education, gardening, kids

The Importance of Play in Child Development

Play is an important part of childhood, with numerous reasons why children need to have fun. It plays a crucial role in social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development, providing kids with the necessary skills to navigate the world. As parents and caregivers, you need to foster a play-friendly environment to support a child’s growth and well-being.

Cognitive Benefits of Play

Play helps develop problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and creativity through activities such as building blocks, imaginative games, and puzzles. Children learn to experiment, engage with their surroundings, and explore. Research shows that unstructured play enhances brain development by promoting neural connections and improving memory and attention span. Additionally, pretend play encourages language development, and storytelling, and helps children expand their vocabulary and communication skills. Whether they’re running a pretend store, acting as superheroes, or playing house, they develop essential cognitive abilities that prepare them for academic success in the future.

Social and Emotional Growth Through Play

Interacting with friends during play teaches children valuable social skills such as conflict resolution, sharing, and cooperation. Group play fosters empathy and teamwork, helping children consider others’ feelings and perspectives. Playing together also aids in developing emotional intelligence, allowing children to express and manage their emotions in a safe environment.

Physical play, such as climbing, jumping, running, and skipping, contributes to stress relief and mood regulation by releasing endorphins. It also provides an outlet for children to channel their energy, reducing anxiety and creating a balanced emotional state, while building confidence.

Creating a Safe and Stimulating Play Area with Artificial Grass or Rubber Chippings

Ensuring that children have a safe and stimulating play area is vital for their well-being. Many schools and nurseries are now turning to artificial grass or recycled rubber chippings, as a practical way to create play areas. Artificial turf provides a soft, durable, and low-maintenance surface for schools, which minimises the risks of injuries and allows children to play freely in any weather condition. Artificial grass also alleviates concerns about uneven surfaces, mud, and injuries, making it an excellent option for schools seeking to create a safe environment for their students. Its cushioned texture provides extra safety by reducing the impact of falls and creating a comfortable play zone for your kids. Consider how artificial grass or recycled rubber chippings can enhance your children’s play experience in school’s high footfall play areas.

Final Thoughts

Play is a crucial component of childhood development, shaping the way children interact, grow, and learn. By encouraging play in safe environments, we support their well-being and equip them with the lifelong skills they need for the future. Whether through cognitive challenges, physical activities, or social interactions, play remains an essential part of a child’s journey toward living a healthy and happy life. 

This is a collaborative post.

education, teenage reviews

How to Talk Alcohol to Your Teens

You may already know teenagers are not great at moderating their own use of alcohol. Teenagers are impulsive and you will remember this because you used to be one. They have a tendency to over consume as part of being a teenager and exploring their own limits and that can create big issues for the body and the brain.

As a parent, you may want to wrap your child up in cotton wool and prevent them from ever having a sip of alcohol in their lives, but that’s not realistic, is it? You can talk until you’re blue in the face about the things that can go wrong or the illegalities of alcohol being consumed underage. But unless you are taking to shock tactics talking to them about why they may need a lawyer because they’ve been arrested due to drink driving, or looking up sexual offence solicitors, you’re going to have to find ways to hammer it home while also giving them the space to explore. We all know that drinking is dangerous when it’s consumed too young, and we all know that adults can make bad decisions when it comes to alcohol. 

However, it’s important that you talk to your teenagers about alcohol so that they understand what can go wrong and why. Here’s some inspiration:

Be real. If you tried to ban your teenager from drinking, the first thing they’re going to do is find a way to get some alcohol and start drinking. It’s one of those taboo things. They’re going to rebel and they’re going to get go against you. Instead, talk about the consequences of teenage drinking, talk to them about safe teenage drinking and talk to them about what it could lead to: Contracting an STD, having a dependence or an addiction develop very early, impair their reasoning, poison them, create aggressive or fighting behaviour, unplanned sexual activity – the list goes on.

