that Rory sent me, last week.

Rory has been growing sunflowers from some seeds. Look! Here are some pictures of Rory growing and measuring the new plants!

Can you see? Rory, his brother Matthew and his mum are all growing a sunflower. Rory's was the tallest on the 24th of April.

I wonder if it still is?

And it was Rory's birthday last Wednesday, too! He's seven now. 

Humans are a bit like plants - we grow when we're younger. And we need lots of the same things that plants need to help them grow. Can you guess the different things that plants need to grow?

Have a look at this funny CBBC film to see if you guessed correctly!

I don't have any seeds and I can't really go out to the shops to buy some, but my mum found some carrots and potatoes that we'd forgotten about, in a paper bag. The carrots had started to grow little green leaves from the tops. And the potatoes had long white stalks growing out of them. So we planted the potato in some soil. (You don't even need a garden to grow potatoes! You can grow them in a big bucket!) 

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what happened.

Maybe you could try out something new for Try-out Tuesday. It doesn't have to be growing something. It could be something like reading a book you've never read before, writing a poem, or making something from things like empty cereal packets.

Whatever you decide to do I hope you have a lovely day.

Thank you Rory for these brilliant photographs, and to all of you for all the lovely messages and ideas you're sending me! I love reading them all! And everyone who sends me a message or an idea gets one of my special certificates! 

You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 21 - Monday 4th of May

I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was very, very busy!

I sang my 26 songs for my 2.6 challenge - five for each part of my wellbeing wheel...

5 about being active

5 about being creative

5 about having mindful, calm moments

5 about connecting with others

5 about giving to others.

I sang all the songs you suggested in my 26 songs. 

Then I realised that 5 x 5 is 25. Only 25! Quick! I thought, I need to sing another song to complete my challenge. Then I remembered one of the songs that I sing to the friends I meet when I'm visiting schools! It was perfect - it had something about every part of the wellbeing wheel so it was the perfect final song! Like a little crown on my crooning challenge! Ha ha! Crooning is another word for singing! 

I enjoyed it so much that I made a film of this song to show you (with a bit of help from my mum, of course!) Would you like to see it?

There's even a bit with my grandma and grandad on from when I went to stay with them! Don't worry - that was ages ago! I didn't leave home to make the film. I'm still staying safe inside! 

Here it is....

Here's a little activity for you - listen to the words of the song and make a list of these things...

- Things you can do that you couldn't do when you were little.

- Things you can do now - things you like and that you're good at.

- Things that you'd like to be better at, that you could practise over and over and improve at.

- Things you'd like to be in the future, when you're grown up - and what you need to do now to achieve your goals!

And remember, we all need a little help sometimes and we all need a bit of belief in ourselves - we need to try and try, and be our best!

Well, it's Mindful Monday again, so I'm going now to write down my ideas for things I'd like to be able to do when I'm older, then I'm going to listen to some of my lovely calming songs and have a little rest. All that singing has made me quite tired!

But I'll be back tomorrow with some more activities and ideas for Try-out Tuesday!

Thank you for all the lovely messages and ideas you're sending me! I love reading them all! And everyone who sends me a message or an idea gets one of my special certificates! (Did you spot mine in the video?)

You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk.

REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 20 - Friday 1st of May

May! It's the first of May already!

Sorry that my diary is a bit late! I've been really, really busy again!

I've been doing my school work and also... practising my GUITAR!

Yes! I'm learning some chords on the guitar for my 2.6 challenge singathon, this weekend!

I'm so excited to be singing all the songs that you've suggested. 26 of them!

Today is Friendship Friday and I'm going to have a rehearsal for my weekend singathon by singing some songs to my grandma. I'll have to do it through our computer - I hope that she'll be able to hear me ok!

I hope you're having a good day. I spoke to my friend, Derek yesterday. He told me a funny story. Derek loves baking. He was making some buns but he accidentally dropped the bag of flour on the floor and it went EVERYWHERE! He said that he looked like a polar bear, not a penguin!

Maybe I'll try to make some cupcakes next week! So much to do! I'd better go now and practise my guitar a bit more, ready for my 2.6 challenge!

Thanks to all of you who've sent me ideas for songs to include in it. And make sure you check my diary on Monday to see some pictures from it!

Remember to keep sending me your ideas for songs - or for fun things to do in May! You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me, and have a great Friendship Friday.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 19 - Thursday 30th of April

Thursday afternoon - already!

I hope you had a great Workout Wednesday!

I had a wet Workout Wednesday, did you? I went for my daily exercise in the rain and I took my big umbrella!

I was also working out some dance routines for some of the 26 songs that I'm going to be singing this weekend for my 2.6 challenge! 

Thanks to Leah for getting in touch, about her own 2.6 challenge. Leah's going to be running 2.6 miles! That's a lot of running! She said that she's doing this to raise funds for children who might be struggling in lockdown. Aaaaaaw. That's great, Leah. I hope that your run goes well. Maybe you'll be running at the same time that I'm singing!

Leah is going to run 2.6 miles for her 2.6 challenge!

Leah's really thinking of others. Hey! It's Thinking of others Thursday, today - I've been thinking of some more songs that are about thinking of or helping others. I've come up with these...

You're my best friend, by Queen

One call away, by Charlie Puth

You've got a friend in me, by Randy Newman.

Please keep sending me your ideas for songs - I've still got a way to go before I get 26! You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me, and have a great Thinking of others Thursday!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 18 - Wednesday 29th of April

It’s Workout Wednesday so I’m creating a dance routine for one of my 2.6 challenge songs. I love dancing! It gets my heart pumping and makes me feel great, too. Do you have any favourite dance moves? Perhaps you could make up a dance routine as well.

It’s great having so many songs suggested from you. Thank you for helping me! Poppy and Quinn even sent me a song for every one of the Wellbeing Wheel parts! Here are some of them...

Shotgun by George Ezra, What makes you Beautiful by One Direction, The Baked Potato Song by Matt Lucas (because it's for charity!), Angel by Sarah McLachlan (a great Mindful one!) and another great one for relaxing to is Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers – that is so peaceful!

