RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch 2025

 Friday 24th - Sunday 26th January 2025

During the week that led up to the Big Garden Birdwatch we did some colouring, crafting, and checking out books to remind ourselves of the birds we already knew, and to learn a few new ones. I had done some new posters with more birds on for Bear to check out, and he knew most of them already as bird identification is something we do a lot of anyway as both boys love birdwatching.

After last year's epic failure of a bird count, a big fat zero, and a year of not a lot of bird activity in the garden due to several neighbourhood cats that roam the street, I decided this year that we would go out somewhere were we were more likely to be able to actually count some birds!

The weekend coincided with a family weekend, with both myself and Daddy at home, so we packed up a picnic and headed to Sherwood Pines for an adventure day. We spent the morning walking The Gruffalo Trail, then stopped for a picnic near the cafe. The bench we had chosen had a good view around it, and I was hopeful for birds landing for the boys to count. They had brought their binoculars, and I had printed identification sheets out for them to check the birds off as we saw them, and they had their new clipboards to lean on which was exciting too.

When the first bird landed, I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the boys! Daddy may have received an excited punch to the arm from me while the boys looked at the bird through their binoculars to identify it.

After several more landed, we realised that the family that had picnicked at the bench near us, had obviously left crumbs, as it soon proved to be a popular spot and we had lots land, including some that we couldn't identify as they seemed to be young birds that didn't quite resemble the adult bird they would become. We didn't count the ones we didn't know, as we didn't want to skew the results by recording them wrong, but there were plenty to record that Bear could identify without any help, as well as a couple that we relied on Daddy for.

When our hour was up and we'd eaten all of our picnic we checked our results and had a healthy eleven birds counted, plus the ones we couldn't identify - after last year, I call that a serious win!

A few days later, Bear and I did his journal page, where we cut up the count sheet to include the ones we saw on his page, along with some photos. Bear did the writing for the title this time, and he dictated a short description of what we did.

Overall, a much better outcome this year, and both boys loved taking part. We filled in the survey that had come in our pack from the RSPB and posted the results to be counted in the overall survey this time. Bear was very excited knowing that he had helped look out for the birds!

Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this year?

What did you see?

Mama Bear x

A day with no TV

The boys don't watch that much TV, and they don't watch children's TV shows, they usually have a movie on, late in the day when energy levels are dipping... mine as well as theirs. They are usually comfy on the sofa watching a Disney movie while I prepare and cook tea.

However, lately I have found that Bear is pretty much counting down the hours until it's movie time, and therefore struggling to occupy himself throughout the day.

After a mini meltdown a couple of nights ago when it was time to turn the TV off, I told Bear that I was going to stop movie time for a while until he stopped waiting for it, and saw it as more of a treat... Today was day 1.

Both boys slept really well last night, which meant an earlier morning than usual, and we had breakfast together and then had a look at our weekend project for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. I had some print outs for them to look at and colour in, plus a couple of activities.

Bear can confidently identify most common garden birds by picture, and when he sees them out and about. The Cub recognises a couple too. He has also started using the right colours when colouring, so he has red and brown for a robin, blue and yellow for a blue tit and some black for a blackbird.

After this, Bear wanted to play a game, which he'd been attempting with his little brother but it hadn't been going well. We started by hiding teddy bears and going on a bear hunt, for which Bear could pretty much recite himself. Then we played Hide & Seek, which saw Bear practicing counting to twenty. I lost count how many turns we took!

They continued to play together for a while so that I could get a few chores done and we all got dressed. By this time it was almost lunch time so we read a new book, which happened to be about playing Hide & Seek, and then we fit in a couple of board games before they came back to the table to do some colouring while I made lunch.

Pops came round to sort some car stuff for me while we ate lunch and then the boys did incredibly well at playing independently while I was on the phone and sorting a few things out.

After everything was sorted we did our numbers and letter sounds practice and then did some jigsaws together before the boys pulled out the boxes of cars. I wrote this post, up until this point, while they sat playing beautifully together, lining cars up and then knocking them with auto rolling ones.

When they'd had enough of this we did some tidying up because The Cub asked for the Duplo out. We sat for an hour building trains and playgrounds while Bear built a forest with a Park Ranger and then a train with carriages to take people to the forest. Somehow, this ended with The Cub pretending to be a Duplo brick and hiding in the bag... 

