Helen Turner'S Childcare

Well, it’s been another fun week. Mixed weather, who’d have thought the children would still need wellies and waterproofs at the end of July! We’ve done lots, I'm ready for a few lie-ins (who am I kidding!!!) so it’s time to close for 2 weeks! See everyone in a couple of weeks, I look forward to hearing about all the adventures you have! Xx

https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/na tional-playday/ Spotted this, it looks like it could be a great event!

Today we enjoyed a trip to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. The children may be very young to really take in the exhibitions but they definitely weren’t too young to join in with the sound workshop or enjoy the art pods. All self directed, it was great fun. I car away feeling quite inspired and with some great ideas! This week’s number 1 on shopping list a little microphone and portable amp thing plus a collection of everyday objects to inspire children to make new sounds! If they call it music then great! Oh and bamboo canes, tape pencils to them and let the children draw! This was great. We drew as one of us played a sound, so our pencil marks depict the sounds we heard!

On glorious summer days like today, there’s just one thing to do....

Well, last week was a busy week with the main theme being parties! It started with a teddy bears picnic at Stocksbridge Library and ended with a summer party, complete with bouncy castle and cake. The cake was delicious, not made by me! Thank you Esther for that! We’ve said goodbye to some that are moving in to school and welcomed new children! Now we embark upon the adventures of summer holidays! 🤞 it’ll go smoothly!

In other news this week.. ...we’ve enjoyed fruit picking for strawberries, always a favourite for children, and gooseberries!!! Gooseberries are my favourite so I set out to convert the sceptics by getting my mum to agree to using our juicy gooseberries to make a delicious pie! The last picture is to prove what a popular pudding it was! Whilst we were there we bumped into our lovely friends and so showed them a photo of the tiny crack that had appeared in 1 of the eggs! Then today we visited Wentworth Castle, the gardens are beautiful, the children all sat down at one point and had a little ‘chat’ and we ate our picnic before having some fun in the playground.

The final result, 4 healthy, cheeky chicks! We did have 1 chick die at the hatching stage and 2 eggs that didn’t hatch. It’s been a stressful few days, well for me! The children have and are loving it, next time I relax will be when I deliver them safely back to the farm! That said, it’s worth it!

It’s soooo exciting! The first cracks have appeared, this is called pipping. We can hear the chick cheeping from inside the egg. Poised with the camera on the off chance I’ll be able to film it 🤞.

Love these pictures drawn and described, all her own ideas, by the artist who has just turned 3!!!! Egg update...I’m turning the rotation off on the incubator tomorrow and fingers crossed by Tuesday we will be observing some hatching! It’s been 18 days so far and still when the children hear the buzzer to say the eggs are turning, they’ve run in from wherever they were playing shouting “the eggs are turning, the eggs are turning!” They have loved it so far!

Well, some of us might be tiring of this weather but one good thing is the snails all come out! We count them every day on the school walk, today there were 27, the most yet! We had tiny, stripey, shiny, yellow, big, brown ones all sliding and slithering! Also, Stocksbridge Library are doing a great job keeping the under 5s sessions going despite the library temporarily being closed. Today’s session was in a story van, very exciting! Watch out Lisa Hendleman, I think someone is after your job 😂 (see comments, forgot to load the pic).

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! I hope you like your little present!

In other news this week, there’s great excitement as this has arrived! We begin the countdown to watching chicks hatch, hopefully! It has been fantastic to spark language! I’ll keep everyone posted.

So, what have we been upto this week? What could we do in this summer weather.....puddle jump, of course!

When your working day starts with this conversation “Helen, can we go on an adventure please?” Well, who would refuse. A quick run out to Wentworth Castle, perfect setting for an adventure! Time to climb 82 steps to find a dragon that needed slaying! Run down grassy banks, search for princesses and fairies. Loved it!

After reading books about minibeasts and getting very excited at every ladybird and beetle we could find in the garden, it was time to go on a proper minibeast hunt. So, we packed our picnic and headed to Old Moor RSPB to see what we could find. We weren’t disappointed!

Look at these beautiful summer flowers the children painted this week! 🌼

So, today playing in the garden and the children began to tell a story. With a tiny bit of support we ended up using play equipment to build props and tell the story. The first 3 photos are from 1 story and the 4th photo is another. The question is can you guess which 2 traditional tales the children are acting out?

It is lovely to be out and about! The great outdoors generate natural discovery; inquisitiveness; teamwork; language and so much more! We are lucky to live in a place where it's easy to access various environments. This week was largely about dandelion clocks and den building!