Pumpkins

So it has been a little while! We have been busy in our house. With Pickle and Penguin both having a birthday with a joint party in the middle and then half term with all the madness that brings.

We have been having fun with pumpkins in our house! We visited a pumpkin farm over half term and picked up a few beauties. Yellow Bean and Pickle picked out classic carving pumpkins and Penguin and I chose edible ones. We also picked some cheap ones up from supermarkets.

So....what have we been doing?

First we did some scooping. But I failed to get a snap of that one...too much excitement and mess.

The kids had some great fun with the squidgy squishy innards of the pumpkin and did a pretty good job scooping it all out.

Then we washed the seeds. Pickle, Penguin and I loved the feel of the slippery seeds in the water. A great sensory activity!

We dried the seeds and picked a few to put aside for planting next year. The rest we mixed with a little oil, some brown sugar and mixed spice and roasted in a medium/hot oven for 15min. Yummy!

Pickle enjoyed carefully cutting the face he had drawn himself out of his pumpkin. We used a pumpkin carving kit we picked up in the supermarket. It was great, the blade is serrated but not sharp, totally suitable for my newly 4 year old boy.

Penguin is still a bit too little, she had a fabulous time drawing all over her pumpkin with sharpie pen.

For another pumpkin activity Penguin used a hammer to tap some golf tees into another pumpkin. He then wound black wool around the tees to make a pattern. He decided that this was like a spiders web so we have since added a black pompom and pipe cleaners to make a spider.

Not a bad little batch of activities that the small people certainly seemed to enjoy. I am looking forward to lighting them tomorrow evening!

Until next time....S xx

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

Dinosaurs of China

Over the summer we visited the Dinosaurs of China exhibit in Nottingham. It was great, a beautifully laid out museum with wonderful information and clarity of purpose.

I loved learning about the links between birds and dinosaurs and so did Pickle and Penguin. The fossils they had were amazing and clearly showed the features of dinosaurs reflected in modern birds.

They also had a fantastic tent outside with perfectly pitched activities for the kids to extend their learning through playing with various resources.

All in all a wonderful day and learning experience. Did you take any interesting trips over the summer? I would love to hear about them. Until next time. x

Picking Blackberries

We have done a lot of blackberry picking over the last part of the summer. Pickle loves to pick the blackberries but won't eat them unless they are in a crumble. Penguin can't seem to stop eating them from the bushes as we wander through the woods.

We have had a few crumbles, made some jam and some blackberry gin. We have also had lots of purple fingers and a few purple faces too.

Wonderful outside time with my two. x

Painting Rocks

This summer many people in my local area have been painting rocks and leaving them in the woods for others to find. Rocks, paint, woods, outdoors, art. It sounded right up our alley.

So we decided to join in and give it a go. We started out by digging in the garden, finding rocks and giving them a good wash. This was a great activity and Pickle and Penguin dove into it with all the energy and excitement that small people seem to muster from nowhere. They found a lovely selection and were really keen to get started with the paint.

I covered them in PVA once they were dry and the next day we went out into the woods to hide them and search for others. We found a few and have been back a few times since to find more.

Pickle and penguin love to see the different designs others have chosen, to them every single one of them is beautiful and exciting. I love to see the world through their eyes. Some are amazingly creative, taking into account the shape of the rocks, others are very much toddler painted.

I would highly recommend getting involved in community projects such as this, it is really great to see so many families getting involved and enjoying the outdoors. I have seen a lot of posts about this on the facebook community so it would be worth looking to see if it is going on in your area.

Until next time. x

Dinos and Ice

Today we had an adventure with ice and dinosaurs. We looked at the water melting, we used salty water and put the ice in the sunshine. Pickle and Penguin watched the dinos emerge and the colours drip down in channels through an ice block.

The dinos were really easy to set up. I squeezed some small dinosaur toys we bought at a charity shop into a balloon, filled with water, tied them off and stuck them in the freezer.

We also put some food colouring on the surface of a large block of ice and watched how it melted. Pickle and Penguin watched the channels running through the middle of the block.

This is definitely an activity we will be repeating during the hot weather. We spoke about the salty water changing the freezing point of the water, the kids felt the ice melting and how the surface was smoothed over.

30 Days Wild - Day 27

Today was a rainy day. It was a puddle splashing day. It was an opportunity day. We did the puddle splashing thing again of course. But we also started the day by putting to glasses of water outside on our garden lawn.

I hear you why on earth would you do that? How is that wild? Well today we were learning a bit about weather. We were learning about rainfall. I asked Penguin how much water he thought would be in the glass after all that rain and after seeing all those puddles. He understandably thought it would be full. Of course it wasn't. He was surprised and it sparked a little conversation about puddles and rain.

We left one glass outside to see how much more rain falls over night but this was our day rainfall...

Tomorrow I think we will find a ruler and do some measuring!

30 Days Wild - Day 24

Today we had a very busy day. We visited the London Transport museum which means most of the day was spent on trains and looking at trains and buses. But looking at public transport and changes to the ways we have traveled, including the changes in pollution I am going to count as a win.....

We had a nice train ride into London, looking out of the windows at gardens and hedges, trees and plants. It was a lovely ride and we saw plenty.

It is not quite wild wild but it is pretty modern wild and Pickle and Penguin had a total blast. If you haven't visited the London Transport Museum and you live in the vicinity, go. It is a great day out and perfect for our two, ages 3 and 1. They have things to look at, things to climb on and dress up in, things to drive and sit in. It is really great. Really.

30 Days Wild - Day 22

Today we spotted a squirrel in the garden nibbling at our strawberries!! We didn't manage to catch a picture before it scampered away but it did provoke an interesting conversation about wild animals and how they find food.