Thanks so much for those, Poppy and Quinn! Hey! And thank you to Ben, too, who also suggested George Ezra's Shotgun! That's a popular one! And I really liked your idea of singing Happy Birthday for one of the Connect with Others songs as well, Quinn. I bet your uncle was really pleased when you sang that for him on Tuesday!

My friend Kiki sent me a message earlier, suggesting Reach for the stars by S Club 7 - it’s a great song to bounce to as well! And she loves to bounce!

It’s a bit rainy again today so I might need my umbrella and wellies for my walk this morning. Hopefully there will be some puddles to splash in! 

Have a great Workout Wednesday everyone. Please keep sending me your ideas for songs! I'm really enjoying listening to them - you can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 17 - Tuesday 28th of April

Tuesday afternoon

It's Try-out Tuesday and I'm trying out songs that I can sing for my  2.6 challenge. Thank you to everyone who has suggested songs for this! I'm going to need your ideas because 26 songs is a lot! Here are three I’ll definitely be singing at the weekend ...

1. Can’t stop the feeling, by Justin Timberlake - I think that's a great one to dance to as well as sing to!
2. Happy, by Pharrell Williams. My family loves this song!
3. Count on me, by Bruno Mars. That's a great song about friendship. Aaaaah!

I’m hoping to film one of my songs at the weekend to share with my friends and family. I think Grandma will like it! I've been learning some chords on the guitar too as part of my Try-out Tuesday! I’m really looking forward to my 2.6 challenge - do you have a challenge planned? 

Please keep sending me your ideas for songs - you can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 16 - Monday 27th of April

Monday afternoon

Did you guess my idea?

I've decided that for my 2.6 challenge I'm going to choose 26 different songs to sing next weekend!

I love singing - if I've visited your school you'll already know that I always like to sing a song to you!

Can you help me think of 26 songs?

Do you remember my wellbeing wheel? Well I'm going to choose songs that help me to do the 5 different things! Like this...

1. Be Active - songs to get me moving and keep me fit!
2. Get Creative - songs that I can make a dance routine to!
3. Mindful Moments - songs that help me to feel calm and peaceful and for relaxing to.
4. Connect with Others - songs that my family like. Then we can all sing them together!
5. Give to Others - songs about friends and friendship!

If you can think of any songs that would help me reach my target of singing 26 songs - from these groups - I'd love to hear your ideas. You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Love from Harold xxx

Find out more about the 2.6 challenge

Monday morning

Hellooooo!

I've not had time to write my diary yet, because I'm thinking of ideas for my 2.6 Challenge!

I think I've got a plan! It's something that I love doing, and something that's fun - and I don't need any special equipment to do it!

Can you guess what it is?

Come back this afternoon to find out! I'll have had time to write about it by then! See you later!

Love from Harold xxx 

PS - here's a picture clue! Can you guess?

My daily diary

Day 15 - Friday 24th of April

Friday again! Already!

Did you have a good Thursday? A good Thinking of others Thursday? I went outside with a pan and a wooden spoon for clapping-time at 8p.m. last night. Did you do that, too? It was amazing. I could hear the noise of people clapping far away, even though I couldn't see them all. Aaaaah! It was brilliant! I also helped with putting away the washing and I learnt how to clean the windows! That was fun.

Well it's going to be Friendship Friday today for me. Do you remember the Wellbeing Wheel and the 'Connect' part of it? That's when we make a special effort to connect  - join up - with others, like our friends and family.  We can't all connect next to each other at the moment, but on Friendship Friday I sometimes talk to my grandma (on the phone) who I've not visited for aaaaages! 

I've been thinking of some more ideas for connecting and I've got a little thinking puzzle that I'm going to do with my grandma or my grandad - maybe both of them!

Hey! Maybe you'd like to do this, too! Look - it's just here. If you click on this picture below and make it bigger, you'll see what you need to do. It's all about finding out things that we have in common - that's things we agree about - with other people. If you can print the picture then you can write on it, but if you can't you can copy the ideas onto some paper!

I think that when I talk to my grandma and grandad it cheers them up - and it cheers ME up, too! So we all feel happier.

I hope you have a great, friendly, fabulous, fantastic Friday and a fun weekend! Keep emailing me your pictures and messages. I love seeing them and reading your ideas for keeping healthy. You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

See you on Mindful Monday!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 14 - Thursday 23rd of April

It's Thinking of others Thursday for me, today. On Thursdays I try and remember to make an extra special effort to be helpful at home. 

I'm going to make a list of all the things I can do to be helpful. I've had an idea! I'm going to think of people I know who are helpful and kind to me! Then I can try doing some of the things they do to be kind and caring! A bit like pass the parcel, but pass the kindness, instead!

You can try this, too! If you click on this picture, below, it will grow bigger. Then maybe you can print it - or if you don't have a printer you can copy down the ideas and fill them in on some paper.

I had a great day, yesterday doing my animal exercises for Workout Wednesday! If you missed that don't worry - it's not too late! You can see them on yesterday's diary.

Have a thoroughly thoughtful, thinking, thankful, thrilling Thursday - I just invented another tongue twister! Keep emailing me your pictures and messages. I love seeing them and reading your ideas for keeping healthy. You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

Remember...

It's Thinking of others Thursday!

My daily diary

Day 13 - Wednesday 22nd of April

I slept a lot better last night. If you look at the photograph of me you might be able to guess what helped me!

Yes! It was my new giraffe eye-mask! It helped to block out the light so that I was able to get to sleep much quicker.

Did you see my sleep quiz, yesterday! Here it is again - this time with the answers and some reasons for why these sleep tips work, from sleep scientist Matthew Walker...

Six Special Sleep tips quiz

1.To help your body go to sleep, which is better, a or b?

a) Go to bed at the same time, every night - including at weekends.

b) Vary the time that you go to bed - it makes no difference.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) This is because our bodies work better - and sleep much better - when we have regular routines. So going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning, is the NUMBER 1 best thing that scientists recommend for getting a really good night's sleep! 

