Holly's Childcare

What a week!
Last week we celebrated all things Space related 🚀🌌

From conker comets in the woods, to glittery space playdough....star biscuits to puzzles and much much more!
I look back on all of the photos I took and feel so lucky to do the job I do 😊

Kirstyn Saunders

I just love how Autumn inspired us to do so many wholesome things with our days.

We all used our turn taking and big muscles to help press our very own apple juice!
I just wish you could have seen how excited the children were and how many times we filled up our little cups until it was all gone!

And then, inspired by one of the children bringing in a fantastic shadow book, we set to making our own shadow puppets!

Just wonderful ❤️

Kirstyn Saunders

Yesterday was Harvest time at Musical Mayhem and just like last year we took the children to the supermarket to choose our donations first.

We talked about giving to those less fortunate than ourselves at this time of year and everyone was excited to share our items.

Music was fantastic with lots of fun had all round, and the biscuit and drink is always a hit at the end too!

And then it was home for naps and some nostalgic leaf rubbings in our sketchbooks 🌿 🍂

Beautiful day all round

Kim 'Hughes' Joslyn
Kirstyn Saunders

Our Little Acorn book got us wondering about whether we could plant our own oak trees 🤔

We read online that you need to choose the acorns that sink rather than float.

And then we set to work planting some in some compost.

We've also placed some inside a food bag to see whether they might reveal their growing secrets like our beans do normally so watch this space! 🌱

Kim 'Hughes' Joslyn

Autumn here definitely means lots of foraging and home baking 🍞

With the colds coming in fast we made our annual batch of rosehip syrup but this time with a twist!
We've added hawthorn berries which are supposed to be brilliant for the heart and cardiovascular system. ❤️

And just look at the size of this butternut squash that our wonderful friends grew Kirstyn Saunders 🌱
We made this beautiful butternut squash soup, hedgehog bread and even our own butter to go with.

Now that was a very wholesome day 🥰

Just look at the beautiful clay hedgehogs the children created today 🥰 🦔

We researched the shape of a hedgehog in books we had at home first and used these as a reference.

We foraged sticks to use as the prickles.

We chose beautiful beads for the eyes.

And then we set to work!

❤️

Kirstyn Saunders

Last week our focus was Bees again 🐝🍯

We went to the garden centre in search of bug hotels to get inspiration for and they had so many on offer.
It would have been rude not to stop for a babyccino while we were there too 😂

We collected lavender and made our own lavender pouches, speaking about how the scent helps calm us so we agreed to pop one near our beds to help us sleep 😴

We made our very own beeswax wraps for our sandwiches to help reduce single use bags and foil.

And then look at these super simple bug hotels we made and hid around the garden!

What a beautifully buzzy week! ❤️

Kirstyn Saunders
Kim 'Hughes' Joslyn

The rain certainly didn't stop us from having fun this week.

We still managed to get out to forage for conkers with our friends.

We've started a new idea of sketch books which we will fill up with lots of beautiful artwork over the months for the children to enjoy looking back on.

We've made hedgehog bread and honey cake, built towers and obstacle courses plus much much more ❤️

Kim 'Hughes' Joslyn

Apologies for the radio silence, we have been ticking along as normal but now feel that we are getting into the quieter rhythm once more now the bigger kids have gone back to school!

We've been adding to our forest school style equipment and this slackline was recommended to me by my children and it didn't disappoint!
The little ones used their whole bodies to move in so many different ways, including going upside down!

We try and get out at least once a week to do this with our other childminder friends.

We made beautiful pinecone bees under the shade of the trees and just immersed ourselves in nature ❤️

Kirstyn Saunders
Kim 'Hughes' Joslyn

And just look at what we have earned! 🤩

The Young Ones Childminding

The temperamental weather didn't stop us from having lots of fun last week.
From light boxes and crafts to forest school and pirate treasure we had a blast! ❤️

Half term was magical ✨

I work so hard to encourage my children to love the mindees the same way I do and I could not be more proud.
They are always so excited to join in with everything we do and the fun they bring is beautiful.

From playdough making, nail painting, forest swinging, hot chocolate drinking, fairy door making and rhubarb picking we had such a wonderful time ❤️