Autumn Sand Art #BRCraftClub #BRbloggers

Lara and Holly love creating sand art pictures. Set them loose with a jar of coloured sand and some sticky paper and they can create masterpieces.

These autum leaf sand art decorations were a fun craft activity for an autumn afternoon. The kits come with a set of pre-cut leaf shapes with sticky peel-off covering. Inside the kit you'll find some little sachets of brightly coloured sand in all sorts of autumnal colours. Gently pour the sand over the sticky leaves in fabulous colourful combinations.

Lara was surprised at how bright the colours were and told me they weren't realistic (!) until we then went for a walk down the lane outside school and saw bright reds, oranges and vibrant yellows among the fallen leaves on our way. Only then did she realise how stunning nature can be.

You can find lots of autumn craft ideas for kids at Baker Ross.

Autumn Inspired Craft Ideas from Yellow Moon

Autumn is well and truely here. Today was a gorgeous warm autumn day with yellow sun, falling leaves and just a hint of winter in the air as the sun set. I love this time of year and the autumn colours and shapes feature a lot in Lara's school work right now. But autumn days aren't always as warm and sunny as today so you can't always get out to play in the leaves or explore the hedgerows which is why these find craft ideas from Yellow Moon are so appreciated - you can bring the autumnal feel inside without the need for wellies and coats!

Lara and Holly enjoy craft activities and are just starting to work together as a team.  Today they have been making 3D family trees from soft foam pieces.  I provided them with lots of little head-shots of all of their family members and then the two of them worked together to build autumnal photo frames featuring all their closes family.  Lara helped Holly to peel back the stickers.  It was great to see them working together to make a construction that they could both be proud of.  I'm sure you could make something similar with real leaves but this seemed so easy to do and it didn't involve any glue!  Phew.  A set of 3 of these 3D photo frames costs just £3.95.

Another favourite from the Yellow Moon range of autumn craft activities is this stained-glass effect hedgehog kit.  The kit comes with lots of different colours of cellophane which you can cut out and stick over the holes in the hedgehog shapes.  Tie one of the different coloured ribbons to your finished creation and hang from a window to make the most of the autumn sunshine.

Holly was very proud of her creation, especially so when she saw it light up against the window.  This was a great exercise in glue-rationing for her!  Normally Holly goes crazy with the glue but she very soon discovered that too much glue doesn't work well for these delicate stained-glass cut-outs; I was impressed at how carefully she approached her second attempt.  This kit contained 6 hedgehog shapes so the girls got to make several different colours.

Don't forget that you can earn between 5% and 20% cashback for your school on most Yellow Moon purchases - if your school or PTA isn't already registered, why not drop them a hint?

House of Fraser - Getting Ready for Autumn

I love Lara's school. I love the fact that every day features another outdoor learning opportunity and they make so much of their beautiful school grounds.  So far this term Lara has picked apples of a whole host of different varieties, picked plums for plum pie, collected sunflower seeds, dug a vegetable patch for the younger children and drawn pictures on the playground.  With such a large part of their week spent outside, Lara always needs to be kitted out with plenty of outdoor clothing and, as a non-uniform school, that leaves us with a fair few options when it comes to autumn and winter clothes.

House of Fraser asked Lara to choose something from their range of autumn kids clothing to really celebrate getting outdoors this autumn.  Even at the weekends we have been going on our own autumnal adventures - Cliveden National Trust property near Taplow is a fabulous place for walking through the woods and kicking leaves, as is The Vyne in Hampshire.

The Vyne

Ever since our summer holiday in the Yorkshire dales, we've promised ourselves that we will get outside for more family adventures whatever the weather.  On holiday both of our girls started the week struggling with walking but by the end of the week Lara was walking 12km in a day!  We walked come rain, sun or high winds so we know that a little autumny drizzle won't stop us.  We've even invested in a new book called "Kiddiwalks in Berkshire" to help inspire our autumn explorations - The Kiddiwalks range of books features 1-4 mile walks designed specifically with preschooolers in mind.

Lara's autumnal adventure outfit is TOTALLY Lara - pink, but not too girly.  This Benetton girls padded jacket is really warm and shower proof and will keep the wind out perfectly.  We have paired it with a brand new pair of Polarn O. Pyret cotton leggings - the fact that House of Fraser stocks P.O.P. clothing makes me smile; I can't think of any other kids clothing brand in existence that makes cotton clothing of this quality and robustness and if Lara would just stop growing quite so quickly, their leggings REALLY last well, despite muddy walks, crazy playgrounds and mucky crafts.

If you are looking for family-friendly ideas of adventurous days out this autumn then I highly recommend the National Trust 50 Things to do before you're 11 and 3/4 which is our regular inspiration for outdoor fun.