2. Exercise is great for keeping healthy, but when it comes to helping you sleep which is better, a or b?

a) Exercise during the daytime and at least 2 to 3 hours before bedtime.

b) Exercise just before you go to bed, because it will tire you out.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) It's true that exercise helps us to sleep better, but not too near to bedtime, because that just wakes us up and makes us feel all lively! So quiet calm activities before bedtime are the best.

3. Now a question about eating and drinking before bedtime. Which is better, a or b?

a) Only have a small snack and a small drink before bedtime - and not too close to bedtime.

b) Have lots to eat and drink before bedtime, so that you won't be hungry in the night.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) Eating and drinking a lot before we go to bed gives our tummy a lot of work to do, so that can keep us awake. Small snacks or just a drink are best.

4. This next question is about activities to do before bedtime. Which is better, a or b?

a) Do relaxing things in the hour before bedtime - such as reading a book or listening to music. 

b) Play some games and keep busy in the hour before bedtime, so that you'll be tired out.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) Calm, relaxing things - like the pufferfish breathing that we did on Monday - really help us to get ready to go to sleep...zzzzzz! Games and keeping busy make it harder for our brains to calm down and drop off.

5. Which of these helps us to sleep better, a or b?

a) Dim the lights, switch off all screens (tablets, TVs etc.) at least an hour before bedtime and relax - best of all in a darkened room.

b) Play some computer games before bedtime to tire your brain out.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) Scientists have proved that screens can make brains more active - and active brains find it hard to switch off and go to sleep. So we need to switch off screens at least an hour before bedtime to get the best night's sleep.

6. And the last question - which is better, a or b?

a) Try to get sunlight for part of the time during the daytime, so that your body knows when it's night time. That could be sitting near a window for part of the day, especially in the morning.

b) Don't worry about getting any daylight during the day - it doesn't make any difference.

CORRECT ANSWER IS: a) It's also true that having bright lights - including lots of daylight - help our brains to get into a routine of when to be WIDE AWAKE and when to be calming down! So dimming the lights an bour before bedtime really helps. 

How did you do? Did you get all the answers?

Phew! That was a lot of writing. But today is Work-out Wednesday, so I'm going to get my water bottle and get ready to do some exercises, before I settle down to my school work. 

I think I'll do these fun animal exercises! If you click on the picture and make it big, you could try them too! It's all about exercising while pretending to be different animals. I think it could be fun!

I hope you get chance to do some exercise, today. Keep emailing me your pictures and messages. I love seeing them and reading your ideas for keeping healthy. You can email me at cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 12 - Tuesday 21st of April

I'm finding it hard to go to sleep at night and even harder to wake up and then get up at my usual school time in the morning. It's so light in the evening, too! Do any of you have the same problem? I think it's because I went to bed a little bit later during the holidays and I got up a little bit later, too. Now my sleep is all upside down!

Hey! That gives me an idea of something I can try today. It's Try-out Tuesday, so I'm going to try out some different things that I can do to help me go to sleep at bedtime.

First of all, I've got my bedtime star to make, and I can draw or write ideas on it for things that will help me to go to sleep.

Here's my bedtime star!

Maybe you could make a star, too? Either click on the picture and then print it to make your star, or draw two large triangles on some cardboard - both the same size - then stick them together to make a star.

I've got a quiz, too! Would you like to try to do the sleep quiz? I made up the questions from a book by a sleep scientist! He's called Matthew Walker and he's written a whole book on how sleep can help us to keep healthy - if we get enough of it, that is!

Here are some questions. Can you guess the right answers?

Six Special Sleep tips!  Try this sleep quiz....

1.To help your body go to sleep, which is better, a or b?

a) Go to bed at the same time, every night - including at weekends.

b) Vary the time that you go to bed - it makes no difference.

2. Exercise is great for keeping healthy, but when it comes to helping you sleep which is better, a or b?

a) Exercise during the daytime and at least 2 to 3 hours before bedime.

b) Exercise just before you go to bed, because it will tire you out.

3. Now a question about eating and drinking before bedtime. Which is better, a or b?

a) Only have a small snack and a small drink before bedtime - and not too close to bedtime.

b) Have lots to eat and drink before bedtime, so that you won't be hungry in the night.

4. This next question is about activities to do before bedtime. Which is better, a or b?

a) Do relaxing things in the hour before bedtime - such as reading a book or listening to music. 

b) Play some games and keep busy in the hour before bedtime, so that you'll be tired out.

5. Which of these helps us to sleep better, a or b?

a) Dim the lights, switch off all screens (tablets, TVs etc.) at least an hour before bedime and relax - best of all in a darkened room.

b) Play some computer games before bedtime to tire your brain out.

6. And the last question - which is better, a or b?

a) Try to get sunlight for part of the time during the daytime, so that your body knows when it's night time. That could be sitting near a window for part of the day, especially in the morning.

b) Don't worry about getting any daylight during the day - it doesn't make any difference.

Can you guess the answers? I'll write them in my diary tomorrow! I'm going to make my star now. I'm going to get creative for Try-out Tuesday!

Have a happy Tuesday and maybe you could send a picture or message to me by emailing cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

My daily diary

Day 11 - Monday 20th of April

A new week and a new term! I'm leaving my stay-at-home holiday diary behind - byeee! And going back to my daily diary - hellooo!

Do you like this picture of me flying the paper helicopter that I made?

If you want, you can draw a picture like it, too. Or maybe you could print this picture and then colour it in.

I had a lot of fun making different sized helicopters and seeing which ones flew the best.

Well, it's a new term - but a bit different to usual. I'm going to start the new week with my wellbeing wheel. Do you remember it from right at the start of my diary - four weeks ago?

Today is Monday, so I'm going to do some Monday Mindful Moments - that's MMM!

I wonder what I could do? Oh, I remember now that my mum found a really amazing film of a pufferfish (not a real one!) doing some calming breathing. I think I'll watch the film and practise my calming breathing. It's really useful for when I feel upset or grumpy. I can do it when I get cross, like when things don't go right. I do ten pufferfish breaths, and that helps me to calm down. Do you have something that you do to help, if you need to calm down? Maybe you could try the pufferfish breathing, too!

Here's where you can watch the film - remember to check with a grown-up before you do, though.

