Mini beast hunting

  There's nothing my children love doing more than simply exploring.  One of our favourite local haunts is Manor Barn in Bexhill-on-Sea, mainly as its about a 10 minute walk from home but it has lots to see from a little pond, gardens and ruins as well as the barn itself. We often plan this sort of trip in advance so we are able to get properly kitted out with a special toy, magnifying glass, binoculars and wellies.

 

 

We the simply go out and spend ages exploring the grounds looking for interesting things like bugs or funny looking plants, of course to children simple things like an acorn or daisy are interesting but we also try to find things you don't see as often or seasonal plants like poppies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are obviously loads of places to explore from your own back garden (or a friend/relatives), local park, the beach (we found some lovely fossils at our local beach since all this windy weather hit), a local wooded area or even just the walk to school. It goes almost without saying that you can go as in depth an adventurous as you wish with this activity. My eldest simply like to look for one thing for example, so we might go for a quick walk around the block looking for ants or spiders webs. The possibilites are endless and works really well when you go on holiday as there is often a difference in eco-system so many new discoveries can be made.

Have fun exploring!

 

 

 

*for details on the location we visited (Manor Barn) please visit their website, http://www.manorbarnbexhill.co.uk/

 

Camera Safari

  This activity has to be one of my eldest daughter's favourite past times, firstly because she loves to copy me and I ALWAYS have a camera handy, but also because she really loves learning and looking about nature (she even wants to be a gardener when she grows up). This was a recent trip out after a long and slightly uneventful, even possibly a little boring, day indoors. Put simply we were getting cabin fever which is never good. So out came the coats and shoes along with a digital camera and off we all went looking for adventure. The aim of our little excursion was to find the 'Secret Park/play area' inside the local wooded area but along the way the children were asked to photograph any and all interesting things along the way.

  Of course kids find the simplest things of most interesting so its a fairly easy task, things like spiders webs, leaves, feathers and different flowers all made photo history but we did also come across more unusual/seasonal things like mushrooms and blackberries. The bonus for the children was that we did finally find the 'Secret Park' so everybody got to have a good evening of learning, fun and adventure, and everybody was fully worn out and ready for bed when we got home.

Best nights sleep we've all had in ages ;)

A selection of the images taken on our wooden adventure

BIG summer's day project

Here's something fun which actually took a lot longer than intended but was still massively entertaining and engaging for the kids. The idea behind it was that I wanted to create a nice piece of unique artwork to brighten up the bathroom. Here's what we ended up with....

The first thing on our to do list was to design a lovely canvas 'collecting' bag so we could collect ideas. This was a nice little job for a sunny summer evening in the garden. One thing I always make sure is that I have plenty of art and craft materials as well as a large variety of items to use, therefore I could easily grab a plain canvas draw string bag and fabric crayons for this perticular job.
Once my youngest was in bed me and my eldest daughter set to work.
 As I wanted a picture to hang in the bathroom we decided on a seaside theme for our bag, it very quickly turned into a picture of sea creatures having a party (hence them all wearing party hats).

Next day we sat down over breakfast and talked about wear we could go and what we could do to get ideas for our picture, the unanimous vote was to go to the beach for obvious reasons. We spent most of the day there in the end as the tide was out. We are lucky where we live that our seafront/beach has lots of thing to look at and talk about including crabs, starfish, muscles, cockles, shells and seaweed to name but a few. Most of the morning was spent just paddling and enjoying the cooler part of the day but after the obligatory fish and chip lunch we headed back to the beach for a spot of beach combing. We all collected interesting items to go on our picture, mainly shells and seaweed as the beach had recently been cleaned, still lots of things to discover though amongst the rock pools.




















In the evening we got to work on our special picture. Again we took a trip out into the garden only this time with an old clip frame and some blue and white paints. I took the opportunity to show my 4 year old all about shades of colour and how to mix them as she painted blue water/sea all over the clip frame backing. Once dry we found some tiling grout and preceded to create 'the sea bed' by using the grout as a glue to stick our collected items.
 

