Every Day's a School Day...

Disclosure: I have kindly been gifted a year's subscription to the Mrs Mactivity website, in exchange for mentions in my blog and on social media. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Whether you teach in a nursery, primary school or from home, why not let Mrs Mactivity help reduce your workload? Once you’ve signed up, you can easily download resources to support teaching and learning across the primary curriculum.

Eye catching and easy to navigate

With thousands of high quality, teacher made resources available to download, the site can really help streamline your precious planning time. Activities can be downloaded to print or can be added to your lesson presentations for a whole class to view.

I have also been using the site to provide fun, learning activities for Honey and Ace over the summer holidays. I’ve left maths and reading comprehension sheets on their craft table and 90% of the time, they’ve picked up a pen and enjoyed the activity without me mentioning it or getting involved. Great for keeping their brains ticking over!

I love that the resources span such a range of topics, including reading comprehension activities based on Honey’s new favourite creature (since getting into Minecraft), the axolotl! The resources also feature hand drawn illustrations, which sets them apart from worksheets on other sites.

Everything is aligned with White Rose and Letters and Sounds and can be edited to suit your children. There are even some resources you can download for free, to help you get a feel for the site and the quality of the resources. For just £24.97 per year, why not give Mrs Mactivity a try?

Faith and Trust and Pixie Dust...

Ever since Honey first saw the advert for My Fairy Garden on kids TV a couple of years ago, she has spoken about them constantly (ok, I exaggerate, but sometimes it feels like that's the case). I knew she would be over the moon to receive one of her very own, so I held on to it for a few days after the parcel arrived, to make sure we had the time to put it all together there and then!

Needless to say, Honey couldn't believe her luck and was ecstatic to receive such a fabulous gift. I explained that we would have to test the Fairy Garden and let other children know all about it, which she took very seriously and nattered the whole time about ideas for this post. Honey and I spent a (mostly) happy hour putting it all together, she definitely needed some adult help as some parts feel a bit brittle and Honey can be heavy handed so would have broken them without intervention.

As a primary school teacher, it's hard to let go of searching out the educational value of a toy coming into the house, but when I was offered the chance to review the Fairy Light Garden, I googled Interplay and the first thing I read was 'STEM toys' which was positive! While we put the garden together, lots of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) chat naturally occurred. We discussed 2D and 3D shapes, symmetry and the seed growing process. Honey commented that the soil pilfered from our solitary plant in the garden was cold and probably needed some water to soften it so the seeds would be able to bed in. She also reminded me when we needed to water the seeds (I needed reminding, I cannot keep plants or flowers alive to save my life). After a few days, the grass hadn't started to grow, so we had another conversation about why that might be and what we could do to encourage growth and together, we decided to move the garden to a sunnier location. Bingo, grass shoots!

Growth Mindset is a huge deal in education at the moment and putting the kit together required plenty of perseverance and resilience on Honey's part. She was keen to get on, so didn't read the instructions at first and accidentally connected a couple of pieces incorrectly. This annoyed her, but after a little pep talk, she went back to the drawing board (instruction booklet) and tried again. She also put her fine motor skills to the test by tying knots, peeling stickers and folding the bunting. The age guide states 'for ages 4+'. Honey turned 5 in May and has just started year 1, so I'd say the the age advice is accurate, if your children will be supported by an adult. 

Once she had finished laying the gravel path, assembling and attaching the bridge and sprinkling the fairy dust, Honey was really chuffed with what she had created. She loved the sounds and once she got the hang of how to turn it on and off (blow like a candle), the light was a hit too. 

What you will need to be able to put together the Fairy Light Garden:
A pair of scissors to aid unpacking.
A small cross head screwdriver.
2AAA batteries.
Some soil or compost.
Roughly a tablespoon of water.

The Fairy Garden would be even better if...
The toadstool house was secured on top of decking. At the moment, it is really easy to take off and play with separately but it slides around if they try to play with it in place. Perhaps velcro or a clip could be used so you still have the option of removing the house.

The manufacturers used less packaging. The kit came packaged in lots of different plastic bags, most of which could have been avoided, as the first thing Honey wanted to do was spread all the pieces out on the table so they ended up jumbled together anyway! 

Overall, the Fairy Light Garden is a hit in this house. I am happy with the balance of traditionally educational and free play opportunities the garden opens up and Honey is thrilled to own a much longed for toy. Even Ace asks to put the nightlight on when I put him to bed, which is super cute! The Fairy Light Garden is available from Interplay UK Ltd and while its not exactly a pocket money toy (this set retails at £29.99), I would definitely purchase it as a Christmas or birthday present. 

Honey wears... Rainbow sweatshirt from Next 

*Although we were kindly gifted this product in order to write a review, all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Summer Learnin', Had Me a Blast...

I really can't believe how fast this school year has whizzed by. I'm a primary school teacher so I'm used to my life being arranged in 6-8 week blocks, but the terms seem to be flying by even more quickly now that one of my own children is in school too. Honey has absolutely loved being in reception and we couldn't be happier with the school and staff who have helped her learn and play this year. She's really excited about becoming 'a big year old' and can't wait to 'be a year', but she's equally excited about the thought of having 6 weeks of home days! As am I!