This was coming up on 'movie time' so, when we'd put all the bricks away, chasing them around the room where they'd scattered from The Cub's wriggling, I cracked out the big guns and set them up with playdough at the table.

Between this and then kinetic sand, they played happily by the side of each other while I got tea ready, and got some editing done! Bonus!

After tea, they went to play and ended up dressed as superheroes and saved the world while I finished tidying up and ran the bath. Again, they played amazingly together and Bear was so good at waiting for his brother and helping him with his cape! I had to talk them into the bath because they were having so much fun.

Bath, story and bed, and here I am with The Cub asleep in my arms and listening to Bear tell his stuffed animals a story about Winnie the Pooh, a current favourite. All day, and no screens... The only thing we didn't do today that I would have liked is to get outside...Bear was convinced thay he would blow away and got quite upset at the idea, so we decided to stay indoors for the day.

I'm planning to detox for a few days and then slowly reintroduce screen time, first for his yoga, then use movies as treats rather than a daily occurance. 

Do your kids have regular screen time? Or is it kept for special occasions?

Mama Bear

Winter Pond Study

With all this snow and ice, I thought it was the perfect time to take the boys to do their winter pond study, as I really wanted them to see the pond frozen over. We packed up their explorer kits, which in itself is exciting for them. They love choosing what to take with them, who's bag it is going to go in and what they're going to use their bits and bobs for.

We headed out after lunch and walked down to the pond, Bear trying to ice skate on the ice with every step. The Cub did extraordinarily well not to fall over despite being trussed up in multiple layers to keep him warm.

Bear was fascinated by the fact that the whole pond was frozen. He took to throwing pine cones at it for a couple of minutes trying to break it but it wasn't happening!

I was obviously tasked with fishing the ice out of the pond for them to look at and their faces were a picture when it came out in big pieces. They were quick to get out their magnifying glasses and their mini microscopes to get a better look. 

They had some water in a tube to look at, and we discussed how cold it was and I decided that I need to buy them some sort of thermometer so that they can check the temperature of it next time for more information to add to their knowledge and something else that they can compare throughout the seasons.

We discussed the ice and Bear remembered that it was cold water that had frozen, and that when it warms back up it will melt again. In The Cub's words, it was frozen freezing. 

They wanted it to melt in their magnifying pot and sat wand watched it for at least three minutes, but obviously in -1 degree weather, there was no way it was going to melt any time soon, and they agreed to throw it back.

We will be printing some of the photos and doing a nature journal page in the next few days while the experience is fresh enough in Bear's mind and in the next couple of the weeks, we will be going out to do our winter tree study too.

Mama Bear x

The Children's Almanac

I have used a Children's Almanac before when the National Trust published it every year, and I loved reading through it to get ideas for what to do with Bear each month thoughout the year. Last year, the National Trust stopped publishing and I had to go a year without. I missed it a lot, and spent a lot of time looking for the facts and ideas in other places, which took up much more time, and never got me the same results.

When I discovered that Harper Collins were filling the spot this year, I pre-ordered this without a second's hesitation. The 2025 Children's Almanac by Colins Kids is a month-by-month guide to the year, highlighting important dates, nature based facts, astronomy infomation like the moon phases, religious festivals and so much more.

It is split into the twleve months of the year, and is set out in a way that older children could enjoy it alone, and younger ones can read through it with an adult.

That's how we are using it this year - I sat down with Bear and The Cub, and we read through the January section, looking at the calendar of dates, checking out when each of the moon phases is due and reading about the winter crafts and ideas to try. 

I plan to do this each month with them, then use the information to do my planning for Bear's learning journey, using the craft ideas and puzzles to go alongside the information, encorporating the important dates into our schedule and using the topics to give us starting points for new things to learn about.

Bear loved reading through the January information, and was excited by some of the craft ideas - he was all ready and raring to go right then and there I think, but listened when I explained that each of the activites was intended to go with one of the important dates we'd read about, and that I would organise the things we needed in order to do them whilst learning about new topics. The Cub is just along for the ride right now, but loves crafting too, so I'm sure we will have lots of fun when we get around to the activities. 

Do you use an almanac at all, and have you checked out the Children's Almanac?