Lead by example. You do have to set the example that as a parent and as an adult, you don’t need to have alcohol in your life to be fulfilled. Every adult knows that it’s nice to have a glass of wine or a glass of spirits from time to time to be able to unwind after a long day. It should be a complement to your life rather than something you rely on, so you have to model that behaviour. If you’re telling your kids you need wine to be able to relax and that becomes an everyday thing, they’re going to see the connection between wine and relaxation. If they talk about going to a location and you start saying that there’s no beer so it’s going to suck, then they’re going to think that they need beer to have fun. Be the parental example they need.

    Don’t lie. It’s OK to tell your kids about the fun times you had while you had a drink. It’s OK to be open and honest about your past, especially if you edit it to be more teenage friendly in your language. You don’t want to be a hypocrite and it’s not your job to lay down the law and ban them from ever doing anything fun. However, you have to explain to your children that they can feel empowered by not needing alcohol to have fun.

    This is a collaborative post.

    crafts, create, education, key stage 2

    These skills your kids learn in school might surprise you

    In the classroom, your kids learn about a range of academic subjects, and the basics like how to read and write. They gain the foundations for a fulfilling life through interactive classes at school and as you help with their homework. Children are also learning many soft skills, and you may not realise the many ways your child is developing to one day be a well-rounded adult.

    children playing and learning

    What are ‘Soft Skills’?

    This term refers to general traits that help individuals relate better to and get along better with one another. These interpersonal skills can help them professionally in the workplace, as they get along well with coworkers, and personally, as they form friendships more easily and appreciate others. Below are four soft skills they learn in a quality educational environment.

    Great Teamwork

    Along with learning about numbers and spelling in school, children also learn from teamwork. They can learn how to problem solve in classes with group projects, for example, to help them become strong at critical thinking. They also learn how to work together toward a goal, such as completing a cake recipe or developing a class presentation together. Kids can also develop friendships with classmates who teach them about respecting someone else and having empathy and compassion. 

    Strong Communication

    There are many ways to communicate at any age. That includes verbal and written. A couple of other ways that you might not have readily thought of are drawing, reading and listening. Becoming good at communicating involves all of these areas, and it is important for students to excel in this area as it will help them form connections with others. That can prevent social isolation, sadness, hopelessness, and reduced self-esteem. Feeling more confident can help kids and teens do well in academic classes as they believe in themselves.

    Science Sparks Book review

    Leadership Skills

    The beginnings of being a great leader can be seen in many children inside and outside the classroom. For example, they may try many sports and need to be resilient if they do not make the team or their team does not win every game. They may also want to volunteer from a young age and be great at managing their time. These skills are reinforced in quality state and boarding schools, where the focus is on personal growth and learning. 

    The Basics of Manners

    Good manners are important in social life; developing them can happen in school. That could be the words “please” and “thank you”, as well as keeping the door open for the person behind them, these activities show respect and appreciation for other people. Youth can also practice sharing with their classmates to teach them positive interactions with others as part of healthy development.

    Summary of School Skills

    Kids learn more than just academics at school. They also build soft skills, from teamwork and communication to creativity and leadership, which can prepare them for future school years and adulthood afterward. Ask your children what they are learning in class, and their responses are likely to pleasantly surprise you.

    This is a collaborative post.

    education, food

    New Year’s Eve traditional craft ideas
    KidsChaos-Calennig-Apple

    When my sister moved to Swansea a few years ago, she discovered some intriguing folklore we’d not heard of before – Calennig.

    So Calennig is the tradition of New Year gift-giving – Giving these little apple delights pictured, to friends and neighbours will bring them good luck!

    My boys, aged 11 and 9 are intrigued by this tradition and we are duly planning to visit our neighbours with apples punched with cloves, and ever-green leaves, and three little stick tripod legs – they are strangely delighted by this, and are dying to add some googly eyes (this idea has horrified several Welsh people!)

    New-Year-Tradition-Hangout-RedTedArt

    Another fun tradition is the Spanish Las doce uvas de la suerte, or “The twelve grapes of luck” – where a grape is eaten by the New Year’s Eve party goers on every chime at midnight, that’s 12 grapes, stuffed into one’s mouth, so much hilarity and spluttering of grape juice is had! The boys can’t wait to try this one this year, so for the adults we’re going to freeze the grapes for three hours, and serve them with dark chocolate (Divine being my chocolate of choice) and some Grappa, and for the kids, the smallest seedless grapes we can find for safety!!

