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!

Log Bird Feeders Thursday 20 November 2008

As winter seems to be well and truly here, the Very Young Friends decided to help out our feathered friends and make some bird feeders. Phil had kindly drilled a number of large holes through lengths of log for us to fill with our yummy mixture, lard and bird seed! The children took it in turns to pour in bird seed and mix with the lard, this was quite hard work for both large and small hands. The mixture was then spooned into the holes and ready to hang from a tree, lets hope the birds enjoy their stylish feeder!

November doings

Apologies for the bloggy silence since the beginning of the month. It's not that nothing has been happening!

On the 6th Nov we did some cooking in the cafe - but not for ourselves, for the birds! We chopped cheese, apple, bread and other titbits for their delectation and mixed them together in a huge bowl. Well, most of us did. My son Patrick concentrated on stuffing himself with cheese....ah well. The following rhyme accompanied our work:
Chop, chop, choppity chop
Chop off the bottom and chop off the top
All the rest goes into the pot
Chop, chop, choppity chop!

The following week, 13th Nov, everyone - including Patrick, and therefore me - was sick. So there was no meeting that week, for the first time since Christmas week - normally the Very Young Friends are very hardy!

This week, 20th Nov, Bryony was in charge, much to my delight. We made wonderful bird feeders from logs with holes drilled in them. I will leave this to her to recount!

Halloween fun in the playground

We had a proper Halloween party in the playground. Why the playground? Because it gets quite tiring, racing after toddlers to try and keep track of them in the woods, week after week, and the playground has a FENCE!!! So the children got busy gathering big sticks and small, and tying them together into broomsticks. I don't know how many would really fly, or even sweep up if it comes to it...

We then made 'apple men' by sticking twigs and cloves into apples. Some of them were really lovely little characters.

Pumpkin cake and ginger tea warmed us up a bit, but as the sky started to darken we decided to hurry the rest of the party along a bit. So we had our story - starring all the apple men. A little pumpkin gnome was looking for friends to celebrate Halloween with. The pine cones weren't very enthusiastic, but the apple men, hiding under the autumn leaves, all wanted to join in! A few quick songs and then RACE HOME OUT OF THE WET!

Autumn creativity

The blog is a little out of date! The past two weeks have seen some impressive creative efforts by the Very Young Friends. Two weeks ago, on a radiantly sunny day, we gathered autumn leaves from the maple and sycamore trees at the bottom of the Rose Walk. The cold, dry weather had brought out some beautiful yellows and reds in them. Then we tied them into bunches, mobiles and the like - although I must confess it was quite difficult to contain our younger members and persuade them not to run away altogether. But even the littlest and wildest did concentrate on the story, in which Kigbo (the hand puppet) took a wander through the forest (all their leaf creations being held by them) and admired the different 'trees'.

Last week blustery weather sent us into the Park cafe, where Jill and the other wonderful staff are always so tolerant of our noise and mess, and supply us with tempting chocolate cake. We made 'gardens' on trays (chopped-up cereal boxes) using salty playdough as 'land', tinfoil for 'lakes', hedge clippings as 'trees', sticks as 'fences', conkers and pebbles and crabapples as various garden structures. The children really concentrated and produced some lovely gardens. We gathered up all our leftover clippings etc, and brought them to the Park compost heaps, where the children presented them to the Heaps as presents! Then storytime, as last week, featured a little gnome going for a walk through all their lovely gardens, looking for a friend to play with.

This week Bryony will be showing us how to make a bird feeder out of a log - looking forward to it!

Following the Squirrel Food Trail...... 9 October 2008

This week the squirrels of West Bank Park asked the Very Young Friends for their help. The squirrels had collected food to store for winter but had piled it up and were having trouble finding it again. Luckily the squirrels had left some very big footprints for us to follow and a few clues along the way to help. The older children concentrated on following the footprints, looked out for the clues and collected the food in their bags (chestnuts, beech nuts, rose hips, pine cones etc), the younger ones enjoyed being led along the trail and picking up the food to put in their bags. The squirrels meanwhile had been busy writing thank you letters to the children and rewarding them with cake for their hard work (the squirrels in our park are very talented!).