Halloween Fun Day 2018

Posted on October 26th, 2018 - Anya

Here at Coombe Mill we love to make the most of big occasions in the calendar. Halloween is one of those and each year we have a day dedicated to Halloween activities during the October half term. Traditionally half term and Halloween collided, however over time the two have become separated. Such was the popularity of our Halloween Fun day with guests we began running Halloween in half term, wherever that fell. For the first time this year the country is split for half term. Half the country had half term last week and the other this week. The answer was simple, 2 fun days! These are the highlights from the first, though I will be repeating the fun all over again this coming week on the 31st October so no one misses out.

 

Itinerary for the day

Forewarned is forearmed as the saying goes. When the guests arrive I hand them an itinerary for the Halloween Fun Day as part of their welcome talk. This way everyone who wants to join in can be fully prepared.

Fancy Dress Feed Run

The day begins with our daily feed run, all spooked up with a decorated trailer and fancy dress. We have a games room packed with fancy dress costumes so there is no need for anyone to splash out beforehand.

 

The fancy dress really sets the scene and the children love the look of the trailer drawing up at 9am. Each year I buy a few new things and add to the disguise. Even Farmer Nick had a new outfit which lasted the whole feed run. Usually he has abandoned whatever I have given him half way round!

Halloween Spooky farm eggs

Without question, the highlight of the morning for the children was running up to the egg box, peering inside to collect the morning eggs only to discover Cadbury crème eggs in spooky Halloween wrapping! We do this at Easter, but when I saw the Halloween eggs for sale I had to buy the lot for our Halloween fun day!  

 

 

There is then a break till mid afternoon that allows the guests to go out for a couple of hours, often to get some lunch for everyone ahead of the sweeties of the afternoon. This gives me a chance to de-robe the trailer and kit out the train tunnel for the ghost train later and prepare the crafts.

Pumpkin carving

In the past I have left guests to sort out their own pumpkins, this year I bought a load and invited the guests to come and join me for a session of pumpkin carving. With knives, spoons, a white board marker for designing we set to work. I had Theo as my ‘wing man’ to help anyone who needed it and the results were commendable. The children designed the pumpkin faces while the parents and older children carved them.

Halloween decorations

As the pumpkins finished the children moved to my craft table. Taking inspiration from the past few weeks of log crafts, we made Halloween logs. This time I added green food colouring to the glue paste for a slime landscape. To this the children added spider webs from card and wool, haunted houses from toilet rolls and monsters from painted rocks with googly eyes. I had a tub with left over bits and bobs that the children used to embellish their decoration.

 

Halloween Fun Day Games

No Halloween is complete without a few games. We were lucky to make the most of the lovely mild weather and set up Broom racing on the lawn. The children ran in teams to complete the broom races.

We then retreated into the games room for some traditional musical statues to Halloween Party music.

 

Ghost Train

Time was running away and I wanted to give the guests a clear hour ahead of the evening activities to sort the children out with tea. We met again at 6.30 at Coombe Halt ready for the Ghost train. I’m not sure how many times the train ran round it’s track, but we were there the best part of half an hour. Our fearsome driver slowed down to go through the ghost tunnel which was full of spooky delights. I was careful to manage the balance between scary and fun as I didn’t want to frighten the younger ones. Apparently I may have made it too much fun as one little girl thought it was Christmas and asked if Santa was calling later, she was having so much fun!

 

Trick or Treat

There was only one event left. After a quick five minutes for everyone to have a comfort break and light their pumpkins, we met back at the train station. Some of the children had never been trick or treating before and listening to them chatting about how great it was made my heart melt. We took an organised procession from property to property. I had Theo at 6ft 3 as a natural leader with torch and camera capturing the magic of the evening. At 16, he is still a sweetie addict and finished the night with pockets bulging himself!   

Halloween will go down as a really fun event with all our guests.  I’m already looking forward to doing it all again this coming Wednesday, may be with a few changes depending on the age of the children. If you fancy joining us next year be sure to book for October half term.

