Lovely visit to the beach

So this afternoon, my daughter needed to run, actually cartwheel off some steam before bed time so we decided to make a quick trip to the beach. With no expectations, except to enjoy the glorious weather and low tide, the children wanted to wear their swim things and took a towel each. One took a spade with them, the other took a plastic screwdriver and saw (don't ask why, I'm not sure either!)

They both had a dip in the sea, and then daughter ran up and down manically, followed by trying to break the world record for consecutive cartwheels! While son tootled off to search for all things natural, as is his way. Once daughter had got rid of the excess energy, well some of it, she joined her brother in the nature spotting, mainly in the little pools along the groynes. We found quite a lot.

Mussels

Anenome

Hermit Crab

Fossil Shells

Crab

Razor Fish Shell

We found this too, not sure if it is a small fish or a shrimp as both were around in the pools. It's very well camouflaged with the sand. Anybody have any idea what it is?

Daughter interspersed the nature spotting with other activities as well, she loves to fill as much into life as possible. So some drawing in the sand, with borrowed screwdriver and saw from her brother, (they were useful!).

And a game of jump the waves, which the sea was just perfect for today, small, shallow ripply waves and lots of them.

During the nature hunting, we realised it would be good to have a net and a big bucket. There was another family pool hunting too, and they caught some lovely things to look at, they shared and showed us their finds. We decided we would like to do that too, so I need to add a net and a bucket to our shopping list before our next visit.

I think we were then tuned into our surroundings, as on our walk home we noticed a bee on the lovely purple thistles, and a load of ants, some winged, some not, preparing for the nuptial flight (according to hubbie who keeps ants for a hobby!) 

Bee on a Thistle

Winged Ants

So that was our trip to the beach, none of the activities planned, just child led, following their interests, and what's fun for them. An amazing 45 minutes of happiness.

Medieval Theme

We have started a medieval theme on Great Little Minds, starting with some knights to colour in

My son's favourite page completed

Also as part of our medieval theme, today we have been enjoying the Usborne sticker dressing knights. A great sticker book that can be used both at home or out and about. It has various different scenes, all depicting a different area of interest, including a castle seige, and a feast. At the top of the page you get a little bit of information about the scene, and then the main figures on the pages are unclothed, and stickers are provided for you to dress them, plus there are some extra stickers of animals or objects to help fill out the scene. The book contains over 200 stickers, and we found it took a couple of different sittings to finish the whole book, but it definitely held my son's interest as he kept coming back to it.

The book that got my 7 year old reading by torch light.

This book has been sat on the shelf for a while, we've been reading others, and others have always got chosen. Until it finally got picked off the shelf to be read. Now we're talking a 7 year old boy, who can read well, and will read non fiction books independently, likes joke books, and poems, and can read fiction but doesn't normally pick up a book and choose to read it himself. He normally prefers to still have fiction books read to him. Which is fine and this is what we have been doing. I'm quite happy still reading to my children, as it's time spent together, snuggled up enjoying a story. Honestly, some of the books I really enjoy too, wanting to know what happens next etc.

So for some reason, this book has captured his interest, we got to the end of a chapter of me reading aloud. It ended on a cliffhanger, like so many of the other books we read, to draw you into the next chapter. Except none of the others have ever had quite enough draw. The line that did it, "The packet of maggots was gone" That did it, and then he was reading the next chapter in bed using his torch, and then the next morning he read another three chapters, and I actually had to call him out of his room to have breakfast. Any idea of the book yet? 

I have no exact idea, why this one. It doesn't seem a lot different to a lot of the others we've read with a similar format. This is a fiction book but with science facts scattered through the book, in factoid boxes. It mentions a lot of bodily functions, snot, farts etc. so made to appeal to the boy market predominantly.  Maybe that's what did it, or the storyline, or maybe it isn't the book but actually where my son is at, or any combination. Whatever it is, for the past few days I've had a bookworm who can't take his head out of this book. Which book? This book.......

Has Disgusting Dave had the same effect on your child? Apparently there are some others, so we may have to invest in those and see if they are as enticing.