    For more top tips for New Year’s Eve ideas, from Maggy, Anthea and Kellycheck out the round up over on redtedart.com and for a bit of fun, watch us in a google+ hangout where we showcase LOADS of ideas on your screen here.

    Oh, by the way, I’m also on incredibusy.com too… Erm, funnily enough, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

    First published December 10, 2013.

    education, kids

    Types of games we think kids could be encouraged to play

    As someone who has kids, you may have always been told that it’s bad for them to game. Yes, they can become addicted, but it’s unlikely. It’s a lot more rare than you believe it to be, and it’s easily manageable, using time allowance, such as egg timers, and not having consoles in bedrooms for example. Mix this up with NHS recommended game activities for a great balance. In this post, we’re going to be looking at some of the types of online games that you could be encouraging your kids to play with you, or on their own.

    Brain Games

    Brain games are not something that you should discourage your kids from playing. Some of them are rated a little higher than for younger kids, but it all depends on the kid. You can look into things like solitaire and spider solitaire which is a variation of the same game. You can also look into things like sudoku and word searches to help them develop their number and letter skills. These are great to play on journeys too with a paper and pen.

    Some people find that brain games help their kids to develop and foster advanced problem-solving skills and inspire innovative creativity, making them a great choice for the growing mind.

    Board Games

    Something that you can and should do together is play board games. There are so many to choose from, so try to get a variety so that they can all be tested out. Some will test balance, others will test knowledge and patience, where others are more strategy based. It depends on what games you find you like to play, but it’s good to spend this time together. They will be developing their skills while having fun and bonding with the family, what could be better?

    Video Games

    This is where we are going to lose most people, but you shouldn’t go just yet. Video games have their place in the world and it has been known for kids to improve their social skills. Now, we’re not advocating talking to strangers, but playing with friends can really lead to their leadership coming out in certain games. It’s worth letting them explore and come to their own conclusions, you just need to ensure that you stay on top of this and watch out for any signs of addiction.

    If you do notice that something isn’t quite right, pull back on this. You should already have a limit for how long they can play and how much they can spend, but you can tighten this if need be.

    We hope that you have found this article helpful, and will now think about encouraging your kids to take up some kind of gaming in the future. You have to try and remember that the media have a habit of making everything look worse than it is, and that as long as you keep an eye on things, games are a completely safe and fun way for kids to pass time.

    There are a couple of amazing films that might be interesting in terms of positive online gaming friendships – Grand Theft Hamlet. An award-winning feature film about staging Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is an emotional ode to connection and gaming. In this documentary, filmmaker Benjamin Ree and animator Rasmus Tukia honoured the life of gamer Mats Steen. Using World of Warcraft-style animation, this documentary tells the story of Mats, a boy with muscular dystrophy whose online popularity was only revealed after his death.

    This is a collaborative post.

    education, teenage reviews

    If you like teaching consider opening a school

    Teaching is one of the most fulfilling careers one can pursue. It offers the opportunity to shape young minds, inspire curiosity, and foster personal and academic growth. However, for those who truly love teaching, the thought of going beyond the classroom and creating an institution of learning can be a natural next step. If you’re passionate about education and leadership, opening your own school could be the most impactful decision you can make.

    Starting a school is not just about teaching, it’s about creating a vision for education. By opening a school, you can establish a unique learning environment tailored to your educational philosophy. Whether it’s promoting hands-on learning, focusing on the arts, or encouraging innovative STEM programmes, owning a school allows you to design the curriculum, culture, and environment to reflect your values and ideals.

    Why Consider Opening a School?

    Opening a school provides the ultimate platform to implement creative teaching methods. It offers the freedom to craft a personalised educational approach, unbound by the limitations of larger, more rigid institutions. For teachers frustrated by the constraints of traditional settings, starting a school can be a way to experiment with modern pedagogies, embrace inclusivity, and cater to diverse learning styles.

