Autumn in Derbyshire // The National Trust Museum of Childhood //

It was always a childhood daydream of mine to open a hands-on children's history museum... I think museums have the ability to kill a child's interest in the past, but also the capability to light a spark that will create a lifelong love. So it was with me, and so I am eager to pass on that fascination with history to our little people.

The National Trust Museum of Childhood did not disappoint.

From the moment we stepped through the door, the girls were enthralled... an old market cart laden with toys from the past, artefacts to touch and feel and play with... even Jonas watched enthralled by his sister's attempts at the ball and cup game, Dave's yoyo-ing and Kaya's skipping... we could have stayed in that very first room for an hour exploring all the toys, the wigwam tent and the interactive information creatively displayed around the walls... but the rest of the museum beckoned!

And so we entered the "Work" zone, and the children were given a rather eye-opening insight into what childhood looked like in the past...

Ava and Kaya climbed a chimney... clambering into one fireplace, up a pitch black, narrow tunnel before exiting out through another fireplace. Heidi was too afraid to go in.

At four years old, Ava is around the size of the average 6-year-old chimney sweep. It was a wake-up call for all of us, and certainly caused the children to be a little thankful for their protected and comparatively idyllic childhood.

But chimney-sweeps were not the only occupation children found themselves in in Victorian Britain...

Check out my little washerwomen...

The girls scrubbed, and washed, and soaped and ironed and loved every minute of their "domestic service" experience... I'm not so sure they would have loved it after a 14 hour day though!

It was helpful as well that the Museum raised awareness that child labour is still an issue today, and so we were able to talk about the fact that around the world there are still children who are working every day, who don't get to play and run free as our children do. The novelty of "working" was something thrilling for our girls, but I am all too aware that the reality is somewhat different. The Museum tackled these issues in a very simple, helpful and interactive way. We were really impressed.

We wandered on around the museum, but the room that really grabbed the girls attention was the school room...

They loved the details... the strict instructions on the blackboard, the dunce hat, the lift-top desks and the slates. The little ladies wrote away to their hearts' content, while Kaya sat in the corner with her dunce hat on!

The whole museum was a hit... the dressing up box, the story room, alleyways to explore and exhibits everywhere... even on the ceilings! The whole experience culminated in a play area full of old toys to play with, and we spent a good 20 minutes just allowing the children to play with the toys of time gone by - the huge Noah's ark and puppet show were the favourites!

It was just such a fantastic day - all of us enjoyed it... the adults, the tween, the child and the toddler all said it was a highlight of our trip, and even Jonas happily slept around most of it!

So if you're ever in the Derbyshire region, go check out The National Trust Museum of Childhood! It's definitely worth a visit!

This post is not a review... it is all my own thoughts and opinions, I have received no compensation or incentive for writing it.

To Market...

Sticky, hot children needed a little help on the entertainment front yesterday afternoon. After their quiet times (during which Heidi fell asleep as she played... Who can blame her in this weather?!) they were niggly and fidgety and just winding each other up. They're usually pretty good at letting their imaginations run wild and inventing all sorts of games, but yesterday, well in that heat, a little help was needed from Mama...

The two of them spent last week driving their wagon between their cabin and "the market" and so I thought a little market stall, right in the shady spot of the garden, would land a treat.

It did.

There was fresh fruit and veg, ice cold lemonade and even warm milk straight from the cow (which doubles up as the horse they use to pull their wagon to get to market!!)

Everything we bought was weighed up on the scales and priced up. Two tomatoes cost £1, a glass of lemonade was £11... I guess Ava's already got the business concept of pricing up when there's high demand!

The girls travelled too and fro on that wagon of theirs, taking trip after trip to "market", taking it in turns to serve and be served. And it was so much fun just to enter into the imagination of it all. So often, I let them get on with it... I'm a big believer in them learning to play without adult intervention or stimulation, and they're pretty good at it, but now and again... Well, now and again its just nice to play the games I loved as a child with them...

Even if my lemonade does cost me £11!!!

Learning Love: Preschool Number Games

Ava and I have an hour a day of "us" time... She is at Nursery all morning, comes home, has lunch, has an hour of "down time" in her room, and then comes down for the second hour of Heidi's nap for "us" time. In September my big girl will be off to school, and one-on-one time will be harder to come by, so I'm treasuring these last few months, and these past couple of weeks we've had a lot of fun.

In the early stages of this pregnancy, 2-3pm was the killer time for me. Ava would come down and snuggle up with me on the sofa and we would read stories... but after a few pages, I would realise my eyes were closed, and what I was "reading" was my random thoughts as I slipped into slumber. I reckon I caught myself doing this a couple of times a week. I realised reading together was not an option for this particular hour of the day!

Things are somewhat different now. I'm into the third trimester, but still feeling pretty good, and so our hour together has become an opportunity to do some fun activity together. Often it will be a little game, craft or a puzzle, and is usually just a good time to chat and hear all about her little world, but sometimes its fun to do some kind of learning activity together. Before I had children, I was a primary teacher... I loved teaching, I have no regrets about giving up to be at home with my children, but I do still take great joy (sad as I am) in preparing little activities for us to do together. And I thought perhaps it would be fun to share them here :-)

So my plan is, once a week, to share some fun, pre-school activities you can do at home with materials you'll have lying around the house...

This week, we had some number fun...

