Spicing up the ordinary

Just a quick post today, on how you can use things creatively to get a bit more milage out of them.

We have a paddling pool, 

we have a hand-me-down pop-up tent.  

So why not put the tent in the paddling pool?

This has been used now as a submarine, an underwater mermaid house, a port/harbour for the boats, a cave for sea animals and much more!

Try an unusual toy juxtaposition and see what happens!

Simple activities for pre-schoolers - Alphabet scrap book

This is such a great activity, as you can build in a whole range of skills, and they're all fun!

Take a scrap book with at least 26 pages.

At the top of each page, write a letter of the alphabet (in the correct order).

Each time you want to do the activity, just pick a page/letter.

You can: 

• write large letter outlines for the children to practice forming the letters, or follow them with their fingers (you can just make out the outline Tt here.
• use newspapers and magazines and cut out different sizes and fonts of letters, both capital and lowercase, words beginning with the letter, and pictures of things beginning with the letter.  Great for practising cutting and sticking skills.
• draw things that begin with the letter (I can just make out a picture of Tara the dog, drawn by C on this page).
• Get them to think of words that begin with the letter and write them down.

It's pretty open-ended, and if they wander off, it doesn't matter in the slightest, because you can always add more to a page at a later date.  

Super-simple, super-cheap (scissors, glue, pencils, scrap book) and super-fun!

Fundraising for pre-school and toddler groups - 10 ideas.

I'm no fundraising expert.  Far from it in fact - and the groups I have been involved with are always looking for more ideas, so if you have any I'd love to hear from you.  Here are ten ideas for fundraising for groups of small children - sponsored silence is out of the question, non-uniform and dress-up days are... every day?  Some need bigger numbers to make them work, which has been the problem for the groups I've been part of.  In our rural corner, all these groups are tiny, only just scraping together enough kiddies to make them viable.  This makes fundraising crucial, but also much more difficult.

1. Easy Fundraising - www.easyfundraising.org.uk - Your organisation or group signs up, and you encourage parents, friends, granny and grandad etc. to sign up on-line and select your group to "support".  They get a little icon on the toolbar, and whenever they visit a website which is linked to easyfundraising, they get an alert asking them if they want to activate a donation.  Whatever they buy in that transaction, a percentage is paid to your group.  Tesco direct, Amazon, John Lewis, Argos, National Express and many many more are all linked in, so any time you shop at any of these websites, your group gets cash!
2. Catalogues - there are a few catalogue companies that are set up for fundraising.  Two examples are Webb Ivory (www.webbivory.co.uk) and Yellow Moon (www.yellowmoon.org.uk).  Webb Ivory is very Christmas oriented, with tons of Christmas cards, decorations and wrapping paper, though they do have other seasonal catalogues, while Yellow Moon is much more about children's crafts.  For Webb Ivory, you order the catalogues and distribute them to the parents / families /supporters of your group.  They order through you.  25% of the order total comes to your organisation.  For Yellow Moon, you order the catalogues and get a unique code.  When your parents/supporters order from the catalogue or website they enter the code.  20% of the order total comes to your organisation.
3. Sales - For a bigger group you could hold your own toy sales, table-top sale, nearly new sale, bake sale, coffee morning etc.  For smaller groups, you might take a table at one of these sales, or simply put a table out to sell to your own parents.  For baby groups, you might take a stall at an NCT sale, which are very well attended, and in Scotland we have Jack and Jill sales, which are for any children items.  Our pre-school parent committee collected unwanted children's items from amongst the parents and amassed a ton of stuff, so now we are booking a table at the next few Jack and Jill sales in the area to try to make a bit of money.
4. Sponsored walk - It doesn't have to be far for little ones.  This may be the first time you've troubled your neighbours, uncles, aunties etc. to sponsor little Billy for something, but be assured, it won't be the last!
5. Quiz - Depending on the size of your group, you might hold your own quiz night in the village hall or whatever, though that does then require all the parents in the group to get a babysitter in!  A better option, which we tried out this Easter, is to simply print out a quiz and distribute it amongst friends, family, neighbours and door-to-door in the local community.  People answer the quiz and return it with £1 taped to it, to be entered into a prize draw (ours was for a nice Easter Egg, donated by one of the parents).  Every quiz returned is money for the group, with very little effort and outlay apart from printing and distributing the quiz.
6. Jam Jar - One of the parents made a batch of jam, which was loaded into plastic jars.  Everybody had to buy a jar of jam for £1, and then return the jar a couple of months later filled with coins.  The jars were sitting on kitchen counters and mantlepieces just collecting loose change, and soon filled up ready to be returned.
7. Rag-bag - www.rag-bag.co.uk Again this is something that happens in Scotland, but there may be something similar where you live.  You basically collect up unwanted clothing, shoes, linen and towels from your supporters and arrange a collection by the company.  They pay £400 per tonne.
8. Personalised Items - this tends to be a popular option at Christmas time.  You can either do it yourself, or it's easy to use one of the many companies out there.  Get the children to create a design of some sort, maybe a self portrait, or a Christmas picture, some art work, photographs of the children or whatever.  Parents can then order different items with the design on - calendars, coasters, mouse-mats, tea-towels, t-shirts, mugs, key-rings etc.  At Christmas time they will order away, knowing that Grandma and Great Auntie Doreen will be thrilled to have a mug, keyring and tea-towel with Little Suzie's art-work on it, and ticking off their tricky-to-buy Christmas presents at the same time. A large percentage of what they pay goes to your group.
9. Duck Race - this is the reason I'm writing this post today!  This morning we went to our neighbouring village of Dollar, for the annual "Dollar Under-5s Duck Race".  This group manages the local baby group, toddler group and playgroup, so they have quite a lot of supporters.  Their annual duck-race is a real keystone in the local calendar.  Ducks are sold by parents and committee members, but are also available to buy in the deli, the butchers and the paper shop, and people from the village and surrounding areas do buy the ducks, as almost everybody has been through or knows somebody who has been through the under-5s group.  On the day they also hold a craft sale, BBQ, ice-cream stall, children's games etc in a local hall.  Hundreds turn out to watch the ducks swimming down the burn, and the children all wade in to "rescue" the ducks when they get stuck on rocks or reeds.  Afterwards everybody heads to the hall for cake and BBQ and to hear the winners announced.  A FABULOUS fundraiser!
10. Ceilidh - this is another one that has really worked for us.  It's been held for the last two years between Christmas and New Year raising money for our pre-school and the local primary school.  It's a CHILDREN's ceilidh, which means that it's early afternoon rather than late in the evening.  At this time of year everybody is eager for a get-together and this is an opportunity to get Granny and Uncle Phil and all the kids out from the Christmas TV and doing something different.  Our local ceilidh band has donated their time for free, but you're unlikely to be so lucky!  Get a band, get a good patient caller who can teach the dances, sell drinks and snacks and include a raffle and you've got yourself a winner.

