Timber!!!

West Bank Park is the scene of some rather dramatic tree surgery at the minute - men with tractors and diggers schlepping about through the woods and clearing lopping off enormous branches, sawing them up and hauling them around. It is probably just to prevent branches falling the next time heavy winds come, but the clearing has no bit of grass left and it is a bit alarming to watch the woods being so interfered with. For the adults, that is - the children are of course FASCINATED. But I personally will be relieved when they are gone.

However, we have to make the best of things, and the fact is that the clearing is surrounded by large and interesting lumps of wood in little groups. So we brought along toy cars and animals, and set up our own little road system of long logs, thin branches to make wobbly bridges between them, planks as 'slides'. At first it was the adults doing this, the children looking on bemused. Then a light went on and they rushed to play. Some had really good ideas: a wooden horse needed a bed and got one made of sawdust on the side of a quiet 'road'; a cow got a lean-to shelter built for it with twigs; more branches that were just the right shape or length needed to be sought out from the undergrowth. I think we will definitely repeat this activity at a later date.

Meanwhile, some of the children helped me 'wake up the bulbs' with some little bells - the snowdrops are just peeping out now. One little girl was perplexed that they didn't spring out straight away when she rang the bells - that is one for her mum to explain, I think. And some enthusiastically fed the birds in the wildlife area - what lucky birds to get such fistfuls of grain!

But by this time it was snowing hard, and too cold for most of us adults, so we went to the cafe for our story (about an old woman feeding the birds in her garden, of course) and lots of songs and rhymes.

New Year safari

This week was Chinese New Year. Laura treated us to the story of how the Chinese years got their names: how the Emperor asked twelve animals to run a race across the river, and named the years in the order they arrived on the other side. She gave the children masks to wear, to 'be' the animals, and afterwards we went 'hunting' animals in the woods - wooden and plastic animals that had been planted there by me and my kids just ten minutes earlier, obviously! But my kids were no less surprised than any of the others to 'find' them hiding in bushes and on tree stumps!

Then we adjourned to a secluded corner of the woods to get down to some tree-painting, using that expensive craft material, tap water. As long as it's a dry day this works beautifully, as the bark changes colour quite dramatically.

Also in attendance this week was one of the artists who is bidding for our art/mapping project this spring and summer. He quizzed us all about what we might like to see on the map he will produce if he gets the contract. Don't forget about the meeting on the 19th Feb to decide between the various bids (1pm, Rowntree Park cafe)

PUDDLES!!!

We did have something else planned for this week but the RAIN intervened. Well, there's no point in getting upset about it. Three brave families did turn up at the Park, despite the 'three raindrops' symbol on the weathermap, and obviously the theme of the morning was puddles. We all got sticks and found a good puddle - not too shallow, not too deep, not too small, not too big, just right for stirring. Then we found things to drop in to make a really tasty soup: berries, rotting beechnuts, crabapples, dead leaves, you know the sort of thing. There were a lot of arguments initially about who got the best berries or who got to mash the apple with their welly boot, but gradually the children started to cooperate a bit better and got very absorbed.

That puddle did keep us busy for a good long time - in fact, I think the children would have stayed there all morning. But adults have such short attention spans...so we headed off to the cafe to make pretend puddles with cardboard, glue and wool of various muddy colours. Then a really rowdy and vigorous singing-time and home we went.

Sometimes the rainy days are the good ones!

Wild boys of the woods...

I don't know what it is about boys, but there is definitely something...
Although it was cold, we stayed outside this Thursday and played in the woods. Ostensibly we were making percussion instruments with biscuit tins, and playing dressing-up races, but in fact, the BOYS were just going mad hurtling up and down the story tree mounds, stealing biscuit tins from each other, throwing minor and major tantrums. The poor (few) little girls were looking on wondering what on earth was going on.

It can sometimes be tricky to strike the right balance in wintertime, between 'planned' and 'unplanned' activities, crafts and free play. Luckily singing time is always a hit with most children and brings us all back together (with some of the wild boys as the band)!

Making Suncathers, 8 January 2009

This week was a very exclusive meeting of the Very Young Friends, consisting of myself (Bryony) Erin and Iona! The plan was to make suncatchers, so with everything prepared we went ahead, the sun even shone so we could try them out!

December doings

Oh dear...bad habits are forming and whole weeks are going by without this blog being updated...but first of all a great big HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all Very Young Friends, and their families, from not-quite-sunny Germany where I am writing this!

We had two quiet weeks at the beginning of December. On the 4th we ended up at my house, the weather being bad and the cafe being closed, making some rather wonderful snowmen out of small plastic drinks bottles. This, Ruth´s idea, worked very well even with the younger toddlers. We glued cotton wool all over the bottles, then all sorts of bits of paper, felt, sequins and glitter in the time-honoured fashion. They looked splendid and the kids got very absorbed.

On the 11th it was so cold and miserable that the few of us who did turn up just headed for the playground and tried to keep warm by throwing leaves at each other, but we didn´t hold out long!

But the 18th was another matter. We celebrated Christmas in grand style. First we searched through the woods for suitable trees to decorate, with plenty of branches within toddler reach. I had brought some baubles and tinsel which a kind lady from the Freecycle list no longer needed. All the children really enjoyed decorating the yew trees near the story tree. The story of the little fir tree who wanted to be beautiful and shiny like the other trees in the woods kept some children´s attention, although most were just dying to race up and down the hills (and did so). Then we practised some carols around our impromptu Christmas trees, so as to sing them more beautifully for the cafe staff later. We didn´t remove the decorations again till the children had headed off to the cafe with most of the parents, so they didn´t see their work destroyed! The cafe staff had prepared us some wonderful gingerbread men, and we decorated them with icing and sweeties and got sticky and sugary, before singing our carols as thanks. A jolly good time was had by all, as they used to say.

Those birds ought to be really happy now...

Not only do we make all sorts of food and feeders for them, but now we make beautiful houses for them too. Well, paint them, anyway. I brought along some my husband had manufactured from some old fenceposts, and the children set to with brushes and paint. They really got absorbed in their task, and seemed to enjoy working together on it, until the houses looked more like bird-hippie-communes than respectable dwellings. Once they have been varnished we will see about getting them nailed to a tree in the park somewhere.

The park cafe had all its Christmas decorations out, including a beautiful tree with baubles and bells. So we had a story about Tante, a little old German lady who made Christmas magic for all the children and animals of her village with her wonderful Christmas tree. A little premature but we are really getting into the Christmas spirit now!