You need:
Paper 
Pen
Scissors
Muffin tin
raisins/buttons/counters of some description! 

Skills developed
1) Counting
2) Recognising Numerals
3) One to One Correspondence
4) Ordering numbers 1-12
5) Writing Numerals
6) Simple Addition 

Game One: Number recognition
Fill each case of your muffin tin with a number label 1-12, ask the child to use the "counters" to put the correct number into each case. This is great practice for them in recognising written number and associating the written number with the amount.

Game Two: Dice Write
Recognising the numbers on a dice is a skill that as an adult comes naturally to us... we look at those six dots and don't have to count them... we recognise them as the number six. Children have to learn dice recognition too! Lay your counters out in the dice formation, and ask the child to write the correct digit underneath. 

Game Three: Ordering Numbers...
Using the number cards from earlier, you can muddle them up and ask your child to order them correctly. From there, you can play games with recognising odd and even numbers, counting backwards, recognising missing numbers and other little activities.

Game Four: Basic Addition...
Lay out some basic sums with the number cards (e.g. 2 + 1 =). Ask the child to lay the correct number of "counters" under each digit, then they can add their "counters" together to work out the answer.

We had great fun on our number afternoon... and it was dead easy, took no organisation and could just be chucked in the recycling at the end... so no need to find storage for scrappy bits of paper and a few sunflower seeds!

What number games do you like to play with your preschoolers? Any other top tips for number fun with three year olds? Would love some fresh ideas in the comments below!

Five things to do with Conkers: Savouring the Season

When I was a little girl, our neighbours had a huge conker tree that stood over our garden. When autumn came, we would scurry out into the garden and collect conkers by the bagful. They would sit in our garage looking pretty, but probably feeling pretty useless as the odd one was selected for conker fighting purposes.

So when Ava and Dave returned home from a local football match last week with a bag full to the brim with beautiful shiny conkers, I determined that those conkers were going to be used for all they were worth.

And so, for the past couple of weeks, we have been getting creative with our conkers...

1: Make a Conker Sensory Station

Just a big old bucket of conkers, some spoons, whisks, egg boxes, plastic saucepans... You name it, and the kids will be whipping up a conker storm. Sensory stations are a lovely opportunity for children to play with the shape, texture and weight of conkers and have a lot of fun at the same time (do not leave toddlers unaccompanied with conkers... They may attempt to eat them!)

2. Write Conker Letters
In our house, everything is all about letters at the moment. Ava is writing at every opportunity - we are spotting letters, hunting down letters and forming letters in lots of different ways. Conkers and street chalk are just another medium for a bit of spontaneous letter-writing!

3. Create Autumn Decorations
Conkers HAVE to be part and parcel of your autumn decorations, don't they?! Free and versatile... What more could a girl ask for (yes, autumn has arrived in our house - more on that next week!)

4. Make Conker Snakes...
This is a really cute idea that was added to the linky by RedTedArt  last week. Please pop over to Maggie's blog to find out how to make them... Such a cute idea which we are hoping to try early next week!

       

5. Do some Conker Maths...

Like giant, natural conkers - perfect for counting, making patterns, ordering, weighing and measuring. So much potential here for a full on maths lesson for toddlers! These girlies had fun counting them and making patterns... But there is so much more you could do with slightly older children!

So there you have it! Five ideas for all those conkers you have coming out of your ears!

Time for some conker fun!

Savouring the Season is all about celebrating the season we find ourselves in...whether it be recipes, crafts, outdoor adventures or reflections on life, link up and share some comment love! And don't forget to grab a badge!

Anything autumnal goes!

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My Little Letter Queen...

Lately, my big girl's had a real interest in letters... she asks about letters all the time, spots "A for Ava" everywhere, and is keen to hunt down letters while we're out and about. Its not something I'm actively pushing, she's only two-and-a-half and will have plenty of time for letters next year, but I'm happy to encourage any natural interest she has in learning.

But her favourite letter activity took me by surprise! Dave and I had left the Banagrams game out after playing the other night after the girls were in bed (we're seriously hard core in our house!) and I came downstairs in the morning to find this...

She proceeded to tell me all the letters she'd found, and was delighted when I gave her a load of classy IKEA plastic bowls to sort them into!

There was lots of fun to be had...

So here we go... Ava's own invention of Banagram letters... here's some of the things she's had fun doing with them (effectively you could do this with scrabble letters too!) I've found this little game to be fabulous for a number of early reading/spelling activities so thought we'd share our ideas... they may come in useful to someone, somewhere!

1. Letter Recognition: Find as many as you can of a letter Mama says and make a big ol' letter chain... Ava's favourite letter is, of course, the letter A... and she's rather fortunate that there are a serious number of As to be found!

2. Letter Sorting: Sort letters and then name them... this has been Ava's favourite game, and I don't think its an exaggeration to say that she has played this game independently at least twice a day for the last three days! Each day, she's been adding another letter to her repertoire! My only problem is, I'm running out of plastic bowls!

3. Play with words: Ava can only write her name at the moment, so we're at the early stages with this one... but there is so much potential here for practicing spellings for spellings tests, sounding out words, playing with anagrams... all sorts!

My only regret is that I didn't have Ava to help me out with learning inspiration when I was still in the classroom! Clearly we have a teacher in the making!!

Watch out everyone!