Posted on December 2nd, 2016 - Fiona
Autumn colours are so beautiful and I was determined to have an activity hour to make the most of the rich seasonal colours on the farm. This was only a few weeks ago yet already the vibrant leaves are few and far between now December is here. We do still have the last of the Hydrangeas from summer turning rich shades of blue and purple and the fuchsias are still blooming, though suffering from the frost this week, in our mild hidden valley. For our activity hour colour by number became colour by nature with some numbers thrown in too. A great afternoon of learning made fun for our preschool children.
Nature Scavenger Hunt.
I find with preschool children that preparation is the key. Things need to be fast paced and easy to complete to keep their attention. I had an afternoon set up that I was sure would deliver. Thankfully the weather was on my side and we were able to do everything outside without the children feeling the autumn chill. After explaining what we would be doing, we set off with collecting trays in search of the colours of the rainbow in nature.
Colour by Nature.
Autumn is so rich in colour it wasn’t hard to fill our trays and the children returned to the craft table eager to begin colour matching their finds to the rainbow chart. I had already placed little pieces of double sided sticky tape already on the card so they were all ready to peel and stick. The children were quite competent with their colours and delightful in their enthusiasm to complete the task.
Colour by Numbers.
By the time we finished, the one year olds were tired but the others were all keen to join in my colouring farm game. Each child choose a different coloured pen and take it in turns to roll two dice , add the numbers together, find the farm animal with that number and colour it in. This is in our early years educational section on the Coombe Mill website, as developed with twinkl UK, however, at just age two and three, I wasn’t sure they would manage it. The children really surprised me and colour by nature became colour by numbers.
Painting with Nature.
As they took the last few turns at rolling the dice I sensed their concentration waning and set up a table of paints. This was just what they needed. Once again colour by nature was in control as they painted the remaining scavenger hunt items and printed them onto paper. Energies were revived and concentration was back up to 100%. We had dinosaur steps with sound effects, raindrop splashes and all sorts of creative ideas flowing from the nature prints.
The Colour Experiment.
The children left armed with all their good work for the afternoon, but not before one last colour test: to see what colour would result when all the paints were mixed together. The result was, unsurprisingly for the grownups, a sludgy autumnal brown! I did feel sorry for the parent left with taking home the brown mixing plate as an extra souvenir from a fun afternoon.
If you have a preschooler age 2 to 5 I really recommend ‘colour by nature’ as a great afternoon of learning made fun.
Posted on November 25th, 2016 - 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.
Storm Angus has been giving us more than our fair share of rain this week, but it hasn’t stopped us getting out and enjoying the farm. Leaves are falling by the bucket load and trying to catch one as they flutter down is always a good game. This little chap is up in our deer field where fallen branches and leaves are providing an autumn feast for our deer this week. Whether you’ve had clear skies and freezing temperatures up north or mild with wind and rain like us down south, I hope you have managed a little family fun outdoors to share.
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.
- Large 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 19th November
1st Sonia from Mummy Constant with 18 comments
2nd Louise from Little Hearts Big Love with 16 comments
3rd Karen from Stopping at Two with 13 comments
A big welcome to Amy from Very Much so Blog who joined in for the first time last week.
Just 1 guilty blogger linking up and not commenting on any posts. If that was you please go back.
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.
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
Posts from last week in with a chance of winning the November Rockfish Wellies:
Top Commenter : Sonia from Mummy Constant with a lovely winter break in Yorkshire
The Cotsworlds has some cutest villages in England, but how about this one made in miniature as visited by Stopping at Two
I couldn’t help but fall in love with the autumn colours in the New Forest with this post from Very Much So Blog
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 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.
My Favourite photos from last week were: @wouldliketobe @baby_chaos11 @my_danglish_family @the_dots_and_me check them out on Instagram if you are not already following.
Thank you to those joining in last week again, please keep the tags coming, I love to see them all and we now have over 600 photos in there.
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Posted on November 25th, 2016 - Fiona
I was after a different sort of autumnal adventure for activity hour this week and an ideal I had been thinking about for a while suddenly fell into place thanks to a little creative thinking. I had been planning to do some kind of nature photo frames and was preparing my example frame when I suddenly thought how great they would be for explaining perspective to the children. My nature frames became magic photo frames with a little lesson in science thrown in!
Welly Walk
We began with a nature walk down the welly walk. I was surprised to find that even my two week guests hadn’t been along the trail before and so it was something new for everyone. On the way down we looked out for signs of autumn with the bracken dying back and fallen golden leaves.