Halloween Extravaganza with the Coombe Mill 2018 Fun Day

 

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Illuminatlas: Explore the world through colour lenses

Posted on October 22nd, 2018 - Anya

Here at Coombe Mill we are big fans of the educational books from Wide Eyed Editions, part of the Quarto group. Nonfiction books for children have quite a job to do in drawing the reader away from the lure of Google. However, I may be old fashioned, but there is something special about a well illustrated book. The physical touch and feel is something Google can’t complete with. My kids may not always agree and would spend their life online given half a chance. I think our friends at Quarto understand what I am up against, and probably other parents too, and have introduced the 3rd book in an amazing “illumi” series Illuminatlas. Read on to discover what makes this book so different and inventive that even a hardened on line enthusiast will want to take a look. There is a chance to win your very own copy too.

 

Illuminatlas through 3 different lenses

The magic of this colourful informative book is in the colour lens. Read about the history, geography and animals of the world then see them pop out before your eyes. Study the world region by region and let your eyes adjust to the highlights through the lens. The construction of each illustration is so effective and absorbing you become quite immersed in each scene bring in the text to life.  

The perfect Christmas gift

This book would make a wonderful Christmas gift. Let the quite discovery of this book take your child to a new level of understanding as the Christmas holidays unfold.

 

 

Need to Know

RSP	£20.00
Age Range	9-11
Illustrated by	Carnovsky design studio
Author	Kate Davies
Format	Hardback 64 pages 284 x 346 x 16mm Weight 864g
Publisher	Wide Eyed Editions, part of the Quarto Group
Stockists	Querto online, Wordery, Amazon, Blackwells
ISBN-13	9781786031686

 

Win your Illuminatlas with Quarto and Coombe Mill

If you have a tween too into their on line activities you’d like to encourage into a good educational nonfiction book this could be the answer. Follow the instructions below for your chance to win a copy. Good luck to all taking part.

Illuminatlas

Disclosure

I was sent my copy of this atlas book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.    

 

 

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The calm before the storm

Posted on October 20th, 2018 - Anya

The past week has felt very much like the calm before the storm. This week is half term here in Cornwall and for much of the country too. We are all ready for Halloween activities and have made sure everything on the farm is looking its very best. Believe me this included so much leaf clearing I already feel like my shoulders are falling out of their sockets. However it is worth the work that comes with showing off our beautiful wooded valley to its autumn best.

Storm Callum

Cornwall was hit by the winds and rain of Storm Callum last weekend. I was worried we might suffer with fallen trees and loose all the beauty of autumn in one swoop. However I’m pleased to say our sheltered valley survived the worst and the farm is still looking stunning in the golden autumn sunlight that has returned. We are all crossing our fingers the dry sunshine continues for this coming week. 

Up close on the farm

I have been out enjoying the sunshine and capturing a few random scenes from the farm. The peace and quiet of the past week will be such a contrast with the noise and excitement of this week. I love both in equal measure and am grateful for the changes that come both with the seasons and our changing guests at different times of the year.  

Early morning farm checks allow me the luxury of taking my time and seeing the detail of the forest floor.

I can see fairies dancing in here. 

 

The calm before the storm: or actually after storm Callum as the fallen leaves are washed downstream.

 

Someone is on the look out for the tractor and trailer signalling breakfast time. 

And here it comes!

I wonder if they will spot nature’s finer details  hiding along the woodland pathways? 

 

I have just 1 lodge to sleep 4 free this week and 3 next week if you fancy a few days away in the school holidays? We will be enjoying a few Halloween activities and plenty of farm fun on both weeks. Following this we return to a slower pace full of peace and tranquility as depicted above. We’d love to welcome you then too.

