Fungi

I love Fungi. Don't you? Have you seen the amazing range of shapes and colours that you can find in an early autumnal wood? Have you ever noticed how magical the world of fungi can be?

A wonderful selection. x

30 Days Wild - Day 9

Do you remember these guys? 

Today we found out more about them! They are Ladybird larvae! I never knew. We learnt a lot about the lady bird life cycle using the iDial. You can find the iDials here... 

It turns out these little guys were getting ready to pupate. They are still in the same position as here but now in the Pupa stage. We will be keeping an eye on them to see if we can see them emerge as ladybirds!

30 Days Wild - Day 8

Today we picked lettuce leaves from the garden for our dinner!

Sorry for the poor quality pictures, I may have had a 'helper'.

Making Fossils

Did I mention Pickles love for Dinosaurs? I did? It is a sickness I tell you!

He likes to 'hunt' for fossils and explore his 'objects' (his term not mine!) with his magnifying glass. We have been talking a little bit about how the fossils were made. He is 3 so we are talking basic stuff...

Anyway I thought it would be fun for the kids to make their own fossils. It is really simple to create a little cast, I think I will repeat the idea looking at footprints like the ones we found on the beach on the Isle of Wight.

Pickle and Penguin both chose a shell and made an imprint of it in some air dry clay. I then mixed some plaster of paris and they very carefully helped me to pour it into the imprint. We left it until the next day and then were able to uncover our fossils! Penguin loves to look at them, she points and says 'my fossil, mine.'

A nice little activity, pretty clean too. I was careful to mix the plaster of paris myself as there are hazards so just make sure you read the packaging before using and take necessary precautions.

Until next time...

Sun Catchers

So, with some lovely sunny weather the past week I though I would share with you a lovely little craft perfect for the summer time!

Suncatchers! We made these a while back but they are easy peasy, Penguin and Pickle both loved the activity and both were able to join in nicely. Penguin even managed to find a rouge googly eye which she added to her suncatcher. See if you can spot it in the picture!

So these are super simple, cut a cardboard frame, add some sticky back plastic then cover the 'window' with bits of cut up tissue paper! I hope you guys have a try!

Until next time.....

Fossil Hunting

So.....one of the things we did recently was go on a very special trip! Pickle wanted to go fossil hunting, he is totally dinosaur crazy and kept asking to go Fossil hunting and it was hard to explain to a 3 year old why he is unlikely to find fossils in Hertfordshire.

So we went on a lovely little mini holiday to the Isle of Wight and it was AMAZING. We had the best time and we found real fossils on our two fossil hunting trips. Pickle and Penguin had a lovely time and Pickle is so proud of his dinosaur bone finds.

So these are pieces of hipsolophodon bone, Iguanodon bone and the big lump is a piece of theropod thigh bone.

Pickle found the thigh bone and I could tell it was a good find when the paleontologists jaw hit the floor. She asked if he had just picked it up and scrabbled for her camera to take a photo. Later when we visited the fossil museum another paleontologist took some more photos of the bone and showed us some marks on the surface which he explained were tooth marks. Eeek, exciting.

We saw the footprint casts on the beach and were told a lot of information about the rocks and the food prints. I remember bits and I have to say I found it quite fascinating. Our guides were fantastic and we all had a great time.

Before Pickle was into dinosaurs I knew just a few, I have learnt so much from him and from his interests. We have really thrown ourselves into the dinosaur things as a whole family and I love it. I really love the dinosaur thing, it is amazing, truly amazing.

We visited Dinosaur Isle museum and Dinosaur Farm, both are really interesting places with a lot of information about discoveries on the island. Pickle particularly liked the models set out to play with a Dinosaur Farm and Penguin loved the tooth sieving activity they had there. I must have a look at setting something up similar at home...

Dinosaur Isle has a lot of interesting displays of fossils as they were found in situ and Pickle was particularly enamored by the animatronic dinosaur demonstration. Both are well worth a visit for the dino enthusiast!

Until next time.....

Dying Flowers

Over the Easter holidays Pickle and I decided to try and dye some flowers. We had a lovely chat about how plants get their water and how it travels around the plant. I would be interested to try this experiment at some point with a potted plant rather than cut flowers to show the involvement of the roots...I think this level is sufficient for now but it would be an interesting extension.

So Pickle had tried this experiment at preschool but they did not see a very strong colour change. When we did it we decided to make the colour of the water very concentrated. We used a lot of food colouring, so much that the water was very dark and you couldn't easily see which colour was which from first glance.

We also cut some of the stems very short to see what difference that would make....

It turns out quite a lot! The shorter stems meant that the colour showed up in the flowers much faster, within a couple of hours.

 After an extended period of several days the shorter stemed flowers also had a more intense colour. I would conclude that this is due to the fact less of the colouring is lost on the way up, in the stem and remaining leaves for instance.

I love the pretty striping of the colours running through the veins of the petals.

