I love crunchy autumnal walks. The cold crisp air, small children bobbing like balloons through the trees, the colours and the sounds; it’s childcare bliss. The only down side seems to be the pockets full of collected treasures that are presented to me. Yellow and red leaves, conkers half shelled, sycamore and pine and bits of interesting bark. Collecting isn’t the problem, it’s the storage. These things will pocket-compost if left; not nice.

These treasures have to be kept special though, so I’ve been racking the grey cells and come up with the Autumnal Scan. Once we’re back from the walk we’re going to polish up all the treasures and drop them artfully onto the computer’s scanner. Voila, one printable picture to stick up. While the detritus can be happily fed to the worms.

Enjoy.

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, be healthy, collecting, enjoy and achieve, geeky, out and about

My own children have been a bit obsessive about collecting marbles for a good few years now. In the occasional, and slightly ritualised, visits to the local toy shops they are drawn time and again to these shiny treasures with vows of great behaviour proffered should they get one or two to call their own. I’ve resisted the urge to make them the de facto currency of the welikeplay shed, but their may still be mileage in that idea.

As yet they are still collectables, rattling around in a large Roses tin or skipping down improvised marble runs, but it occurred to me yesterday that they should learn how to play the game. But I missed out on this, my schooling included yoyos, trading cards, conkers but no marbles; so I turned to The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Do , a great resource for the play-pro and not as gender-specific as it purports. Unfortunately No1 child’s copy has gone to live where the lost things are, so it was time to Google it.

for rules… read on »

tag... play for today, 5up, 8up, collecting, toys, traditional games

Right now in the UK, and for three or four weeks to come, there are conkers beneath the mighty chestnuts. Collecting them is so much fun. Arm yourself with a sturdy bag and a polishing cloth for each child and set sail for your local woodland/scrubland/park/garden.

Please ensure that you’re not snaffling them from an area of nature conservation. And even in ‘normal’ areas ask them to sort and select for nicely round ones, leaving the others behind for bugs, weevils and grubs.

Once you’ve got them its time to use them, or they’ll rot in that plaggie bag of yours (in a grim experience this does take a year).

A list of uses follows the jump…

read on »

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, 8up, cheating, collecting, nature, traditional games