Friday Nature Study

After my Summertime reading and while I was planning for this year of learning, I was determined we would have a regular, hopefully weekly Field Trip to one of the many areas around our local community.
I also wanted to incorporate more Nature Study into our daily lives with closer observations of our own backyard with both the wild animals and our domestic ones as well as the flora that we have growing here.

One of the best ways I have found in having a little 'nature lesson' in our day is to read from A Bush Calender - by Amy Mack at our Table Time Reading that we do while having breakfast.
From a small daily reading and the list of blooming flowers and birds arriving and leaving each month, we then consult our other field guides for visual confirmation of what we have been reading.

I must admit that the children really have enjoyed this little bit of a 'nudge' and have been observing more than usual as well as asking more questions- which is very exciting in my opinion.

So on Friday we made another trip to the Wagga Botanical Gardens and Zoo  to observe and record in our Nature Journals.

We decided before we left that we would look at the Chinese Garden and we would all chose the same  animal to draw.

There were quite a few Japonica Camellia, Camellia, Azalea  and Reticulata   as well as some bamboo and others we didn't know.

I just love these beautiful variations of pink blossoms

Once we actually reached the center of the Chinese Garden we sat down to a light picnic lunch .
Consisting of the left over Dragon Bread from the celebration of St George the previous day

Those of us following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle ate before we came however.

After lunch it was on to the drawing side of things.
I loved how Rogan was helping Arwen with her drawing

She is recovering quite well from her broken arm, that post is still in drafts :), but still isn't using it very much.

Everyone chose a different flower or tree to draw and started on them right away.

Don't you love the same stance on these two children?

A very proud Arwen with her flower drawing

I turned around and found this perfect photo opportunity

Hey mummy look at me!!!

The children loved the little pond and they found a small frog hiding in a hole of that large rock.

Of course I'm sure we weren't supposed to pick any flowers but Moran always needs flowers in her hair and then I am usually gifted some too.

After the flower garden we went around to the Zoo section and decided to draw one of the goats that are in the enclosure

Did I mention that I was drawing too.
I wanted to be able to be an example of participating in the love and appreciation of nature.
Truly I am not gifted in this area at all and so find it difficult to do this.
But isn't that what we are asking of the children when we ask them to do something and learn from the experience?

Just lately I have been impressed with how long Arwen has been sticking with her drawing she has been absolutely loving her  Art for Kids lessons and is choosing to stick with a hard project much longer than I though she would.
She did this with drawing her goat as well.
All the other kids had finished and run off but she stayed with it till she was satisfied.

As we were leaving these geese were right in our path and I just adore geese.
I can't wait to add them to our poultry flock.

As we got back in the van (without going to the playground nearby, which was a  miracle in itself) Corbyn showed me his collections of feathers and flowers with great delight.

I think we really need to keep this up as it was a great way to spend a few hours and the time sped by.
I couldn't believe how long we had been out doing our Nature Study.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

A Fairy Day Party!!

Quite a few weeks ago I hosted a small 'Fairy Day' for Arwen and two of her special friends.

You may think this is not  a surprise if you know me well and may wonder how it came about :)

It was an off the cuff invitation to the other little girls as they were leaving after an afternoon of play, in tears at the thought of going, to come next week when the big girls were out and we could do our nails together like a real manicure etc.

So of course as I started to think about the day and what we might do I gradually had more and more ideas that the little girls could do together.

Needless to say my little boys who were still going to be home were not interested in the whole 'Fairy theme' unless it involved eating!!

However I prepared a few table time activities to do together-

1. cutting out fairies to put on sticks for puppets, 

2. letters for their names to colour in, I found about three for each girl from different books we had.

3. Glue and glitter to decorate a pre-cut fairy

One of the activities I wanted to do with the children was  a 'Scavenger Hunt.'
These are always a huge hit with our children no matter what the time or season.
I drew a up a small list for them to use and had it ready for latter in the day.

I planned on helping the girls make a small Spring Fairy and prepared one ready for the next day as well as get the supplies all together in a basket.
With the older girls (from both families) gone I knew that I would have to have everything prepared and with in easy reach.

In preparation for the day I also bought each little girl a tiara, because you can't be a Fairy Princess (and what other kind of Fairy can you be except a princess) with out one

I also put a few books on the main table to interest the girls and of course their was the basket of 'nail spa' requirements.