Quick and easy ideas for pre-schoolers - Treasure Map

 Following a blog post in "Childhood 101", we've created an Adventure Box in the sitting room.  It currently contains: walkie-talkies, pretend phones, a compass, torches, small fishing nets, bug viewers, binoculars, leaf/flower/mushroom/butterfly identification swatches, and other similar bits and pieces.

After a few days I realised that it really needed a map or two.  I have plans to cut down an out-of-date superfluous OS map to use, but I thought that some hand-made maps were required too.

This week while Bug was napping I set to work with C to make our "Treasure Map".  We'd been talking about it for a few days, so he had some ideas that he wanted to work on.  I started out by getting him to draw the outline of an island, and then we talked about things that we could include.  I drew a couple of items in (the volcano, river and swamp) and then he got the idea and started drawing things on as well.  He drew in a play park and a rain-forest.  Between us we filled in the spaces on the map and then coloured it in together.

I then talked about how we could make the map look old.  He nodded, but was still horrified when I screwed it up.  After I flattened it out and then screwed it up and flattened it out again a couple of times he got the idea that this was part of the effect, not because I was throwing it away!

Next he insisted that I go and make a cup of tea.  Earlier in the week I had mentioned the use of a cold, damp tea-bag to make the map look older, and since the screwing up effect had worked so well, he was keen to see how this one would work.

Making this map took under an hour, and it was a really lovely collaborative hour - definitely time well spent.  He also came away from it with new ideas about how to make things look old, ideas about drawing different things, a little geographical and map-work knowledge, and of course a treasure map that he is delighted with.  Later that afternoon we took a trip out in the car to visit a museum and park that we hadn't been to before (Calendar House and Park in Falkirk for anybody who lives in central Scotland, well worth a visit), and C took his map with him in the car, so that he could give me directions.

Ten things to do before your child starts school

I enrolled C at Primary School last week.  He's four and a half.  If we were in England he would already be in Reception Class full time.  As it is, he's attending pre-school five mornings a week.  He still seems quite little, and a bit nervous of what school has in store for him.  

