Posted on December 22nd, 2017 - Fiona
Whatever 2017 has held for you I hope you have a fun family festive season.
Ditch the stress, embrace a child’s eye view and remember nothing matters more than being around those you love.
Embrace some family time outdoors between the movies and festive food remembering that outdoor kids are healthy kids.
From all of us here at Coombe Mill Holidays we wish you health and happiness this Christmas time.
Thank you for supporting my blog in 2017, for all the lovely comments and shares on my posts, for joining in with Country Kids (which returns for the new year here on the 6th January) and for helping me win the UKBA 2017 and reach the BIBs finals.
Merry Christmas
Fiona
x
Posted on December 15th, 2017 - Fiona
Welcome to Country Kids from Coombe Mill
Country Kids is the original outdoor family fun linky designed to:
“Encourage family fun outdoors, in an age where technology and screens are such a draw to a sedentary indoor life”
Welcome back if you are a regular to Country Kids and if you are new please join in. You will find plenty of inspiration for enjoying outdoor space and please do share your own adventures. We support the National Trust 100 things to do before you are 11¾ along with all other ideas for family fun outside.
Happy Christmas from Country Kids
Welcome to the last Country Kids of 2017. Thank you for all the lovely link ups this year and for all the time and effort spent on seeing what each other have been up to and leaving comments, it has all helped to make this a great community of like minded bloggers appreciating the benefits of outdoor family time. I hope you’ll join me for one last link up this year before enjoying some well earned family time over the festive period. Keep those cameras at hand and come back to join me in the New Year to share all the ways you found to keep Christmas from being sofa based!
Guidelines for Joining in:
- Post must be predominantly outdoors such as in the garden, the park, the woods or the beach with crafting, learning, exploring or playing.
- Despite the title, both countryside and urban outdoor adventures are welcome.
- Unheated covered areas like a barn or tent count as outdoors.
- Please comment on my host post and a minimum of 3 others of your choice.
- If you use #CountryKids when commenting the post owner will know where your found them and hopefully come back to visit your post.
- Please take my badge, without it you won’t be considered for winning the lovely Rockfish Wellies.
- Linked posts should be written and made live within the last 2 months.
- I understand sometimes you need to do catch up posts and write about something from a couple of months ago but the publish date should be within 2 months.
- By joining in with Country Kids you’re giving me permission to email you weekly as a reminder.
- There is no restriction on the number of posts that can be linked up, however please be sensible, if you have more than 3 consider linking over a few weeks.
My top commenters from last week:
- Joy from Pinkoddy who commented on 18 posts.
- Clare from Mudpie Fridays who commented on 17 posts.
- Louisa from Inside Out who commented on 15 posts.
We have just one guilty blogger link dumping this week, Please go back if it is you. Do remember I comment count on Thursday after lunch so get your comments in before then if you want them to be counted and please approve your comments by then if they need moderating so I can see others leaving you the blog love.
Rockfish kindly sponsor Country Kids
Win a pair of wellies from Rockfish Monthly
I am delighted to have Rockfish as the sponsor for Country Kids. Rockfish are a local Cornish company specializing in stylish quality wellingtons for all the family. We have been offering their country wellies in our borrow room here on the farm for over a year and they are always popular for their style, comfort and durability.
Each week my favourite #CountryKids posts, which include my badge or a link back here, will be considered for a free pair of Rockfish Wellies at the end of the month; the perfect way to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather throws your way. Keep your posts coming, it could be you winning next!
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
Favourite posts from last week added to the shortlist for winning the December / January Rockfish Wellies:
As December will be a short month for Country Kids I’m combining the welly win with January.
Top Commenter this week: Joy of Pink Oddy with a lovely post about visiting Stonehenge in winter
West Country Mum enjoyed a community Christmas tree cutting day with RSPB and brought 3 trees home with them all for £10
Mary from Over 40 Mum to One shared an enchanting post about the the Christmas illuminations at Blenheim Palace
Country Kids Communities
I’d love you to join me:
Pin on the Pinterest Board Just ask for an invite to pin and include Country Kids on your pins for me to stop by on your boards too.
Follow Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays’s board Country Kids from Coombe Mill on Pinterest.
