Seaside Treasure Basket

Visiting the beach with a small child is such an amazing experience, their natural curiosity and love of unusual textures really gets indulged. Froggy really enjoys the variety of things to touch (and invariably taste) just waiting for him to explore.

The cool thing about embracing heuristic play, is that you become a professional curator of treasure baskets. You go on a nature walk and come back with a new treasure, ready to be added into the rotation of fabulous things that really are so much better than conventional toys .

When the weather is bad, these baskets become a lifeline to sanity, and often I try to create themed activity areas to shake up playtime.
One of my favourite ways to do this, is by turning one of Frog's baskets into a special beach themed play area, complete with treasure acquired from recent trips to seaside.

In the seaside treasure basket

Shells
Driftwood
Old rope
Blue play silk
Sunglasses
Sandals
Sun hat
Ice cube tray
Coconut shell purse
Some silk
Toy crab
Water bottle
Hessian box
Dream catcher

Not just a haven for rainy days, parents with older children could embrace this activity as a tool to reinforce vocabulary and language without the need for flash cards or picture books. After all what better way is there to learn about the world than by handling the objects and exploring them first hand?

Little Bloom- Cloth Nappy reviews

If you are a newbie in cloth its hard to know what to buy. I've been using Cloth Nappies for 16 months with my first born, and am preparing to have two in cloth when my daughter arrives in May. You could say I'm somewhat of cloth nappy pro. I've moved on from my start up stash, and invest in nappies that will see us through til froggy potty trains, and ideally ones his baby sister can use afterwards too! Pocket nappies are great for this purpose and this week I'm reviewing the little bloom nappies You can grab little bloom nappies on amazon from as little as £2.89 delivered. So they are a cheap option but are they cheerful enough to do the job?

Starting our kitchen garden

Growing our own food has been an ambition of my husband and I. We both really value locally sourced produce, and enjoy spending time outdoors. In our first home together (a basement flat in the city centre) we planted anything and everything we could in planters on the windowsill. I had green beans trailing up the bars of our windows. They bolted and twirled up the bars but never got enough light to produce anything edible. Then we moved into our first pub which had masses of outdoor space, unfortunately, all car park and no dirt. We managed to sustain some hanging baskets with strawberries and a few herb planters, but that was about it. Now we are in our new home. A lovely country pub in the new forest, whiich offers a private garden just for our little family. We moved here when I was 8 months pregnants and ever since, I've been desperate to make the most of it. Since the new year we've been planning what to do ...

Sowing in January- kitchen garden and allotments

What can I grow this January? After the business of December, January has hit me like a sledgehammer. I'm bored. I need a new project, and what I really want to do is get on top of my allotment and kitchen garden.

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