The blue and red were more successful than the green colouring. We swapped a red and blue flower over to see if the colours would mix afterwards. They didn't. When placed in the blue water the red one went blue with just some red patches left at the tips of the petals; the blue flower stayed blue in the red water. This gives me ideas about future experiments mixing the food colouring to make purple before adding the flowers....what would happen? The green colouring did give green lines in the petals rather than blue and yellow so I don't really expect a chormotographic effect....but I am not sure what would happen, it might be an interesting conversation to have with Pickle in the future after some chromatography adventures....

Until next time...

SAHM Without the SHAME

So, I am a stay at home Mum, SAHM, Housewife, unemployed not seeking employment or Just a Mum. It is something that over the past 3 and half years I have never once regretted. I do however have hang ups ont he subject. I feel like I should do more, like I am not working as hard as those with jobs, like I am lay and not worth as much. I feel like I need to justify my choices.

Someone told me recently that it doesn't matter what you do in life as long as you do a fantastic job. The same person also made a passing comment or two along the lines of 'I love your life' and 'I want to live your life' You have no idea how amazing it is to hear that! It started me thinking - what is it my life looks like?

My life is singing loud at the park, growing seeds in cupboards, bubble painting, digging holes and finding worms. It is roaring like a dinosaur, snotty noses and dirty nappies, line dried washing and home-made pizzas. It is playdough and glitter, toddler tantrums, mud everywhere, a messy house and Pintrest boards. It is groups trips to the bathroom and never peeing alone.

My life is lonely days and Mum guilt. It is dirty washing, making nests, foam stickers, screaming, peeling apples and too much TV. It is making excuses and explaining choices. it is running down the street like a lunatic to fill the gap between dinner and bedtime. It is repeated stories and the right cereal combination. It is glue and paint and pens, bananas and raisins, cooking and cleaning. My life is good, great, hard, maddening and sometimes lonely. I have a fantastic life, I don't have to deal with mental health problems, I have great kids and a wonderful husband. We are all healthy. I am lucky.

So now I am looking at my life and choices from a different perspective. I am finding pride in how I spend my days. I am refusing to feel bad for not working and not 'doing it all'. It is a mismatch of great and not great. I am lucky.

I know all Mums have Mum guilt and I think we should all stop for a moment and give ourselves a pat on the back. Whether you are a working Mum, a Mum whose babies have flown the nest, a new Mum just starting out or one without a baby to hold.....feel strong. Revel in the good days and move past the bad ones. Tell yourself you are great and believe it. Know that the best you can be is what you are and it is more than enough.

Skittles Experiment

We did the Skittles experiment.We put skittles in a circle on a white plate and then poured on some warm water. Pickle was really excited to be able to do an experiment with us all. He was very happy taking photographs of the result with his own camera, received for Christmas.

We talked a little about the colours dissolving in the water and looked at what happened to the colours as they started to mix. Pickle had a grand old time and enjoyed seeing how the skittles themselves had dissolved later in the afternoon.

Until next time....S x

Fairy Dough

I made some Fairy dough for the kids. Just cornflour and hair conditioner. I thought it would be a nice little sensory activity. Poor Penguin doesn't get nearly as much sensory play as Pickle used to. The groups we go to now don't have any sensory play and when she was little we were limited by space when we were living in a very small flat. When we moved we were finding our feet. We did a little in the summer but Penguin was so terrible for putting everything in her mouth I was nervous to try many things I would have done with Pickle any day of the week.

So I mixed up the conditioner, 2 parts cornflour to one part conditioner. I then tipped it into a box to let them play. Penguin tried to eat it. Of course. I thought we might be coming out the other side of putting everything in her mouth. She usually takes one look at dinner and says 'no, no, no' before pushing the plate away. Sigh. Life and mind of a toddler. Who can fathom.

They played quite nicely with it for maybe 5 min. So I should probably count that as a win....there wasn't a huge quantity and I left it really open. Next time I will set up with more spoons and containers maybe with a bigger volume. I am all for not wasting so I put it in a pot. I have no idea if it will be of any use....only time will tell. Have any of you had any success with Fairy Dough? Any ideas?

That is all for now! Until next time. S x

Painting on Foil

Penguin is not very good with the cold. She is still little and is quite slight. In this weather we can't generally stay out for very long before taking her back inside to warm up. Last week was a welcome break from the icy weather but one colder day we decided to get on with some painting. 

I am rather a Pintrest fan and have seen various Pins about painting on foil so I thought we would give it a try. I rolled a long sheet of foil out on the kitchen floor, taped the ends down and let the kids go at it with a brush each and a few colours of paint. Here we used green, blue, white and a blue glitter paint.

It was quite fun, although I am not sure how different Pickle and Penguin found it from painting on paper. Pickle later in the week asked to to painting. On paper. Penguin was a little more intrigued sticking her finger in and sliding it in the wet paint, although she ended up sticking her painty finger in her mouth (typical) and then trying to walk all over it with her socks still on (Mummy Error!!!).

I think it will be a nice activity to try again when Pickle is big enough to think about shapes and to look at some examples of Swirly Monet painting. I have seen swirly patterns work very nicely on Pintrest....here and here are just two examples.

