A Busy Start To The Holidays!

We've been busy busy busy these past few weeks.

 School sports day and then end of term leavers assembly where we said goodbye to some friends moving on to senior school and also to our headteacher who was retiring after 10 years.
Then that same evening we were off on a train down to Kent for the kids to be whisked away on holiday with their cousins & grandparents.
They had an awesome time Little Halden Farm in the middle of the Kent countryside. Climbing trees, exploring the woods, cooking on a campfire, sleeping in a big tent, having water fights and just being free!

So when they returned home on my birthday (don't ask which one!) they were all suitable knackered!
We spent another week "down south" and we went exploring the Olympic Park and tried out some sports at the Copperbox arena there. Bird liked Netball (probably helps she's quite tall!) and was shown the basics by ladies from a professional netball team. Fluff enjoyed the handball and wheelchair basketball.

We also went for a day sightseeing in London. I've been there so many times as a kid we didn't need to go on no tour bus to see it! We managed to go to The Science Museum (didn't manage the Natural History due to huge queues in the rain), Bank of England Museum, St Pauls, South Bank, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey & Buckingham Palace.
 We also spotted a few places from the Harry Potter films. Notably Australia house on The Strand (Gringotts Bank) & The Millennium Bridge (Death Eaters destroy it in The Half Blood Prince).

So after 2 packed weeks in Kent & London we got the train back home.

Within 2 days of being home this happened:

Bird managed to drop something on her foot and break her toe! Its got to be in plaster for at least 3 weeks.

Half of the things I had planned for us to do in the next 4 weeks of the holidays had to go out of the windows as she can't really walk very well on it (even with crutches). So I've been hunting down things to do at home that don't involve much walking or trips to town.

So watch this space for the thing we've managed to find and do.

100 things to do this summer! Free Printable

Stuck for how to entertain the kids in the 6 weeks holidays? Here's my list of 100 things to do this summer in a handy free download!

Well summer holidays are almost upon us (unless you are in Scotland and are enjoying them already!) So I've been thinking about way to entertain this kids this summer. I've seen loads of posts on Pinterest listing 100 things to do this summer. 75% Of the suggestions are awesome. The problem I've come across is some of the things listed I've never heard of (pull taffy? play cornhole?) or things we can't really do (catching fireflies, watch fireworks on 4th of July).

So I decided to combine the best of these many lists and added a few more of my own.
As I was going back through my list I found I had duplicated a few things so ended up with 5 free spaces. Rather than make up 5 more things I've left them blank to fill in with things we might like to do at a later date.

 

Full size JPG image Download Link
PDF File Download Link

Feel free to download and print off and let me know how you got on! 

Let summer BEGIN!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

 

The link on Pinterest goes to The Taylor House and the original version of the scavenger hunt list.

Well my printer ink has dried up so the list was hand written up on a piece of paper (excuse the bad handwriting).

The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the kids didn't want to go out. As soon as the words "special game" were uttered they were up and ready to go like a shot.

We didn't really have anything to collect our treasure in so we used small carrier bags (it also meant we didn't end up with huge sticks or lumps of rock as I made the rule "if it can't fit in the bag - it doesn't count"). In hindsight I guess you could use tupperware tubs or old chinese takeaway boxes so yuo can see what you have got.

So we walked down to our local nature spot - the ponds. They used to be old clay pits that got filled in with water and later on that water was used in the production of glucose in a factory nearby. Now its used mainly by fishermen and dog walkers. it's very peaceful.

We got off to a good start finding catkins and moss for our fuzzy things and worked our way down the list. The kids really enjoyed hunting for things and I did wonder if they would actually find everything but they did! 

 After we had managed to get everything on the list we walked home. We had been out for 2 hours and rain clouds were gathering overhead. The kids were ready for their lunch and I was ready for a cup of tea! 

We had a great morning and this is definitely something we are going to do again when the weather is nicer and I think I'll create a list of things to find at the beach for the next time we go to the seaside.

In conclusion: