More nice weather means more excuses for water play in the garden!  And just in time for summer, Learning Resources have sent us this fantastic GeoSafari Jr Subscope for exploring underwater.  I can not even express to you just how excited Ethan was when this Subscope arrived for him to play with.  His two favourite things are submarines and swimming, so being able to look through a toy submarine to explore underwater is just perfect for him.  



The Subscope couldn't be easier to use, you just put one end into the water and put your eyes up to the other end.  If the water is a bit dark there are even lights on the front of the Subscope so that you can see what you're looking at.  It can be used in a variety of places, but we've started out by doing a bit of exploring in the garden just to get used to it.



We set up some big buckets of water with lots of shells and rocks that we collected from our recent beach holiday.  Then set out exploring them all.  (Of course if the weather isn't as nice it would be just as easy to do this in the bathtub or sink indoors, which I am sure we will be doing when the winter comes.)



Both Ivy and Ethan really enjoyed looking through the Subscope to see what they could discover and examine under water.  I could also see this working really well as a learning activity, if we use the water tray and put number and letter blocks in the water and the children have to identify what they see.



The next step is to take our Subscope down to the river to do some real investigating, the children are definitely going to love that!



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* This is a review post, we were sent the Subscope from Learning Resources in order to try it out and write our honest opinions*

The weather is warm and we are playing outside every day!  So how perfect that Early Years Resources have just sent us this Outdoor Mark Making Kit to bring our creativity out into the garden.


The kit includes paint brushes, spray bottles, pattern rollers, squirt bottles, droppers, texture printers and more.  It also all comes in a great big storage box, so it's easy to tidy it all up when we're finished.

I tried to get a few things set up before picking up Ethan from school one day, to then bring the kids home to a fun water play surprise outside.  For our first go with the kit I only used materials that would wash away (like chalk) but we will definitely try bringing out some big pieces of paper and using paint another day.


I filled a few big buckets with water and filled up the spray bottles as well.  Then Ivy helped me by crushing up some pieces of chalk (we put them in a plastic bag and smashed them with a toy hammer, she really enjoyed that!) and then putting the chalk dust into the squirt bottles and adding water.  This worked really well to make different coloured waters that I wasn't worried about staining the patio.


Then after school it was time to play!  The kids got right in there and started by using the big paintbrushes to paint the fence.  This is a great activity as their doing everything on a large scale and really building up those arm muscles, without having to worry about getting it right (especially as it was a hot day and any water paintings disappeared quite quickly!)


Then they started using the spray bottles and squirt bottles, those were a big hit!  And trying out the different colours on the patio.  As this was their first time exploring the new materials I didn't give them any specific mark making tasks and just let them discover for themselves. Ivy is getting close to learning to write her name, so she did have a go at doing that a few times with the water.  We also wrote on the patio in chalk, and then used our water to spray or brush over it.


We are having so much fun with this outdoor mark making kit, I can definitely see it being a big part of our summer outdoor play, and a great way to keep the little ones writing, in a fun no pressure way, over the summer when they're off school.



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* This is a review post, we were sent the mark making set from Early Years Resources in order to try it out and write our honest opinions.*

Summer is coming, and the kids will have 6 weeks off of school for summer holidays, the perfect time to play and enjoy the outdoors and to work on lots of physical skills.  It's also a great time to set goals for the kids (and ourselves!) that we can work towards achieving at the end of the break.  We'll also be watching Mark Beaumont as he cycles Around the World in 80 Days, and using lots of these fun resources from Twinkl.



You may have noticed that I haven't been posting as much on Play & Learn Every Day in recent months, and that's because a lot of our focus at home has changed.  The children are very busy with school and preschool, so the time that they spend at home is often outdoors and just having free play to wind down from their busy days.  My focus has also changed as I am attempting to get healthier as well and to set a good example of an active lifestyle, I now spend a lot of my free time running (instead of sitting in front of the computer) if you're interested you can have a peek at my Instagram account @runningyogamum to see how I'm doing.

A post shared by Niki (@runningyogamum) on Mar 27, 2017 at 1:51pm PDT

As for the kids, they are doing fantastically well on their scooters as they scoot to school almost every day.  We are also big fans of Parkrun and try to take the kids to the junior Parkrun whenever we get the chance, but for us the one thing that we don't find enough time for is bike riding.  Ethan and Ivy both have great bikes, but they rarely come out of the garage and both still have stabilisers / training wheels on them.  So wouldn't it be great if we set them a goal to be more confident riding their bikes?