Here's my ten things to do ahead of time to ensure that children get the best start possible, whether they start school the week after they turn four, or as in some countries, nearer to age seven:

1. Enrol them.  Different places have different systems for how to do this.  In England applications open in the autumn term and close in January, you can download the form from www.gov.uk or through your local council and you can apply for up to three primary schools, listed in order of preference.  In Scotland applications open in January for a few weeks and you normally apply to your catchment primary, but can then make a "placing request" if you'd prefer a different school.  In Scotland you take along their Birth Certificate, and it's also important to ensure that you have all medical details and contact information to hand to fill in the form.
2. Build up their concentration and listening skills.  Encourage them to: sit still to listen to a story, sit at a table for a colouring activity or similar (work up to being able to sit still for at least ten minutes).  Ensure that they make eye contact when they are being spoken to, and can retain a simple set of instructions e.g. "take off your shoes and put them in the cupboard".  Praise progress in all these areas, it will pay dividends in the classroom.
3. Practice the journey to and from school.  This is particularly important if you plan for your child to make the journey on foot or by bike, not so much for you to practice the route in your car!  We all recognise the importance of spending time outdoors and exercising, and if that can be built into the school day then that's a great start.  Our school journey is a mile down a country track, and then a mile back up-hill at the end of the school day, and I want the children to do it on their bikes.  C has only very slowly been building up confidence riding his bike without stabilisers, and Bug is on a balance bike.  For a few weeks now we've been practising a ride to the school and back at least once each week.  Last week was the first time that we made it all the way to the school, and with only a little bit of help on the way back up to the hill.  I hope that continued practice will mean that by the time C gets to school he'll have built up enough strength and stamina that the journey will be a pleasure and not an ordeal at the end of the day.
4. Ensure that they can dress and go to the toilet independently.  The class teacher may have up to thirty of the little darlings to attend to, he/she can't be expected to help wipe little Susan's bottom, or to do up thirty pairs of shoes and zip thirty coats.  They are responsible for teaching the children many things, but getting dressed and ready for PE or to play outside, and going to the toilet... those are your job.  Make sure that your child has plenty of practice at getting themselves changed, coats and shoes on, and going to the toilet.  Tempting as it might be to do it ourselves for a quick and easy life, it won't do them any favours when they are still putting their outdoor shoes on as all the other children come back in at the end of playtime.
5. Establish a morning routine.  Maybe you don't do mornings.  If you're a stay-at-home-mum, and especially if you have a small baby around the place and you're not sleeping at night, you may all still be in your pyjamas at 11am.  In a scenario like this, getting ready for school on time might come as a bit of a shock to the system for both you and your child.  Others have long been used to a clcckwork regime as they get the children up and dressed and in the car to drop off at nursery for breakfast on the way to work.  Either way, you now need to think about what routine you will need in order to get in place once your child is at school, and what parts of that routine can be introduced now.  We all get up and dressed by seven-thirty, then have breakfast and brush teeth by about 8.15am.  Because we don't need to be anywhere until nine-thirty, this means that they then have plenty of time for play, but it also establishes that getting-ready-for-the-day routine.
6. Talk to them about school.  Find out what they already know.  Tell them what you remember about school, and any fond memories.  Get older cousins or friends to tell them about the fun things that they do at school and encourage them to ask questions.  
7. Make contact with others who will be in their class.  Maybe they already know some people from nursery and pre-school.  Arrange play-dates, and spend time with other children who they'll be at school with so that they can be confident of having friends when they start school.
8. Attend any Induction or Transition sessions being run by the school.  An open evening, an invitation to the school fete or fun-run.  All will be a chance for your child to get a handle on what school involves, and how friendly and fun it is, as well as where to find the loos and where the children hang their coats.
9. Read books about school.  You don't have to make a big thing about it, but the year before they start school you can start looking out for "starting school" books at the library such as "I am too absolutely small for school" by Lauren Child or "Starting School" by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
10. The most important of all: Spend lots of time with your child.  When you found out you were pregnant you may have had lots of images of doing things with your child before they went to school.  Going on trips, playing at the park, sitting on your knee reading a book, making stuff together.  Of course I'm not saying that once they are at school you are too late for any of that, there will always be time for those things if you make it.  But if there is a nag inside you that you haven't done enough of it.  If you fear that moment when you drop them off to school that you've somehow "missed them growing up", then take action now.  Not only will spending lots and lots of time and love and fun with your child help you to shun these worries, it's undoubtedly going to be good for your child.