Join the growing Country Kids Instagram Community with #CountryKidsFun.
I'll like and comment on all and share my favourites from the week with a tag on a Friday on Instagram and Twitter. With over 7500 posts this community is flourishing with outdoors photos.
My favourite photos from the week came from @mumturnedmom @marley_and_us @kristinavonschuetzenhof and @dancingdandelionsblog . Please do check out these lovely folk on Instagram if you are not already following
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Posted on December 15th, 2017 - Fiona
You could be forgiven from the title for thinking I was about to launch in to Dr Seuss style riddle on a goat in a boat, but in fact the goat was in a boat as part of a rescue mission by farmer Nick.
Some morning feed runs with the guests run like clockwork and others turn into quite an adventure. This was to be one of the latter. Nick has let all the goats, ponies and alpaca out to graze around the lake and over the main tractor route while we only had a few people staying. This gave them access to land that hadn’t been touched all summer and it was full of nutrition still for the animals and a perfect way for us to stave off on the expensive hay feeding. This was all fine except that when the tractor came through in the morning is was mobbed by animals all hoping to peer into the feed buckets to steal the corn.
The ponies were not giving up once they had enjoyed their apples we put on their head collars and I led a party over the road to a new field.
No sooner had my pony leading expedition returned than we heard a bleating down by the river. It took some careful searching to spot one of our little goats trapped on the edge of the river having presumably lost her footing while foraging too close to the edge.
There was no way of rescuing her from above so we set Farmer Nick to the rescue in HMS Bath Tub, Guy’s little boat for clearing the weeds. He did look quite a sight in this tiny little boat and we had no idea if he would be able to reach the goat, how much of a fight she would put up getting into the boat or if it would hold all their weight.
The guests were certainly being treated to some extra entertainment as they watched the comedy act of Nick, Amber and I attempting to throw ropes to moor the boat and coax a reluctant goat into a boat!
To be fair the goat was amazingly calm in the boat and we had her back on dry land and reunited with her friends again with relative ease.
We had the whole operation completed in super fast time, however not fast enough for the children who moved between watching the rescue and playing on the play equipment originally placed there for the goats to enjoy!
Finally we continued round to feed the rest of the animals before heading home on the tractor, preceded by the alpaca who insisted on showing us the way!
We have since learned from our mistake and I go along ahead of the feed run and close all the goats and alpaca into a field, letting them back out to roam again once the tractor has departed. It does make me smile that they fall for the same bucket of oats trick every morning but at least there should be no more goat in a boat episodes!
Goat in a boat and other adventures on the morning feed run
Posted on December 8th, 2017 - Fiona
Welcome to Country Kids from Coombe Mill
Country Kids is the original outdoor family fun linky designed to:
“Encourage family fun outdoors, in an age where technology and screens are such a draw to a sedentary indoor life”
Welcome back if you are a regular to Country Kids and if you are new please join in. You will find plenty of inspiration for enjoying outdoor space and please do share your own adventures. We support the National Trust 100 things to do before you are 11¾ along with all other ideas for family fun outside.
The animals came in two by two….
Our alpaca are quite a comedy duo on the morning tractor ride as they lead the way around the farm. Sadly for them their game stops just ahead of the photo here when I open the last gate for the tractor leaving them behind. Don’t feel too sorry for them though they have the run of the place for now and are very happy. Equally our holiday guests are happy to bid them farewell for the day and head on about their business making pre Christmas holiday memories to take home. I hope you have Christmas in hand and an outdoor festive adventure to share too on the link up below.
Guidelines for Joining in:
- Post must be predominantly outdoors such as in the garden, the park, the woods or the beach with crafting, learning, exploring or playing.
- Despite the title, both countryside and urban outdoor adventures are welcome.
- Unheated covered areas like a barn or tent count as outdoors.
- Please comment on my host post and a minimum of 3 others of your choice.
- If you use #CountryKids when commenting the post owner will know where your found them and hopefully come back to visit your post.
- Please take my badge, without it you won’t be considered for winning the lovely Rockfish Wellies.
- Linked posts should be written and made live within the last 2 months.
- I understand sometimes you need to do catch up posts and write about something from a couple of months ago but the publish date should be within 2 months.
