Easter cards

Being easter week, with the family so far away, we got creative with our easter cards. Its fair to say Henry was very proud of these cards he made. He was 100% involved and did everything except fold the cards.

Cutting the body & head of each of the chicks out. - I drew the shapes on light weight card.
We used oil pastels to colour the body parts - Henry loves using two different colours at a time.
Use of the glue bottle - just hand it over and clear up the mess afterwards!
Henry chose the colour of feathers he wanted then stuck them where he wanted. We also added googly eyes and a foam beak...all his choosing as to their location on the body!
Finally drawing on the legs - i showed him how i thought they should look and he was more than happy to try & do it that way.

The finished article ready to make its way through the postal system....lets just hope they don't quarantine easter chicks entering the UK!!!!!!

Growing seeds

Henry had farm week at pre school and ended up bringing a bean home for us to plant. It was carefully planted in soil and within a week it appeared. It now stands about 6" tall and he checks it every morning for progress.

We have also planted herbs

seeds in a mini greenhouse in the dining room and placed beans against kitchen roll inside a glass so we have watched the roots develop then the shoots...all in all great success.

Rolling with Henry's enthusiasm i came across a great jigsaw from "Judyinstructo" that i found in our library where you gradually piece together the process of seed through sunflower he loved it and we discussed it as we did it.

Our art project involved Henry cutting out the beans, discussing where we should draw the ground line, drawing the roots and other plant features as the plants developed. Then he told me what to write under each drawing. Now a prized piece of art on the fridge!

This is us...Henry & Charlie

Henry & Charlie out on the beach in New Zealand.

Welcome to our Blog

Ok, here goes, i'm going to attempt to capture some of the fun stuff Henry & i do at home in our spare time together.

Henry, an active 4 year old does not like to sit still, hates to think he is doing something that may cause him to be "learning" and seems to have the attention span of a gold fish! He is a very hands on kind of person and would much rather sort beans into pots than circle things the same on a page in a book. Therefore i've deveoped activities towards his style of learning and we both enjoy it a lot more.

So.... all of the activities are highly rated by Henry! I'd like to think that they have all developed his skills in numerous areas as well, and he has probably done "learning" without even realising it.

Whilst i'd like to think i am fairly creative (and my husband will vouch for that with the amount of crafts materials overflowing from drawers in our office) i use numerous resources for my ideas. We love our local library and visit nearly every week, i have just subscribed to "Mailbox" a teachers ideas magazine, and i trail the internet endlessly looking for ideas and activities.

Henry & i both hope you enjoy looking at what we do and that you may like some of the ideas enough to give them a go yourselves.