Developing writing skills with pre-schoolers

Writing is a pretty handy skill to have.  As an adult, being able to write means that you are able to communicate effectively.  I know that in our digital age typing skills are more and more prevalent, but it's still important to be able to form your letters correctly and to be able to spell and construct a sentence, and doing it by hand is still the way to learn.  I'm not advocating hot-housing your children and teaching them to write before they start school.  Just give them the opportunities to develop foundation skills, and gradually move them on if they are ready.

Write - your children should see you writing all the time.  Whether it's notes to your partner, typing your blog (C is watching me right now), writing a shopping list, writing letters, labelling pictures, writing in a diary, journal or calendar or just noting your ideas.  If you usually use your i-pad to make notes and lists then that's fine some of the time, but try to use paper and pencil too.

Ensure that your child has access to pencils, pens and paper.  Notebooks, old diaries and calendars, shopping list pads, pads of paper, different types of pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser and so on.  Your child will want to make marks on the paper, and if they see you writing with a purpose, then they'll start to incorporate that into their play, writing notes and letters all over the place.  C (age 4) has made a joke book quite recently and Bug (aged 2) is regularly writing birthday cards to her teddy.  Praise all attempts at marks that are supposed to be writing, and point out the marks that look like letters, your child will want to repeat those ones.

When introducing letters, use tactile ones and encourage your child to trace over the shape of the letter with their finger.  Also play lots of games and activities introducing letter shapes, such as letter printing, making letter shapes with playdough or plasticene, sticking letter shapes, drawing  letter shapes in salt or sand trays.

Provide an easel, chalk board or white board for lots more mark making fun.

Encourage your child to copy you drawing vertical (standing up) lines, horizontal (lying down) lines, circles, wave patterns and zig-zag patterns.  Also encourage them to trace over your lines, shapes and patterns.

Begin to introduce letter formation.  You can buy early handwriting books from supermarkets and book shops.  Some use dry-wipe pens so that they are wipe clean.  Most will start with simple pattern tracing, and build up to similar groups of letters.  Always do these with your child so that you can help them to hold the pencil correctly and to start the letters in the right place.  Poor habits started now will be difficult for your child's teacher to fix later.  It's very important not to push this.  If your child struggles to trace over the lines then leave it, go back and do more activities to develop hand-eye co-ordination and come back to the early handwriting a couple of months down the line.  If your child has had enough after tracing four letters, then let them stop and come back to it when they are ready.  You can get special left-handed handwriting books from www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk which offer handy hints on letter formation and page orientation for left-handers.

Make a name card for your child using cereal box card and clear writing, and then make a tracing paper booklet the same size.  Get your child to practice tracing over their name (naming the letters/sounds as they go) until they can do this confidently without the tracing.  From this point on, always get your child to write their own name on birthday and Christmas cards and on their art work.

Once your child is confidently reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant words such as cat, mug etc) and can confidently form most of their letters, then encourage them to write a word and draw a picture to accompany it.

Continue developing neat letter formation by getting your child to dictate a sentence, which you write in, for example, a daily diary, using yellow felt pen or orange pencil and getting your child to trace over it and then draw an accompanying picture.  You can begin to get your child to sound out the words for you to decide which letters should be used.  Once they are confident with this, you can start to get them to write their own simple sentences.

Where do I get the ideas and information from?  I'm an experienced primary school teacher, and also a mother of two (aged 4 1/2 and 2 1/2).  Bug, the younger, is at the stage where she tells me she is writing, and some of her marks are beginning to resemble letter shapes.  C is much more confident, can write his name with ease, as well as other CVC words, and attempts on others.  He dictates and traces a sentence at least once a week in his daily diary.

How to choose a pre-school for your child

As a parent it can be confusing when you start to think about what to do with your child to prepare them for school.  The provision can be divided up into the following categories:

• day-nurseries, nannies and childminders, who look after children of all ages before they start school.  These are child-care facilities allowing parents to get back to work or to have their child looked after among other children.  Day nurseries and child-minders usually offer extended hours to fit around your working day.  Day nurseries are usually divided into different rooms for different age-groups, and the pre-school room will often cover much the same ground as a pre-school or nursery class.  Child minders will usually have far fewer children, and will happily take your child for you to playgroup, pre-school or nursery class.
• playgroups and preschools.  These are provisions with fairly short sessions, for children from the age of around 2 and a half.  They may be with or without parents present.
• nursery classes, often attached to schools.  These usually take children for the last year before they start school.
• The other option is, of course, no provision at all.  Compulsory education in this country starts at age 5, not at age 3, so there is no need at all to send your child somewhere if you are happy with them at home.  It's just a case of weighing up what is offered at these facilities and whether you think there is any benefit to them.

