The week so far...

Monday was nice, often after school on a monday the two boys aren't tremendously interested in anything I suggest, prefering free play normally consisiting of power rangers...but St George and the Dragon colourings captured their interest, followed by building a castle/fort out of large cardboard boxes, and tubes with paper flags. We then quickly made some knights helmets out of paper, and they played knights and dragons, and hid a soft toy dragon round the house playing hide and seek.

Tuesday was toddlers in the morning and in the afternoonI offered salt dough modelling and free painting of the junk boxes from the day before (painting them like 'bricks'). Both went down well, the salt dough being left to dry to paint next week. I gave a few ideas, they could make food items, pizza's, fruit etc to paint. But child led I am, and they made candle pots, cut out shapes and made thunderbird rockets (apparantly!). All are now sat in my warm back room alongside my tomato plants to dry out!!

Today we had a play session here this morning and then a trip to the park this afternoon with another childminder. They threw a ball for her dog and had running races, crawling races, rolling races and 'anything you want to do' races. Lots of fun was had by all (apart from Ollie whilst he mostly enjoyed the actual park bit, getting there and then coming home was met with much frustration and crossness! Oh its hard to be 4....)

mixed bag

with O and C not back at preschool until Monday, but the others back this week it was a strange week this week! Toddlers once again, but with O, C and L instead of A and L like usual. Lots of park trips, garden play and generally STILL making the most of the sunshine and adjusting to being back at school and doing school runs.

We talked in the car this morning about what we might like to do over the next few weeks, and cooking and outdoor play seemed popular. So Being Healthy might be our topic, and we are going to make fruit smoothies, vegetable topped homemade pizzas, and exercise out-side. Must dig out my breadmaker to make the pizza bases then!!

sunshine and smiles

Lovely day yesterday, I hung out in the kitchen for most of it, not wanting to interfere in the wonderful play that was occuring in the garden, but wanting to be close enough if needed!! I had activities up my sleeve, but saw no point in stopping the flow of their imaginations, so will save them for another day.

We went to toddler group in the morning, which the older boys really enjoyed, as they don't get to go in the term time. They monopolised the ride alongs, but no-one seemed to mind, and spent a blissful hour and half interacting and playing really patiently with the younger children around.

Lunch was on a blanket in the garden, it was too nice a day when we got back to stay indoors. The rest of the afternoon was then spent outside until L took herself off to bed for a nap, the boys carried on until they too needed to come in for a rest and some quiet play on the lounge floor.

It's so nice when they get along so well and need no intervention from me, shows we must be doing something right some of the time!

And of course Easter!!

And that brings me up to date! Learning about the world we live in and nature, tied in nicely with Easter. We talked about birds nesting, what they collect, how they build them, and how we are not allowed to disturb birds when they are nesting. We ventured out doors to make our own collection of nest building items, then set about making a collage of a nest, complete with Easter chick.

And of course Easter wouldn't be Easter without eggs. We painted large polystyrene eggs, after reading Hen's Pens phonic book about a hen who decorates her eggs with zig zags. I also explained to them that eggs were symbolic gifts at Easter, representing fertility and the rebirth of Christ, and that traditionally decorated eggs were given as gifts, though now-a-days of course it is normally chocolate.

Free play

Its not all structured around events and festivals, though that seems to be all I have written about recently! And of course Easter will be my next one! Mostly its child led, the craft draw is freely available, the garden and toys all child accessible. We made a birthday cake for mindee mummy the other day, we've been growing tomatoes, visiting the park, playing in the garden and with friends.

Happy Mother's Day

We secretly made some gorgeous flowers in a decorated jar. Cleverly, daddy picked up the day they were finished so was able to take them home and hide them for a true mothering sunday surprise. I got a lovely thank you text to show they were appreciated!! Grandma's got the ones from my two, since I had helped I wasn't allowed them! I did get lovely homemade cards though, from preschool and toddler group.