PUFFERFISH CALMING BREATHING

Here's a picture of a pufferfish, too!

I might get my planner out, too, and make a plan for the week. I've got my new home-learning pack from school and that's going to keep me busy!

I hope you have a happy Monday and maybe you could send a picture or message to me by emailing cle@coram.org.uk. REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 12 - Friday 17th of April

Friday again! It seems to come around so quickly.

I've been busy today making paper helicopters like the one I saw Tim Peake make.

It was very good fun and tomorrow I'll try to get some photographs of them for you to see, but I'm a bit busy at the moment reading the tongue-twisters that you've sent me!

Here's one of my favourites, from Edward...

Bingo Bungo bought a bangle from the bangle business, bongo!

Byeee!

I love that and I would love to meet Bingo Bungo! Sounds like a fun kind of person - or maybe Bingo Bungo is an animal. Maybe Bingo Bungo is a badger, or a buffalo or even a bird, like my friend Derek (who is a penguin!)

Here's one that Ela and Elif sent a film of, too!

Can you say that one?

Rachel Robin rolled a rosy, red radish!

Rachel Robin rolled a rosy, red radish!

That is a really great tongue-twister, Ela and Elif!

Back to the paper helicopter flying for me! And maybe this weekend I'll have time to do some more paper folding.

Look out on Monday to see if I managed to make them work!

You can send your ideas and pictures to me by emailing cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Have a fantastic Friday and wonderful weekend!

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 11 - Thursday 16th of April

Here's happy healthy Harold having a hilarious holiday, humming harmoniously! Ha ha ha! I'm not really! It's just my latest tongue-twister. Did you manage to invent one? You don't have to write it down - you can just say it. And did you guess the tongue-twister that goes with the picture of the shells? Yes! It's this one:

She sells sea shells, by the sea shore.

The shells that she sells are sea shells, I'm sure.

So if she sells seashells, by the seashore,

Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Can you say it without going wrong! I had to try lots of times before I could say it all correctly!

I hope you had a good Wednesday. Today is Thursday already and as well as making up tongue twisters I've been reading your emails! Thanks for sending them.

Some people have sent me ideas for showing kindness. This is Reuben's idea:

"You could draw a picture of your family and post it to a grandparent to cheer them up."

I think that's a great idea, Reuben, because grandparents especially like drawings made by their grandchildren. And they keep them stuck on their fridge or on their kitchen wall for a very long time, because they are very precious.

Today I'm going to have a go at making things out of paper. I'm going to start with something easy - a paper helicopter. All I need is a scrap of paper, some scissors and a paperclip. I think I can find those things.

I saw Tim Peake - the famous astronaut, who lived in the International Space Station for six months - making one on the TV last week.  Then my mum helped me find a film showing how to make one. Here's the link to it - remember to check with a grown-up before you go to a website you don't know - How to make a paper helicopter - a short film

I think it should be quite easy! Then maybe I could try something harder, like the paper crane on the picture.

Well, whether you make up a tongue-twister or do some paper twisting experiments of your own I hope you have a happy day.

You can send your ideas and pictures to me by emailing cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Have a lovely day - and stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 10 - Wednesday 15th of April

I am having a great time reading your emails! Thanks so much for sending them to me.

Nancy sent me the idea of inventing a tongue-twister! Do you remember me talking about tongue-twisters in my diary, a few days ago? Well Nancy remembered! And she's written one all about me! Here it is...

Hang on healthy Harold!

Hold a handy hankie to

Halt your humongous ha-ha-ha....

Ha-chooooooo!

That's a sneezy tongue-twister!

Maybe you could write a tongue-twister, too? I'm going to try to make one up myself. Thanks for that one, Nancy!

And do you remember the alphabet game? Well Abigail has played it at home and she's sent me a list of objects she spotted around her house!

Here's a picture of her list!

I think that the z for zip is really clever! And I love your handwriting, Abigail. Some tricky words to spell, too, so thanks to your mum for helping with some, like xylophone and.... giraffe! Like me!

Remember - I'm sending my special certificates to everyone who sends me an idea, even if I don't have time to put all the ideas in my diary! I read EVERY one of them.

You can send your ideas by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Have a wonderful Wednesday - and stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 9 - Tuesday 14th of April

I'm back! I've been away from my stay-at-home diary for a few days, but I'm back now.

I'm going to write some new ideas today and I'd love to hear your ideas, too!

You can send ideas for things to do at home during the holidays by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Hope that you had a great weekend. Stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 5 - Friday 10th of April

I've having a great time looking at all the ideas that you're sending me!
I have so much to do - that's reading your ideas for games and then actually playing them!

Thanks so much to Miles for sending me this picture and message!

Miles really liked Tahlia's ideas from Wednesday's diary - he made his own cafe at home and here's a picture. There's even a menu!

That lunch looks delicious! I love grapes and I really love carrots, too! I can also see bread and sweetcorn and cucumber. Brilliant!

That's four of your five a day of vegetables and fruit, just in one meal! Wow! Look out for your certificate that I'm sending you! Maybe it's already reached you.

There's this great smoothie recipe he sent, too!

• 1 ripe banana
• 1/4 avocado 
• 1 handful spinach 
• 1 tsp honey 
• Oat milk

I didn't have all these ingredients so I made it with milk, banana, honey and some porridge oats!

Whizz it all together for a whizzy, healthy and tasty drink!

I've been busy playing Maisie's idea from Thursday - noughts and crosses but using straws and coins instead of paper and pencils!

Do you like the picture?

Remember - I'm sending my special to certificates to everyone who sends me an idea, even if I don't have time to put all the ideas in my diary!

You can send your ideas for things to do at home during the holidays by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Have a fun Friday - and stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

Noughts and crosses....

... with straws and coins!

You can try this game, too!

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 4 - Thursday 9th of April

More ideas for our stay-at-home holidays!

Thanks to everyone who sent in your ideas! You are all brilliant Indoor Ideas Inventors! Here are some of them...

Lucie from Hampshire has had a brilliant idea! She's going to look in her 'things for recycling' bags and think of something she can make from the bits and piece in there! Have fun Lucie and if you get chance, you could send us a picture!

