Autumn Equinox 2023

 Saturday 23rd September 2023

For the last few years I have endeavoured to get outside with Bear on the equinox and solstice dates, usually involving a picnic and an afternoon roaming around somewhere and checking out the seasonal changes. Over the last few years we have found ourselves on the beach in Withernsea, in Dinnington Community Woodland and Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve. The first year we were on the beach with Nannie and Pops, and last couple of years we have been out alone as the equinox has landed on a week day and Daddy has been busy... We had a great time every year and it was something that I promised myself I would keep up :)

This year, the equinox fell on a Saturday, which meant we could spend it with Daddy, and this year, we invited friends too! We planned a picnic and a scavenger hunt in Clumber Park and met our besties there for what was meant to be a couple of hours of fun in the sun, and we spent over six hours there together :) We have definitely met our people in the Wilkinsons!

Our morning started with some map reading skills to figure out where we were, where we parked and where we were going. Bear loved looking for the right places on the map and even worked out which path we had taken when we had worked out where some of the places were.

Once we had located friends we went on an Autumn Equinox Scavenger Hunt, which included looking for acorns, mushrooms, conkers and fallen leaves and then set ourselves up for a picnic in the sunshine, which came out beautifully for us I might add! Once the picnic had been devoured, the littlest two of our group had some fun on the picnic blanket and the biggest did some playing... they played with a frisbee, dug in some mole hills and went rolling down the hill together. 

The friendship that is blooming between Bear and A is beautiful and I love how much fun they have together. They were filthy by the time they were finished... #wildandfreechildren

Ice cream and a play in the woodland playground followed this and the The Cub got some freedom in his new shoes to do some exploring. He loves getting out of the pram now that he is on his feet, and he is more and more confident every day, he's practically walking already! 

With it being a Saturday, the playground was very busy and it wasn't long before the grown ups needed to escape, so we headed to the lake to feed the ducks where we fed the swans, the geese and the few ducks that dared to brave the geese, and we witnessed the most epic goose fight. There were shocked people, both adults and children, everywhere, and then there was my son and his daddy, egging them on shouting 'FIGHT'!

From here, Bear decided that we needed to find a good sit spot so that we could read the autumnal book that I had taken with us. Usually, I take the Brambly Hedge seasonal story to read, however they are quite long, so I'd taken something different this year and it went down brilliantly. Bear picked a spot in the shade under a big oak tree and we got our rainbow picnic blanket back out to lie on while I read Silver the Shrew to them.

After this we headed for a bench to feed the littlest of our group and Bear, A and their daddies had fun playing in the grass. They ran around a lot, did some rolie polies, climbed all over one another, hid behind trees, hugged a tree and generally laughed a lot. It was amazing to watch as the littlest got fed and The Cub snoozed in the pouch.

Before we knew it, six hours had gone by, and we all needed to be heading home for some tea, much to the wild ones' disgruntlement as they were having far too much fun for that, but all good things must come to an end and we parted ways to end our day, filled with happiness and ready for bed!

Since then we have made a nature journal page for our day in Bear's new book and already read many more autumnal themed books, been on more adventures and been hunting for seasonal changes - more posts to come on all of that soon :)

Until then, enjoy Autumn,

Momma Bear x

Our Morning Basket

I have had so many comments and questions about our Morning Basket, that I figured I'd throw a post together on it...

This was the first thing that I have introduced into our Daily Rhythm for Bear which is just a small basket filled with activities that are intended to be worked through alongside breakfast.

To begin with, this basket just has a few things to spark interest and to start to build up the idea of focussing over breakfast time. I used shape and colour as the basics for the first few weeks, both topics that Bear already had a grasp of so that it wasn't introducing too many new things at once, but this is where I will introduce phonics and numbers. The plan is to do it at breakfast time because it is a time which I can guarantee we are sitting together at the table, and it happens every day... it makes sense for us as it then leaves the rest of the day free for other activities.

For these first few weeks, this is what our Morning Basket included:

> Bear's Busy Book - a book with wipe-clean pages that I make and printout pages for, including doodle space linked to the time of the year, encouraging a recognition of the calendar, name recognition, mark-making practice, and other bits as we develop over time.