A post shared by Niki - Play & Learn Every Day (@playandlearneveryday) on May 2, 2017 at 2:20am PDT

For Ethan I think that would mean getting the stabilisers off by the end of the summer. Being able to balance by himself and cycle around the park without any extra support.


For Ivy it's just about staying on her bike, building up those leg muscles so that she can get herself started without needing a push and building up a bit of stamina so that she can cycle all the way around the park.


I've got my own goal to run 10km by the end of the summer, and when I talked to Ethan about all of us having goals it made him really excited that we would be doing this together. So while we watch Mark Beaumont's progress as he sets off on his cycle around the world starting in a couple of weeks, we'll be starting our own challenges too.  Wish us luck!

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* This is a collaborative post as we are working with Twinkl on their 80 Days campaign.*

It is hot outside and the kids are getting restless, so we need fun and easy crafts to keep them busy.  So today we made these great little moons that didn't take a lot of preparation, that could express the childrens' creativity and would also make great gifts. (We've made a tag to go with ours to give for Father's Day)

What you'll need to make a sticky moon craft:

• plastic lid (from a yogurt pot or similar)
• Bostik White Glu
• black paint
• paint brush
• scissors
• sequins
• loom bands
• ribbon to hang it up

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to create a space themed craft*

It's rare to find a product for children that is truly awe inspiring and that makes such a difference in their play and learning.  And that is what we found in the Butterfly Garden that we have been reviewing for Insect Lore.  We have watched a miracle unfold in our very own home, and the whole family has been completely mesmerised by it.


The Butterfly Garden kit comes with the mesh butterfly habitat, a feeding pipette for the nectar, full instructions to guide you every step of the way and a voucher to redeem online to order your live caterpillars.  We also received a packet of seeds to grow our own little wild flowers to attract our butterflies to stay in our garden after we set them free.  So our first step, while we waited for our caterpillars to arrive was to plant the seeds in our garden.


When our caterpillars arrived a few days later they were tiny and the kids loved watching them squirm around in their little jar just eating and leaving trails of their threads behind them.  They loved waking up every morning to see how much the caterpillars had grown and if they were starting to make their chrysalides yet.


Then one morning we woke up to find that the very first caterpillar had made his chrysalis! We were so excited to be able to really examine it closely and then to watch day after day as the other caterpillars joined him in their own chrysalides.


Around that time I received an email from Insect Lore to check in and to give some tips on what to do when it's time to transfer the chrysalides over from the small pot to the large mesh habitat.  I was so impressed with the way that they followed up and the way that you can tell that they truly care about the wellbeing of their caterpillars and want them to be cared for properly.


Once all of the caterpillars had become chrysalides we had the major task of moving them (whilst attached to the lid of the cup) into the chrysalis holder and then placing that gently into the butterfly habitat.  This isn't a difficult task at all, but one that you do want to be sure to do gently and with care.  The children watched as I very carefully went through the steps, helping when they could, observing how the chrysalides moved and shook as I moved them and taking photos for me.  


Once the chrysalides were safely in the butterfly habitat we just had to wait and check each day to see when our butterflies would emerge.  Then the day finally arrived and the first butterfly came out.  It was so quick that he was already out by the time I called the children over to see.  But then we were able to watch as he opened up his wings and grew strong enough to fly.  


We picked flowers from the garden, chopped up fruit from the fruit bowl and made some nectar (water and sugar) to feed our very first butterfly.


After that we were delighted to see the others emerge over the next few days.  The very last one to come out was the one in the chrysalis that had fallen down, and that's the only one that the kids were actually able to witness coming out of his cocoon.  It was such an incredible experience.



We kept our butterflies for a few days in the house, then waited for a nice sunny day to set them free in the garden.  We opened the top of  the habitat expecting them to fly straight out, but they stayed in their for ages before one by one they flew away.



We will definitely be doing this again, the children absolutely loved the experience from start to finish, they asked so many questions and learned more about the life cycle of a butterfly than they could any other way.  We highly recommend giving it a try at home.

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* This is a review post, we were sent the Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore in order to try it out and write our honest opinions*