This and all other pictures are from the Facebook page of our pre-school 

This article is concerned with what is on offer at a playgroup or pre-school or a nursery class, though often nursery classes are attached to schools, so they are selected more based on what the school as a whole offers, rather than just the nursery class.

Playgroups and pre-schools often offer shorter sessions.  They are about easing your child from the home to a more sociable setting where they learn that other people than the parent can give instructions, about working and playing with other children, and experiencing a wide range of toys.  There is usually some routine, but plenty of unstructured play, outdoor activity, arts and crafts etc.

Nursery classes are usually more structured, with more routine and with the intention of offering a secure grounding in key skills before they start school.

All the options mentioned above will be following an early years curriculum stipulated by the government (or Scottish Parliament) which intends to lay the foundations on which future learning will build.  You might wish your child to stay with one provision all the way through, or you might move from a play-group to a nursery class.  In some areas, your options may be limited, either because of rural geography, or because in some towns and cities demand for places is very high.  It's worth making contact several months before you want your child to begin, so that you can have a look around and fill in the relevant paperwork.

Charges for different provisions will vary.  Three and four year olds throughout the UK are entitled to some free early-years education, though the amounts in the different countries varies.  If you use less than your entitlement, then you'll be getting it for free, but if you use more, then you'll need to know what charges are.  You will often also be charged for snack (or asked to contribute some fruit each week), and expected to pitch in at fundraising events to help raise cash for equipment.

Questions to ask

• is it clean?
• when you visit, are the staff welcoming and friendly?  If you have your child with you, do they engage with them straight away or spend all the time talking to you?
• does it have a good reputation?  Check out the inspection reports on-line, and ask other people (particularly at the school gate) what provision they used and whether they would recommend it
• do they have an open-door policy?  I don't mean that they leave the front door open all the time and any weirdo can walk in, I mean that any parent can pop in for a visit at any time.  If they don't - what are they hiding?
• following from that - what is the security like?
• Do they have clear guidelines on timings, sick-child policy etc.
• Ask about what they do to develop pre-reading skills
• What provision have they made for left handed children?
• How do they deal with Special Needs?
• What does a normal day/session look like?  How much routine is there?
• How much of what they do is focused on reading and writing skills and how much on play?
• what kind of snacks do they serve?
• what do they do if a child is having a tantrum?  What is their behaviour policy?
• how much time do they spend outdoors?
• what are the toys like?  are they easily accessible, kept clean, varied and age appropriate?
• what provision is there if your child still naps regularly?  What about if your child is not yet toilet trained?
• How many staff are there?  What is the ratio of children to staff?
• What qualifications do the staff have?
• What is staff turnover like?  Do the staff seem happy to be working there?

Once you've asked all those questions you'll have a good idea of the quality of the provision you are looking at, and more importantly, whether it's a good fit for you and your child.

I'm pretty lucky.  I live in a small village.  Our nearest pre-school is about 2 miles away and came recommended to me by several parents at the toddler group in the village hall.  I decided that as an active and busy stay-at-home mum I offer plenty of opportunities to the children already, so there was no hurry to get them into the education system, but that the chance to develop more social skills with other children and adults, and to ease into the routine of a school day would be valuable in the year before school.  I first went to an open day at the pre-school myself, and liked it and the staff.  A few months later I went to another open day with C.  Then a couple of weeks later  (in June) he went for a taster morning (with me staying as well).  By the time August came along he couldn't wait to get started and has gone from strength to strength there.  He's a smart cookie, and his reading and writing are coming along brilliantly at home - I don't think this has been developed much at pre-school, but that's fine with me because that's not what I wanted to get out of pre-school.  I wanted him to learn to play and share with other children, to get into a routine, and to learn to respond to and interact with other adults, and he's doing those things brilliantly.  C (age 4) has been attending three mornings a week since August, and after Christmas is increasing to five mornings a week.  After the Summer he starts school.  Bug (age 2 1/2) has been attending one morning a fortnight in an unofficial capacity when I'm on the parent duty rota.  She's got to know all the routines and is keen to get started.  After Easter, when she's gone past three and her free provision kicks in, she's going to start three mornings a week as well.

Pre-school crafts - letter familiarisation with paint!

Bug is two and a half.  She has a comprehensive vocabulary, and good understanding when she can be bothered to listen.  She is showing signs that she is keen to start reading and writing like her four year old brother.

To help her out I've started doing letter familiarisation games and activities.  I'm trying to do this either when C is at pre-school, so that we can be uninterrupted by bickering, or to choose activities that I know they can both work on together.

