Lets go outside

What is everybody up to today? It is defiantly a cold Autumn day but why not wrap up warm and get outside. You could go for a walk, go on a bug hunt, go bird watching, go to the park, go and splash in puddles, go to the seaside- the world is your child's playground!

For more ideas for outdoor play, or bring outdoors-indoors click here.

I'd love to hear what you and your little ones get up to, so be sure to let us know and share your ideas by leaving a comment below.

Cinnamon Playdough

Taking inspiration from the blog The Imagination Tree I made some cinnamon playdough (with lots of glitter) collected some pine cones and set it out as a play invitation for George to find!

The idea was for him to use the pine cones to make patterns in the playdough, however, George had an ever better idea and went to get his conker collection so he could make a playdough forest! The pinecones were trees and the conkers were a mix if stones and caves! He even made a path to his forest, which I think is was a fab idea. We talked about forests and woods and the things we can find outside. After lunch George asked if we could go on a nature walk and see what we could find, another fab idea!

So off we went on a nature walk with Daddy. Along the way we jumped in puddles, squelched in mud, blew dandelions, saw some mushrooms, picked some blackberries (ate them along the way) and found an acorn! George was particularly excited about this as his school class are called the 'Acorns' what a Super Sunday!

Cinnamon Sparkle Playdough Invitation

Once George had gone to get his collection of conkers, the creation began!





A close up of the playdough forest



The playdough forest- complete with path leading into it!

George and Daddy squelching through the muddy field



Some Mushrooms we found on our Nature Walk



A beautiful Dandelion, before George picked it a blew it.

Playdough is cheap, easy to make and non toxic so it doesn't matter if your little one eats a bit! George is past the playdough munching stage now but babies and toddlers seem to love to taste the stuff!

Playdough is great for a child's fine motor skills as they manipulate the tools and equipment. It inspires creative development through sensory play and helps to stimulate imaginative play!

Life's a Beach

Promise

our 1000 Homes of Happiness story

Southwold Beach- September 2012

I recently posted about a unique blog that I follow called 1000 Homes of Happiness. I mentioned in the post that I had requested a home of my own to be released. On a sunny September day at the seaside, George, Adam and I collected treasures from the beach and left them, along with the Happy Home 'Promise' for someone to find. Below is our Happy Home story…..

We originally asked for a Happy Home with the word 'wish' on it to release with some balloons on our wedding day, but due to worries of litter and harm to farm animals, balloon releases we decided against the balloon release. The word 'promise' was chosen to symbolise the promises Adam and I would be making on the day, the promise that we would love each other unconditionally, 'till death do us part'. So when we could no longer do it on the day I was quite disheartened as I was so looking forward to the release and had brought some lovely colourful balloons for it! You can see a picture of these balloons below!
 

We decided instead to put the 'Home of Happiness' out into the world after a fun filled family day at the seaside together, one of our first family days out as "The Pattersons". It was a great day, we hired a beach hut called Aunty Bong Bong's, ate a 'mummy made picnic' made 'daddy designed sandcastles' and went on a 'George led treasure hunt' for things to leave with our little home. We were really quite successful too, we found pretty pebbles, stones, seaweed and even a starfish!!

Auntie Bong Bong's- Our Beach Hut for the day

Building Sand Castles

Surf Lesson with Daddy

 

Surfs up!

Taking the rubber ring out for a float

More sand castle building

Mark making in the sand

Mummy and George

Daddy and George

Ahoy there! George on the look out for some boats

It was so wonderful to spend some quality time together as a family. It felt quite liberating to leave behind the housework, errands and usual domestic duties that dominate the weekends normally. At the end of the day Adam and I said we would try and make time to do things like this more often. In fact after leaving this happy home, we made a promise to each other and George that we would come back to the beach and beach hut next year to make more great memories. In the meantime we promised to spend some time together once a week, just 'The Pattersons' doing something away from the house and the distraction of chores!

 Our Happy Home- Promise

I hope we can keep this promise up. It will help us to love and appreciate each other more as well as creating great memories for us all to share in years to come.

Thank u so much to Kellie and her lovely little ladies for letting us be a part of the 1000 homes of happiness journey.

Big ‘life’s a beach’ love Sarah, Adam and George xoxo

A bit nippy!