    Another benefit is the potential to make a lasting community impact. Schools often become the heartbeat of their neighbourhoods, fostering relationships between families and creating a nurturing space for children to thrive. Establishing your school can enrich your community and address specific local educational needs.

    Additionally, starting a school is a chance to empower educators. Teachers often long for more autonomy and collaboration. As the founder of a school, you can create a supportive environment where talented teachers can excel, innovate, and feel valued in their roles.

    Practical Considerations for Starting a School

    While the prospect of opening a school is exciting, it also requires careful planning and commitment. The process begins with defining your mission and understanding the needs of your prospective students and their families. What gaps exist in the local educational landscape? Are there underserved communities or specific educational models you can provide?

    Securing funding is a critical step. Depending on your vision, initial costs could include purchasing or leasing a facility, hiring staff, and obtaining the necessary licences. Many educators find it helpful to seek partnerships with local businesses, charitable organisations, or private donors to offset these costs.

    One innovative and cost-effective option is to invest in modular school buildings, which can be built quickly and adapted to various needs. These structures offer flexibility in design and can grow alongside your school, accommodating future expansion.

    Finally, regulatory compliance is essential. Researching and adhering to local government requirements for school registration and health and safety standards ensures your school meets all legal criteria.

    The Rewards of Leadership

    Opening a school is not without its challenges, but the rewards are unparalleled. As an educational leader, you’ll witness the direct impact of your vision and efforts on students’ lives. The satisfaction of seeing children thrive academically, socially, and emotionally under your guidance is unmatched.

    For those who find joy in teaching and dream of creating something lasting, starting a school is an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference. With passion, planning, and perseverance, you can turn your love for teaching into a legacy that shapes generations to come.

    This is a collaborative post.

    cooking with kids, crafts, create, education, gardening with kids

    Make a Natural biodedegradeable Dream Catcher
    Dream catcher natural and biodegradable

    Making a Dream Catcher using natural, found objects and at the same time ticking the boxes of three STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and the Arts) practices:

    The Science (making dough with salt, water and flour for the beads)

    The Arts (designing and sculpting the salt dough leaves, and assembling your dream catcher)

    The Maths (geometry of weaving a pattern with a single length of twine)

    Dream catchers with organic cotton yarm and hand made salt dough beads
    dream catchers, with natural cotton yarn and handmade salt dough beads

    This is such a fun project. And one that you could do either indoors or outside in the warmer weather – we really love a craft that all ages can enjoy – and this three sides dream catcher can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to the weaving, so we will link some YouTube tutorials at the foot of this article so that you can get acquainted with the dream catcher weaving geometry at your leisure.

    Before you get started, make sure you have everything you need for your beautiful natural dream catcher – go on a nature hunt, look for feathers, acorns, pine cones, and lots of sticks!

    sticks

    You’ll need some cotton string, or strong yarn, and we also made some colourful salt dough beads and ‘leaves’ so that everything is biodegradable – this means you can eventually hang your dream catchers outside in the garden or the woods, for them to let nature decay them – hey, that may even be a bit of a science lesson right there too!

    Salt dough leaves and beads recipe

    • 1 part salt
    • 2 parts plain flour
    • half to one part water
    • optional – some natural food colouring (if you are feeling ambitious – you could go as far as making your own dough dye with beetroot! hey – experiment, have some fun)
    home made salt dough beads

    We mixed the dough into three bowls, and added three colours – subtle so that they would blend well with nature – and rolled small balls, pushing a skewer through to make a bead, we dried the beads by ‘stringing’ them onto metal skewers and propping up off the baking tray to harden in the oven on a very low 100 degrees temperature, checking on the beads after about fifteen minutes, and turning them on the skewers so that they didn’t stick.

    The leaves we made by rolling the dough out to about 5mm thick, and used a leaf shaped cookie cutter and a knife to score the marks on the ‘leaves’ and push a hole at the top of the leaf to allow it to be attached to the dreamcatcher. Again, we allowed these leaves to harden, baking them at the bottom of the oven, for about half an hour to an hour, using a cooling rack from the kitchen. We made these beads and salt dough leaves in advance of our dream catcher construction to allow them to harden – word of warning – don’t let them get damp, they will go soggy!

