Encouraging Children to be Walkers

In an homage blatant copying of Chris at Thinly Spread, I bring you our favorite weekend Autumn Walk.  Now I am pretty lucky in the once the boys get started on a walk they love them and often it is MadDad and I who start back first.

We live in a very beautiful part of the country and are blessed to have fantastic countryside on our doorstep.  We live 200 yards away from a wonderful wooded area which is on The Cleveland Way.

So making the most of a dry day, we decided to set off on an adventure this afternoon.

I am not sure if it is a boy thing, but they always find something to do when we are in the woods, treed to play on and climb.

It is such a magical place and there is a beck that runs through the bottom of the valley, which the boys adore splashing in. 

They often wonder how the railway viaduct was build and how all the bricks got down to the valley bottom (by horseback).

With all the rain we have had the beck was rather fast flowing today, although neither of the boys fell in, which is a good result!

There has also been far too much rain to collect any of the leaves, they were very slippy underfoot.

There are lots of ways to encourage children to walk, but one of the boys favorites is to draw a map and follow it, alternatively you could also get a making tracks map, we have the North Yorkshire Moors set and they are excellent.

We try and always take out camera and also collect things too.  I came back with a pocket full of pine cones today.

Take inspiration to make an autumn tree, you done need to collect the leaves if they are wet as you can print some off and colour them in.

We have a great book all about trees and what type they are and the boys love looking at that too.

I would love to hear your ideas for encouraging your children to be walkers and enjoy the great outdoors.

 

Cooking with Children - Lamb Stir-Fry

 We were given a some welsh lamb and the ingredients to make a welsh lamb stir fry from the Cool2Cook2 book which has been produced by Meat Promotion Wales (Hybu Cig Cymru) to help get kids cooking.

I love getting the boys in the kitchen, so we set about following the recipe on Saturday evening.  The boys chopped all the vegetables, whilst I did the ginger and MadDad prepared the lamb, which was welsh and organic.

I have to say that the recipe was really easy to follow and the boys did the majority of the work, with me and MadDad supervising.

We really enjoyed it and there was 4 empty bowls at the end of the evening.  In fact the boys enjoyed it so much that we made Lamb Kofta Kebabs out of the book for Sunday dinner.

They went down a treat.  If you can get hold of this cook book then I would, it has some very easy, well balanced recipes in it and the MiniMads want to try them all and I can see it being used time and time again, especially when they are a little older and I can get them to cook dinner for us all!

Three for the price of One - The Gallery, Play Academy and Children's Craft Showcase

 

The Gallery this week is extra speical as it is linked with Cathy my friend over at Nuturestore and her Play Accadamy, so I thought that I would use a new Childrens Craft Showcase for this week, as it really seemed to fit the bill.

I think that this craft is pretty self explanatory, we all have bubble wrap and using it to pain on and create texture is so much fun for children.

We used our bubble wrap to make a sea on cards and on some paper.  We painted the wrap blue and green.

Then pressed it down on the card and paper.

To make a funky pattern.

We used foam shapes on the cards.

I cut out images of fish on paper and the boys painted them.

To make fish on the cards, we used the circle stickers and cut out a triangle to make the mouth and stuck it on as a tail, inspired by The Frugal Family Fun Blog.

We used tissue paper as sea weed.

This is our final art work which is gracing the wall in the dinning room.  It even has a treasure chest!

So if you have any crafty posts of things you have been doing with your children over the last few weeks then please link up below.  I would love to see what you have  been busy making and doing.

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Childrens Craft Showcase - Gifts for the Teacher

The end of the school year is very nearly upon us here in England, so I have started to think about teacher appreciation gifts for MaxiMads wonderful Reception teacher and her assistance and for Mini's Preschool Teacher.

I am a firm believer in child made is best, I don't want my gifts to be expensive, just used and made with love.

So I have a selection of things that we have made previously for people that would make great gifts to say thank you to a teacher.  

Handpainted Cups

This is what Maxi made for his teachers last year and will be doing again for his current teacher.  Click on the link above for a tutorial.

Tea Cup Candles

We gave all the teaching staff these for Christmas and they were a huge hit.

Childs Drawing and bookmark

Mini has drawn a picture of his teacher and I am busy turning it into a wonderful bookmark.

Painted Plant pots

This was what we did for mothers day, but would also make a great teachers gift too.

Stamped Bags

 We made these for Nana and Grandma for Christmas, but would be easily adapted.

Please fee free to link up any other ideas you might have or any crafty makes you have been busy with.

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Children's Craft Showcase - Easter Eddition

I know it has been a while since I last did a craft showcase, but real life has been getting in the way of our crafting mojo, plus the first glimpses of spring have had us out and about as much as possible.

However, with Easter Nearly upon us we are starting to do a few more things and I have seen some wonderful inspiring Easter Craft post out in the Blogging community, so without further ado, I would love it you would like any children's craft posts you have and I present my Easter Edition.

Easy Easter Chick Cards

Materials

Cards

Feathers

Googly Eggs

Glue Stick

Foam or card for beaks

Fold card in half and draw and then cut out a semi circle, it doesn't have to be perfect remember, in fact having a flattish bottom allows for the card to stand better.

Stick on feathers as wings and tail and add an eye and a beak - how simple is that!

Again almost too simple, but perfect for little ones to do all on their own.

Home Made Painted Pots

I did this tutorial over at Kelly's A place of my own for the blog swap, but it is a perfect craft for over Easter with the children, so please pop on over and take a look.

Paper Mache Tissue Eggs

Materials

Egg shells

Paper Mache Glue

Tissue Paper or Newspaper

We have been collecting eggshells for planting our seeds in and rather than blowing out and decorating eggs, we decided to have a goo at piercing two halves back together and then covering in paper mache

We have been lucky enough to receive some wonderful packages in the post (more about them next week) and decided to recycle the packaging some wonderful tissue paper.  So we tore the paper in to pieces, which the boys adored doing.

For the glue I used some paper mache paste we had in the cupboard, which as bought from Asda a while ago, but you can make your own paste from flour and water.

The boys then used the tissue to cover the eggs and hold them together.  This was a really fun, but very messy project and the eggs have quite a time to dry (ours are still wet 2 days later!)

We plan to decorate them further with some beads, glitter and ribbon and hang from our twig lights.

So if I have inspired you to get crafting with your children, or you have any recent children's craft you would just like to showcase the, please add your link below:

A Pause in Lent - Stories of Jesus for Children

For most of us reluctant worshipers the closest we get to explaining Christianity to children is Christmas, when Jesus was born and Easter when Jesus dies.  This has certainly been true for me.

Now As I have said before, I do class myself as Spiritual, although I am not sure which part of any organised church I belong too, but I feel it is important for my children to have an understanding of the Bible and these stories for a number of reasons.  It is super for morals, it helps explain good and bad in very set black and white ways which are easily understandable for children and it reminds me of my childhood and going to Sunday School which I adored.

I have been really lucky in that Angela of Tracing Rainbows wrote a wonderful letter to my boys discussing the first Easter story with them and it couldn't have come at a more apt time, as Maxi is a narrator in the school Easter Assembly.

So when Floss at Troc, Broc and Recup said she was going to do a series of posts next week on The Stories of Jesus for Children, I was overjoyed.  We have had some wonderful discussions at the dinner table this week about Jesus and I know religion isn't every one's cup of tea, but as far as I am concerned the more my children are aware of and understand then they armed with the information to make informed decision of their own in the future.

So pull up a chair and come and join us, if you want to and share this wonderful time of renewal with your children and explain that Lent doesn't have to be all about giving up tangible things.