Mama Bear x

Easing our way back in

The first week in January has been pretty laid back for us, using the time to recover from the hectic time of Christmas. We still had Daddy at home at the start of the week, then we headed up to the caravan for New Year and spent a couple of hours at the beach over midnight!

Since getting back home, we have concentrated on finding a bit of a rhythm again, getting sleep back on track after all the excitement, late nights and less rules, and spending time together, reading, playing games and watching movies while snuggled on the sofa in our jammies.

I did a bit of a review with Bear on his phonics, and caught him playing with one of The Cub's new toys, ordering numbers, so I could see he'd held onto that too. He remembered 23 out of 26 sounds, two of those three he remembered the name for but just not the sound, and Ii had just disappeared into the ether - it was always one he seemed to get stuck on even as we were learning them and using them daily.

Introducing the idea of time and dates with Bear, I dug out his wooden clock and calendar that he's had for some time, just not really used much as he was a bit young for understanding it. He loved checking out the clock, and I went through and gave him all the basic information as a bit of an info dump. He takes in facts really easily, so it's an easy place to start and see what he picks up. We went through minutes in an hour, hours in a day, two of each hour, one day time, one night time. O'clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to, and I even touched on the 5 minutes per number for the hour. The following day he came and told me the time - I'd say he held onto some of that info dump, and we will go into more detail over the coming weeks. 

I plan to use the wall calendar and some other resources to teach him about weeks and months too, and get him a calendar that we can fill out with important dates to him each month so he can see time as more of a concrete idea.

We've gotten outside most days, including our midnight beach adventure, a trip to the skate park with friends, a frosty walk around the lake at Rother Valley where we fed the ducks and checked out the ice on the puddles, used a compass to check our direction, and looked at the frost and ice with our magnifying glasses. Both boys love checking stuff out when we're out and about, and the excitement when I asked if they wanted to pack their explorer bags was unreal!

We've read lots of books, played games, done some colouring, and the boys have spent hours upon hours playing with their new toys. Next week, I have plans to get back to our 'sit-down' learning time again and see how it goes with The Cub involved more. He wants to be doing whatever his brother is doing, or be wherever I am, so he will be involved, and we will see what he picks up as well as getting involved with some little activities I have planned for him.

How was your first week in?

Mama Bear x

A fresh new year...

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was writing a post about my intentions for the academic year back in September, now here we are at the beginning of a new calendar year and it bearly seems like any time has passed at all! 

   

Our learning journey so far has been pretty relaxed, but fruitful too - Bear has picked up phonics well, having already known most of his alphabet, but now has a grip on all but a couple of letters, both their names and their sounds, and has started to blend tow and three sounds together to make simple phonetic words. I followed the SATPIN guide and used a Ladybird book which led us through the sounds in order, a few at a time, and then I relaxed over December because of the amount of other activities planned for the festive season.

Now, with a fresh new start again, we are going to jump back in a refresh our memories on the 26 letter sounds and start using them to make simple words, before adding in some of the other phonics sounds. Bear is pretty receptive to our set learning times so I am confident in our approach so far. We try to do some sit-down 'official' learning every day, but we also play a lot of games that have phonetic or number involvement, and Bear is always full of questions and is learning all the time.

I plan to refresh his memory of the numbers 1 to 20, and then move on to recognising the other numbers up to 100. He has started doing simple adding and subtracting all by himself when eating and playing, so I am going to start including that in our learning journey too.

Our reading pile is never ending - both boys still love their books, and we got new ones for Christmas that they are still working their way through, including a couple of new chapter books for Bear that we need to start at bed times. I hope to use Books Are My Bag's Book of the Month again over the course of the year for new books, as well as the many I see come through the shop while I'm at work - we're always open to suggestions too!

I am going to introduce the calendar and time to Bear now too. He has a basic idea of how the clock works, by hour, but we're going to dip deeper into that as I think it is something he will pick up quite quickly once he knows how.

We have our Winter study to do - we plan to head back to our pond and tree of choice to do our study and then our respective journal pages, and our weather study should be able to include snow and frost over the next few weeks. 

And of course, we have planned outings to places like Boston Park Farm and Potteric Carr for their Home Education days, plus our adventures to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, plus the many trips organised by our home ed community.

What are your plans for the start of 2025? 

Mama Bear x