    The assembly of your dream catcher

    Now you have everything you need, start to pull it all together. Make a triangle from three sticks of the same length, tying them tight in each of the three corners.

    Make a ‘bobbin’ with one short stick, about 4cm long, wrap the yarn around and around until it’s full of yarn – (you’ll have to experiment, but you’ll need enough yarn to create the geometrical pattern on the dream catcher ‘web’).

    Using the yarn on this bobbin, start by tying a knot next to one of the three corners of the triangle frame.

    Get weaving that web

    As you start to ‘weave’ your web the first row can be quite loose.
    Evenly spaced, start to work the yarn around the triangle:

    1. Pass the end of your yarn around a stick.
    2. Bring the end under the straight part of the yarn.
    3. Bring the end up and pass it through the eye of the loop you just made.
    4. Pull it tighter to complete a half hitch.
    5. Tie the hitch the same at each intersection of the yarn.
    6. Continue around the triangle, to ‘row two’ in the same way, see diagram (and the video links below)
    7. The next hitch is made at the midpoint of the first loop in the first row.
    Weaving the web on your frame of sticks

    As you tie these hitches you start to pull each stitch in the web a little tighter. Continue around the web tying a hitch and pulling tighter on each row until you are down to a small centre hole in your web. Tie it off in a knot.

    Now tie three strands of yarn from the ‘bottom’ of the triangle and attach the beads, feathers, leaves – And tie a hanging loop at the top of the triangle and you are ready to decorate the trees by hanging your wonderful dream catchers in the forest – or, if you REALLY want to catch those dreams in your web, hang your natural dream catcher up in your bedroom for a real conversation starter!

    Sleep well, and sweet dreams.

    We would love to see what you create – do tag us on Instagram where you will find our new account https://www.instagram.com/kidschaos_blog/ use the hashtag #31DaysofLearning as we are joining in with KiddyCharts creative STEAM project this month.

    Ali also writes over on incredibusy.
    Cotton yarn: Wool and the Gang.
    Shoot location: fforest, during the fforest gather workshops.

    Tap here for a YouTube tutorial of the weave

    crafts, education, kids, travel

    The Good Life Experience – family festival

    The Good Life Experience

    helter-skelter-good-life-experience
    Helter Skelter na na na na na

    We’ve had ourselves a full and active summer, we just didn’t want it to be over…

    Youngest started at ‘bigger than ever’ school and we thought, that’s it, Autumn is on its way – And then, with great joy, we packed our tent into the back of the car and took ourselves off for a long weekend to North Wales. We were meeting my sister, husband and Gracie the dog, for an amazing family weekend at The Good Life Experience, and WHAT a wonderful family festival.

    Located in the grounds of the Hawarden Estate, former home of Prime Minister William Gladstone and now owned by his great-great grandson Charlie Gladstone and his wife Caroline (they of vintage lifestyle brand, Pedlars). You may have seen us talking about Pedlars over on aGreenerLifeforUs.com too – as they’ve been one of our #sgiew (@sogoodineveryway) photo challenge judges.

    It’s a stunning location, with a castle, rolling grounds, a lake… before you even start to take in the iconic helter skelter, the beautiful bell tents, and general loveliness that goes to make this such a fabulous spot for a family festival of Music, Culture, Food & The Great Outdoors.

    andrew-berry-brui-good-life-experience-prints
    Andrew Berry Brui good life experience prints

    We bumped into so many people we knew from the world of Instagram, including the talented illustrator Lucie Sheridan, and sweetly lovely Ruby @RubyDiamonds and her family, the winners of our #sgiew_goodlife Photo Challenge earlier this year – you can read Ruby’s review here.

    All of the workshops and stall holders were happy and enthusiastic, and a delight to meet bumping into a chatting to the nicest of people… nods at Amanda Banham ceramics, Ali Dover, Jennie Maizels (pictured below on the swing!), Beth from Decorator’s Notebook, YuyoHepple Gin (yep, I might just have sampled the gin), Edward Carefoot Journeyman, Dorte from Lewes Map, Elinor and Michael, Beachhutcook, Helen from Nellie and Eve; who have I missed!

