Spring

Well, it’s official, spring has sprung! And it’s a great time to learn about all things in Nature.

Today’s blog will cover animals, plants and even weather through arts, crafts, food and even dance!

Animals

For our younger learners, it is a good start to name baby animals but I think it’s never to early to introduce life cycles. The usual suspects are chicks, frogs and butterflies. (Find your local butterfly house to get a close up look)

Butterfly at the butterfly house in the Natural History museum

But for your older learners take a look at the cycles of bees or ladybirds and expand their vocabulary.

I have found a brilliant website called www.education.com which gives you a certain number of free printables on all sorts of subjects (alternatively, you can sign up for premium and print* to your hearts content)

*If you don’t have a printer available to you, your local library will print for a very small fee or you can email to your local Ryman’s store (they charge a one off fee and then the more you print the cheaper it is for each page)

When we go for a family dinner at a restaurant, we always take paper, colours and stickers. Why not take a printable to keep them entertained until the food arrives?

Plants

Outside my house, the trees have turned into the most gorgeous pink blossoms which make me smile each morning. Talking about the changes which they have noticed is great.

I believe we shouldn’t pick flowers as then they die. I once tried to discourage one of my Nanny Children not to pick a flower by saying if you like something then you’d pick it but if you loved it, you’d let it grow. It backfired, because she told me she only liked this one!

Saying that; I love a good daisy chain.

Visit your local garden centre to pick up some cheap daffodils and watch them open, or let them pick their favourite pot plant to take home and nurture.

Garden Centre at Alnwick Castle and Gardens

You could also grow your own Grass Head. Find out how by clicking the link below:

https://www.redtedart.com/kids-crafts-grass-heads/

Red Ted Art has some other amazing ideas for arts and crafts for Spring too!

Food

Our foods are animals or plants (unless they have been heavily processed) yet some children only see their food in packages from the supermarket.

Take your children to a fruit and vegetable stall and let them pick something new to try.

Or even better, search for a local “pick your own” where they can pick their own strawberries. It’s an event that they will never forget.

Or make something fun out of the foods they eat already.

Cheese, tomato and cucumber “flower” starter

Painting eggs is always fun! I have never seen eggs made into a safari before! I think it’s inspiring! Let your child run with their ideas. They might surprise you!

Egg craft by Grace Barker (aged 10) From Rossendale, Lancashire

Weather

Discussing what they see when they look out of the window at breakfast will improve vocabulary, sentence structure and conversational skills.

But an even better activity that I have done with countless classes in PE and several nanny children is to put on Disney’s Little April Showers from Bambi.

Within the song, the instruments change from rain, to a storm, to the sun coming out again before another shower.

Listen (Do not watch as the impact is lesser) to the song all the way through and ask your children what they think is happening and how it makes them feel.

I usually separate the song into the different parts but you can dance together, let them experiment with their movements to best show the types of weather.

After the dance, ask them to show you how they represented rain, wind, storm and showers. It’s fun. And memorable.

You can use instruments, make your own, or use things around your house such as metal spoons for the rain to recreate your own April shower.

In this Nanny Family, we also listen to it in Italian to help our language learning skills.

Pioggerella D’Aprile.

There’s more to books…

Here are books from a library find. There is nothing that I love more than going to the library with the children and getting as many books on a subject as we can find. Sure, some books are old but I bet there is something to learn from every one of them. Choose the books that take your fancy.

I especially recommend the Days out in Spring book by Vic Parker as that is the one we enjoyed the most.

The Egg to Bee book by Camilla de la Bédoyyère also has some great notes for parents and teachers showing that there really is more to books than reading!