#StreamTeam After School Club - Some Autumtunal Activities

School is very much back in full swing and Lara has settled really well in her new class with her new, Year 1 routine.  As a working family, we don't normally get home in the evenings until well after 6pm so there is normally a mad rush to make dinner as soon as we get home, this usually involves me bundling the girls into another room to either watch some of their favourite TV shows or to get creative with their collection of arts and crafts materials.  This helps them chill out after a busy day at school or nursery but it also gives me a little space in the kitchen to get on with cooking.

This month, Netflix asked StreamTeam members for some after-school inspiration.  For my girls, when they come in through the door and crash on the sofa, they now pester me to watch something from Netflix.  There are lots of new children s television series' available on Netflix to coincide with the start of the new school term.

Lara and Holly have been so excited to see some new episodes of Bubble Guppies and Go Diego Go.  Lara has also really got into the animated TV series, Turbo Fast which features the gang of snails from the Turbo movie.

And, I know I go on about this, but the Kids interface on the Apple TV for accessing and browsing Netflix is so easy to use that the girls are very independent and can choose their own shows.  This means that I don't have to keep rushing in from the kitchen every two minutes to choose another program.  Their Netflix profiles will only show them kids shows, so there's no fear that they may accidentally end up watching Breaking Bad!

If you are looking for some crafty inspiration for autumnal after-school activities then Lara and Holly have some ideas for you.  On your walk home from school, collect as many different shapes of leaf as you can find... and as many different nuts and seeds as you can discover.

1. Trace around the seeds and nuts onto a piece of paper.  See if you can remember which outline is for which seed and write down the names.  We found hazelnuts, conkers and chestnuts on our travels and Lara has loved learning how to write these new words.

2. Make leaf rubbings using chalks, pastels or crayons.  Explore the different shapes of leave and the patterns of the veins on them.  Try experimenting with different colours of paper for dramatic effects.

3. Build patterns and pictures out of leaves.  Use plenty of PVA glue to stick the leaves and seeds to card or paper.  In the past we have had GREAT fun building big pictures out of different things we have found in our garden or on the way home.

Butternut Squash and Pecan Loaf Recipe

Over the past few weekends I have been experimenting with autumnal loaves using some of the great produce that the girls and I have managed to forage and using awesome fruits and vegetables from the supermarket - I LOVE this time of year.  We created this recipe for the Panasonic Ideas Kitchen.

I have been testing out the Panasonic SD-ZB2502 Breadmaker to make mess-free no-nonsense loves of bread that embody the smells and flavours of autumn. We have tried bramble bread and maple loaves... all a bit experimental (and not always that successful as I'm not very good at guessing the amount of water I need to add or remove when I add fresh fruit to a loaf of home baked bread). 

The star of the show though has to be this Butternut Squash and Pecan Loaf which uses a mixture of wholemeal and plain flour. I was aiming for a slightly squishy, sweet load which would make a wonderful snack toasted over a bonfire or served for a warming afternoon tea after a walk through the autumn leaves.

INGREDIENTS
200g wholemeal bread lour
200g white bread flour
15g softened butter
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons golden syrup
100ml tepid water
3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
75 g chopped pecan nuts
500g butternut squash (Seeds removed but no need to remove the skin)

METHOD

• Cut the butternut squash up into big chunks, drizzle with a little vegetable oil and roast on a baking tray at about 180 degrees for about 30 minutes until golden and well softened.  Allow to cool and then scrape the flesh from the skin and mash it up in a bowl to make a coarse butternut squash mash.

• Add all of the ingredients other than the pecan nuts and yeast to the pan of your breadmaker.  I used a whole meal menu on the Panasonic Breadmaker which takes a leisurely 6 hours from start to finish.  The Panasonic SD-ZB2502 has a special dispenser for the yeast which allows it to stay dry and away from the salt and water until the correct time which means you are likely to get a better rise.  If your bread machine doesn't have a dispenser, add the yeast to a different corner of the tin than the water and salt.

• The breadmaker also has a large dispenser for nuts or fruit which carefully drops them into the dough shortly before the main rise so that they don't get crushed during the preparation of the dough.  I chose not to add the butternut squash this way because I wanted it to be well mixed into the dough but I added the peacan nuts using the dispenser and was really impressed at how well intact the pieces of nut stayed and yet how well distributed throughout the loaf they were.

• Leave the breadmaker to do its business!

• As soon as the breadmaker tells you that it is finished, remove the loaf quickly from the tin to stop it from absorbing condensation or sinking.

• I found this butternut squash and pecan bread to be very much like a malt loaf - best served in very thick slices toasted and smothered in butter!  I also tried small cubes of this sumptuous bread sprinkled with icing sugar and dipped in a shallow bowl of sweet and syrupy dessert wine.

Disclosure: I loaned a Panasonic Breadmaker to develop my autumnal loaves!