    A video posted by Ali Clifford (@incredibusy) on

    The Good Life Experience was founded in 2014 by four friends Cerys Matthews, Steve Abbott and Charlie & Caroline Gladstone, and they’ve crafted a festival that is wonderfully entertaining, based around themes of slow living, hand crafts, and the great outdoors, with a bit of poetry and live music thrown in for good measure. Fabulous guest speakers, art & craft workshops, swing bands and lindy hop dancing, coffee stops, ceramics, archery, axe throwing, Jennie Maizels‘ sketchbook clubs, Alex Pole forge kitchenware, plasticine stop motion animation, bushcraft,  a dog show(!) and so much more!

    the-amazing-scene-machine-goodlife-experience-2
    Plasticine dogs for the Amazing Scene Machine

    the-amazing-scene-machine-lea-and-spike
    Lea and Spike’s Plasticine dog for the Amazing Scene Machine

    the-amazing-scene-machine-goodlife-experience
    Looking forward to seeing the finished animation Jim Parkyn!

    Between the six of us, we managed to cram a LOT into the weekend, listened to the amazing (and hilarious) Doctor John Cooper Clarke, adventurer Ben Fogle talking about his life, DJ78 with his classic wind up gramophones,  and John Higgs, talking KLF and the spectacular Swing Patrol swing dance class… yes, I’ve looked them up on the internet, there IS a class near me!

    ali-clifford-and-ali-dover-good-life-experience
    Amanda Banham has us hard at work – the two Ali-s – Clifford and Dover

    We marvelled at Neil from the Harwarden Estate and his amazing pumkin carving, we danced and cheered for the amazing Stealing Sheep.

    stealing-sheep-good-life-experience
    The wonderfully polka dot Stealing Sheep

    As Tim at Gather Outdoors said, it’s great to meet up with so many like-minded people all in one place (and many that we follow and interact with on the ‘gram!)

    We’re already planning our visit to The Good Life Experience next year and there are some Super early-bird tickets on sale here for 15-17 September 2017. We seriously can’t wait!

    vodka-good-life-experience
    Black cow vodka

    tent-and-bunting-good-life-experience
    Roll up roll up – the academy awaits

    neils-amazing-pumpkins
    Neil’s amazing pumpkins

    moonlight-good-life-experience
    That moonlit sky though…

    jeremy-vine-good-life-experience
    Jeremy Vine in full flow…

    jennie-maizels-tent-at-the-goodlife-experience
    Jennie Maizels brings the blue skies

    gill-meller-gather-good-life-experience
    Gill Meller and his smokin’ fish…

    forest-bar-good-life-experience
    The forest bar

    Adam Stanley, Welsh seafood pit bake
    Adam Stanley, Welsh seafood pit bake

    fire-pit-seafood-good-life-experience-chef
    Adam Stanley, Welsh seafood pit bake

    fanfare-ciocarlia-cerys-matthews-good-life-experience
    FANFARE CIOCĂRLIA and the wonderful Cerys

    dj78-good-life-experience
    dj78 – we like his style!

    diabel-cissokho-good-life-experience
    Diabel Cissokho wowing the crowds

    clover-field-good-life-experience
    A field of clover for Gracie the dog to bounce around in

    climbingthewalls-good-life-experience
    Instagram Stories came into their own! @incredibusy

    cerys-poetry-good-life-experience
    Cerys reads Sue Boyle – ‘a leisure centre is also a temple of learning’

    cerys-in-conversation-good-life-experience
    Cerys gets us all singing ‘let’s go fly a kite’

    caught-by-the-river-good-life-experience
    Caught by the river

    apples-and-glitterballs-good-life-experience
    Apples and Glitterballs

     

    ali-clifford-jennie-maizels
    Jennie Maizels and me, Ali Clifford on the best swing ever

    xx

    Words and photographs, Ali Clifford
    Also writes over on aGreenerLifeforus.com

    charity, create, education, gardening, gardening with kids, key stage 2, kids, life

    Q&A with a community gardener

    Q&A with a community gardener

    Hannah and Kevin

    Community gardener and founder of yourspace.sutton Kevin Plicio runs local community garden nursery Seears Park Nursery in Sutton. This nursery runs on pure volunteer manpower and community spirit, running training courses and therapeutic activities in a calming and peaceful environment. He has been running the beautiful non-profit nursery for almost six years, transforming it from a run-down nursery to a social and stunning community hub which has just recently been opened to the public.