The clearing at the end is a perfect play ground with a tree swing and a sandy shallow section of the river perfect for paddling. I think the kids could have spent all afternoon here and everyone wanted to return in their own time.
The return journey led us back through the bamboo tunnel with eyes peeled for collecting interesting pieces of nature.
Making Magic Photo Frames
Back at the craft tables we began to make our photo frames using rainbow wool and cereal boxes.
We weaved the collected pieces of nature into our frames.
This was my chance to introduce a little science. I asked each child who was bigger, them or their photo frame. Even my youngest could tell me they were bigger. Yet when I took a photo of them looking through the frame they could see themselves inside the frame. How could that be? Then I showed them my hand up close and they watched as I moved further away. Clearly my hand appeared smaller. It was a great way to explain perspective and how the magic photo frames worked.
Each took their magic photo frames home with tired legs from our walk and a little knowledge imparted.
The magic photo frames were so successful we used them with a younger group of children too, but instead of collecting the nature first, we made the frames first and took them on our walk to fill them as we went. Explaining perspective to younger children was harder but they loved the idea of the magic and giggled at the pictures of themselves inside the frames!
The Forestry Commission are encouraging us to explore our woodlands this season and get creative weaving with nature just as we have been doing. Do check out their website for more creative ideas and downloadable packs as well as a list of your nearest forests. As we are coming up to Christmas there is also a list of forests selling Christmas Trees. Why not make a day of visiting and come home with a little piece of the forest for your home too.
Posted on November 18th, 2016 - 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.
Ruston our little blue engine has been in charge this week as our regular Coombe Mill engine goes into the shed for maintenance and a re paint before turning into our Santa Express for Christmas. Ruston is as popular as ever with the children, I suspect as he mirrors Thomas the Tank in colour! Our outdoor pursuits this week have included a fair bit of shower dodging but it has been very mild for November.
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.
- Large 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.
As I failed to do comments last week being away I am catching up with 2 weeks worth this week. I promised all those commenters would count so here goes:
My top commenters from 12th November
1st Heidi from Him Me and Three with 25 comments
2nd Emma from Bubba Blue and Me with 20 comments
3rd Cheryl from Time to Craft with 17 comments
There was 1 link dump and run culprit.
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.
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
Posts from last week in with a chance of winning the November Rockfish Wellies:
Top Commenter : Heidi from Him Me Three
This year’s harvest turned into a fab afternoon of autumnal fun for Time to Craft, Cheryl’s post is linked above where she was also a top commenter.
The Ladybird Adventures enjoyed a full day of outdoor fun at Coombes Valley RSPB Reserve.
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 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.
My Favourite photos from last week were: @lifecookscabin @verymuchsoblog @sands_heard and @bubbablueandme check them out on Instagram if you are not already following.
Thank you to those joining in last week again, please keep the tags coming, I love to see them all and we now have over 550 photos in there.
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Posted on November 18th, 2016 - Fiona
Kite flying is something I remember fondly from my own childhood. The hours I would spend on our campsite in Cornwall with my kite “touching the sky”. Here with my own children I have grappled with twisted strings and complicated designs down at the beach and more than often given up. However I wanted to give the old fashioned one string kite flying a go again and thought we could try to make them for activity hour. The forecast was for heavy wind and rain ahead that night; I was banking on the wind arriving ahead of the rain so that we had a chance to try it all out.
How to make a simple kite
Luck was on our side and we were bless with sun and a real gust building. I risked laying blankets outside with all the materials while the children set to work following my prototype.
It’s amazing how much fun some colourful ribbon, bamboo and bin liners can create, although I was grateful to the parents for lending a hand too as tying all the string is a little fiddly for little fingers.
Time to go kite flying
With decorative tails in place and string secured the children couldn’t wait to give their kites a go. There was a handy little slope just up from where we had been constructing them that was perfect to fly a kite.
There followed a mad half hour of running hither and dither with kites following on behind.
More and more completed their kites and added to the buzz of children dashing around flying their newly made creations.
Just as I was thinking how lucky we had been with the weather the sky clouded over and the rain drops began. It was already time up on activity hour but the children were feeling cheated of their extended kite flying time so as I had all the coloured wool out with me anyway we moved into the games room to make friendship bracelets and hair braids. The children were thrilled with their braids, though I fear I have now cheated the beach side stalls out of their business from this group!
By the time we finished the sun had returned and it was time for the evening train ride. There were some happy passengers complete with hair braids and having enjoyed the chance to make and fly a kite.
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