Reading Cave

This pin on pinterest inspired us this week and with the shops full of cheap Christmas lights now was the time of year to implement it.

(photo source Play At Home Mom)

Of course as always we didn't have the appropriate cardboard box but rather than be discouraged we put on our thinking caps and used the space under the dining room table instead (after all this is unused space most of the time).  Filled with cushions and quilts and with battery operated lights on the underside of the tabletop we created a cosy, twinkly space to cuddle up and read or be read to.

March the First - St David's Day Activities

What do St Patrick, St Andrew, St George and St David have in common?  Obviously from the names you can guess that they are all saints but did you know they are the patron saints of the countries making up the UK and Ireland?  Patrick for Ireland; Andrew for Scotland, George for England and David for Wales and each of them has their own day in the calendar.  The most celebrated globally has got to be Saint Patrick, the American staff at the International School in Stuttgart went all out last year when we were there; face paint, themed activities etc. ; but Saint Davids Day - not a mention.
One of the things I like to do is (try!) and fit in whatever activities we are doing with calendar events.  With things like Christmas this is really easy but for other occasions it needs a little resourcefulness.  So here is our list of possible activities all themed around Wales, dragons, leeks and daffodils and the colours white, red and green.  If you do try any of them let me know how it goes!

St Davids Day at Activity Village.co.uk - lots of ideas and printables
More resources at DLTK Kids -crafts and colouring
Visit Wales has pages for making a dragon, daffodil or Welsh flag
ichild has some nice printables for older children
Filth Wizardry has some nice stuff about Wales and a craft as well
Clever Toddler has some ideas for younger ones.

My own cunning idea is that the traditional Welsh costume (for girls) has a hat that looks pretty similar to those pilgrim hats that you see in every kind of activity/craft page around thanksgiving.  Maybe its just me but I think so...

So I intend to adapt some of the things I have bookmarked from earlier in the year.  

Incidently the costume above is part of a historical publicity stunt during the 19th century - in reality the costume worn in Wales was not really so different from what the English wore.  But during the 19th century one Lady Llanover who had a stately home (Llanover House)  in South Wales had her employees and tenants dress in a standardised costume and she popularised Wales as a tourist destination.  It must have been a resounding success because this is now recognised everywhere as the National Costume and children in Wales dress like this to go to school on St Davids Day.

Halloween Activities to Download

Completely off the handmade ghosts; decorating pumpkins and other crafty type activities these are the printables that we downloaded to use this week with the halloween theme.

Activity pack that contains loads of stuff to make and do some inside some outside - you have to have this one emailed to you but it is free.
Scavenger Hunt to do in your local woodland
Halloween wordsearches and other like printables from homeschooling.about.com
Halloween printables from Ben and Jerrys - we used the bone maze

Loads to do and not a Trick or Treat in sight.

Happy Halloween!

Related Pinterest Boards:
Homeschool
Halloween

Climbing Trees and Skinning Knees

Yesterday my children climbed a tree! Now there will be people all round the world who are sitting there saying "So what?". Let me explain why this is such a big thing.

If you are a child in the modern UK the chances are pretty high you have never climbed a tree.  Trees big enough to be climbed are old trees- old trees are often removed from public places like schools and parks because they can have dangerous things like dead branches.  If they are replaced, and sadly it is often an if, it is with small immature trees that are too small to climb.  Even if they are perfectly healthy trees may even be removed simply because they are big enough to climb and therefore there is a risk that a child could be injured falling from the tree.  Likewise many trees will have lower branches removed so that they cannot be reached from the ground specifically to prevent climbing.

So much for climbing trees in public places.  How about just climbing trees at home.  Here we get to the climbing trees are old trees argument again.  Aside from those families who live in flats and therefore don't have a garden most UK housing bought or rented by families with young children is new or recent build.  Cost being the prime reason - availability being another.  Such houses often don't have a garden big enough for an old tree (it would take up the entire space) and haven't been established long enough for a mature tree to have grown anyway.