 

 

All that remained then was to add some fishes and other sea creatures. We had a browse online for some colouring sheets/downloads and set to work with crayons and felt tips. This was the first time my 1 year old had show interest in using pens so that's definitely a first to remember and she really loved it once she realised she as the one controlling the marks on the paper.

All in all we are very pleased with how it all turned out and the amount of learning that each child got from the experience. My youngest started her mark making and use of pen control and fine motor skills as well as finding out about new textures, sights and smells down at the beach. My eldest got a chance to find out more about the sea life that is so close to our own door step, learnt some new techniques for creating beautiful pieces of art and also how to see a project through from planning to completion. As for me I get a stunning piece of wall decor that you certainly can't buy in the shops.

 

Edible Finger Paints

Both my girls have been poorly lately and if I am honest I haven't been feeling to great myself, however boredom has well and truly hit us all being stuck at home, especially with this mini heat wave that is across the UK at the moment. This led me to look for a fun stay at home activity that could be done out in the garden, obviously it had to be something interesting for both girls and myself and take up a good few hours of our time. The answer came from my eldest in the form of "painting please", but as we were running very low on paint supplies we had to find an alternative. After a brief Internet search we found a recipe for edible paints (not to be taken literally but they are safe for little ones if any of the paint does get near a mouth).
My 4 year old was totally fascinated by the process of mixing your own paints so that was a definite bonus. All you have to do is mix 50 % plain flour, 50% water til you get a smooth consistency, this is your paint base and to this you can add your colours. Separate the mixture into separate bowls (we used a paint pallet) then add various food colourings to get a full range of paint colours. Luckily I always have these ingredients in the cupboard so had plenty of supplies and colours.

 

 

Once all the colours were mixed we were able to get on with the fun and slightly messy bit......painting!

A trip out into the garden with paints and paper in hand and away we go......

 

My youngest absolutely loved this activity although we quickly realised that it's not a good idea to use brushes as they just get clogged up with paint and its not easy to wash out. Neither of my girls minded though and in fact probably preferred a more hands on approach anyway.

 Fingers at the ready.... paint away.

 

 

 

 

The finished paintings unfortunately aren't the sort you would be able to keep or frame as once dry the paint mixture starts to crack and crumble off the paper but this activity did entertain for an hour or two which was the main objective and its definitely a project to do again in the future, maybe as part of some sort of science activity - idea for the future.






 



Our first day of fun

   Well here it is, my first day of budget fun. I have to admit it took a few days to decide what to do for this first segment as I wanted to start off fairly simple and find something that meant going outdoors and enjoying the sunshine whilst we have some. I also wanted to bare in mind that I needed to find an activity that would impress my 4 year old and could be adapted to my younger baby also, although lucky she slept most of the time so I needn't have worried about that.
  
The activity of choice therefore ended up being 'Feeding the Ducks'. An obvious choice you might think and an activity I m sure many parents or carers do already, however we made a full afternoon of it and took along some paper, crayons and felt tips. The thought I had in mind was to get my 4 year old to draw a few picture,s but as she is actually rather good at drawing (bias mummy) I thought it would be good to test her and see if she could do a bit of life drawing (drawing what she could she). After feeding the umm...seagulls :) we got our artistic heads on and found a nice spot to draw the stream the ducks were on, along with the tree's behind and the bench we were sat on. I was very surprise if I am honest just how quickly my daughter took to this activity and how much she noticed all around her. We spent about 5 minutes or so just talking about what we saw in front of us, which way the water was flowing, what colours we could see, how many ducks and seagulls there were, etc.