And Maisie sent a message with this really clever re-invention of a favourite game of mine - noughts and crosses! But it's different - instead of playing it with paper and pencils, use straws of twigs for the grid lines then two different kinds of coins (maybe 1ps and 2ps) instead of drawing noughts and crosses! That's so clever - and it doesn't use up any paper!

Remember - I'm sending my special to certificates to everyone who sends me an idea, even if I don't have time to write them all in my diary!

You can send your ideas for things to do at home during the holidays by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Have a happy Thursday - and stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 3 - Wednesday 8th of April

Day 3 of my holiday indoors! Thanks for all the ideas that you've been sending me for things to do.

Here are some of them...

Matthew found some balloons and asked his mum if they could draw different feelings faces on them! They're brilliant! Can you guess the feelings?

That reminds me! I love playing keepy-uppy balloons! You know - where you have to throw the balloon up in the air and then keep tapping it upwards before it hits the floor. That's two balloon games!

Tahlia had two ideas!

1. Make your own restaurant or cafe. You could make a menu and maybe make the food (with an adult helping, of course!) Then you can all enjoy it at dinner time or lunch time! Yum!
2. Practise things that you're not brave at doing, because we have all this extra time!

What great ideas, Tahlia. Thank you!

I sometimes don't feel very brave when I have to stand up in front of a lot of people and say something - like in assembly or our school play. But I could practise this! I could learn a poem and then try saying it to all my family. Then I could try saying it in front of my grandma and grandad on our evening Facetime! Maybe it will help me to feel less nervous! I know that if we practise things then we get better at them!

You can send your ideas for things to do at home during the holidays by emailing me at cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

And I am sending my special to certificates to everyone who sends me an idea, even if I don't have room for them all on my diary!

Stay happy and healthy! 

Love from Harold xxx

My STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 2 - Tuesday 7th of April

Wow! Thanks, all you Indoor Ideas Inventors!  I'm really enjoying all the ideas that you're sending me for things to do indoors at home.

I'm going to try out your ideas, then put them in my diary tomorrow! So if you send me an idea today look out tomorrow - you might see your name in my diary! And look out for the certificate that I'm going to send you, too!

Did you try the alphabet game, yesterday? Did you find something that began with the letters X and Z? They were tricky! What was the funniest thing you found?

Here are some more alphabet game ideas...

• Think of a girl's name and a boy's name for every letter of the alphabet. Some names can be for a girl and a boy! They get double points!
• Think of an animal for every letter of the alphabet. Z is easy for that one!

Keep sending me your ideas! I love reading them.

You can send your ideas by email to cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

MY STAY-AT-HOME HOLIDAY DIARY!

Day 1 - Monday 6th of April

Hello! It's the school holidays! It's bit different from the usual holidays, though, isn't it!

I'm going to invent some things I can do just for fun, for the next two weeks. I'm going to write the ideas in this diary so that you can see them. Then you could have some fun with them, too! My ideas will be for things do to inside! I'm going to be an Indoor Ideas Inventor! Ha ha ha!

I'll need some By Myself  things, for when everyone else is busy, as well as All Together  things for when they're not!

Hmmmm.... that's a lot to think about!

Hey! That gives me an idea! Maybe you could think of some things that are fun to do at home - during By Myself  time and All Together  time. Then you'll be an Indoor ideas Inventor, too!

Let me think! We can't go shopping for things, so we're going to need ideas for that don't need lots of stuff. (But I've got some paper and some pencils. I think I've got a glue stick, too!) We can use old cardboard boxes - in fact there are lots of things that we usually just throw away or recycle that we might be able to use too! 

Maybe you can think of some games or activities that don't need ANYTHING.

Here's an idea for a starter!

Alphabet Objects

Find 1 object in your home for every letter of the alphabet.

If you have paper and a pencil you could draw or write each object!

Treasure Hunt at Home!

I nearly forgot! My friend Jane gave me an idea for an indoor treasure hunt! Here's how it works...

• Get some small pieces of paper or card, cut from an empty cereal packet - about the size of playing cards. The more you have, the longer the game will last, but about 10.
• Write clues on each piece of paper or card. The clue on the first card leads the 'hunter' to the next card. Here's an example "You'll find me next to where you wash your hands..." (that means the next clue is hidden next to a sink or bathroom basin!) Or you could make the clues rhyme, with a missing word. Like this one: "When we're sleeping in our bed, this is where we rest out ____". Did you guess? The missing word is HEAD and the next clue is hidden under a PILLOW! Remember that the last clue leads to some treasure! Maybe a treat to eat - or a special card that you've made!

Can you think of any other ideas for games in the home?

If you send me your ideas I can put some of them on my diary so that everyone else can see them, too!

I'll send a special certificate to everyone who sends in an idea!

Send your ideas by email to cle@coram.org.uk - REMEMBER to ask for permission from your grown-up at home before you send your message to me!

I'm going to start by making a badge for myself that says:

Harold the Indoor Ideas Inventor!

You could make one, too!

Bye for now.

Love from Harold

Day 10 - Friday 3rd of April

Friday again, already! And today is Friendship Friday - all about connecting with our friends and family.

I'm feeling a bit sad this morning, because on Fridays I used to go to lunchtime art club at school with my friends, Derek and Kiki. I miss Derek - he makes me laugh. And I miss Kiki because she's so full of fun. She's a bundle of bouncing energy.

Do you like the picture of us all? There's Derek on the right. He's really good at art and he loves making us laugh.

Kiki - she's on the left - she loves bouncing and she's really good at maths.

Just looking at that picture has cheered me up and I've had an idea! Maybe I could talk to Kiki and Derek using my computer. I'll have to check with my mum first, but she lets me do talking with my friends on our tablet, if I ask her first. Maybe my mum could help me to talk to them both at the same time! That would be fun. Then we could do bouncing and art together - but maybe not at the same time! That would get a bit messy!

Here's a little activity that I'm going to do today - something to cheer me up if I'm feeling a bit sad. It's my Happy, Sad, Happy puppet. Would you like to make one? You can print the picture and use that, or if you don't have a printer, you can just draw around a cup and make the circles, then draw on the faces, and then follow the instructions on the sheet!