I spotted this one on "No Time For Flashcards" and thought I'd give it a try.

We have a vast array of cookie cutters, including alphabet ones (thanks big Sis), so decided to make use of them for some letter printing.  I chose the letters in Bug's name, as well as M for Mummy, D for Daddy and C for her big brother.

I then just showed Bug how to dip the cutters into the paints and print with them.  We used A3 paper, and we also used red, green and yellow paints, so that we could talk about the colours too.

As we printed I asked her which letter she was using, which letter she was going to use next and so on.  I also showed her which letter I was going to use.  We also printed her name.  We kept the letter naming very low key - it wasn't like a test or anything.  Just part of the conversation.  She didn't always get it right, but she did a lot of the time.

After she was fed up with printing, I just left her drawing at the table.  Just in the last week her drawing has stopped looking like scribbles, and have turned into actual pictures.  Check out this gorgeous person with shoes on.: 

Pre-school craft - beautiful pressed flower window decorations.

If, like me, you have interior doors with glass panels, and also small children, then you'll know that they get a lot of finger-prints all over them.  One way to make sure that you don't notice the finger-prints is to decorate the panels - because you're so busy looking at the decoration!  Plus it just looks gorgeous.  You can use these to decorate any window really.

Contact Paper Window Decorations

I've made these before using squares of coloured tissue paper as the decorative item, and they look very effective - almost a stained glass effect.  I've also had the idea of using those metallic table decoration confetti type shapes - which you can get in star shapes, amongst others.  On this occasion we used pressed flowers, which looks lovely.

What you need:  Contact paper (sticky backed plastic) - you can buy this from any stationers, most Post Offices and larger supermarkets; pressed flowers;

1. Cut out a square or rectangle of contact paper that's smaller than your window.  Peel off the backing and lay it sticky-side up in front of your youngster.
2. Give them a variety of leaves and pressed flowers (or other decorative items) and get them to choose a few to use.  Don't let them use too many, because if they cover up all the contact paper then it won't have any stickiness left to stick to the window.
3. Encourage them to arrange them on the contact paper.  They need to be very gentle with the pressed flowers, and they won't be able to pull them off and rearrange them without damage.
4. Stick them to your window and admire.  The pressed flowers look particularly lovely with some sunshine coming through, but also with a light behind them too or against a white background (our wall paper is a light faun colour).

Pre-school crafts - Castle pencil pots - tutorial

We decided to make some pencil pots for the children's desks.

Step 1 - With your children, raid your recycle box to find likely materials.  We used cereal box card, yoghurt pots, a tin can and the bottom of a small food package box.

Step 2 - Cut out the base from cereal box card and then arrange your pots to your satisfaction.  We went with four pots each.  Tape them securely both to one another and to the base.

Step 3 - Cut or tear small squares of kitchen roll tissue paper.  Use a mixture of 50:50 PVA glue and water and stick these all over the structure, taking care to overlap them and not to leave any gaps.  Don't forget the inside of the pots.  Small children may well lose interest during this process, so leave them to do it themselves as much as possible, and step in to finish off when they lose interest.

Step 4 - Leave it to dry.  This takes at least 24 hours.

Step 5 - Paint it in your choice of colour, you might want a blue moat, or green grass ramparts.  It's up to you.  C chose dark grey, as it's night time, and Bug chose red with a moat around.  When the paint has dried you can add embelishments with more paint or marker pen.  C has yellow windows for the candle light shining out, while Bug has black windows and some stonework.  You can also add flags and banners if you wish.

5 ideas to develop ABC knowledge with your pre-schooler.