 After doing her stream picture we moved to another part of the park and found some lovely flowers to draw. Again we talked about the colours but also the smells of each flower and what they reminded us of, its surprising just how much a 4 year old knows and how engaged they get when given a set project. From the flowers we then went to the bowls club and drew the clubhouse although my daughter did need a little help and direction to get the shape of the roof. We were lucky as the clubhouse has a clock on the roof so we got to talk about the time and attempt to tell what time on the clock.
  
By this point we both fancied a change so we sat for a few minutes being 'naughty' by taking all the paper off the wax crayons so we could do various rubbings. We did different coloured rubbings of a wall, the pavement, various pieces of equipment in the play park, etc. I have to admit that it was actually me in the end that got (dare I say it) bored first, so after a good few hours in the park and lots of new drawings to show off, we headed home.
  

Below is a selection of photograph's taken whilst we were in the park and some scans of the pictures drawn to give you an idea of what can be done quite simply, easily and of course cheaply.

 

 

  From an educational point of view young children can learn so much from this sort of activity, from being able to use their fine motor skills and pen holding to speech and listening skills.

 

 

"Children who are unable to ask questions are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting directions or information explained to them in a way they better understand. Also, their ability to communicate with others is significantly reduced. "

"Children who cannot answer questions effectively often have trouble making their thoughts and ideas understood by others. Being able to answer questions about remote events, places, people, and stories is a necessary classroom skill that all children need in order to be successful at school. "

Speech Therapy Forum

 

The benefits of reading books to your children is often one of the first things you will hear from your midwife, health visitor or teacher but in the real world speech comes in many forms so the more you can simply talk to your child about the world around them the better. In the long run they gain greater understanding of not only the world immediately around them but also the wider world and how they fit into it. Also the more you can talk together and the more words you can share then your child will be able to better communicate thoughts and feelings with anyone they interact with giving them the best chance at learning the communication skills they will need as they get older.

 

Of course my 4 year old probably cares about none of this and to be honest at the time the thought of all the aspects of learning didn't cross my mind as we were simply having a fun time together, but now I have some lovely pictures which will soon be hung on the wall and a daughter who had a 'very good day', surely that's all that counts.

 



Welcome to The Budget Mother

Hello, my name is Lindsay and firstly I have a little secret to admit....I am a virgin blogger! There I said it. I have been thinking about writing a blog for a few months now but never really knew what to write about and between you and me I am not that great when it comes to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), so the idea of actually doing just that is quite frankly a bit scary but here goes.

I am a Budget Mother, by that I mean a modern day mum trying to give her children all the chances and opportunities they deserve on a very tight, almost non exist, budget. My one aims since having my 2 girls is to raise them the best I can whilst also kick starting their early education and learning. I fully believe that doing just that doesn't have to break the bank, in fact if any thing having to think outside the box often means you end up doing things with your children/family that you might never have considered doing otherwise.

With all that being said I'd better give you some background about me and my family and how The Budget Mother came about.
 I am a single mum to a 4 year old and an 11 month old both of whom HATE being indoors for more than a few hours, so keeping everyone happy and entertained is often a challenge. I also work part time as a self employed photographer meaning I am home a lot of my time and can give greater attention to both my girls and trying to make a living. This though is the reason I am constantly working to a strict budget and expensive days out to big name attractions are out, however ours days are still jam packed with fun and learning so much so that I often get comments from other parents asking how I do it and that my girls always seem to be doing something different. My aim with this blog is to share with you the things we get up to and some of the costs involved and hopefully I can help other families to get out and have fun without the stress and expense many expect.
I will warn you now though, being a budget mum (or dad) does mean a lot of fore thought, planning and research from the parent and can be slightly time consuming if you are looking to do something specific.
I am hoping that this blog will not only include fun days out but also recipe ideas, ideas to assist your child's learning and education as well as indoor activities (because lets face it theres always a rainy day or two).

I hope you enjoy reading about and following what me and the girls are up to and maybe even get a few hints and ideas for you to share with your friends and family. Also please feel free to share any of your own for me to try out and share with all my other readers, Thank you.

Lindsay
xx