All Things Wild Nature Centre

Today we visited All Things Wild Nature Centre in Honeybourne, near Evesham. We had such a fabulous time there! There's such a variety of activities to see and do.

We started by taking a walk through the animal pens, enclosures and paddocks, where every so often we'd bump into a dinosaur, which the kids loved! Eden and Asher, at 4 and 2, can be reluctant walkers at times - the dinosaurs, short walking distances, and stamp trail really helped encourage them around the site. Eden especially enjoyed finding the stamp boxes for the stamp trail and was very proud to complete her worksheet - her first one! 

There are so many dinosaurs to discover! 

And a dinosaur dig - a hands-on way to learn about fossils

We did pond dipping and found some water snails, and we met baby ducks and chicks in the barn 

Eden is fascinated by bugs at the moment, and here they had bug land, with lots of learning resources available to discover the world of bugs 

If it rains there's 2 indoor soft play areas, an indoor learning centre where you can do junk modelling, colouring, and nature sensory games. The kids really enjoyed the indoor pedal tractor track! 

All of a sudden the kids are looking very grown up!

We had a fantastic time today - it's been such a fun day of learning outdoors! 

Cardooo Cards: Journey Buddies

Last November we reviewed Cardooo Cards - the fun greetings cards that encourage children to engage in activities developing literacy, numeracy and creativity. You can read what we thought of them here.

A few months on, and we're still enjoying Cardooo Cards. Last November we were sent a Rapunzel story card. Eden will often pick this off the shelf for us to read, and last month it travelled abroad on holiday to Florida with us, being a very convenient and compact form of entertainment for the flight.  

Today I want to review another of the Cardooo cards, which just like previous cards we've reviewed, offers excellent entertainment value. This is one of their Journey Buddies cards, called 'At the Ballet'. Eden goes to ballet class every week, and has recently taken her first ballet exam, so she was excited to receive this card in the post. Eden is nearly 4.5 and most activities in the card were ones that she could do herself, such as dot to dot, lots of colouring in, and stickers (always a BIG hit). In addition, the card would appeal to older children too, with dancing facts, stories, and wordsearches amongst other activities - the cards pack A LOT in!



Eden's favourite activity in the card was the ballet board game, complete with dice to easily make yourself and counters. We enjoyed the twists and turns of the game, as well as the relevance to ballet, and it was great counting practice for Eden.



Journey buddies cards make a fabulous boredom buster for long journeys, crammed full with lots of activities for on the go.  The card is priced at £3.50 and if ballet isn't your thing, why not browse the selection of journey buddies cards here - in their range there's something for everyone! If you're heading away on a family holiday this Easter, don't leave without one!

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar Day!

Last week to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the book, we held our own very hungry caterpillar themed day. Eden woke up excited (I'd told her the night before) and absolutely loved it, Asher (just turned 2) definitely understood the association going on through the day and enjoyed the activities. Balloons were a must! 

I made this play mat for Asher before he was born, we haven't had it out since he was a baby, so it was lovely to have it out again as part of a party today. 

Asher loved the caterpillar that I made from an old Pringles tube. I cut a hole in the lid for a mouth, stuck a face on and some green paper for the body, and printed out some VHC food (that we coloured in ourself as an activity in itself) which we then posted to 'feed' our caterpillar. Like I said, Asher really loved this activity and it kept him busy for ages. All week he's returned to this activity too. 

While he was playing, Eden and I filled in a multiple choice quiz answering questions about the VHC story. 

I found a sequencing printable on Pinterest where we put the parts of the story in order, and practised our counting

We did lots of painting, making butterflies with tissue paper, and caterpillars out of egg boxes. I love how these mini-canvas fingerprints came out - a nice keepsake of the day! 

The day's inspired me to do something similar again soon. Eden just found it a lot of fun, especially as she loves art and creating things. And for Asher it was really noticeable to see the connections being made through the day, the development of his speech and consolidating associations through spending a whole day on something. 