Your messages from yesterday have really cheered me up too. A special thank you goes to Delphi who wrote to me with some really great ideas for how she would help her sister and her mum on Thoughtful Thursday. Thank you so much Delphi! I'm going to send you one of my special certificates!

I'm going to be having a break from writing my diary over the Easter holidays, but my friend Jane gave me a really good idea for having a treasure hunt, inside the home! So if you come back on Monday, you'll be able to see it. Then maybe you could plan your own treasure hunt in your home! 

Have a fantastic Friendship Friday and remember - maybe you could get your grown-up helper to send me your ideas for being a good friend. You can find me on twitter: twitter@CoramLifeEd or 

facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

or send an email to cle@coram.org.uk 

Stay happy and healthy! See you soon.

Love from Harold xxx

Day 9 - Thursday 2nd of April

Hello! Phew! Yesterday was Work-out Wednesday. I did all of the Let's Get Moving exercises to my favourite music. The music really helped me to keep going when I was getting tired. My favourite moves were 'climb a ladder' and 'dance around'. Which ones did you like best?

Did you spot the little joke in my puzzle, yesterday? Well the date was April the 1st. Sometimes people call this April Fool's Day and they play little tricks on their friends and family, like saying: 'Oh, it's snowing!' when it isn't, or: 'There's a mouse over there!' when there isn't. They try to catch people out. My little April Fool's joke was that I said spaghetti grows on trees! Well actually, spaghetti doesn't grow on trees!  But if it did - and if it took 1 month to grow 6cm long - then it would take 4 months to grow to 24cm long!

Well done to Tabbi who was the first person to get the sum right. I hope you like your special Harold certificate Tabbi! Thanks for your lovely message!

Today it's Thoughtful Thursday. Do you remember my Wellbeing Wheel and all the 5 things we need to try to do each to help us feel happy and healthy? Well one of them is 'Think of Others'.  Let me see... that could be by helping somebody with a little job like clearing up after dinner, or maybe cheering them up if they're sad. Can you think of some ideas?

Here's a little chart for you - it's a star chart for kindness ideas! Can you fill all the big stars with ideas?

Maybe if you have a printer, you could print this out and fill in the stars. But if you don't then you could draw stars on some paper and then fill them in!

I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday already - that's nearly two weeks since my school closed! I miss seeing my friends Derek (he's a penguin) and Kiki (she's a kangaroo). Hey! That gives me an idea - maybe one day I can tell you about them in my diary! So many things to tell you and so much to do! I'd better get started because I've got to think of my own ideas for Thoughtful Thursday and how I can show kindness!

Have a thoroughly thoughtful Thursday and remember - maybe you could get your grown-up helper to send me your ideas for how you can be kind today. You can find me on twitter: twitter@CoramLifeEd or 

facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

or send an email to cle@coram.org.uk 

Stay happy and healthy! See you tomorrow.

Love from Harold xxx

P.S.  A long, long time ago there was a news report on television all about spaghetti growing on trees in Switzerland - it was broadcast on April the first. So it was an April Fool story! My grandma told me about it because she remembers seeing it on the 1st of April, 1957! That's 63 years ago! Bye!

Day 8 - Wednesday 1st of April

And it's... P.E. with Harold!

YES! It's Work-Out Wednesday! Do you remember that Monday was Mindful Monday and yesterday was Try Out Tuesday? Did you manage to do the Brain Gym exercises or make up any of your own? Some of them were a bit tricky!

Well I hope you're feeling energetic today because I've got some fun exercises for us all! Don't worry if you're not feeling energetic though, in fact did you know that if someone is feeling a bit tired, or a bit fed up, exercise can actually help them to feel more awake and can even cheer them up! That's because when we do exercise some special 'feel-good' chemicals in our brain are woken up and help us to feel better.

But before we start our exercises, I have a little puzzle for you to think about - a brain warm-up! Here's my puzzle: if it takes one month for spaghetti to grow 6cm long on a spaghetti tree, how many months does it take for it to grow to 24cm? Hmmmm... I wonder. You can find out more at the bottom of today's diary.

Back to our Work-Out Wednesday.

My activity is called Let's Get Moving. You can do the exercises to music if possible - or even just sing along as you do them, if you don't have any music! Singing is a type of exercise, too! It makes our lungs stronger. Click on the picture below to see the exercises. If you can print the page that would be great! Don't worry if you can't - you can just look at it on the screen and give each exercise a mark.

Do you like the picture of me doing my exercises? My friend Alex drew it! Maybe if you have a printer, you could print it out and colour it in! Remember to colour my scarf!

Just before I go... did you work out the answer to my spaghetti puzzle? If you did, maybe you could get your grown-up to send a message to me with the answer? But don't worry if they're too busy, juggling jobs! Maybe you could give them a helping hand. I'll put the answer in my diary tomorrow. 

You can find me on twitter: 

twitter@CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

or send an email to cle@coram.org.uk 

Have a wonderful Work-Out Wednesday!

Remember, stay happy and healthy! See you tomorrow.

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 7 - Tuesday, 31st of March

It's the last day of March, already! Do you remember the daffodil magic trick? I wonder if you tried it out.

Well, here's my experiment. I took one daffodil from the pot on our windowsill (I asked mum, before I did this, of course!)

Then my mum helped me find the blue food colouring. We had to empty a WHOLE cupboard and it was hiding right at the back. The lid was stuck on - that was a tricky moment because I think my mum was worried that I was going to spill it. The lid did pop off a bit suddenly - whoosh! But luckily I was holding the bottle over the sink, so when some did spill it wasn't on the floor.

Then I mixed the water with the food colouring in a glass and put the daffodil in the water... and waited. Look what happened! In just one day! 

Mum said that this is plant science - called BIOLOGY! I never knew that flowers and food colouring could be science! And then I found out that BIO means 'life' and LOGY means 'study of' - so BIOLOGY is the study of life! And daffodils are living plants!

Which colour do you like the best - the yellow one, or the blue one?