> Date magnets with a magnetic board to begin looking at what day/date it is and the significance of that, linked to him, so for example, if we have a group that day, or if we are counting down to a specific date like birthdays etc.

> A book - the first was Miss Caterpillar's Colours

> A mindfulness activity - I bought a pack of Mindfulness Activity cards from The Works recently which are beautiful, I intend to use these as prompts for our day/week, depending on what they are. The one I chose for the first week was A Rainbow Hunt which linked to his book.

> A toy/fidget toy for while I am busy and to prevent him bringing other toys to the table which will cause unnecessary clutter when I want to encourage a learning space.

> A storybook - a different story each day, linked, if possible to the theme for the week.

> There will also be something in there for The Cub, to help keep him occupied :)

For now, it will be none compulsory, but gently encouraged, until it kind of becomes the norm for Bear. We don't have to get through everything every day, or not necessarily at breakfast, if we are struggling one day we could maybe give it another go at lunch, for example!

He has done amazing these first few weeks, and loves the activities, getting involved in pretty much everything. There have been odd days that he hasn't been interested, and that's okay, yet I have found that he asks at lunchtime to have a go instead. He often asks to have a second look at lunchtime, even if we have done the activities at breakfast. I couldn't be more proud of him right now, he's been a little superstar.

Any questions, feel free to drop me a comment...

Momma Bear x

Bear's first day of Home Ed - Foundation Stage 1

Wow - what a day!

Today has been pretty darn epic, even if I do say so myself. We have covered a little bit of everything, including all the 'First Day' activities I wanted to do that will become annual activities.

We started our day off with Bear's Morning Basket on the table which he unpacked to investigate the contents and had a go with just about everything.

I will do a more detailed post about our Morning Basket later in the week as I have had several comments on it today on Instagram stories :)

While I sorted breakfast, Bear did some of the activities in here, chatting away all the time.

After breakfast, we headed straight outside, still in our pajamas, for some morning sunshine while I hung out the washing, the boys both loving it, as normally I would wait until they were dressed. Today, I felt like breaking my own rules, as a way of showing myself just how we can make our own choices. We had no set time for anything, no morning rush. It was lovely just to go at our own pace.

We headed back inside for The Cub's nap, and Bear and I did his 'First Day of Home Ed' activities. We started with the little questionnaire I made that we will fill out each year, then took our 'Not back to school' photos, which, full disclosure, Bear did in his boxers, because who needs clothes on a day as warm as this?!

We also made 'Wooden Spoon Me's', again, something I'd like to do each year to see how Bear's ability and the way he sees himself changes. He loved this activity and has played with the spoons at different intervals for the rest of the day :)

Lunch when The Cub woke up, and we dipped back into Bear's basket and read the two books I had chosen for today. One of which will stay in there all week, a simple book about colours, the other, a picture book, which I intend to change daily, giving us a 'story of the day'. Today's story was one of Toby's favourites, How to Catch a Rainbow by Naomi Jones, a lovely story about collecting the colours of the rainbow. 

After lunch, we packed our own rainbow hunting kit like the little girl in the book and went out with Bear's camera to hunt for the colours and take photographs of them to do our first Nature Journal page in our new journal. Bear loves his camera and is getting really good at lining up the shots he chooses to take. I love to see what catches his eye and what he wants to photograph.

We picked up Nannie along the way and headed for the park in glorious sunshine, and as expected, had it virtually to ourselves as most children have headed back to school today. 

We returned home for The Cub's afternoon nap, probably a little later than we should have because we were having so much fun, and stopped for ice cream on the way back too, and then Bear and I sorted through the photos he'd taken, printed them out and stuck them in his journal. We then discussed the colours, Bear found the matching crayons and gave me the initial letter sound for each colour for me to write them in his journal.

By the time The Cub woke up, it was almost time for tea, which Bear helped get ready, and Daddy was home in time to sit down with us so Bear told him about some of the things we had gotten up to during the day. We made it back outside afterward to water the plants and spend a little time soaking up that golden hour, before a bath, more books, and bed.

All of this, plus lots of free play in between the things we had planned, including some new toys means one exhausted Little Bear, and Momma Bear too, and lots of memories made... now to reset the house ready for tomorrow morning :)