How active are your children? Did you know that only 10% of under-five year olds are meeting NHS guidelines for daily activity?
The NHS recommend that children are active for at least three hours per day to encourage physical and mental health and wellbeing, which is why we’ve put together our top suggestions to help get your children up and active each and every day, even in winter.
Continue reading “How to make activity a part of daily life”
School may seem a long way away but you can keep those mathematical skills ticking over and even developing, all while having fun.
Count – forwards, backwards, every which way. Start from different numbers and don’t be tempted to go on from 20 all the way to 100 if you don’t need to. At an early age this means saying a sequence of numbers to 5 or 10 but back that up with counting out concrete objects 1…2…3 and the understanding that ‘3’ relates to the total number of objects as well as what you say when you put the third object down. Bring this in naturally, for example you’re pouring drinks for your charges and their friends – ask them how many they need, get them to count out the glasses, count as you’re pouring the drinks. Count the number of petals on a simple flower or try to count the number of petals on a daisy – are they all the same? Get children used to the idea of estimating by guessing a number before you count the petals. Use mathematical language like the first swing and the second swing. Make collections and count them out, and use the shells or stones or sticks you’ve collected to sort them later.
LARRY’S BEAK
By Louise Burgess
Poor Larry the seagull, he’d had a bad week.
It all began on Monday when he couldn’t find his beak.
‘Ark!’ shouted Larry through the hole in his face,
his lovely, pointy, yellow bill was gone without a trace.
‘My looks!’ he cried ‘My handsome grin! this is really rotten,
without a beak my face looks like a little puckered bottom!
‘What will people think?’ He thought. ‘What will the neighbours say?
They’ll point and laugh and call me names’ He dribbled in dismay.
‘I can’t and won’t be seen like this!’ Larry wiped his eyes,
‘No fear, i’ll head down to the pier in search for a disguise’
So Larry sailed on the breeze to the pier, for his first stop
was ‘Mr Snoop’s Emporium’ (A novelty joke shop).
Now Mr Snoop’s was perfect if you liked to play a trick,
there was everything from plastic poo to puddles of fake sick!
Mr Snoop took one look and produced, in a flash
a pair of thick rimmed glasses with a nose and moustache
Larry was ecstatic ‘This look is quite becoming,
I’ll strut my stuff along the pier and folk will see I’m stunning!’
Alas, the specs kept slipping down with every step he took,
they ended up around his neck (not the coolest look).
‘Oh bother!’ bellowed Larry then he threw them off the pier,
he sulked beneath the moonlight and shed a single tear.
On Tuesday Larry flew about unsure where to go
but as he settled on a bench a kind voice said; ‘Hello’.
The nice old lady’s name was Pearl and to Larry’s great relief,
she took pity on his problem and gave him her false teeth.
‘You can borrow them today’ she said ‘I’ll get along just fine –
I don’t need my gnashers to lick a 99!’.
With that she plunged them in his face – which took him by surprise!
(They felt a little slimy and rather big in size).
‘Shank shu’ He said politely, spluttering a bit.
He didn’t like to tell her that they didn’t really fit.
Off went Larry on his way with a wild toothy grin.
Then, when Pearl was out of sight, he popped them in the bin.
Larry was disheartened. He wandered all night long.
Instead of flying home to roost, he paced along the prom.
On Wednesday Larry tried again, To the pier he promptly flew
and at the stall for face paints, slyly jumped the queue.
Now ‘Snazzy Jazz’ was clever, she was talented and arty
but her repertoire was suited to a children’s birthday party.
Larry wasn’t interested in hearts upon his cheek,
a wicked witch or tiger face, he just wanted a beak!
Larry almost wept with joy, he had a beak once more,
and for a while he was happy- until the rain began to pour.
Huddled in a shelter Larry caught his own reflection,
the smudge of yellow down his front was less than beak perfection.
The sun came up on Thursday and Larry hadn’t slept.
He missed his beak so very much he’d sat all night and wept.
He had become so desperate, shape and size no longer mattered.
He marched straight in to ‘Chippy’s’ shouting ‘Sausage! Jumbo! Battered!’.
Now Larry wasn’t famous for his wild fashion sense
but a sausage for a beak? this look was quite intense.
It worked for a while and no one seemed surprised
when a sausage eating seagull flew before their eyes.
Alas, there lay the problem, for he tried with all his might,
yet when Larry felt quite peckish he just had to take a bite.
So the sausage did shrink as the day grew long.
It made a tasty snack but as a beak it was wrong.
Poor Larry spent another night below the pier just bobbing,
in the shadows on the waves. His eyes grew sore from sobbing
Red eyes and missing beak Larry was a mess.
It was early Friday morning and he didn’t look his best.
Larry waddled aimlessly, he felt at such a loss
until he saw the neon sign for ‘Big Jim’s Candy floss’.
‘Aha!’ Cried Larry loudly. ‘Things are better than I feared.
If I can’t have a beak then I’ll have a candy beard!’
Big Jim was quite the stylist. His candy floss quite stiff.
Soon Larry had a goatee beard with sideburns and a quiff!
Larry perched upon the pier all puffed with pride and glee,
the wind blew through his candy hair as he gazed out to sea.
He headed for the bandstand and rocked and rolled all night
but he didn’t look so fetching in the early morning light.
“Matted feathers, sticky head, What’s become of me?
I’ve hardly slept a wink all week Or been home for tea.’
‘I’ve had enough, my beak is gone, I’ll just have to face it.
I’ve tried so many different things but nothing can replace it.’
His search had been a failure and he was unimpressed.
Larry sulked on Saturday now feeling quite depressed.
By Sunday he had given up so flew back home to rest
AND THERE IT WAS, HIS SHINY BEAK GLISTENING IN HIS NEST!
It’s springtime, it’s a tiny bit warmer but it’s still pretty darn wet! What better way to make the most of this than to go puddle jumping?
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappopriate clothing” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Many parents and nannies believe that every day, rain or shine, children can get out and about. With a good set of waterproofs, plenty of layers and some sturdy welly boots everyone can get out to play. If you do get wet then when you get home dry off, change clothes and warm up with a hot drink. Hot chocolate tastes even better when it’s going into a chilly tummy.
Jumping in puddles is just a natural childhood instinct. It’s also a way for children to see that they can have a big effect on the world around them. They can spend ages jumping in and out of puddles, watching the water fly everywhere and then return to its tranquil state or examining reflections or making water muddy and watching it settle again. This is the start of science, in a playful way.
Puddle jumping a universal game. There’s a little spark of childish glee in all of us when we see a puddle and we get to jump in it. Don’t hold back! Children thrive on experiencing fun alongside adults and are encouraged by adults participating.
“Childhood is a state of mind which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle rather than an opportunity” – Unknown
So what will it be? Obstacle? Or opportunity?
Last one to get their welly boots on is a banana!
