A Walk in the Woods

A couple of days ago, the sun was out (rare) so I decided to take the kiddos for a walk in some lovely woods near me.  The land which houses my allotment is directly next door to these woods and I am reliably informed by one of my allotment holder friends that the woods used to be an arboretum for a large manor house that used to stand nearby. There is a huge variety of trees in the small area of woodland which is fascinating and provides a fantastic learning environment for little ones to explore.
Here are a few snaps of our visit, even in the winter the place is beautiful, there are so many interesting textures, patterns and colours to stimulate the senses.

Puddles offer endless enjoyment to toddlers

Textures

Reflections

Beautiful vistas

The sun through the trees

I am much more relaxed when walking in the woods with Boris because I know he isn't likely to knock his teeth out if he falls, unlike if we are walking on the pavement.

Fascinating twisted trunk

Popping bubbles on the surface of a puddle

Feet photos

Lots of picking up of sticks and leaves

The all important selfie!

I really hope that as my boys grow up, visiting the woods becomes a part of our weekly routine, I think there is so much to learn from the forest and it makes me feel calm and grounded.  I hope they will find the same peace and tranquillity from the trees that I do.  I am so thankful that we have spaces like this near our home to enjoy. 

Do you have natural spaces near where you live?  Do you have children who like to explore the forest?

Fun things to do with toddlers - Paint in a bag

Like most great ideas, I got this fun activity off Pinterest.  Such a quick and simple way for a toddler to play with paint without all the mess! What could be better?

Begin by putting a few blobs of poster paint into a zip lock bag, then tape the bag to the table, floor, whatever. I taped it to the plastic mat that we put under Boris' high chair at dinner time.

The let them explore the paint with their fingers, they will probably wonder why the paint isn't going onto their fingers, Boris kept checking his!

Boris soon started getting quite excited, smearing the paint with his feet the lying on it and rolling around like a loon!  Love it!

Love the end result of the colours all mixing together.  Would be a fun activity to do with older children to help teach colour mixing.

I am not sure if I just have a toddler with a very short attention span or if this activity really is only interesting for ten minutes?  However it was good fun, super easy to set up and clean away, ideal for the mess-phobic out there.  I do have a bit of guilt in the fact that I am throwing away a plastic bag that will end up on landfill but in my case I couldn't use the bag again because Boris had started scratching at the plastic towards the end of the activity, damaging it so that it could easily have ruptured, potentially resulting in paint everywhere. I am definitely going to do this activity again with just black and white paint.  Could also add glitter to jazz it up a bit.

Halloumi, hummus and sundried tomato pesto sandwich

In an attempt to make our lunches a bit more exciting, and more specifically our sandwiches; which had become a sad combination of processed ham and limp lettuce leaves, I took in Pinterest and discovered this delectable ensemble. 

Simple toast two slices of brown bread, place some slices of halloumi on one piece and grill, then layer with sundried tomato pesto, sliced tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a good tablespoon of hummus (preferably home made) and voila, a delicious lunchtime treat which is both healthy and tantalizing to the taste buds. Plus it turns out my toddler loves halloumi!  As per usual I troed to use all organic ingredients in this sarnie, coldn't source any organic halloumi though.