Mud and bloom box July

Eva and Robbie opened there July mud and bloom subscription box today and had a great time with the activities.

That made pretty button, bead and washi tape vases, collected grasses and flowers to make natural paint brushes and planted giant radish and lettuce seeds.

Mud &bloom

This morning Eva and Robbie opened their first Mud & Bloom box.
 https://www.mudandbloom.com

Mud &Bloom is a subscription box for 3-8 year olds delivered at the beginning of every month which includes a couple of seasonal activities.

One which is  gardening and another which is a nature craft The activities have been designed by teachers and support the national curriculum but the thing that really made me subscribe was that it is influenced by steiner ,Montessori and forest school education.

For me celebrating each season and growing your own herbs and plants is pretty high on the agenda and I hope my children take these lessons in to adulthood with them .

I had opted for a sibling box which contained enough materials for them both to do all the activities.

June's box was so much fun .

They wanted to make lanterns first .Eva painted the day time on one side and the night sky on the other which I thought was very sweet .They both enjoyed sniffing the citronella candles too.

They planted the calendula seeds in to two big plant pots and gave them a good water .

And used the organic compost disks provided to plant the beetroot seeds .

They both had a great time .

We all decided to leave the nature walk activity for a sunnier day though .

Instead we plodded of to the shop ,trying to fly from our brolly's, for supplies.Eva saw an experiment in a magazine and  she wanted to try to make her own chocolate ice cream.It was a tad on the runny side so we froze it in lolly moulds and according to my little ones they are yummy !

I feel so blessed to spend my time with these two little ones learning and exploring every day .

And the four older ones too of course !

Love and light ,

Gem x

Autumn equinox 2015

How did you celebrate this day of balance and reflection?

We didn't really have any plans here besides making cute teasel hedgehogs for our autumn nature table.
(Eva was besides herself with excitement to make these)
We also found a page in a new colouring book with  a hedgehog !

Eva helped me make a casserole and I served it with a harvest loaf.

Charlie has had a great day he made a hide and a bird table and we were so excited to see two Robbins come to feed upon it !

This evening we shared a couple of tales from "For the children of the world" .One of these was a tale from Canada called "How the Robbin got its red breast"

A pretty good day all round !

Xxx

AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT IT'S MAY ALREADY!

Things have been ticking along just nicely here.

Paul had a job offer and is now working at a local boat storage place.He will get his fork lift and power boat licence in the next few months which will look impressive on any future CVs should he chose to move on elsewhere. 

So. .. we have been getting used to daddy not being here and enjoying his company when he has had time off.

There have been many sunny days spent outside .

Walking, gardening, stilt walking, car cleaning,trampoline bouncing and preasure washing the drive way.

Charlie has built a wall, a catapult, camp fires and had much fun with vinegar and baking soda explosions.

He has spent many an hour on the xbox and watching documentaries. (Rino poachers and lost underwater civilizations) 

We have been reading Star Wars books and nature books.

Eva has been writing with dandelion invisible ink.And we have already spotted all the signs of may.

St Georges day and May day festivities have been lots of fun for a certain little lady.

She loved the finger puppets I made her.Apparently we now need a princess for the knight to rescue. 

She noticed a May day cake when I was looking online and really badly NEEDED to bake and decorate one.So we did!

Eva has been really busy actually .Three year olds are little sponges soaking up all the info available to them.she never stops.(unless peppa pig or doc mc stuffing are requested)

Cutting, drawing, painting, writing her name on everything, singing, swinging,dancing,jumping, baking, playing with seasons cards and alphabet magnets have prooved a hit too. I LOVE watching her learn in such self directed manner. 

Gypsie has be mainly baking sponge cakes of the vegan and un-vegan varieties. She created a case for her tablet from loombands and many 3D Iitems. (I m yet to photograph)

Summer has been making YouTube videos .And has earnt her first couple of quid via her channel.

She sewed Robbie a cute little bunny and put together a gift  bag for a friend who's down from the mainland .They have been making smoothies, window decorations and working on a best friend club.

Jasmine has had good news this week.Her art work has been selected to appear on an online Album cover for one of her favourite singers.

Oh , And I had a wobbly moment earlier this week and persuaded Charlie some waldorf inspired lessons would be fun.

We looked at shelter building for a couple of days and then I saw sense.

He wasn't enjoying it as much as me.So on with the autonomous learning!