Gardening and Science

We enjoyed a dry morning in the garden, there was a light frost and the children discovered some ice. They collected up a small pile of ice and then enjoyed trying to stamp on it, laughing as the pieces escaped and sometimes crunched under foot, they are really enjoying exploring the different noises they can make within the natural environment. We planted some seeds, sweetpeas, I told the children I love these flowers and they smell lovely, when their parent collected them later they told them we had planted smelly seeds, did make me giggle. We've also planted some aubergine seeds, this is the first time we have tried to grow these, so will be interesting to see how they do, then lots of onion seeds. For our windowsill garden we've planted some more basil seeds and some salad leaves, was planning to do some spinach seeds but couldn't find them in our seed box, so will need to have a thorough sort through, there are rather a lot of packets in the box!

Little ones were fascinated with the idea of a mini greenhouse aka a part of a plastic bottle, the other part we have used to plant seeds in.

We decided to try another Mel Science kit, this time Seaweed garden, did produce rather effective looking seaweed.

After lunch they enjoyed some painting, followed by lots play with dolls and building lego houses.

Chinese New Year

Our story last week from A Year Full of Stories is from China, just in time to look at Chinese new year celebrations, all the children here love the dragons and stories I have collected to read. Two of our favourites are The Runaway Wok and The Magic Paintbrush, they are beautifully illustrated, enjoyed by a mixed age group and raise lots of different questions, should the wok take from the rich man, or is it still stealing. The Magic Paintbrush, is told in verse, the children love the rhyming and again the story brings about many discussions. I googled pictures of Chinese dragons and the children choose one they wanted to base their paintings on, they added fireworks and people enjoying the celebrations.

Drawing of lanterns and people celebrating.

L found a picture of a winged horse which she decided to copy and then made it into a unicorn

She has also been practising her writing, I hadn't planned to do anything involving learning to read and write until she was at least 6 but she has changed my plans and is desperate to learn to read.

Before Christmas I had to make the hard decision with reference to my work, home education and decided that M needed more help and support with her work especially as she wants to take her exams. So with sadness I decided to cut down the days I am working, so I can concentrate more on her needs, this meant I had to give notice to one of my lovely families. So this was their last week with me, so an emotional time, we will hopefully stay in touch, their leaving present was this beautiful bouquet of flowers, they look and smell divine.

I finally stopped procrastinating and did the buttons on the waistcoat, one practise go and decided it was now or never, very thankful they turned out perfectly and looks lovely on the little one it was made for.

Now time to make something simple, so crocheting some bunnies for spring/Easter bunting. Joining Ginny at  Small Things with Yarn Along

 On the reducing our waste front hubby and I are trying out two different shampoo bars, the one I have smells lovely but I was left with really frizzy hair. Having done some research and read that rinsing with water with some apple cider vinegar in it can help, this seems to of reduced the frizz, fingers crossed it carries on working. Not sure what hubby things of his one, he will probably reserve judgement until he has tried it a few times. Hoping this week to have a couple of dry days so we can get outside and start some planting, space has been cleared for the seed trays int he back porch but not got much further as we had rain most of the week. Which has meant some lovely walks and puddle jumping with the littleones.

Leaving you with a little thought to ponder on