Little feet

Anyone who knows me well knows I love shoes! Today I have 3 little boys with me ( a new boy who is only doing 1 day a week has joined us) so I couldn't resist taking a snap of their little shoes all lined up-SUPER CUTE!

From a young age I show the babies and children where to put their shoes neatly and I ask them to go and get their own shoes when we are going out, it's always a good opportunity to count, feet, shoes and toes! It's also so important for them to learn which things belong to them and also to help develop independence. But meantime while the boys nap I'll just have a moment going 'ahhhhh' over the cute little feet.

Leaving party!

One of my long term children left this week to go to school! A bittersweet week for me (sob sob), obviously I am so proud of her that she's ready and confident to go and be a big girl at school, but I'm really missing our little conversations and most of all her cuddles! For the leaving party she and I went to the shops and she chose some treats, we played Musical bumps, Musical statues, Simon says, The Bean Game and this fun game where you thread hula hoop crisps onto a string for them to eat! Very messy but SO much fun! Lots of giggling!! She has loved going to school so far and has sent us messages to say she's happy there which is brilliant. We will hopefully see her often as she doesn't live too far away, and anyway my girls adore her so they will be begging to see her!

Helping pod beans

I haven't had a huge harvest of broad beans this year as there were lots of pests and they're really better if planted in the autumn which I ran out of time to do. But we did have enough for a couple of meals. I made broad bean dip with lemon and garlic which was a big hit with carrot sticks to dip and also a bean and tomato stew which got demolished! My little boy loved podding the beans, finding the surprises inside, counting the beautiful pale green brand new beans and sorting them from the skins. Lots of skills employed here- concentrating, maths, manual dexterity as well as learning about gardening and where food comes from.

Strawberry time!

It's been an amazing year for soft fruit this year and all the children have been involved in picking them, helping to weigh them and of course eating them! We harvested 25kgs this year! Wow! I've made jam, sauce and frozen lots too so we can enjoy them for many months to come in yogurts or smoothies or cakes. Yum yum!

Helping cook a Tortilla

The children wanted to help me cook supper. I often do a bit of cooking in the afternoon so the food is ready after the school run and I can then spend more time with the small ones after their naps. Today I was making a Spanish tortilla with home grown potatoes and chard as well as feta and sweet potato. First we went out in the garden to pick some herbs: mint and bay leaves and they enjoyed smelling them. We also have lavendar, thyme, lemon balm, parsley and basil growing so the garden is a brilliant place for the children to explore their senses.

Both children wanted to see the tortilla veggies cooking so they knew they needed a step each and went to find them, good team work! We talked about it being hot and not to touch the pan so it's a good learning experience about safety.

When the veg was done I said I needed some helpers to smoosh the eggs and there were lots of giggles and shouts of me me! I showed them how to bash/tap the eggs and break them into the bowl then they beat them up really well.

Final result- ta da! Should probably have taken pics of the empty plates! My youngest baby ate 2 portions and he's not always the best eater so obviously a big hit. I usually serve it with ham and we call it a Green Eggs and Ham and read pages from that brilliant books hitch the kids all love!

 

Group bus ride!

Furzedown primary school early years playground has some fabulous play equipment, lots funded by the school PTA which is brilliant. My youngest, in the orange coat was very happy when everyone wanted to come down to her playground at pick up time and this was a perfect photo op when they decided to play buses together, very sweet!

Walking home in the sun!

The bigger children including my neighbours daughter love holding hands with the little ones when we walk home. I'm so happy the weather is warming up again and we are starting to spend much more time outside either in the garden or at the park.

Flower pics

Gardening seed catalogues arrive in the post in hoards in my house and they are a brilliant source for arts and crafts activities! We can talk about sizes and shapes of flowers, compare with what's in the garden, say which ones are our favourites, choose colours and even find animals in some of the magazines. The bigger kids can practice their cutting skills and everyone can do the glueing and sticking to make some really cheerful pictures that any fridge would be proud to display!

Planting time

It's a busy time of year for gardening! We had our lunch outside at the table and then did some planting. I showed my little girl the tray which I had started off with 2 bean seeds in each module I then asked her to copy and put the same number of beans into each square. She managed really well and could count how many she needed at the end.we then covered the beans with compost and she enjoyed this messy bit! When she comes back after the Easter holiday the beans will hopefully have germinated and she will be able to see the fruits of her labours.

Easter Bunnies

I love an excuse to do some making! I wanted to do an activity that would be suited to my under 2 year old and this was perfect! He could see it was a bunny and managed to put glue on and help choose and stick the eyes, ears, nose, teeth and whiskers! Very cute don't you think? I was very impressed with my 4 year old boy who drew and cut out all his own teeth and ears! How many things can you make with an old loo roll!?

We are sailing

The play boat in the playground at Furzedown is very popular with the small children while we do our school drop offs and pick ups. C (21 months) has learned how to climb in now and giggles with excitement at his acheivement and being able to join in with the bigger children. I think it must really help the transition to school because the little ones are already very familiar with the school environment and get to know the routine of going to school every day. Sometimes the little ones go into the classroom with me to see the big kids and help collect them. I think it's lovely for the teachers too to see the wee ones and get a sense of the other relationships that the children they teach have.

Celebrating Spring

We have been looking for the signs of Spring whilst on our travels out and about. My little girl wanted to make a spring picture. I got out the arts and craft box and asked her what should go in the picture. She wanted the sun, a birds nest with eggs in a tree and some flowers, so she had a go at practising cutting, and glued it all together to make a very pretty end result that she was very proud of and wanted to take home to show mummy and daddy. We talked about what happens in spring time and in the other seasons so it was a really good learning opportunity covering most of the early years areas of learning and development: personal, social and emotional development, understanding of the world, communication and literacy, physical development as well as expressive arts and design.

Exploring toy box

When I have a new child settling in we often have the same toys out for a few weeks to help with familiarisation. I keep all the toys in the playroom in labelled boxes which the bigger children helped me to do. This means they can more easily see what's there and then choose what they want to play with or do. In the 'baby toy' box we have a variety of shape sorters, rattles, stacking cups, cloth books,  musical toys, and pull along toys which are all colourful and safe for little ones. It's good to let the babies explore the box and pull out what they like the look of. I think stacking cups are probably the best toy ever! Sometimes we use them with water, or to talk about colours and they have stampers on the base so we use them to make patterns when we get Playdough out.