Here is the table all ready for the girls to start their 'Fairy Day'

I also got out a large proportion of our fairy books for the girls to look at through out the day

I think we have quite a collection of these :)

Naturally the first thing the girls have to do is dress up in 'Princess costumes' ready for the day! See those two potential pirates in there too.
I did get the little boys a pirate sword and hat to have to play with.
Although I think swords in the hands of my little guy is sometimes a little two much.

I also prepared a little 'fairy bag' for each girl.
In each little organza bag was a small jar of 'fairy dust' and a necklace.

The fairy dust was a huge hit and we ha fairy dust in our house for days afterwards :)

Love my Fairy Princess!!

So the Fairy Princesses and Pirates played a while on their own

Never too old to be a Fairy Princess!!

These two are so cute!!

Next on the list of items to do  was to make Fairy Houses!
Our children make these quite often and they are always new ways of making them.

Running wild!!

So after we made the fairy houses the little girls were very keen to have their manicure.

Where were the boys at this stage? I have no idea now!
Perhaps off making someone walk the plank or off looking for someone to sword fight. In fact now I remember having to stop the smaller one from getting to aggressive with this older brother.

For the manicure - first we soaked their little hands in some warm water with Epsom salts and their choice of essential oils. I think the Jasmine was the most popular choice.

Next they cleaned their nails from dirt and residue and used the emery boards to tidy up the nails themselves.

Choose their choice of nail polish  and painted them their selves.

Too cute

After all this  they went off and played while I put the finishing touches to the food that the children were anticipating.

We had Fairy Tea as our special drink and the recipe I used was from a lovely blogging friend Redbeet Mama, here is our version of her original:

Apple Blackcurrant Fairy Tea-

6 cups of just boiled water

6  chamomile tea bags

Honey

6 cups of Apple-Blackcurrant  juice 

Add the teabags and honey to the just boiled water

Cover and let steep overnight but can be as little as 2 hours

In the morning we added the  apple-blackcurrant juice

Stir, serve and enjoy

I did want to get little white tea cups and saucers for each girl and paint flowers on them but could not find any that were cheap enough. So by chance I saw these what we now call 'minion' cups and painted each child's name on it.
These are a real favourite in our house now and are used daily.

Naturally when you are talking 'fairy tea party' we have to have these little 'fairy tea cups.
These have been a part of our lives forever. We first made them for our first Tasha Tudor Dolls Fair, way before my blogging days even.

Fairy Bread was also a must have to eat as well.

In Fancy Nancy tradition little umbrellas DO make everything taste better

Not much left after the 'Fairy Princess's and Pirates have dinned really

The craft time was really fun for the children and again the clean up of glitter took days to get rid of.

I had also planned to have Sourdough Chocolate Chip Chocolate Fairy Buns as part of the first round of food.

Sadly these had not risen enough by the time we were ready so we had them after our scavenger hunt.

It was mid afternoon by this stage and a good time to do the Scavenger hunt.
We divided into teams and went off with our lists to gather the items.

Everyone was very enthusiastic

Mums had to join in too.

We checked off the list for everyone and  then went inside  for those delicious buns........

Can I just say these went very fast again.
Would you like the recipe?

Sourdough Chocolate Chocolate Chip Buns

250g sourdough starter

1 tsp dried yeast

100g sugar

250mls milk

100g softened butter

600g flour

200g dark chocolate drops

100mls water

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

2 tbs of cocoa

2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together, except for the salt. Autolyse period 20-45 minutes. Add the salt and mix again, then turn out on to a lightly floured bench to knead until you get a lovely smooth ball of dough. Pop the dough back into the bowl, plastic bag over the top and leave to prove.  A couple of proves and folds over the next few hours. Then out onto lightly floured surface again and divide into 16 or so portions. Roll into balls, or simply divide to get a more square shape. Pop them on a lined baking tray, cover and leave for another prove. The dough is ready to be baked, when you press it in and it lightly springs back.

Then bake at 210C for approximately 15-25 minutes, (until golden.)

After this it was pretty much time for our visiting Fairy Princesses to go home and own little ones were  extremely tied and I am pretty sure they had an early night.

Writing this up I am remembering how much joy I have giving little ones special opportunities to build memories that later in life they can look back on and see these times as part and parcel of what makes it special to be in our family circle!!

Blessings to you and your homes,