We've withdrawn Harlan from nursery. I was never entirely comfortable with putting him in but we decided to try it as he may have loved it. But I think changing from childminder to nursery, plus R being back at work, has just been too much change for my little man. As a result, he's been waking upset at night (and spending the rest of the night asleep across me!) and been clingy and whining. He's home with me now, and will be doing one day a week with his old childminder. Hoping this will help him to feel more secure again and I'll get my happy boy back.

On a walk the other day, Harlan spotted a concrete bollard which had been partially knocked over. I asked him what he thought had done it and he replied it was a space ship and went on to describe to me a five-eyed, five-legged, ten-armed blue alien. It led to a few discussions about space and the planets so today I used a piece of cardboard and cut out a rocket ship. He painted it, added some shapes for buttons and windows and tissue paper for flames. I'm planning a space themed wall, we can make planets, the sun and moon and stars. Really looking forward to it developing over the next few weeks. Here is the rocket, and I'll add more pictures as he creates his galaxy.

Inspiration

It seems that we, and many of our friends, are having trouble finding our rhythm again after Christmas. For instance, Harlan and I have packed away all our Christmas crafts, but it is a little early to start Spring ones yet. As a result, I've been racking my brains and scouring books for ideas and thought I would collate them into a blog post in case anyone else needs some inspiration too!

Bath salts
In a book called "501 TV free activities for kids" I found a recipe for making fizzing bath salts. I figure we could make them in an afternoon then use them at bathtime, plus they would make wonderful gifts in little pots for friends and family.

You need:

Glass jar with a lid
3/4 cup bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp cornflour
1/2 cup cream of tartar

Stir the ingredients together until smooth. Add a few drops of essential oils, perhaps lavender for a calming bath or something more invigorating like grapefruit. To use, just drop a handful into a warm bath and watch it fizz.

Weather chart

 This is something we will be doing next week, hopefully charting the improvements in the weather! Divide a large piece of card or sugar paper into 31 boxes and number them. An older child can then draw on a sun, cloud, rain drops etc onto each day. Harlan is not a keen illustrator so I plan to make small cardboard shapes to represent the different weather patterns for Harlan to blu-tack onto our weather chart.

Pond/stream dipping

Ok, ok, I know the weather isn't great at the moment, but either save this until later in the year (when you could also go paddling in a shallow stream) or just put coats on and embrace the rain! If you buy a fishing net, try to get one with the finest mesh you can, as bigger holes let small creatures escape but also can damage delicate newts and tadpoles. However, an old pair of tights and a wire coathanger are just as effective if not better. A kitchen sieve works too, if you are able to get very close to the water, perhaps while paddling. An ice cream tub, tupperware container or large glass jar will be perfect for observing your catches, just remember to add a little pond/stream water and always pour the animals back carefully when you have finished looking at them. If you are lucky enough to catch a newt or a frog, ensure your hands are wet before touching it as you can actually damage their skin if your hands are dry. Older children can use a book to discover the names of what they have caught if they are not already familiar with them.

Eggshell pictures

Next time you have eggs for breakfast, save the shells. Rinse them out and use food dye to colour them, before crushing them. If you put them inside a sandwich bag you (or your children) can bash them with a rolling pin until they are the size you want. When I was a child I used them to decorate picture frames, boxes and make pictures. Sand is another good one for making textured pictures - just put PVA wherever you want the sand to stick and sprinkle it on like you would with glitter.

Cress heads

I'm doing these with the children at our local H.E. group next week, as I have fond memories from my own childhood of growing green hair on funny faces. You can either save an eggshell or use a small yoghurt pot for your "head". Decorate this with googly eyes, a funny nose and maybe a ribbon for a bow tie! Put damp cotton wool or kitchen roll into the container and sprinkle on your cress seeds. You should see your cress growing within a week, so it's not too long to wait. Once the cress has grown you can trim it and use it in a sandwich or on a salad.

Pasta shapes

Another craft I did when I was young was crafting with dried pasta. There are different shapes available, and it is a cheap material - I bought some value penne for 24p a few weeks ago! It sticks fine with simple PVA and can be painted too. It can also be threaded onto string or shoelaces to make necklaces or decorations.

And finally, don't forget that if you run out of PVA, just mix flour and water to make a rather effective glue!

New year, new projects

Happy New Year! We had a wonderful Christmas, split between Stoke and Gloucester, and Harlan was thoroughly spoiled by all the family, as usual. Despite being ill with suspected IBS on Christmas Day, he coped very well with the whole caboodle and the excitement and lack of sleep only caught up with him on New Years Eve, when he had a huge meltdown but has been fine since. Obviously needed to get it out of his system.

He is still Mario obsessed, but to encourage imaginative play we got him Mario soft toys. I was excited about two of his presents in particular; a bug vacuum, which harmlessly catches insects so you can observe them, and a wormery. The vacuum will get a lot of use this summer when the bugs flock to eat our homegrown veg! I've found an idea in a book to make a little house to attract bugs too, so he can make that with me and I'll help him identify any insects we find.

Today I filled his wormery with layers of soil and sand, and turned over the soil in the garden to catch some worms. Harlan took great delight in carefully putting worms of all shapes and sizes into the wormery and adding some fallen leaves. We discussed how they prefer dark to bright light and gently led him through the reasoning of this being because they live underground. He knows they will eat the rotting leaves and I explained how they pull them down under the ground, which makes the soil good for flowers to grow in. He is quite pleased that worms will help make "beautiful flowers" for him. We have a well illustrated encyclopedia of animals so I will see if there is a page on worms to look through with him, and find a few bits online too.

The rest of our day today has been taken up with a rather cold walk to the village to go to the library. We played I-spy on the way, and I discovered that he is good at working out the word when given the first letter, but struggles to identify the first letter/sound of an unfamiliar word. A few more games of I-spy should help with that! We spent about an hour at the library, reading and doing floor puzzles. We found two (!!!) Winnie the Witch books that we haven't read before, and another book by the same author (Korky Paul). We've also borrowed a fourth book, one from the "Mr Bear" series. We already have "Mr Bear's New Baby" and I was attracted to this one as the cover shows Small Bear being carried in a sling on Mr Bear's back.