The image of childhood and playing outside includes things like climbing trees, making treehouses and rope swings from branches.  Most of the children in the UK will be extremely lucky to be able to do these simple things that 50 years ago would have been much more common.

So if you do have a local climbing tree it is a privilege, don't just ignore it, let your children love it and climb it!

Sherborne Old Castle

We spent a good part of the day running round Sherborne Old Castle - owned by English Heritage.

On the way back we saw A's fantasy car of the moment.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

We found a recipe for sidewalk chalk paint on Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams since it is only equal amounts (by volume) of water and cornflour coloured with food colouring we decided to give it a whirl...
This is the result.

oh we do love to be beside the seaside

One thing we have sorely missed being in the middle of Europe is going to the seaside.  Our favourite place is Weymouth in Dorset (less than an hour away from home on a good day) and it embodies the typical cliché about the English Seaside with buckets and spades, fish and chips shops and beach huts galore and we love that. It is also going to be the venue for the sailing in 2012 when the Olympics are in London.

As you can see we had brilliant sunshine for our day at the beach. (not)

B played chase the seagulls but could not be persuaded to go anywhere near the water ("Scary")

R started to build a sandcastle "aided" by her baby brother

A just wanted to stand in the waves and chill

Incidentally Weymouth is renowned for its very fine sand which makes the best sand scultures. Very good for little feet as it is not too sharp.  Combine it with a shallow bay where you can paddle out to a couple of hundred yards off the beach and still be below your knees and it is easy to see why it is a good place for taking young children.

On the way back home we picked up some draw your own puzzles from Wilkinsons (twin pack for less than a quid -bargain)

Rainy Days - British summer

Back in the UK temporarily having said goodbye to Stuttgart for good as far as we can tell.  The British summer is up to its usual tricks so today needed a rainy day activity.  Luckily Tescos have packs of face paints in their party gear section for under a tenner.  B didn't want to join in "Yucky" was his comment when I painted a little on his hand!

Letter C: C is for Camera: Camera I-Spy

There is something irresistible about digital cameras for my kids.  So much so that often I put my camera away save and sound and when I come back to it it has no battery left and a full SD card.  It is interesting to see what they think are noteworthy things to take photos of. 
One of the things that A likes to do is just look at the world through the camera - not necessarily take photos but just use the camera to focus more clearly on what he is doing.  B has picked up on this and I saw him doing this yesterday.  So why camera I-Spy? because the camera can be used to build his vocabulary.  Here's how it works.  I sit him on my lap so we can both see the screen and I zoom onto something of interest in the room, I then ask B what it is, what colour it is, what shape it is, who it belongs to etc (he's not quite up to what letter it begins with yet but we'll get there!).  Having the screen limit the field of view is perfect for helping him concentrate on a limited number of objects and makes it easier for him to guess what it is I'm talking about.

Bubbles bubbles everywhere

In honour of the sphere project over at unplug your kids we got out the bubble mixture today. Since it is inches deep in snow in the garden the bubble machine was replaced by good old lung power whilst the boys shared their evening bath.
B loves bubbles - in fact I think one of his very first words was "bubble" and being only just over 2 gets very excited when we use them. He also wants to blow them himself so the bubble fest was punctuated by "me try, me try!" he even managed to blow a few; he has got the blow air bit right but does it through clenched teeth rather then making the right shape with his lips, it was nice to see that even when he only blew one bubble rather than a stream like everyone else he didn't give up and sulk (he is so not his brother and sister!).
For the older ones I asked them "why is a bubble spherical?" "Can you blow bubbles that are other shapes?" This is what we plan to do today. We will use some plastic coated wire to make bubble blowers that are other shapes instead of just a circle and see what shape the bubbles are. R with her usual initial enthusiasm has bet me thousands of millions of pounds that she can blow a square bubble. That's me off to buy a retirement villa somewhere warm then!