1. Cut the back off a cereal box and write the alphabet on the back.  Sing the abc song together while pointing at the letters.  Then start saying a letter and getting them to point to it, and letting them pick a letter for you to point out.  You can also point out a letter and get them to name something that begins with that letter.  I usually do these activities while giving them a cuddle in their bed at bedtime.  Keep it light and fun, and don't go on too long.  If your child isn't ready for the next stage, then just go back to the previous stage for a bit longer.  Do it regularly (at least three times a week) to help it stick.  I usually use letter names because it follows on from the abc song, but also say "What sound does that letter make?"
2. Have a letter day - Choose a letter for the day and in the morning come up together with a list of activities that you might do that day beginning with that letter.  So, to choose a tricky one: "U" might lead to undressing the dolls; upside down - forward rolls etc.; undies - practise putting them on!; ugly duckling - sing it, read the story etc.; umbrella - go for a walk in the rain; under - play a game under the table; underwater - do something regarding mermaids, fish, submarines; universe - find out about planets; unload - unload the dishwasher or washing machine;  You get my picture here, U is a tricky letter and there are loads of ideas.  You then try to do as many as you can through the day.
3. Invest in some letters - whether they are the wooden blocks in a trolley type, simple wooden ones, magnetic ones or your own cut out from cardboard.  To begin with show your child three letters and name them e.g. m, g, s, then ask your child to bring you the G, the S and the M.  Once they begin to be able to do this with three letters, increase to five.  When they can confidently name the letters, then leave them all in a pile, and ask your child to e.g. "find the D for Daddy".  
4. Draw a large letter outline and get your child to trace it with their finger and say the letter (and sound).  You can then colour the letter, paint the letter, decorate the letter with glitter, make the letter shape with playdough.  Each time, you are talking about the letter and your child is relating that shape with that letter name and sound.
5. Point out letters when you are out and about.  Start with their "name letter".  While you're waiting for the bus ask them if they can spot their letter on the posters, on street signs, on shop signs - show them that letters are all around them.
   

Leftover Lunch

As a mum with little beans at home, I want lunch to be both nutritious and appealing.  One can't live on bacon sandwiches alone more's the pity.

This lunch is an ideal for using up bits and pieces around the fridge, is very easy and equals absolutely no fussing.

Simply get a large plate and put lots of bits and pieces from your fridge: leftovers from meals, bits of fruit and salad etc.  Try to provide a mixture of protein and salad and fruit items to keep things nice and balanced.  Today our plate had on it:

• leftover pork chop from Tuesday night (chopped)
• cucumber
• leftover risotto from Wednesday night in a bowl
• cherry tomato quarters
• leftover chicken thigh from last night's Paella (chopped)
• grated cheese
• salami (chopped)
• grape halves

Then give each person as many pitta pockets as you think they are likely to eat, and get them to help themselves.  You don't have to use Pitta bread, other types of bread or jacket potatoes are fine, but my offspring really enjoy filling pitta pockets so it keeps lunchtime fun!

Topics for toddlers and pre-schoolers - Woodlands

As you may remember, I try to have a vague topic or theme each month, to keep activities fresh and give some direction to exploring.  Since we love woodlands, that's what our topic is for June.  Here are some of the things that we've been up to or are planning to do:

• lie in long grass and look at the sky
• forage for food - a bit early for wild raspberries, but Wood Sorrel and cleavers are out there, as well as nettles for soup.
• identify wild flowers - Bug chose to buy a wild flower ID book with her holiday spending money, which I think is awesome!
• visit woodlands - as well as our local deciduous and conifer woodlands, while we were on holiday we found our way to the Stackpole Estate, to Colby Woodland Gardens and to Lawrenny Quay (all National Trust properties in Pembrokeshire) so we've had a wide variety to explore.
• tree and leaf collages with pictures from magazines
• read woodland books
• make a bird box
• make a collection of interesting "finds" from the woods - seed pods, feathers, interesting sticks etc.
• wild weaving
• sing "Teddy Bear's picnic"
• press leaves and flowers
• have a picnic in the woods
• roll down a hill
• make trees from newspaper
• introduce woodland words such as names of woodland animals, deciduous, conifer etc.
• identify types of tree
• string print tree picture - use string dipped in paint to print branches of tree
• leaf and pine cone printing - a painting activity for outdoors I think!
• play a matching game with pictures of woodland animals and their young
• camp out in the garden
• make a giant spiderweb in the woods out of string between trees

Activities to do with pre-school children - some recent activities

• Making butterfly biscuits - simple biscuit recipe, butterfly cookie cutters, coloured butter icing and sweeties to stick on.

• Family visit - lots of playing with family, cuddles and stories. 
• Large scale painting on the floor.  Big sheet of paper (from a roll of lining paper), sponges, rollers, paint, and other bits and pieces for printing and painting.  Just a couple of colours so that they can see what colour is made when they are mixed.

•  Dressing up - the dressing up box has been out a lot just lately, and I've now moved it so that they can access at any time.  This means that Bug almost permanently has an item of dressing-up clothing on - though this morning she disappeared into C's bedroom for a while and reappeared with two pairs of his pyjamas on, and a set of swimming trunks - she's very good at dressing herself!
• Visiting a castle (or two).  While I was busy Scouting on the weekend the family all went off to Doune Castle.  It's a fantastic castle, and best known for being used so much in the filming of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".  Then this weekend we went just a few miles, to Kinross, where we have been neglecting to visit Loch Leven Castle.  You get a boat out across the Loch, which takes about ten minutes, to the island.  The castle was used to imprison Mary Queen of Scots for some time, and is a magical place, particularly on a blowy but sunny morning, when for the first half hour you have the island to yourselves!  We took a picnic which we enjoyed in a sheltered corner.  I also bought a plastic sword and helmet to add to the dressing-up box, so they were used a lot by the "King" exploring his castle.