Flapjacks

I am always looking for yummy healthy snacks for the kids. I quite like to keep sugar down, particularly for Penguin and we do enjoy a spot of cooking. 

Last week we made some tasty flapjacks. They were no added sugar, packed with fruit, seeds and oats. And Pickle and Penguin love them, they gobble them up quick as a flash. 

Perfect, tasty snacks, guilt free Mummy. 

As you can see it didn't take long before we were tucking in. They are a good balance of being clean, not too sticky and not too crumbly. The toddlers are not very good and using plates properly!

So my recipe, it has been developed over time. I usually judge by eye but I have measured and written it down for you all. 

Pickle and Penguin Flapjacks

2 apples, grated

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup mixed seeds

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cut cranberries

8 dates, chopped

1 mashed banana

2 cups oats

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175 (fan) or equivalent.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. 

Press mixture into a greased and lined shallow tin. Whatever you would usually use for brownies or flapjacks should be fine. 

Place in the oven for 15-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Cut whilst warm and enjoy once cooled!

Do give them a go and let me know what you think!

Me xx

Salty Paint

As part of our science project 2017 I decided to have a look at a series of activities that investigate what happens when you add salt to watery paint. It makes some lovely textures as the salt dissolves in the water and subsequently leaves residue behind as the water evapourates and it dries.

Image from Usbourne

Pickle and Penguin had a great time painting and sprinkling. Unfortunately I don't think I made the paint watery enough as there was little evidence of dissolving, just gaps in the paint where the salt crystals had stuck. No pretty starry patterns for us so no pictures today I am afraid.

I will definitely try this one again but I will test it first!

This week we tried making sugar crystals on a lolly stick. I am not sure if this one is going to work yet. It is pretty cold here right now and there don't seem to be any sugar crystals on the stick....I will give it a few more days. Even if it doesn't work we used a lot of great science words like 'solution'. Pickle really enjoyed mixing the 'solute' and 'solvent' together so all is not lost! I can always tip the solution into a saucer to make loose crystals if the sticks don't work. Watch this space for an update!

Water Resistance and Penguin Feet

This past week we have been playing with water resistance using our fantastic Usbourne 365 Science activities book. Pickle and Penguin have been engaged in the activities and Pickle has been asking questions too. 

The first activity we took part in was drawing with crayons and then painting over with watery paint. We used white crayon on white paper so you could really see where the paint didn't stick to the crayon marks. We had fun playing with the materials and Pickle is pretty eager to do some more things from his science book.

Today we did a second activity which was an extension of the first. The small ones did some finger painting with margarine and then painted over it with watery paint. This was far more exciting for P & P. Using familiar materials in different contexts really got them excited and the results were a lot more obvious! You could really see where they had put the margarine. We had fun and it was a nice short activity.

This past weekend we finally got around to one of our seasonal family traditions. Since becoming a family of four every season we have created a foot or hand print picture. So far we have had snowmen, butterflies, bees and leaves. This time around we made our feet into penguins. 

Looking at them in this photo they look a bit like surprised penguins but in the 'flesh' as it were they are a lot more friendly looking...

We also painted Pickle and Penguins' feet to look like penguins on their own to make our Christmas thank you cards. These ones have googly eyes on them which gives a little more character.

I hope that this is a tradition we can continue with as the small people grow, I am already scouring Pintrest for  inspiration for future print portraits....see you in a few hours....

S xx

A New Start

Hi, how are you? My name is Sam and I am a stay at home Mum of two. I have a 3 year old boy, Pickle, and a Penguin loving 1 year old girl. I love crafting, in particular crochet, and spending time with my husband, Yellow bean, and children.

In a past life I was a secondary science teacher, something I both loved and hated simultaneously. For the new year I wanted to get back to my science roots.

Between Christmas and New Year we took the sprogs to the science museum in London. They were too young. Almost everything was out of their sight line and little was interactive. It is a fantastic museum but not so good for toddlers. We all had a great time - don't get me wrong, they peered at things for a split second and ran around.

The Garden in the basement was great but a faff to find and over crowded. The staff were great and numbers were limited. We had a to wait to get in and they bought round giant slinky toys for the kids to play with. I really can't fault the staff or facilities and I am sure it is great for older kids just not toddlers, we were not their target market.

The bubble show promised to be perfect for our bubble loving two but it was a bit of a slow start and Pickle got scared right at the start and the bubbles didn't flow fast enough to distract him so we had to leave.

We had a great day but it wasn't the most appropriate trip for my kids and it wasn't the hands on introduction to 'big science' I wanted it to be.

So....I bought this book.....


Image taken from amazon.co.uk

And this year we are going to choose one topic a week and get experimenting! The book arrived today, Pickle chose his first topic - Water Resistance - so tomorrow we are going to get started! It looks pretty accessible for Penguin too - lots of crayons and paints so I think she will be able to join in.

From a first look I think it will be great. Simple, quick activities that I can pick from at the start of the week to make sure I have the right stuff around. I hope that it will spark some interest and give us some fun activities to do when Pickle is not at preschool! (He starts monday afternoon, Ahhhhh my baby, and also Yay! Penguin naps!)

Until next time... x