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Snail races

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How are your sunflowers coming along? Ours went out in the garden a couple of weeks ago. The tallest one is up to 45cm on our sunflower height chart and  mostly they’re doing well – working their way up the wall but not yet taller than Little. One however has been munched. The girls were horrified! Who had done such a thing? Pulling some ivy off the wall this weekend we found our answer: 14 snails, sat biding their time, waiting for the feasting to begin.  I am such a hippy, harmony-promoting gardener that I can’t bring myself to squash them, so they are flung over the back wall (into an alleyway, not someone else’s garden!) – which of course only delays the munching.

Before the snails went for the high jump, we put them through their paces in a Snail Race.

On Your Marks....

This gave the girls the opportunity to look at the snails up close and ask lots of questions about their shells, slime and ‘sticky out bits’. Snail World had all the answers. We talked about our responsibilty to animals and both girls were very careful when handling the snails. One thing we did discover was that snails just don’t understand the concept of keeping in your own lane – so if you fancy trying this I’d suggest more of a ‘bull’s eye’ circular race track, starting all the snails in the centre and seeing which makes it to the circumference first.

Victory to Snail #1

What do you do when you find snails, or slugs, in your garden? Have you got any alternative solutions to stop them munching?

 

Make a fairy garden

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Following on from the success of our Dinosaur Garden, this weekend we’ve been working on a Fairy Garden. The film below shows how we made it – now we’re eagerly waiting for the seeds to start growing so the flower fairies can really feel at home.

The music on the film is kindly provided by Anne van Schothorst and is from a piece called A Bird Came Flying.

Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog and WeareTHATfamily’s Works for me Wednesday

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Make a dinosaur world

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As the weather is getting warmer and we’re starting to spend more time outside I thought I’d show you one way my girls love to play in our garden: in our Dinosaur Land. Big recently did a ‘show and tell’ at school about gardening and the Dinosaur Land proved to be so popular an idea with her classmates, that several of them have gone home and made their own – so it comes highly recommended.

This kind of ‘small world’ play is fantastic for young children: they get to be the boss of the world, create characters, role play situations, use their language skills, be imaginative…..  I love watching children engaged in this kind of play as it really gives you an insight into where they’re at, what’s concerning them, what they’re exploring at this present time. Big’s characters are often having battles at the moment, as she works through ideas of ‘being fair’ and negotiations. Little’s play in nearly always focused on a family group and playing out familiar routines – her dinosaurs get tucked up in bed and read a bedtime story.

As always, this idea is easy to make and you’re likely to have most, if not all, of the things you need around your home.

Start by finding a big plastic storage box and making some drainage holes in the bottom. Then let your children fill it up with soil – good, messy fun. Add a few rocks – we have one big one, which the dinosaurs like to stand on to survey their territory, and some smaller one to sit on. How about some plants for the dinos to eat and hide in? Have you got one to spare somewhere in one of your borders? The grassy one we used works really well – low maintenance, pretty robust and won’t get too overgrown. You can add any other props which catch your children’s eye: glass pebbles, fir cones, sticks, water too if you’d like a swamp area.

Then it’s over to the kids to get playing.

If your children are enjoying the garden, have a look at our Sunflower Club for more outside play ideas.

I-spy game with letters

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>>> Download our guide to ABCs and 123s here 

 

We’ve been playing I-spy Letters today as we were out and about in the neighbourhood. We were hunting for the lettert ‘R’, which happens to be the initial of Little’s best friend, but of course you can choose whichever letter you like: think about what stage your child is at with letter recognition and play the game accordingly.

Young children might just be able to spot the first letter of their name. Older children can be set the challenge of spotting each letter in alphabetical order.   If you have more than one child you can even make this a competition to see who can find all the letters of their name first. Aside from helping children to actually recognise letters, this game helps them to sort through an assortment of information to home in on what they’re searching for. It shows them that letters have a real purpose, as you can talk about what all the writing is telling passers-by. It’s also good for them to see words written all sorts of different fonts and in both upper and lower case.

Somedays the school run can be fun, other days it can be a chore, so it’s handy to have a few games ready to use if the kids need to be chivvied on a little. What games do you play?

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 My guide to ABCs and 123s

Do you have a young child who is learning their ABCs and 123s, and do you want to make their learning fun? Our ABCs and 123s resource of mulitsensory, play-based letter and math activities is just what you need. See more here.

Role play camping

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Yesterday, boredom and a well stocked craft box were the spring board for creativity and play. Today it was a story book which gave a play idea.

Shirley Hughes books are favourites in our house and The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook (Red Fox picture books) is Little’s favourite of them all. It’s a collection of short stories and poems about outdoor play and adventures. One tells the story of Bonting, Alfie’s treasured pebble – so of course Little now has a Bonting of her own which she carries with her in her coat pocket.  Today’s story though was about Alfie’s camping trip.  Little is in awe of Alfie going to sleep out at night in a real tent. Now, the weather is still a little chilly to get me in a real tent overnight, so it’s forturnate she was satisfied with a play tent.

She knew from the story all the things she needed to take on her trip. Having said that, we have read the story several thousand times so she’s had plenty of time to memorise the list!

She even made a campfire to cook her breakfast on.

What’s your child’s favourite story? Could you bring it to life for them?

And if you love pretend play you might like these ideas for a role play shop and a role play hospital.

Come play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up for more play inspiration.

Annual egg rolling contest

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We are lucky to have both sets of grandparents coming for lunch tomorrow – I love it when the family gets together. The girls love it too as it means we will be battling it out in our Annual Egg Rolling Contest. It’s a great way to get all three generations enjoying some festive fun together. Here’s how we play…

First you need to get some eggs ready. We’ll have two people playing at a time so we need two different colours of eggs. This year we will be using coffee and onion skins to dye the eggs, but in the past we have also used turmeric, red cabbage and beetroot.

We’ve hard boiled some eggs in a saucepan of water with some ground coffee in. (It does make the kitchen smell like a coffee house!)

Then we wrapped some more eggs in onion skins and fastened them with elastic bands. It makes it easier if you can take the skin off the onion in big pieces as they will then curl nicely around the egg. Once they’re wrapped up, put them gently in a pan of water and hard-boil them. When they’re done, leave them to cool before you unwrap them.

Now you’re ready to play. You need a target to aim for – as it’s Easter we’ll be using a toy bunny rabbit. Place your target a few metres away and then take it in turn to roll your eggs at the target. We usually play in pairs with each person having two eggs each – so two chances to get closest to the bunny. Of course you can also use your turn to aim for your opponents eggs and knock them right out of the way! The winner is the person who ends up closest to the bunny. (And if you’re anything like my family you may need a tape measure to adjudicate.) We usually award a little chocolate egg to the winner.

Looking for more Easter fun? Here are some more Easter activities and crafts.

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