I know that some parents find the summer holidays difficult. If your job isn't term time only, then childcare can be a huge issue or if you're struggling for things to do with the kids and counting down until the weekend when there will be support from partners or other family members, the days may feel never ending. While I can't help with your childcare arrangements, I can suggest some ways you can help your 5 year old to retain at least some of what they've learnt this year at school. The idea of this post is for me to suggest a few incidental activities that you can slot into your days. I am not suggesting that you turn your home into a classroom and deliver structured lessons in any way, these are just some ways you can turn their play into fun, free learning activities to wile away the (hopefully) long, hot days.

Writing

If you have a blackboard or whiteboard at home, why not leave some new chalk or pen colours out for your child to discover and explore? Set silly challenges, like who can draw the most circles in 30 seconds, who can draw the longest line without taking their writing implement off the surface or who can write their name the most times by the time the second hand on the clock or watch gets back to 12. If you model games like these, you'll soon find them picking up the chalk and challenging their siblings or friends independently.

While out and about in the park, pick up sticks and stones and use them to spell out words. The children will love writing their name and practising their tricky words by scratching them into the dirt or laying down their treasure so that they form words.

Play writing games on 'special paper', we love coloured, lined paper here but sugar paper or in fact any paper will work! Honey loves making things and will sit for hours designing fabulous cards, books and posters. Why not play pass the story (write a line, fold it over, swap and repeat), use prompts like 'name of your favourite CBeebies character' or 'Go Jetters location you'd most like to go to' then have a giggle at the results (Grand Master Glitch and Cinderella visiting the Taj Mahal together could totally happen...)

Need to go shopping? Write a list together. Encourage your little one to have go at words they're unsure of by using their sounds or other, similar words they know as a reference (e.g. If they can spell could, can they work out should and would too?)

Reading

There are words everywhere and now that your child has a good grounding with phonics, they can decode many of them for themselves. Road signs, menus, timetables, labels, they're all great, real life applications of the fantastic skills they are mastering. Perhaps your little one could choose and order their own lunch in a cafe or let you know when they spot a sign saying 'beach'.

When you're reading together, encourage your child to pick put words they recognise and to join in with parts of the story they know. If they're in the mood, try taking it in turns to read pages of simpler books. 

Don't forget about the library, not only can you spend time there reading, colouring and having fun with your children, if they have a library card, you can also take books home (including levelled 'reading books' if your child is missing the structure of school). If they haven't got their own cards, make it your mission to sign up for free this summer.

Maths

Counting is a skill that can be practised anywhere. We are always asking Honey and Ace how many cows in a field, birds on a path, swings in a park... Honey is also keen on sharing and will divide boxes of raisins between herself and Ace, commenting on whether or not the piles are fair.

What time is it? Time is a really difficult concept to teach children but simply including it in your daily routine can really help them start to understand. Keep it simple, start with o'clock times and relate them to regular activities (lunch time, bed time etc). We bought Honey a cheap watch and regularly ask her what time it is when she's wearing it. Whatever the time is, she usually says an o'clock time based on where the hour hand is pointing, but at least she's starting to become aware that the hands tell us different things.

Challenge your child to find numbers when you're out shopping. How much is that top? Which pair of shoes is the most expensive? If they're a bit older, give them an imaginary amount of money to 'spend' it's never too early to start learning about budgeting! Show your children what money looks like and talk to them about equivalents e.g. A 20 p piece is worth the same as four 5p coins. Money is also gives counting in 2's, 5's and 10's real purpose, Honey loves laying out the coins from her money box and counting them in different ways.

Dig out the rulers and tape measures, they'll have a great time measuring sticks and stones and putting them in order. They could also measure their friends, toys or plants in the garden and tell you which is tallest, smallest and if any are the same height as each other.

Playing in the paddling pool? Grab some cups, bowls and jugs and let the children explore which containers hold the most/least water. They don't need to be able to read scales, they may choose to measure based on how many cups or jugs something can hold. In my experience, one of the things children find most baffling about capacity is that containers of different shapes and sizes can hold the same amount of liquid. You could challenge them to find the pots which both hold 6 cups of water (for example).

General

Arrange your child's toys so that they're inviting and accessible. When they're at school, everything has a place and continuing this at home encourages children to continue making choices about what to play with and how to play with it. You're also more likely to be allowed some time to yourself if they can reach everything and find what they're looking for, plus they can easily tidy things away independently so you don't feel like you're spending all your time picking things up after them!

Honey is quite interested in the World Cup and brings her globe and atlas down so she can find the countries and have a chat about them. Don't forget that the library is a fantastic resource for non fiction books as well as stories, if your child has a particular interest, why not borrow some books so they can find out more. This in turn might lead to art, craft or other related opportunities presenting themselves to you.

Last but not least, go outside and be active, family bike rides, scoot/skate/jog round the park. Go for a walk. Go camping, it's a cheap (if you already have all the kit) but fun way to get away together. Whatever you choose, try to take time to look at the world through the eyes of your child, ask questions, answer questions, but most of all, have fun!

Honey wears... Sun Suit by Frugi
Ace wears... Sun Suit by Matalan

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