Insha’allah planning to take a nature walk in one our local Woodland Trust woods soon. Found by sheer accident as I was stuck in a traffic jam. Every cloud has a silver lining. Almost loining. Completely different imagery. I have no idea what I’m talking about.

Carry on.

We studied the conker which was still firmly in its husk/sheath (?) and drew it and identified the tree it came from. We did the same with the acorn and some ‘helicopter’ seeds which turned out to be Sycamore seeds.

After that they took their dinosaur casts from the other day and playdoughed with them – pretending to have discovered fossils.

The boys then played making stories up, again with Ostheimer toys and we have woodland scene on one side and Boss has made a Savannah scene on the other, with a silken scarf for the river nile over a red barren landscape. Quite a juxtaposition!

Prayed salah and now boys in the garden, with their adventure bags, exploring the world, ‘having an adventure’, collecting bugs, giving each other tractor-trailer rides, bringing me flowers and playing in the dirt pit. Made a use out of an old table and washing up bowl and made a sand pit table for Jaws, which saved me some money!

Now all I need is some actually *sand* I guess… and be brave enough to allow them to have a water trough too…

Anyway, been missing out on our nature walks for a long time, so trundled off and had a leisurely walk stopping every three seconds to look at leaves, fruit, berries, acorns, feathers and trying very hard to find the chirping crickets!

Found one! Crumbs that was hard work. Jaws managed to walk all the way round today after feeding ducks on the wobbly bridge. It’s so nice to have capable children rather than babies – the days of jumping in the car and leaving the buggy behind seem in sight!

Collected lots of things to study and put on our nature table. First conker of the season and various other things. Smells very fresh in here right now.

Finished the walk with playpark play and a miniature train ride and home to more Ostheimer play.

So, having a look at Woody, Hazel and Little Pip and Christopher’s Harvest Time after someone got me started with an Elsa Beskow hit. Other books we have have been a huge hit here and I absolutely love the connection with nature these books bring into our home and lives. Just looking at her books makes me want to go walking in the woods all day. really need to get over my irrational fear (is it irrational) of walking in the woods by myself (without visions of being hacked to pieces by paranoid schizophrenics with a grudge against life).

The boys did playdough play today – dinosaur related. Then I dug out some plaster of paris and we did a casting of two dinos. In playdough. Yes, it *is* still drying, why do you ask? OK so I’ve learned the plaster-of-paris lesson the hard way. Hope they come out OK.

Then they did fuzzy felt and drawing.

And thereafter we have been engaged in Ostheimer play making stories and re-enacting stories and generally enjoying each others’ company and the power of our imaginations.

Comes with a book and teacher’s resources.

Good stuff.

Here I am