Morning! I hope you are all well and am sure looking forward to the weekend. Instead of my usual family holiday post today I wanted to share a great idea for getting out and exploring this weekend. The National Trust have free entry to their properties for this weekend only, so you can get out, explore and spend some time together as a family. They are also offering a 20% discount in their cafes aswell, if you spend over £15, so no need to worry if it's a bit wet or chilly for a picnic! Sounds fantastic doesn't it, sadly there is a downside. Larger families, like ours, will have to pay the entry price for some as the free entry is for 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children. However I think this is a fantastic opportunity to visit some of the beautiful estates and houses owned by the National Trust. Also the perfect place to try tick off some of the things on their '50 Things To Do Before You're 11 3/4'. I am very pleased to say we have done most of the things on this list and our favourite, rolling down big hills, or shingle banks at Felixstowe in our case! So which National Trust place will you be visiting this weekend? Here are some of my favourite choices -
Monks House - The coastal restreat of Virginia Woolf
Red House - the iconic Arts & Crafts home of William Morris
Corfe Castle - I spent many hours playing in the ruins of this 1000 year old castle in Dorset as a child.
Trelissick Garden - This looks like a wonderful place to visit for chidlren to explore!
Do let me know if you visit anywhere with the National Trust this weekend and if you ticked off anymore things on the 'list'!
Morning! I would like to ask whoever stole Spring to return it immeadiately, pretty please. I need to see daffodils, to have the washing drying on the line and to know it's not long until strawberry season. I know the power of nature is beyond our control but I am ready for warmer, longer days. Living in the beautiful Suffolk countryside I am lucky to witness the change in the seasons and it is lovely to pass the fields along country lanes and see baby lamps leaping. One farm not so far away is Jimmys Farm and a fab farm it is. We have watched for ourselves how Jimmy has expanded his farming business over the past few years. From a few pigs and a farm shop to a restaurant, Joules concession, amazing veggie garden, butterflies and guinea pigs, Jimmy's Farm has become a great family day, or half a day out.
This weekend sees the Jimmy's Farm team hosting a Science Festival as part of National Science Week. There will be practical science shows and workshops, resident scientist from BBC's The One Show, Dr. Marty Jopson and Professor Kaos will be sharing his electric show. As if that wasn't enough there will be the Bug Man who will be bringing along his tarantulas, scorpions, hissing cockroaches and much more besides. If creepy crawlies aren't your thing you could find out the links between rockets and food, well I used to say to Connor and Jack that they had rocket fuel for tea! Tickets also include Nature Trail access, so you can get to see the pigs, alpacas, guinea pigs and the chicken safari. Oh and did I mention kids go FREE! Adult tickets are only £5 if booked in advance or £6 on the gate, which all just sounds too good to be true.
Hands on science can really capture a childs imagination and lets them explore and ask questions. Kitty has developed a real interest in experiments at the moment and thankfully as she's still in the Foundation Stage at school so she still can lead in what she is taught. With an amazing and patient TA she has been conducting an experiment with ice and water for weeks! She has frozen water at school, defrosted it in all sorts of places, seeing how long it takes to defrost. We have even had an ice cube come home and been sent back to school to see if it melted on the way home! Last week we filled an ice cube tray with milk at home to see if it froze and Kitty then reported back to her TA. They have frozen jelly yesterday at school, with several of her classmates now keen to do experiments aswell as they want to know what Kitty is up to. Whether I have a budding scientist or not I am not sure, but we are hoping the car will behave this weekend so we can pop across the Orwell bridge and visit Jimmy's Farm Science Festival.
Are you close enough to get to this fab event? If you are lucky enough to get to Jimmy's Farm this weekend I am sure you will have an amazing time.
Morning! Hope you're all well and surviving in this snow. I have to admit I am a little bored with it now and would like to leave the house without wearing wellies! Today I am thrilled to welcome Fiona of Coombe Mill as our guest blogger, sharing her family day out at Eden Project. Every week Fiona has a 'Country Kids' linky she hosts on her blog, for others to share their family fun outside from the past week. So if you have been having some fun outside and have blogged about it, be sure to pop over and add your link to Fiona's post. I will pass youover to Fiona to share her families afternoon out at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
We left it till the afternoon to visit with the main intention being to go ice skating, but it is very easy to use the whole day up. Facilities for children are excellent with a great educational building now open. It is interactive and really captures the imagination of children. Throughout the year they also have special activities indoors and outside for the children to get involved with, so well worth checking out on our free wi fi if you are staying with us. Also if you visit Eden Project once you get free entry for the rest of the year!
Fun for our children began as soon as they left the car. Who could miss out on running up and down the grassy slopes on the way in, or playing around the huge driftwood horse! We sorted the tickets whilst the children watched the automated eco theatre production and then it was off to explore. There are plenty of natural wood built play stations and my children could have been happy with just this for the day!
This is one of my favourite sculptures, he is a recycled alien called "Wee Man" made out of all the domestic waste from a typical household in a year. It does make you question where it all goes and what we are doing to our planet!
We finally made it inside to the education and science building to discover more treats instore. There are plenty of models and displays to see, a trumpet to blow and a huge mechanical nut cracker to operate.
We were keen to find the St Breward 'seed' sculpture. Mined from our village and carved from a massive 160 tonne granite block over 4 years, it is the centre piece with a whole room dedicated to it and a great write up! Alistair took the photo and missed the top off! It does make an impressive cone shape (trust me).
With only minutes to spare we had a quick venture into the tropical biome. The colourful array of plants, waterfall and tropical shelters will be fun for a return visit, just a few snaps and our time was up for skating in the big outdoor tent.
It was dusk as we made our way to the tent and the children were full of excitement. We were the last skate of the day and it was surprisingly quiet on the ice, perfect for us. I left Nick with the camera, since he was convinced he would break a leg attempting to skate, and joined the children on the ice. It certainly didn't disappoint, a fabulous 40 minutes, well worth the £5 per person! If you are staying with us at Coombe Mill for February half term or before, I can thoroughly recommend a skating trip to Eden before the big tent is dismantled ready for the summer months.
Thank you Fiona, it looks like you all had a fantastic day out. My own chidlren are yet to try ice skating as there isn't a rink nearby, but they are all desperate to try!
Join us for more great guest posts with ideas for family days out and I will be adding my own ideas too.