• K'nex - a neighbour with grown up children appeared on the doorstep with a shoe-box full of this awesome construction material.  On establishing that Bug is unlikely to eat it, he was happy to pass on the box.  C and I have been having great fun with it.  I downloaded some instructions - a bit random since I don't know which number set I have - and have had a go at making a few things, and C is determined to make cars, motorbikes and more.  He definitely has a fascination for the wheels, but is also delighted with the ferris wheel that I made!

Bug Maths

I first got this idea from a brilliant post here on the wonderful Imagination Tree blog.  I stored the idea away for future use and here we are.

I googled for a "ladybird template" and a "bee template" and found these ones, which I've linked to their sources below.

fromCraftcore

from mathwire.com

I printed out the templates and laminated them and then gave them to the children with a lump of playdough.  I gave each child a number.  For the ladybird they had to divide up their playdough to the appropriate number of spots, and for the bee they had to make the right number of stripes.  We tried different numbers, and also swapped over the sheets.

Lots was going on here.  C can count for himself and is now getting the hang of starting top left and counting systematically to make sure that he doesn't miss any.  He was concentrating on the motor skills involved in rolling out bee stripes, and in dividing up the playdough so that all the spots or stripes were consistent sizes.  He was also beginning to understand that the ladybird should have the same number of spots on both sides.  Bug can count to ten, but hasn't quite got number/object correspondence yet, so as she made the stripes or spots, I would count with her to see if she had enough yet.  She quite enjoyed covering the whole insect with bits of playdough!

Papier Mache train tunnels.

I might be wrong here, but I'm guessing that most children have a toy wooden train set at some point in their pre-school years.  Certainly my two nephews and my children do.  C loves his trains.  We started with a figure of eight set up with Thomas the Tank Engine, and Annie and Clarabel the coaches and now have at least seven engines with appropriate tenders for the steamies, and also a variety of trucks and coaches.  The track has grown with the addition of a turn-table bridge, a set from Tesco and a Big Jigs extension set which allows for all sorts of junctions and crossings.  Are you beginning to get the impression that I love building the tracks as much as C does?  C is now capable of putting the track together himself, though he needs help getting the ends to join up; while Bug adores the trains and will happily pick up an engine and drive it around the track for ages (though she's not quite delicate enough yet and this game is invariably followed by wails of despair from big brother as she's sat on the bridge or something).  While big cousin D was staying I thought that making some tunnels for the trains would be a great way to give him some papier mache experience.

I cut up an Amazon box for the bases.

Cut up some cereal boxes and tape them in place curved over on the base to provide the skeleton of the tunnel.  I also made a cave for a toy wolf.

Make the paste with flour and water.  It needs to be pretty gloopy.

Build up the sides of the tunnel to  make hillside type contours using screwed up balls of newspaper dunked in the paste and shaped with your fingers.

Tear up newspaper into squares and strips.  Stick these with the paste all over the outside of the tunnel, making sure they overlap and criss-cross as much as possible.  I've found that the best way to do this is to generously brush paste all over the outside, then stick the strips and squares down all over, followed by another generous coat of paste.  Any bumpy bits or dry bits can be moulded or pasted with your fingers.  Make sure that the whole model is covered by the newspaper, including folding some over the ends of the tunnel and into the inside.  If any is coming over the edge of your base this isn't a problem as it will be trimmed afterwards.  If you are making a cave, then don't forget to add bumpy bits and texture by doing papier mache on the inside too.

It is quite a messy activity, and I strongly recommend a wipe-clean tablecloth or newspaper over your surface and also aprons.

Once you've done a few layers, put them somewhere warm to dry for at least twenty-four hours, preferably longer.

After the models are dry, trim the edges of the base and then paint.  We were aiming for green on the top and black inside the tunnel, but I made the mistake of putting the black out first, so the green was mostly black too by the time it had been well mixed.  

I love papier mache.  As a modelling activity it's hard to beat for versatility, ease of finding equipment, ease of technique and opportunities for getting dirty. The children certainly enjoyed making these models, and D was delighted to take home his very own hand-made tunnel for his trains.