    As his daughter, Hannah, I’ve grown up around the transformation of the park, seeing it go from overgrown and slightly wild, to open space and inviting. Perfect for family days out and picnics, the nursery offers scenic and photogenic open areas, free for the public to utilise.

    13118933_577749772401247_5145497625308435159_n13119073_577749822401242_8007960149422514965_nQ- So, tell us about what made you want to run a community project?
    Well, the idea originally stemmed from me working at other projects, but these projects were all tailored to one specific group of people, or had one specific service, and I wanted to do something more socially integrating and open to all users, regardless of their background, age, or ability.

    Q- What is there to see?
    Honestly, there’s so much! We have this really great pond that’s just teeming with life, frogs, fish, newts, and even in the evening we get the occasional duck family coming to stay – it’s such a sight! We also have vegetable patches, some art display inside the main classroom from a local artist Santiago Plicio, the polytunnels have a great plant selection, including a great cactus area. We’re also in the process of making smaller gardens as part of the garden nursery, where 6 out of the 16 planned are complete. We also have this really stunning willow circle, which is just beautiful.

    photo-1465405269228-024e4723a8d9
    thanks to Stephanie Krist for this photo

    Q- Tell us about your volunteers, and who helps run the nursery.
    We have quite a large group of volunteers here at the nursery, and without them, there would be no way that the place could be running. Some people volunteer for a month, and some have been volunteering for years, and we appreciate every bit of help we get. Their generosity and time is something I’m always going to be so grateful for.

    Q- You’ve just opened to the public for the first time in almost six years, how does that feel?
    It feels amazing, we’ve been getting this place ready for the public for so long and now it feels as if our work is finally paid off, and we can do what we’ve always set out to do, create a community project that everyone can benefit for. We’ve been running training courses and school placements for years which is so amazing, but now we can finally make it open to everyone, which was always the plan. We now run a plant sale every Saturday from 10:00am until 4:00pm, and the nursery is otherwise open Monday-Thursday from 9:30 until 5:30.

    sale

    Q- Got any last words or comments that you want everyone to know?
    I’d just love to see you there! Bring your friends, family, dogs, come and experience and enjoy the nursery, see what’s here, and if you want to contribute in any way then we’d love to hear from you too!

     

    Seears Park Nursery is open to the public from 9:30am-5:30pm Monday to Thursday, and 10:am-4:00pm on a Saturday for the plant sale and general public use. Follow them on Facebook for events and updates here

    Note from Ali – Thank you so much, Hannah, for introducing me to your dad’s amazing community project. Here’s a picture of a pond that my 13-year-old son made, with the addition of the Junctus that he bought from the Nursery!

    13652431_980345098746058_2050378783_n

    Written by Hannah Plicio-Keattch

    education, Uncategorized

    BritMumsLive 2016 Instagram Panel

    So, this year I’m back at BritMumLive…

    BritmumsLive Instagram workshop

    And at 14:50 in the afternoon of Saturday 25 June 2016 I shall be joined in stage by some rather lovely friends – we’ll be talking about Instagram,

    Our team:
    @incredibusy – that’s me, Ali 
    @redtedart – Maggy  www.redtedart.com
    @coldatnight – Sian www.coldatnight.co.uk
    @paintsewgluechew – Diana  www.paintsewgluechew.com

    I’ve known Maggy for a long time, we are good friends and neighbours with similar creative and social media interests, and we also curate a craft blog together, click here.