 

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Dinoscape crafted from nature, a log and a dinosaur

Posted on October 19th, 2018 - Anya

I have really been enjoying using nature with the children staying here this autumn. There are so many windfalls hitting the farm giving countless possibilities for learning made fun in our outdoor classroom. With a very young team signed up to join me I knew I had to make things fun and easy this week. Two year olds are very discerning and will vote with their feet if the learning goes over their heads. I remembered how popular dinosaur world creation was last winter but was concerned it would be too fiddly for this group. A little adaption based on my pile of leaves craft and I had a simple dinoscape ready to impress with a dinosaur hunt to finish it off.

 

Atlas of dinosaur adventures

We began with a little look at the lovely ‘Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures‘ book from Quarto Kids. It is huge with beautiful visuals for each continent. We focused on the Europe page which perfectly depicts all the children could see around them at Coombe Mill from trees and nature to rivers and rocks. Meandering through the landscape were the dinosaurs. Two of the boys were wearing a dinosaur top which was a great start. We talked about the landscape and how it must have looked rather like Coombe Mill back when the dinosaurs were alive.

Collecting Nature for a dinoscape

I didn’t want to keep the children sat still for too long so we headed straight on out in search of fallen leaves, acorns, petals and more to create their own dinoscapes. When the tubs were filled we ventured into the log store to choose a log each as the base to their dinosaur landscape.

Creating a dinoscape

Back at my craft table the children began to spread my flower and water paste on to their log and arrange all their collected nature on top. The dinoscapes came together perfectly as the paste is very forgiving allowing the children to pull things off and re-paste until they were happy.

 

Dinosaur hunt

They were so engrossed in creating their dinosaur landscape they almost forgot it needed a dinosaur on it. They all knew dinosaurs were extinct do I explained we would have to go digging for a buried dinosaur. After a couple of clues they raced off to the sand diggers in the sand pit and began to dig. Oh the excitement as a dinosaur came to life!

 

A little free play

The temptation to stay and play was too much, and we had no real time limit so we were all happy to let them run around and chase up and down the slide for a few minutes to wear themselves out.

Dinosaurs complete the dinoscape

Finally we reminded them of their dinosaurs and the dinoscapes waiting for them. They ran back to the craft table with dinosaurs in hand and with a little more paste fixed them into their chosen place.

I was so pleased; the activity suited these little ones perfectly with just the right amount of learning and fun.

Recreate a Dinoscape at home

This would be such a simple activity to recreate from a walk in the woods or the park.

What you’ll Need	Nature collected from a walk A small toy dinosaur to hide (ours came in a pack of 6 for £1.99) A small log Flower mixed with water to form a stiff paste.
Educational Benefits	Creativity Imagination Dexterity The opportunity to explore animal diets and habitats
Suitable For	Age 2 – 4

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Confidence comes from trying new things.

Posted on October 12th, 2018 - Anya

It was the first day out on the farm for this young lad. He had the feed run to himself as our other guests had made an early get away for a day out in Cornwall in the sunshine. Everything was new and it showed in his 2 year old face, his emotions and reactions to the farm. That said Farmer Nick is very used to this and took the morning duties at this little man’s pace.  You can see fear, wonder and then a growing confidence just in one morning.

Tailored to you

It is easy for us to forget how much there is to learn on a first day, from how to handle the eggs, to which animals are safe to feed from your hand. However the feed run is tailored to the visitors we have. In the school holidays the children and animals are highly interactive and for the safety of everyone we have to hold back the over brave. On mornings like this everything is much more gentle. Animal feeding is largely through the fence and very carefully supervised.  This way confidence grows and with it the quest to do more. There is something for every child to take away from a farm holiday.

Looking unsure entering the farm

Finding a real chicken egg with a feather still on it

Oops, discovering what happens to eggs dropped into the bucket! 

Excitement over the goats

Feeling confident to feed the goats through the fence

 

Give your kids farm confidence with us

With the beautiful autumn scenery, quieter feed runs with younger children, autumn is a lovely time to visit us. Check out our availability if you are temped for a family break. We are open all year and the animals love to see the children over the quieter months, I promise they will grow in confidence with just a few days here.  

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