Playing In The Rain

I  watched the rain bounce of my window while my children put on their wellies. I felt gloomy about having to venture to the shops. The rain had come down fairly heavy earlier and there were some quite big puddles en route. I watched my two children jump around in the puddles, spinning around to catch the rain. Macey turned to me grinning from ear to ear. Mammy this is the greatest day ever. Both their faces were beaming. They looked so happy and here I was rushing to get home. I couldn't bear to spoil the fun so I dropped my shopping off at home and took them back out to play.

Splashing in puddles

 It got me thinking. Why do we have such a negative attitude towards the rain? We always use phrases such as I think there is a huge rain cloud hanging above my head to show we are having a bad day. Nursery Rhymes such as rain rain go away are sang to show dislike to the rain. Literature uses rain to depict sorrow and madness. Our adventure in the rain was the stark opposite. I for one will never forget the raw emotion of happiness on my daughters face when she told me it was the greatest day ever and my little boys beaming smiles as he played. It really touched me. I no longer felt gloomy. For the first time I was soaked through (my children were better dressed for the occasion then I) and was having a fabulous time.

Catching the rain

Usbournes very first reading

As a child reading was a passion from a very early age. My childhood was consumed by books and the dream of becoming an author. Although this dream did not go beyond the shed in the garden, where I sat with my little type writer typing stories about giant blob monsters and magical worlds I still have a special place for books.
My love for books is shared with my 2 year old son and my 4 year old daughter. My daughter loves listening to Roald Dahl, and Enid Blytons Faraway Tree stories. There is nothing I like more then to enlighten their imagination with the books I loved as a child

Bearing this in mind I believe the best gift you can give your children is the ability to read and after a bit of research I found the perfect set of books to help with early reading: Usbournes very first reading.
They are a set of fifteen books designed to introduce younger children to read together with a parent.  Parents and children take turns to read from the page (the text clearly marked for who should be reading) and as the books progress in the series the adults read less and less and the child more and more. Here is a video of Peter Usbourne the company founder introducing the range and explaining how they work.

Dream English

My sister quite often jokes around with me saying I am like a walking children's TV presenter. I would like to defend myself and say I'm not but I guess if anyone observed our morning ritual of filling in our magnetic calender, looking at flashcards, and singing songs then my goofy educational techniques may be frowned upon in the same manner.

Thanks to Dream English kids a youtube channel  I found that is dedicated to teaching children through music, we have found some great songs to fit into our morning ritual. My children's favourite is a song called The Sun Comes Up which also has really cute actions to go along with it .

Tissue Flowers

I love tissue flowers. They look fab and are great for so many different projects. All you need is a few different colours of tissue paper, fuzzy sticks, and a pair of scissors.

I Really Wonder What Plant Im Growing

I came across a Charlie and Lola episode where Charlie teaches Lola about growing plants.  This fun, educational ten minute clip is a great way to recap what plants need to grow. My children were very excited pointing out things they knew throughout the episode. 

My Living World Pocket Microscope

My Living World Pocket Microscope

We have had lots of fun playing with the My Living World Pocket Microscope. My children have found it really amazing looking at flowers, leaves, and other materials found in the garden close up.
This is a really lovely set and only costs around ten pounds.

Product Description

Small enough to fit in your pocket, but powerful enough to make an ant look the size of an antelope! This real microscope magnifies 30 times using precision optics, and is much easier to use than those old-fashioned desk microscopes!

When you unfold the microscope, the light automatically illuminates the area in front of the lens, so that whether you are interested in nature studies, or crime-solving, this will be an invaluable companion!

Comes with sample slides and all you need to make your own slides. Works indoors and outdoors! Specimens do not need to be mounted onto slides! The colour manual gives helpful hints about how to get a close-up view of just about anything, and suggests some fascinating subject matter.

Contents

•  Illuminate pocket microscope
• Sample slide with grasshopper body part
• Sample slide with textiles
• 3 x blank microscope slides
• 12 x transparent sample covers
• 12 x labels for samples
• 4 x storage jars for samples
• Tweezers
• Colour instruction booklet

Runner Bean Experiment

This experiment was very nostalgic for me, I remember being very excited to show my parents my runner bean I had grown at school. It is simple yet very effective and fun way to show children what plants need to grow.

Firstly we looked at the effect that light has on the growth of plants. We filled two glasses full of wet cotton wool balls and planted the beans between the cotton and the glass so we could easily observe what was happening. We then used lolly pop sticks to label one glass light and the other dark.

Light vs Dark

The light glass was then placed on a sunny window sill and the dark was placed inside a cupboard. Over the next couple of weeks we checked our beans at the same time each day, watering when necessary and took pictures of our observations.

Day two

After two days we had our first sprout. My children were a little surprised to find that it was the bean planted in the dark. I explained to them that plants were very clever and the bean planted in the dark will grow faster because it needs to grow higher to try find some sunlight.

Day four

On day four the light plant had finally grown a sprout. In hind sight I should of soaked the beans in water over night before starting the experiment to make it a little quicker. My children get really excited checking on their beans everyday but this is quite a long experiment, so it is a good idea to also plant some quick growing plants in the garden or grow a sproutapouch. Children can get quite impatient waiting for things to grow.

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

                                                      

 By day twelve both plants had sprouted and had a stem and two leaves. The noticeable difference being that the dark plant was taller paler and had smaller leaves.

Day 13

Day 16

Sproutapouch

I discovered these fab sow and seal greenhouse in a bag micro salad growing kits and felt compelled to use them in my project.

The kids had loads of fun setting it up and watching it grow. The really good thing about sproutapouch is once they are set up no further watering is required and they are fully grown in 6-10 days and ready to eat. They were even more amazed when we got to eat it. I think even though they knew food came from various parts of the plant, actually growing it themselves and eating it made them more aware of this.

Set up is really quick and simple. First of all we placed the compost disc in the pouch, added water, and to my children's amazement  the disc instantly expanded to eight times the size. The children then enjoyed getting their fingers dirty fluffing up the soil and spreading it across the bottom of the pouch. We then sprinkled our seeds, gave it a little pat and we we were all set.  We sealed the bag, placed it in a sunny window, and the next morning the seeds had already started to germinate.

Project Plants

The magic of spring is on our doorsteps and all the daffodils are starting to come to life again. I want my children to experience this magic and show them how amazing plants really are. Thus project plants was born. Our first project was learning the different parts of a flower.  All children like to participate in arts and crafts, so instead of labelling a picture I thought it would be fun to make a diagram ourselves using different materials. We used pipe cleaners, coloured card, paint pens, and glitter glue.

by Macey aged 4 

Nathan aged 6