One of our favourite things to do as a family is to go crabbing! We live just a half hour drive from the seaside town of Walberswick, which is famous for its annual crabbing competition. It was a sunny (but slightly chilly) day, so we wrapped up warm, got the bacon out the fridge, picked up our friends Katie and Rob (plus Maisy the dog) and set off!

With a little bit of help, George tied the bacon to the end of his line.The crabs love bacon, so it's defiantly the top choice of bait for us!

After dropping the line over the edge of the bridge, he waited patiently for the

Crabs to bite!

Still waiting patiently, Katie and George played a guessing game about how many crabs they think will be on the line when they pull it up! This inspired mathmatical language by using numbers and critical thinking by estimating.

"I think we've got something" Katie helps George to pull up the line!

George was very excited to see thathe had caught some crabs in his net!
"Look we got some"

George gets his catch out of the net and puts it into his bucket. He was happy to just put his hand in a grab the crabs, stimulating his personal and emotional development. Funnily enough George was the bravest at getting the crabs out of the net!

Our bucket load of Crabs....what a haul!

Katie looking a bit scared of the crab as Robbie  points it in her direction!

What a catch! Think i caught the biggest one.

Ready to unload the bucket full of crabs....

After filling up our bucket full of crabs, we released them pack into the water. As we did this we counted them as they scurried along the pebbles! George joined in the counting with us until we got to numbers that he doesn't yet know. From then on he listened to us count and then counted along, repeating the numbers as we said them.

  

A bit of role play to finish the afternoon off. Here we're on our boot, looking out to sea, to see what we can see, see, see! Imaginative play with a bit of balancing thrown in. Creative and Physical Development all in one!

Ahoy there.... The Pattersons on look out!

Is it a Bird?

So George asked me today if he could go to the woods and do some bird watching.  I love it when he self selects activities so I was really keen to make it happen for him. Unfortunately we couldn't go to the woods but Amma's garden is very big and there are lots of trees there so I said we could go over to her house and get the tent and camouflage out. So he grabbed his bird book and binoculars, cushions and a blanket and we set up camp.Ready and waiting for the birds

Once we were all set up, George decided to look at his book at what birds he would like to find. He decided he wanted to see a Sparrow and Pigeon, as he said "I always hear Pigeons in Amma's garden".

At one point he heard a noise he recognised and quickly ran outside to investigate. He saw an Aeroplane! He followed it across the sky with his binoculars until it flew out of sight.

He liked being up high on the chair, his imagination soon turned him into a Pirate looking out to sea from his crow's nest!

After a few minutes of being a pirate he decided that no birds were going to come. Rather than give up I suggested that perhaps we could go and get some bread from Amma's kitchen, put it in front of the tent and then get back inside it. I said if we're really quiet then maybe some birds may come. So we went to get some bread, George shredded it into small pieces and we got back into the tent to wait for some birds.

the waiting paid off because after a few minutes......

He spotted a bird!!!!!!!! "Look a Blackbird Mummy"

A quick look in the book told us it was a Male Blackbird. We also discovered that Blackbirds can be seen every month of the year, all over the UK, that they start to breed in March and that Female Blackbirds lay 3-5 eggs per clutch. We saw a few more Blackbirds and a LOT of Pigeons but no Sparrows! 

Now, George is convinced that part of the reason we saw no sparrows was because someone was making too much noise and scaring them away. He also got a bit cross with that someone as they kept eating the bread we put out for the Birds! I thought i'd share a picture of the culprit with you. So here he is, the one and only, Jakey Boy!  

Being outdoors provides young children with one of the best possible environments in which to learn. George just loves being outside. There is always something to talk about and look at. Any adult who has taken the time to watch their child play putside in a well-resourced environment will have seen first-hand the joy and excitement they experience as they learn new skills and make fresh discoveries. As Margaret McMillan said

“the best kept classroom and the richest

cupboards are roofed only by the sky”

So now that the weather is getting a bit warmer, the sun is shining and the birds are singing, why not get outside with your little one. You could have a picnic, play I- spy, splash in puddles, go on a treasure hunt, or even go bird watching!

In fact, if your child loves being outdoors and is interested in Birds then this site by the RSPB is well worth a lookhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/