30 Days Wild- Day 21

Today we made some butterfly pictures in the garden. Pickle and Penguin put pieces of tissue paper onto butterfly shape cut outs and then sprayed it with water. It was a lovely cool activity for a very hot day!

After a little while we peeled off the tissue paper to reveal a beautifully patterned butterfly! It would be really lovely to make this with different shapes of tissue paper when they are a bit older and more thoughtful about design.

30 Days Wild - Day 18

We have been reading a book we have borrowed from the library, it is called 'Where's the Starfish' by Barroux. It looks at the problems caused by ocean pollution in a way that is easy to understand for toddlers and young children.

We try to read a broad range of books and like to include those which deal with issues such as this. 'The Lorax' from Dr Seuss is another favourite of ours and we have also read 'Where's the Elephant', also by Barroux.

The books by Barroux have beautiful illustrations and leave a very powerful message in their wake. Pickle and Penguin love the game of finding the animals in each picture and have made thoughtful comments throughout the book. They are great for their ages of 1 and 3 but I expect the impact will be greater as we look at them again as Pickle in particular gets older and more observant. It is an important message that lies very close to our hearts.

30 Days Wild - Day 17

Today we went on a trip to ZSL Wipsnade Zoo. We had a fantastic day, we saw a lot of different animals. Pickle and Penguin love animals and were fantastic, it was a long day but they really had a wonderful time. I think the favourite was the giraffes, it was certainly one of my favourites.

It was a really hot and sunny day, a lot of the animals look like they were enjoying the sunny weather or sitting in the shade. It was lovely to see the African Hunting dogs, it is a new exhibit and I don't remember ever seeing them before.

The elephants were having a great time throwing dust and mud on themselves to keep themselves cool. This guy looks really happy with the grass he has to munch on. I was amazed by the dexterity of their trunk as this one picked the grass and put it into his mouth before wandering over to the pool, mixing water with the dust and squirting his belly with it.

I always get mixed feelings visiting the zoo. I know that the zoos do a lot of great work, I love the excitement of the children seeing all the different animals and I know that them seeing the animals ignites their interest and enthusiasm for the animals and I hope it will go onto inspire them. I love to watch the animals myself too but I do sometimes struggle with the size of some enclosures. The animals seem so big to fit into such marginal spaces. I think they are doing work on the Sea Lion exhibit at Wipsnade and I look forward to seeing it when completed, it doesn't seem like they have a lot of space. Wipsnade is better than a lot of zoos I have seen for enclosure space, it is a pleasure to visit. I look forward to our next visit!

30 Days Wild - Day 16

Today we learnt about ants. We watched a group of ants trotting across the path and we watched them climbing a tree.

We spoke about why they might be climbing the tree. We watched them going up and down and from one nest to another across the path.

They are super hard to photograph! They are so fast and so tiny!

They were really very busy and both Pickle and Penguin were mesmerised by them. I am sure there must be a great children's story in there.

30 Days Wild - Day 15

Today we learnt about Australian animals. Pickle was sent this book:

I don't think it is available in the UK but it has a lot of different Australian animals in. We have talked about the obvious ones before, Pickle knew Koala, Kangaroo and Emu but there were a lot of animals in the book even I hadn't heard of before. 

We spoke about some of the animals and Pickle really wanted to find out more. We sat with our tablet and we went through each animal in turn and found out a little bit more about it. 

Pickle was particularly excited to learn that the Bilby pouch faces backward to prevent dirt getting in when it is digging. It was a lovely thing to sit and do together and both children learnt a lot about animals living on the other side of our beautiful planet. 

30 Days Wild - Day 14

Today we did some weaving. I made a little weaving frame from some sticks and twine, then Pickle, Penguin and I went on a little walk and collected grass, flowers, leaves and feathers to weave into the twine.

It was pretty successful. Penguin is too little for the weaving but she was really keen on picking the flowers and grass for Pickle and I to weave in. They also spent some time exploring a log for animal homes. There are a number of holes in and around the log, I would love, love, love to know what lives in there!

30 Days Wild - Day 13

Today we went to the Hatfield Farm and Hertfordshire Goat Sanctuary. Pickle and Penguin really love it there. Pickle in particular loves the big sand pits they have. We took buckets and spades with us and played for sometime in the sand.

Of course the idea behind the trip was to see the animals and learn a bit more about the different types. Farm animals are pretty easy so the smalls both know all their animal names and noises. I really wish they would put some better signage up at this particular farm. There are some very interesting goats with 4 horns but I have no idea what they are called.

Quite something, don't you think? I think they are fantastic.

These pigs were oh so snuffly, I don't think I have ever heard a pig do so much grunting! It was fantastic reinforcement for Penguin and her funny little pig noise.

Penguin loves the tractor trailer ride. She got so very excited! It is a nice ride to end the trip, but you really do have to be careful, the first time we went on the ride we sat on the wrong side and got a really lovely view of the hedges....

30 Days Wild - Day 12

Today we picked some strawberries from our garden! Pickle and Penguin love to stoop and peer at the strawberries beginning to blush. They are learning to check and see if they are ripe before picking them.

Both of them love strawberries and they love to pick them fresh from their very own garden.

30 Days Wild - Day 10

Today we played poo sticks, walked, spotted birds and looked at cows in a field, walked outdoors, explored an adventure playground and had a picnic.
We went for a day out at Aldenham Country Park. We had a lovely walk and the kids really enjoyed the 100 acre wood and play area.

It was really nicely laid out, Pickle and Penguin loved peeping in the various characters houses. And of course Pickle jumped right in to play in the sand where Roo plays.

We spotted this heron in a nearby field! We saw a red kite too but it was high up and I couldn't catch a picture as we watched Pickle and Penguin by the reservoir.