I've been looking at my Wellbeing Wheel (there's a picture of it in yesterday's diary - it's wheely, wheely good. Ha ha ha!) I've decided that I'm going to do something new today. It's Tuesday, so I'm doing Try Out Tuesday - and I'm going to try out something new. I have some puzzles called Brain Gym. They're like exercises for our brain, instead of our body!

Hey! I nearly forgot! Do you like the drawing of me in the bath that my friend Alex made? He's even put my scarf on it! One day, when I've got more time, I'll tell you all about my scarf. It's very special to me. Some of you might know all about it, already! But now I'm busy, busy, busy. It's time for my skipping exercises AND my brain exercises. I'm going to invent my own Brain Gym puzzle, too. And later today I'm going to invent a new tongue-twister. I'm having a brain-growing day for Try Out Tuesday.

Maybe you could invent a new Brain Gym puzzle and try it out on the people at home with you?

Then maybe your grown-up helper could help you send a message to me with your idea for a Brain Gym puzzle. Then I can tell everyone about it in my diary tomorrow! You can find me on Twitter: twitter@CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

Have a 'wheely' good day, maybe trying out a new skill yourself.

Stay happy and healthy! See you tomorrow.

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 6 - Monday, 30th of March

Happy Monday! How was your weekend?

Before I forget, thanks for your guesses about my favourite book! I love Tracy Beaker, too, Falak. And I love the sound of your favourite book, Jasmine - Lola the Lollyop Fairy! Maybe one day those will be my favourite books because sometimes our favourite things change, don't they? I love going to the library and I can't wait to go again one day! I love reading, too, and it's great now that I have more time to read because I don't have any after school clubs.

My favourite book at the moment is called You Choose. Do you know it? I love it because it takes to me amazing places that I can go to in my imagination, now that I can't go very far outside.

Do you remember my daily planner from last Monday? It has all the things I need to try to do every day, to keep happy and healthy. There are the five things...

1. Be Active
2. Get Creative
3. Mindful Moments
4. Connect with Others
5. Give to Others

Well, my friend Alex has made a special drawing of the five things. I've called it my Wellbeing Wheel!

This week I'm going to try to do all five things every day but I'm going to choose ONE thing to do extra specially carefully.

Today is going to be Mindful Monday! I'm going to think especially carefully about the things I can do to help me relax, and enjoy what I'm doing - whatever it is!

Hmmmm. I could do some drawing or colouring. I could listen to some music. I could have a lovely long bath! Maybe you could think of some other ideas for how to relax and just enjoy the 'now' time!

I'm going to start by colouring my Wellbeing Wheel. Maybe doing that will give me some more ideas, too.

Time for morning exercises now, though! I'm getting better at skipping. I practised at the weekend. On Friday I could only do 10 skips before getting tangled - and now I'm up to 59! That's nearly 60! It's true that practising - over and over and over - makes you get better at things!

Remember... if it's ok with your grown-up you could send me a message. You can find me on Twitter: twitter @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

I hope you have a marvellous, mindful Monday! Keep happy and healthy.

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 5 - Friday, 27th of March

Hello! Do you have some sellotape? I hope so, because it will be really handy if you're going to do my activity for today! But don't worry if you don't have any - of if you can't find it - it's not totally essential.

It's already the end of the first week of my school being closed and I'm going to be doing some reading and some drawing today.

I love reading and I love books. Stories are like adventures that you can carry around, keep close to you and peek into when you have time or if you're bored. You can travel to a whole other place and a whole other place when you're reading a book, even though you're actually just sitting still in a chair or lying quietly in bed!

Sometimes having a quiet time can help me if I'm feeling tired or unwell. And sometimes it can help me if I'm feeling cross and grumpy! Do you have something that helps you to feel better if you're feeling tired or grumpy?

My activity today is all about having a quiet time and about reading. It's a story about me, my friend Dibna and YOU! Yes, you! You can be in the story, too! Maybe if you can get a grown-up helper to print the two pages below, you can add yourself to my story. And here's when the sellotape comes in handy - to stick the two pages together. But don't worry if you can't print it. You can still read the story and add your name in a saying-it-out-loud way, instead of writing!

Do you like the picture of me reading with my family? Maybe you can print that too, and colour it in - or have a go at drawing it. I like to do colouring. It helps me to feel calm and relaxed if I've been feeling fed-up or worried. Do you have something that you do that helps you to feel calm and relaxed?

My teacher calls this a Mindful Moment. Hey! That gives me an idea! My friend Alex - he's whiz at art - has drawn me a picture with a Mindful Moment on it! I think I'm going to put it onto my diary next week to show you.

Better go now, though, because it's time for my exercises. I found an old skipping rope that I'd forgotten about. It was in the cupboard with the Cluedo! I'm going to try to get to 50 skips in a row without getting tangled up in the rope! Wish me luck!

Before I go.... remember - if your grown-up helper thinks it's ok, and isn't super, super busy, maybe they could help you send a message to me, telling me the name of your favourite book and why you like it so much. You can find me on Twitter: twitter @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

Or maybe you could try to guess my favourite book!

Stay happy and healthy - and calm! Have a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Monday.

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 4 - Thursday, 26th of March

Hello! It's Thursday already - that's nearly the weekend!

Well, today is all about Helping Others - one of my 5 daily things to do. Mum is going to teach me how to make a cup of tea - being safe is very important, so I’ll be very, very careful.

Then later today I'm going to help by making a raita to go with our dinner. Have you ever had raita? You can have a look at my recipe and maybe make it yourself one day! It's tangy-tastic! (Oops! I think I just made up that word.)

First of all, though, I'm going to do some work from my school home-learning pack. Do you have one, too? I'm starting with some writing. Hey! That reminds me! A big hello to everyone at St Hilda's school in Bushey! One of your fantastic teachers told me that Form 2 are going to be looking at my diary in your Remote Learning Literacy Lesson.

WOW! A whole Remote Learning class! That must be so amazing - being apart but together. And looking at my diary!

Maybe one day some of you will write a diary that will become famous. I've been finding out about famous people who wrote diaries. I read about Marie Curie and Charles Darwin and Rosa Parks. Maybe you could find out why they became famous - you could have a Diary Detectives Day (DDD!)

