Life from the back of the pack! (Kent)

As I walked with Annie on one of our walks during our holiday in Kent it occurred to me that many of my pictures are from behind. They are a window into the antics of my family as viewed from the back. Annie doesn't always manage to keep up with her big sisters and so often we are the ones at the back so this is a snapshot of family life from the back of the pack.

The water maze at Hever castle

Annie at Hever

Budding photographer snapping Annie posing with King Henry.

Showing Daddy the pictures!

A walk in Bedgebury Forest.

One way to tackle the wobbly plank.

Hidden throughout the forest were play areas, this one featured an assault course

Another had a butterfly shaped climbing wall attempted by us all!

This one featured a giant spider surrounded by its webs!

Catching butterflies - her friends evidently!

We loved our week in Kent we rode bikes, toasted marshmallows on our fire, walked in the woods played rounders by the reservoir, we found king Henry and explored Anne Bolyn's home . It went far too quickly and all too soon it was time to pack up the tent, say goodbye to the Eco toilet! and wend our way to Devon where, Nanny and Grandad await .... as well as soft beds, baths and a washing machine.

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Holiday Bible Club ( part two)

We started the planning for the craft by looking at the stories. Three of the stories - Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the fiery furnace and Daniel and the lions den leant themselves to crafts easily.
We decided on a giant statue for the dream, built out of boxes with each team decorating a number of boxes. This is not a craft they take home but it engaged all the children and they loved the finished result. The materials were all obtained from the re-cycling store so this was a very low cost craft which helped the overall budget.

For the fiery furnace we made lanterns using fake tea lights, this was probably our most costly craft but the kids loved it and had great fun pretending to blow out the candles.

For Daniel in the lions den we made lion cup cakes using yellow chocolate for the face, popcorn for the mane and decorated the face with white chocolate chips and piping gel.

The remaining stories were a challenge, we like to have the children make things they will want to keep and though there were a few ideas kicking around none were particularly inspiring. After much thought we decided to simply use the space element for these days.

The first was a snow globe style rocket using glycerine to suspend the glitter. The bottles were a travel pack from pound land which gave me three suitable bottles for £1. Although we could have recycled small plastic bottles the advantage of these was the quantity of glycerine needed was much less. The photo doesn't really do these credit but they were fun and when all the attachments fall off they still have a sparkly bottle to play with!

The second was a UFO. Made using the domed tops that fit on cream topped drinks ( these were from viking sold in packs of 100 ) and circles of card. The aliens were made using yarn Pom poms and fluorescent pipe cleaners from hobby craft and self adhesive eyes from Baker Ross.
Looking back the craft that the children enjoyed most was the statue which was a surprise but they were fun and hopefully will escape the re-cycling bin -for a few days anyway!

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How to make a minion!

Part of the up-front material at holiday bible club includes giving the children opportunity to contribute. This takes the form of a container in which they can place jokes, questions or facts, earning points for their team.
The container is usually decorated to match the theme - so when I looked at the large water bottle I had decided to use my initial thought was some sort of space age capsule. However we had just watched Dispicable me ( since the children we tend to be several years behind on films!) so Keith suggested making a minion - the connection being the minion testing anti gravity who floats into space. I thought it might be fun but at several points in the process I seriously regretted starting down the track but the end result was great and the kids absolutely loved it.

I began by cutting a flap in the back of the bottle, this would be used to remove the slips of paper that the children had put in the neck of the bottle.

I then covered the bottle in white tissue, I used deco patch glue as I had this available but pva would have worked equally well. I covered the bottle with several layers and allowed it to dry then gave it a couple of coats of yellow acrylic paint - I initially used children' s paint but this did not cover so well.

So having now got a yellow bottle I created an eye using the lid off a round cardboard box that had a reasonable depth. This box was made to be decorated as a frame lid with a 1cm frame so this leant itself perfectly to creating the eye. I simply cut an appropriate size circle from white brown and black card and stuck them together to form the eye. The frame I would have ideally painted silver but not without incurring additional expense so it was painted grey. I would have thought a cream cheese triangles box would work reasonably well as an alternative.
The dungarees were simply cut from some scrap denim from a re-cycling store and the mouth was drawn using a sharpie.
We challenged the children to work out his name and though we are not certain even now their conclusion was Stuart. They loved him and he was soon being stuffed with space jokes and facts.

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Space Academy Holiday Bible Club (part one)

 

During the school holidays our church runs a holiday club for children aged 5 to 11. We use Scripture Union's materials as our inspiration and build on it.

This year we are looking at the stories of Daniel and his friends with a space theme.

The morning is a mix of up-front stuff including stories, quiz, and songs and time spent in groups doing workbooks, crafts and games. My responsibility is for the group activities so the last few weeks of school term is spent preparing materials for the week.

Decor

In the past we spent a lot of time and energy on decorating the church to match our them until we worked out that most of this was lost on the kids so we now have a scene setter at the front and gradually decorate the team areas over the week with their own creations.

We created a space rocket and launch pad out of foam board gathered from a local scrap store WRAP. The buttons and wires were also from WRAP.

Set up

We assign each child to a team and as they arrive they meet at their team table. As they arrive they are registered and collect their team card.

Over the week they collect a sticker each day they attend. They hand the card to their team leader and collect their badge - they made these on the first morning and leave them each day.

During this first 20 minutes the children collect points for remembering the previous days memory verse and for returning their take home craft. This year this took the form of space quizzes and wordsearches. They also complete a precraft activity.

SU gave suggestions for these which we adapted:

The older teams were given junk one day and set the task of creating a new helmet for Commander Keith.

We created sand art "remember to pray stars"

 

We made strange planets by covering a bowl with tissue and foam.

The first day they made a mobile with their team name and on the remaining day we talked about their uniqueness and made an individual fingerprint card.

Games:

One of our favourite is the sticker game - simple but the kids enjoy it - each team collect stickers sprinkled on the floor - this year we have used coloured dot stickers so very cheap - and stick them onto a shape - the one with the most wins - with points deducted for any pieces of paper left on the floor.

The kids love parachute games so this was used on several days. We also used an idea that the girls had enjoyed at a weekend with Arise ministries which involved stuffing a decorators suit with balloons in the form of a relay race. They loved it so much that this was repeated on the last day.

So with all that sorted there was just the matter of 5 days worth of crafts to prepare.

 

 

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Holiday Bags

I love the long holidays - time pressures are off, and there's time to do some of the fun things that we don't always get time to do. The first week of our holiday is spent running a holiday Bible club at the church, our kids love it  despite the hanging around before and after as Mum and Dad set up and sort out! Then we usually head off  camping for a couple of weeks,  lots of exploring and bike riding. By the time we get back and sort ourselves out there are only a couple of weeks left before we are thinking about going back to school.

Quite early into Rebecca's school life we discovered two things. With Rebecca's short term memory issues stopping doing written work meant she would begin to slip backwards - things that were not established in her long term memory would be forgotten and that Rebecca loved writing and doing 'work'.

Taking these things into consideration and bearing in mind the limited space on camping trips I decided to make each of the girls a holiday bag - it would contain all they needed to keep them busy and entertained wherever they were, be it hanging around waiting for mum or on a wet days camping. The bags would be fun, would contain mostly previously unseen items, they would include worksheets to keep Rebecca's brain active and most importantly would not be compulsory - they were not homework that had to be done - whether they did any of the sheets was completely up to them. In fact what I found was that the sheets they had not done during the holiday would re-emerge months later -so none of the work was wasted.

The bags they have now come from a recycling store so cost nothing, prior to getting these They would have a cloth supermarket style bag, but there are attractive bags available at pound stores - so need not be expensive - the bag is important as it identifies whose belonging they are, keeps it all together and is easy to pick up and stick in the car when heading out.

I then create a book of worksheets - I have begun to design my own but most definitely a work in progress so most of the sheets come from free educational sites on the internet. These could go in a folder but this year I have simply gone for holes and a ribbon.

To complete the worksheets they need pencils, coloured pencils (they fair better than felt tips in a hot tent!) pencil sharpener glue and scissors - so these are all included in the bag.

Then in addition I add  plain sheets of paper - this is available for about £3 for 250 sheets this is great for drawing cutting and sticking.

I include packs of stickers -usually can pick up books and sheets of stickers for a £1 or so which they can use to create pictures or add to their worksheets.

One important feature of their activity bags is a scrapbook in which we try to keep a diary for most days of the holiday - the girls have our old digital cameras and so at various points in the holidays we dive into boots and print off some of their pictures - multiprints- that is 4 small pics in one 6x4 sheet keeps the cost down and means that they can add pictures of their adventures. In addition we collect leaflets, tickets etc and include these in the scrapbook. When they are in the mood we encourage them to write  something about their day - what they liked how they felt etc. To facilitate this , I have found this year some pretty journaling sheets so  I have included these in their worksheets.

My girls love making things (I can't think where they get that from!!) so I often look out for kits that can be made anywhere - this year I found these lovely dolls on offer in Hobbycraft for just £1.99 these will be things that we sit and do with the girls rather than something they just get on with - but it gives a great opportunity to spend time creating something together as well as learning to follow instructions.

These scratch cards were just £1 each again from Hobbycraft and will be something they can do independently.

I collect items when I see them reduced  or on  offer - which keeps the cost down - the phonics books were a set from Book People - working out at £1 each

I include a couple of reading books each and that is pretty much it. When we camp we will take some of games they can all play and a doll or cuddly toy - we always say one toy - somehow we always end up with several each!!

Teacher's gifts??

So do you  give the teacher's a gift at the end of the year? and when did we start  doing so? I am guessing sometime between my leaving school and my kids starting school - in fairness that it a considerable time frame! Don't get me wrong I actually like giving the teachers a gift. I think that having worked day in day out not just educating my kids but inspiring them, developing their confidence and independence, something that shows that they are appreciated  can only be a good thing. As much as I love chocolate and flowers and smellies even I can appreciate that there is may be a  limit to the amount one person needs!! So when Rebecca started school I decided that I would try to give small but unique gifts with some homemade element. Among  the offerings to date have been :

Handwoven Easter baskets after a particularly stressful and difficult term

Hand felted and embroidered picture cards

 

  

As well as Christmas pudding baubles, stationary boxes, paint can chocolate tins, and felt Christmas decorations. 

This year the girls chose to repeat an idea we had used a couple of Christmases ago - cookie jars. The idea is that the gift is the dry ingredients to produce cookies to which the recipient adds eggs and butter. So they get cookies and a nice jar. The Christmas cookie jar had been white chocolate and  cranberry so I wanted something different this year - my sister in law over at Dreaming of the Country  had posted the recipe for these m&m cookies which looked great.

 
 So I downloaded her recipe which fitted nicely in the 1 litre jars that I picked up on special offer at Sainsburys.

 The tags and cards came from an internet card making site 'card making downloads' It is a useful site when running short of time to create cards from scratch  - you simply purchase the downloads you require then print and assemble them.

 
For fun we added a red spatula and some ribbon from my ribbon box.

 So we are all set for the end of term - roll on the holidays  - and my next post - holiday bags!!!