- By joining in with Country Kids you’re giving me permission to email you weekly as a reminder.
- There is no restriction on the number of posts that can be linked up, however please be sensible, if you have more than 3 consider linking over a few weeks.
My top commenters from last week:
- Emma from The Joy of Five who commented on 10 posts.
- Mary from Over 40 and a Mum to One who commented on 9 posts.
- Emma from Bubba Blue and Me who commented on 8 posts.
We have just one guilty blogger link dumping this week, Please go back if it is you. Do remember I comment count on Thursday after lunch so get your comments in before then if you want them to be counted and please approve your comments by then if they need moderating so I can see others leaving you the blog love.
Rockfish kindly sponsor Country Kids
Win a pair of wellies from Rockfish Monthly
I am delighted to have Rockfish as the sponsor for Country Kids. Rockfish are a local Cornish company specializing in stylish quality wellingtons for all the family. We have been offering their country wellies in our borrow room here on the farm for over a year and they are always popular for their style, comfort and durability.
Each week my favourite #CountryKids posts, which include my badge or a link back here, will be considered for a free pair of Rockfish Wellies at the end of the month; the perfect way to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather throws your way. Keep your posts coming, it could be you winning next!
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
Favourite posts from last week added to the shortlist for winning the December Rockfish Wellies:
Top Commenter this week: Emma from The Joy of Five.
Hyde Park is home to Winter Wonderland at the moment and Dear Mummy Blog says it’s definitely worth a visit
As is the lanterns at Chiswick House as recommended by Zen Baby Travel
Country Kids Communities
I’d love you to join me:
Pin on the Pinterest Board Just ask for an invite to pin and include Country Kids on your pins for me to stop by on your boards too.
Follow Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays’s board Country Kids from Coombe Mill on Pinterest.
Join the growing Country Kids Instagram Community with #CountryKidsFun.
I'll like and comment on all and share my favourites from the week with a tag on a Friday on Instagram and Twitter. With over 7400 posts this community is flourishing with outdoors photos.
My favourite photos from the week came from @laurasidestreet @wildmamawildtribe @julitalovefm and @shellandthelittlies. Please do check out these lovely folk on Instagram if you are not already following
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Posted on December 8th, 2017 - Fiona
Inspiration for my activity hour comes from following up on learning from a week on the farm and anything topical and nature related. This week it was a new book arriving from Lonely Planet Kids called “Where Animals Live” that had my mind spiraling off into an afternoon of discovery with the wild animals and their homes here on the farm.
Where animals live
The book is packed with everything from the smallest creepy crawly to foxes and badgers and it provided a great way to start our afternoon. The kids took to the book instantly, lifting flaps identifying the animals and recognising from the photos where and how to find their homes.
A pebble Mouse comes to life.
It was a glorious afternoon and as we closed the book I introduced our first craft. Adding clay to pebbles we made mice with little stick tails.
Handing the children an egg carton each, they ran off to fill them with soft nature bedding as a home for their mouse. I explained that really they would look for a hole to hide in like at the bottom of a tree but that leaves would make it comfy just like their egg cartons.
Spider craft
We took advantage of the late afternoon sun which still had some warmth to make clay spiders in their web homes. The children enjoyed molding their spiders and counting on the stick legs, and weaving webs for them into paper plates.
Adventure along the wildlife trail.
We have a wildlife trail set up around Coombe Mill with laminated clues to take from reception. These have been heavily used by our holiday guests over the past year but no one had been on it this week. Instead of the clue sheets we used the video clues from the website downloaded onto my tablet. This was not only very clear for the children but visual too so they knew just which animal they were looking for as we made our way across the farm following the audio and video clues.
I was amazed how much energy the children had racing from clue to clue. We stopped to look for bugs and where they lived in the fairy gardens and bug hotel.
We even found a real mouse hole in the bottom of a tree, along with mole hills hiding the underground mole runs and the odd squirrel and wild rabbit that ran across our path. The children found all the animals on the trail, squelched through puddles, discovered hidden areas of the farm and gained an insight into the wild animals living in nature alongside our farm animals.
Nature has so much to discover and it is a pleasure to introduce children to the life going on around them on the farm.
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