    Our instagram feeds are similar, yet quite different – I think this is perhaps due to the age gap between our families? And Maggy crafts and creates a WHOLE lot more than I do… Plus, I spend time creating and curating content for my clients’ instagram feeds too, so we perhaps don’t dedicate the same time to to our accounts as each other! (I’ll be wearing a couple of them – www.Po-Zu.com and www.BryonyandCo.com so make sure you follow their instagram feeds for me!!)

    I was late to instagram, well, two and a half years ago I didn’t have a phone that supported the app, and experimented with my iPad – if you scroll back through my account, you’ll see I was having fun with filters and frames, and although I cringe at some of these shots, I’m loath to delete photos, as each tell #littlestoriesofmylife – and my family’s life.

    This garners a couple of questions – do you delete old photos?? and do you feature photos of yourself and your kids??

    Maggy and I both share an interest in themed photo challenges – we co-host #KidsCrafts101 and #SGIEW – two weekly hashtagged instagram challenges which we’d love you to join in with – go find the hashtags, and see what this week’s challenge is, we’d love you to join in!

    https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/kidscrafts101/

    https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sgiew/

    For me, this has been an amazing way of finding new accounts to follow and connect with, it’s also been a wonderful prompt for me more recently, to be creative, as my own boys have grown older, they are less inclined to ‘craft’ yet have really enjoyed creating stop motion animation – so we’ve been experimenting with that too!

    It’s about evolution – your own evolution, perhaps as your kids get older, or indeed, just looking back at how your feed has developed and changed. I don’t particularly have a theme or a style, and neither does Maggy – however, if we turn to our other panelists, and look at their instagram feeds, you will see that both @coldatnight and @paintsewgluechew have definite styles, and consistent feeds…

    I’ve invited Diana and Sian along to #BML16 to share their own experiences of instagram, so if you’re lucky enough to catch them ‘live’ on Saturday, you’ll find out more about them – needless to say, I hadn’t met them before the introduction of instagram in my life, and now have a little look at their feeds every morning, to see what they’ve been up to, and to say hello, good morning, and sometimes good night too! I’ve been to stay at Sian’s amazing place, Fforest {luxury camping and outdoor living at its very best} and would recommend it, an amazing space – and great for the kids….

    So – at BritMumsLive we’ll be focusing on:
    How each of the panel have grown their channel, their instagram philosophies and working practices
    How they make their feed look fantastic plus any photo styling tips/props
    We’ll be asking the panel to share their favourite instagrammer/s…
    Their best tips on gaining followers. When they were growing what strategies did they use?
    What they use to edit pictures
    Their use of hashtags, and favourites
    Which Instagram communities they love

    Here’s a link to each of our panel’s most recent photo:

    [ so good in every way ] #sgiew theme… #sgiew_BISCUIT ☕️ Oh we are LOVING a bit of baking at the moment, so we thought you might like to join in with this week’s #sgiew theme to join in with is “BISCUIT” – some comfort in this the first week of summer, yet we’re wearing wellies and grumbling about the clouds… 🌧🌧🌧Join in by following your hosts, @incredibusy @redtedart @willowdaygram and tagging #sgiew #sgiew_BISCUIT – PLUS, biscuity-bonus, we’re delighted to welcome an old friend to be our guest judge – @NikkiMcWilliams! Nikki will select x9 at the end of the week, to feature on the @sogoodineveryway grid – and you have until Midnight Sunday to join in, so whether it’s a cookie with your coffee, or a biscuit with you breakfast tea we want to see them! Oh and we might just have a little prize this week too; more on that later in the week☕️ can’t find the tea cup emoji but it’s something to do with that!! Thank you @teapigs 💛. . #littlestoriesofmylife #cookies #biscuits #mymonthofsundays (if you are following me on snapchat you’ll know we made these on Sunday morning!) #aquietstyle #coffeelover #string #coffeecam #coffeeandseasons #flatlaylover #flatlayforever

    A photo posted by Ali Clifford (@incredibusy) on

    More reading on Fforest:
    fforest-gather-2016

    fforest-and-welsh-woven-blankets

    switch-off-enjoy-fields-silence