A crazy week of weather and enjoying being outdoors

Storms have hit the UK, with widespread flooding in some counties and gale force winds (I even read we're on tornado watch!) We got drenched just making the two minute walk up the hill to nursery at lunchtime, and later this afternoon on the walk back to the car from drama club Eden and I were being blown to bits. Fortunately little Miss thought both situations were actually quite funny and she remained in good spirits! We joked that we should have brought our shampoo to wash our hair seeing as we'd got so wet in a rain 'shower'.

Regardless of what the weather's doing, I do love being outside. It lifts my spirits and I feel alive! It's easy in the summer to spend lots of time outdoors, but recently I've been trying to make more time even in the winter for us all to get out in the fresh air. Charlotte Mason writes how a child getting wet in the rain will not harm them, just like having a bath or shower won't, it's just important that they dry off well afterwards and don't stay in their wet clothes. 

Despite the weather, so far this week we've done a few different outdoor activities, and just this week have experienced for ourselves glorious sunshine, pouring rain, snow showers and strong winds! The kids have been out on their bikes. Eden enjoyed this more than Asher who was a little unwell and so didn't stay out long. Eden and I explored our local 'natural play space' consisting of tree trunks and rocks to climb on and an earthy mound to scramble up. We've decided we'll hide a geocache there at some point soon. We've also been tree climbing and squirrel spotting at a local park. 

I'd love to make more use of being outdoors to create lots of natural learning opportunities, there's so much to explore out there. 

Here's some pics from our outdoor times this week. I love the smile on her face and glint in her eyes as Eden has fun outside! 

Visiting the National Space Centre

Last weekend we took the kids to the National Space Centre near Leicester. It was a great day out! On arrival we discovered our day tickets also allow unlimited entry for the rest of the year at no extra cost - a pleasant surprise, and one we will definitely be taking advantage of!

At home recently the kids have been really interested in space, initially following Luke's introducing them to Star Wars, which also coincided with the BBC's Stargazing week, including some special cbeebies space themed programmes that we watched. Eden was keen to do a space-themed lapbook, which isn't quite finished yet for me to take a photo of, but includes space dominoes, a planet mini book, space words, colouring, and various other mini-activities. 

The space centre is great for preschoolers and children of all ages as many of the exhibits are hands-on, so the kids can really get involved. Our two loved the rocket-take off every 15 minutes or so in the cafe seating area. I love Asher's face on this picture - confused and amused - "what is this crazy place my mum and dad have brought me to?!" 

We had lunch from the cafe, which we thought was very reasonably priced. The soup was lovely! It would've been nice to have a designated play area of some sort for the kids to let off steam, although the whole centre is very open, which did help. 

For the under 5s there are dress-up stations throughout, Eden enjoyed being an astronaut while exploring a space station. There's also lots of photo moments: these two are my fave:

For the adults, Luke and I were amused at the broadcast of his filming of the weather, and another highlight for us was recreating a rocket launch, which involved us working together to get the cabin conditions correct before blast-off. 

We watched two shows in the planetarium. The kids found the novelty of lying back in the chairs while looking at the ceiling funny, and the shows generally kept their attention, especially for Eden (active Asher needed some bribing with food!) 

Asher almost looks like he knows what he's doing here! 

All in all a really fun day, lots to do and lots to see, we all learnt in the process, and will definitely be returning within the year. 

I love days like today

The day started with giggles together as we discovered Asher had found a pair of my old glasses!

We played duplo, and Asher did colour sorting for the first time!

This naturally led onto finding out what happens when we mix colours, and an impromptu paint session

Followed by a play in the garden before lunch (here's the kids drying out in the sunshine after sitting in the tuff spot puddle!) 

Then this afternoon we had some fun at the Zoo :)

Happy New Year!

We went to the park this afternoon and as we played, we watched the sun go down on 2013. 

Happy New Year! 

Sparkley Christmas preschool science experiment

We had great fun with a couple of torches and a selection of Christmas items, sorting into 2 groups: shiny and dull.

A very quick to set up experiment, and while Eden and I talked about light reflection, Asher was happy to shine his torch on a bauble and enjoy the sparkles! 

Here's a link to the website where I found the idea: http://www.science-sparks.com/2011/12/08/fun-sparks-a-little-bit-of-sparkle/

And some of our pics from the activity: