Making an Easter Garden

April 8, 2015 · 2 Comments

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. John 20:1

Making an Easter garden with the boys was something I’d planned to do the week before Easter. However, due to a last minute decision to go on holiday, it didn’t happen. We went to the Wye Valley and wandered round ruined castles in the mizzle. It was nice.

Anyway. It’s still the Easter holidays and Jesus’ resurrection is something to celebrate every day so I prised the boys away from the computer and turfed them out into the garden to give me hand.

We popped next door to our local plant nursery and bought some little alpine plants. The rest of the stuff we used we had already: stones, sticks, twine, a small amount of compost and an old tin.

We put the compost in the tin.

Then the boys collected some sticks and we tied them together to make three crosses, which we stuck into the compost.

We used the stones to make the empty tomb. I brought out the PVA glue but, as it turned out, we didn’t need it. We used smaller stones for the walls, then larger, flatter stones for the roof. I actually found some bits of slate and broken pot which were great for this!

Lastly we added the plants. There was a slight problem in that the pots the plants were in were taller than the tray. This was solved a little bit by mashing the root balls.

It was a lovely thing to do and it also gave the boys and I an opportunity to talk about the Easter story.

Happy Easter!

“He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” Matthew 28:6

Making Easter Hats

March 31, 2015 · 4 Comments

Holidays offer the perfect opportunity for making stuff, and as we were required to make Easter hats for church, the boys and I had some craft time after school last Thursday.

I wanted to keep things simple while at the same time giving them some freedom to make what they liked. The hats needed to be wearable as there is an Easter hat parade at church on Easter Sunday!

I decided to investigate Poundland as this is often a good place to get seasonal crafty bits and and pieces. I was not disappointed! There were several racks of Easter craft stuff, including hats for boys. Hooray for the Land of Pound!

So £20 and two carrier bags full of stuff later, I had enough to make 5 Easter hats and we actually had quite a lot left over!

The boys had a nice selection of things to choose from, including chickens and lambs, flowers, ribbons and stickers.

I put out the PVA glue but we actually found that it was easier to use double sided tape. We used ordinary double sided for the ribbons and foam tape for the chickens, lambs and flowers.

Here are the hats we made!

This is Boy 1’s hat…

Boy 4’s…

Boy 2 refused to model his…

And here is Boy 3. He was very happy to model his hat!

Not to be outdone, I made one too! I also used a hat from Poundland. As it was a bit too small even though I have a tiny head, I made some cuts in the rim so that it would expand a little bit to fit my head. I also added a ribbon so that I could tie it on.

Instead of putting a ribbon around it, I used the flower garland I made a few weeks ago. You can read about that here! To attach it to the hat, I secured it with a few stitches at the front and at the back. Then I added chickens, lambs, flowers and stickers.

Now we are all set for the Easter hat parade!

How to Make Bird Feeders

December 18, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Making bird feeders is not just a Christmas thing! Apparently the birds benefit if you put food out for them all year round. Apart from anything else, they learn that your garden is the place to go if they are feeling peckish.

Boy 2 likes birds and I like the warm fuzziness that comes with being kind to animals.

These bird feeders are good ones to make in the winter. The bird cakes are made with lard, which stays firm when it’s cold out. If you hang them out in warmer weather, you might end up with a sticky bird seedy mess all over your garden.

The garland bird feeders are a lovely natural way to decorate your garden for Christmas!

How to Make Bird Feeders

Bird Cakes

You Will Need: bird seed, lard, raffia or twine, paper cake cases, a jug or a bowl.

1. Melt the lard. As I had Boy 4 helping me, I melted the lard in a jug in the microwave then poured it into a bowl.

2. Stir in the bird seed. You will need more bird seed than lard. I don’t have exact measurements because I didn’t weigh it out!

It needs to be sticky. If there is not enough bird seed, the cakes will be squishy and fall apart.

3. Dollop half the lard bird seed mixture into the paper cake cases so that they are half full.

4. Cut pieces of raffia or twine about 10 cm long. Put the ends into the paper cake cases on top of the bird seed to make a loop.

5. Fill the paper cake cases with the rest of the lard and bird seed so that the ends of loops are inside the cakes.

6. Press the cakes down with the back of a spoon.

7. Pop the cakes in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.

8. Hang them up in the garden, ideally out of direct sunlight.

Bird Feeder Garlands

You Will Need: string or strong thread, a darning needle, popcorn, an assortment of dried fruit and cereal (I used raisins, dried cranberries and cheerios).

1. Cut a piece of string 50 cm – 80 cm long. Tie a loop at one end.

2. Start threading the popcorn, dried fruit and cereal onto the string.

3. Tie a loop at the other end.

4. Hang it up outside.

We’ve had noticeably more birds in the garden since I put out the bird feeders!

This is my last post of 2014, so Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2015!

Autumn Crafts For Children

October 17, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Last Sunday afternoon Boy 1 had a birthday party to go to, so I took the opportunity to have some autumn crafty fun with the other boys.

This is not an exhaustive list of crafty things you can do with leaves, but it was enough to keep my boys occupied on Sunday afternoon!

Leaf Printing in Play Dough

I put the leaves on the table with the sycamore seeds and some pine cones I collected last year, along with some play dough. (For a play dough recipe and lots of excellent ideas for play dough fun, visit The Imagination Tree.)

The boys pushed the leaves into the play dough so that an imprint of the leaf was left. They also tried this with the sycamore seeds and the pine cones. It kept them entertained for ages! Then they got the play dough tools out and Boy 4 tipped them out all over the floor. That kept Mummy busy for a while!

Leaf Rubbing

To make this a bit easier for the boys, I taped the leaf to the back of the paper so that it would move about less. It works best if the leaf is wrong side (ie bumpiest side) up. I had some crayons that didn’t have any paper on which was much easier than picking the paper off!

This was not as popular as the play dough thing. The play dough was still out and the boys chose to carry on playing with it. Boy 2 in particular was enjoying it so much he didn’t do a leaf rubbing at all!

On Fifth wizardry there ideas for creating a large artwork with children using leaf rubbings. There are also instructions for making crayon cakes to make things easier for little people.

If you have a laminator, the rubbings could be made into autumnal themed placemats.

Leaf People

To make these, we taped leaves to paper, stuck googly eyes and drew features on the leaf with a Sharpie. The boys were very excited about using these! Usually they are not allowed to as the ink is permanent, so bad news in the hands of little boys! However, I didn’t think ordinary pen would work on the leaves and thankfully Boy 4 was happy tipping play dough tools out everywhere at this point and was not interested in drawing on leaves, the sofa or anything else!

Once we’d given our leaves faces, we drew bodies.

The leaves started to curl a day or too afterwards, so I’d recommend using plenty of tape or pva glue.

What are your favourite autumn crafts for children?

How to Survive the Summer Holidays

July 18, 2014 · 2 Comments

The summer holidays are nearly here. Boy 3 has had his last ever day at nursery and Boys 1 and 2 break up next Wednesday. Although I’m looking forward to it, I am going slightly cross-eyed at the thought of keeping 4 little boys aged 8, 6, 4 and 1 entertained and myself sane for 6 weeks.

For me it is not about finding endless activities to march them too, but helping them to find a rhythm that does not revolve around school. It’s achieving a balance between organised stuff with me and playing independently, being active and being quiet, being outside and being indoors, being out and about and being at home. Boy 1 particularly finds this very difficult as he likes routine and he’s so used to school he struggles with having a lot of free time. Yet they all need time to forget about school, reading books, homework, spellings, and SATs. They need time to play, read, run around outside, ride their bikes and just be kids.

Just as finding a balance can be hard for them, I need time to get stuff done. I don’t want to be policing fights or having to yell at them for running round and round in circles in the front room, shouting “fart” at the tops of their voices, or barking at them for trashing the place. If we are to survive the summer holidays, we need a plan.

So this is what I plan to do. I don’t know whether it’s going to work, we’ll have to wait and see!

We’ll have one trip out a week, probably to the beach or to the woods, as they are both free and accessible by bus.

I’l have one activity planned for them to do with me. This will include:

Baking

Art/crafts/science, like painting stones, origami, making finger puppets, helping me by making stuff for my ebook, making kites, making a water wall, making it rain in a jam jar. I’ve collected some ideas on a Pinterest board here.

Going to the library. Our nearest library has a reading challenge for primary aged children.

Going to the park.

Going out on bikes or for walks.

I’m also aiming to have an outdoor activity set up for them. I’m assuming the weather is going to be nice! There are ideas on the same Pinterest board, including:

Painting

Printing

Painting with ice cubes

Ice cube sculptures

Rescuing lego people from ice.

Cars in shaving foam.

Rainbow foam

Bubble blowing

Sand

Water

Paper aeroplanes

Play dough. There’s a great recipe on Imagination Tree, and lots of other good ideas too.

I’m also going to have an indoor activity set up, like:

One of the Playmobil sets

Lego, maybe car building bits or house bits, or a road mapped out on base plates.

The wooden trainset, partially built so they can finish it off

A box of toys out that that they haven’t played with for a while.

I’m also going to make an I’m Bored jar. There are lots of ideas for these on Pinterest! I’m going to write the activites onto lolly sticks so that I don’t end up with paper all over the floor and extra hoovering! Ideas I’m going to include are:

Read a book

Read a book to somebody else

Build a den

Find something to do in the art cupboard

Draw a picture

Make a book

Have a bug hunt in the garden

Do a job to help Mummy and earn 10p

Play Top Trumps

Make your own Top Trumps (my boys love Top Trumps!)

Do a puzzle

Make the Playmobil people go camping in the garden.

Hopefully this will be enough to keep everybody sane!

If you like to write stuff down on a pretty planner, there is a gorgeous one here on Brocante Home.

What are you planning to do to keep your children amused?

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How to Make Bird Feeders

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