I'm excited about tonight, too, because it's family games night! We're going to play a board game. I like Cluedo - that's a detective game where you have to search for clues.  What's your favourite board game?

Well I'd better get started on my school work, then it will be time for my exercises. So much to do!

Oh! I nearly forgot - do you remember the daffodil magic trick from yesterday's diary? Well someone has really kindly send me a photograph of their daffodil experiment. Here it is!

Thank you Olive from Dorset for the lovely picture.

I wonder if they're starting to change colour this morning.

Have a happy day everyone - I hope that you have time to do some things to help others, too! And just before you go, here's an amazing fact for you: when we help other people it actually makes us feel happier, as well as the people we're helping! That's double the happiness!

Maybe your grown-up helper could help you send a message to me about the helpful things you've done today. You can find me on Twitter: twitter @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation

I love hearing from you!

Stay happy and healthy - and helpful (HHH! Ha ha ha!) See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 3 - Wednesday, 25th of March

I’ve been making the most of the sunshine - from my window I can see some flowers and some trees with teeny tiny green leaves starting to sprout! And on my windowsill I have a pot of flowers. Can you guess what they are?

Yes! They’re daffodils! My friend Alex drew this picture of me with some. If you can print it at home you can colour it in. Daffodils are mostly yellow but you could do rainbow ones! That reminds me... here's a trick that you can do with daffodils (or other flowers). It’s like magic!

1. Put some water in a glass or a vase.
2. Then put some drops of food colouring in the water – any colour you like – about 20 drops, or about a teaspoon.
3. Next, put your daffodil - or other flower - into the water.
4. Wait and watch!

You need to be patient to see what happens, but it’s amazing.

If you don't have any flowers handy, you can see what happens on this Colouring Daffodils film that my mum found.

I love how daffodil heads look like little trumpets. My friend Derek the penguin plays the trumpet - so they remind me of him. I play with Derek every day at school. Now that school is closed I can look at the daffodils and think of Derek. Aaaah!

Last night I talked to him! Mum set this up safely for me on the computer. We played Kim’s game – have you ever played it? It’s a memory game, so it helps to keep my brain active. You could play it too! It’s easy. Here’s how…

• Collect some small objects from around the home, then put them on a tray or a table.
• Then give people who are playing one minute to memorise the objects.
• When the minute’s up, cover the objects with a tea towel or cloth.
• How many can they name from memory? No peeking under the tea towel! (Derek couldn't peek because he wasn't even in the same home as me!)

Even though we were in separate homes it was still really fun.

Here's your own special copy of Kim's game and there are some other games on it, too. Maybe your grown-up helper could print it for you.

Your grown-up helper might be able to help you send a message from you to me, too. You can find me on Twitter: twitter @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation.

I love hearing from you!

Stay happy and healthy! See you tomorrow!

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 2 - Tuesday, 24th of March

Happy Tuesday everyone! I'm so excited this morning, because my friend just messaged me to say that Marwell Zoo have a giraffe cam set up and it's going to be switched on at 9a.m. Would you like to see the giraffes, too? Just click HERE if you do. I can't wait!

Hope that you had a good day yesterday and thanks sooooooo much for the lovely pictures that some of you got your grown-up helpers to tweet! I was so excited to see them.

Today is my second day away from school and I'm going to be doing some cooking. We made pancakes for breakfast this morning - that was fun!

Mum says that I can help with making some vegetable soup, later. I've never made soup before - and that's great because today I wanted to learn something new.

And I've just realised - if I help with making the soup, then I'm doing two things from my list of the five things that will help me to keep happy and healthy! Can you guess what they are?

Well, one is Get Creative - cooking is creating something! The other is Give to Others - I'm giving my mum a helping hand in the kitchen.  She said that I can peel the carrots and the onion (that might make my eyes water a bit!) and some other bits of veg that need using up but we don't want to throw away; mum says that soup is great for using things up!

I’m really excited about learning something new.

Do you have a favourite recipe? I’ve put one of my SCARF recipes on here that you might like to try. Remember - always ask a grown-up at home before you start any cooking, so that they can help you be safe.

You can be creative with that milkshake recipe, too. Just swap anything that you don't have with something else - maybe you could send me your recipe ideas?

Better get started because I need to plan my other activities, too, like Being Active and Connecting with Others. Yesterday I did 50 star jumps and I did running on the spot for 5 minutes!

I'd love to hear about any new things that you're learning to do today. Maybe you could get your grown-up to send a message you can find me on Twitter: @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation.   

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

DAY 1 - Monday, 23rd of March 

HELLO! It's the first day of school being closed.

First day of my daily diary. Let’s get planning!

I know that to look after myself I need to try to do these five different things every day. These will help me to stay happy and healthy.

There's....

1. Be Active
2. Get Creative
3. Mindful Moments
4. Connect with Others
5. Give to Others

Mmmmm! Let me see. I'm going to start with Be Active - I can do some exercises in at home for that - star jumps and running on the spot.

For Get Creative I might do some drawing, or maybe some puzzles. Oh! And there's my home-learning pack from school - and I'm writing this diary!

For Mindful Moments I'm going to do some colouring. Maybe you'd like to do some too? You can draw your own picture or there's a picture of me for you to print and colour.

Connecting - that's easy! I'll talk to my grandma and my friends Derek and Kiki. They're all at home, so my mum will help me to connect safely online with them, later.

Give to others. Hmmmmm. I know! I'll help by doing some tidying up later.

There's so much to remember! I'm glad that my mum helped to make my Daily Routine Chart!

I’d better get started because there's a lot to do. I'll be back tomorrow with more ideas for staying happy and healthy.

I'd love to hear your ideas, too. Maybe you could get your grown-up to message Harold on Twitter @CoramLifeEd or facebook.com/CoramLifeEducation.

Stay happy and healthy!

Love from Harold xxx

Hello everyone!

I'm looking forward to sharing my daily diary with you, starting on Monday 23rd of March!  Wait a minute... that's tomorrow! I'm so excited!

See you on Monday!

Love from Harold xxx