Bringing the outdoors in

I'm sure we all have those days where the weather is not kind enough to make it a good outside play day, weather it be rain, wind or heat.

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In most cases this situation gives children the crazies and everyone seems to verge on insane!!
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....well this is what happened to us last week, the rain was thumping down on the roof and it was windy, of course all my munchkins wanted to do was plead to go outside so I made a bargain.....we all got to get dressed in wet weather clothes to make a quick trip outside to collect a selection of leaves to be the subjects of our art morning.

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We selected different shaped leaves, each with their own texture and character. Spiky, smooth, fury, long, thin, fat, strong, fragile, light etc

On arrival back in the house after removing wet shoes, shaking umbrella's and drying off with a towel we got to work. Carefully drying our leaves while we examined them closer.

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The paints and paper came out and I demonstrated how if we paint a leaf all over and put it on the paper giving it a firm but gentle push, when we take the leaf away we can see a leaf pattern on the paper.

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Well their eye's lit up and they wanted to have a go, Thalia needed a little help of course but Declan enjoyed exploring the different shapes and patterns he could make with the leaves.

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Our morning turned from insane ranting and pleading to
happiness and fun as we brought outside in to play :)
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The munchkins were also very pleased when a few days later they spotted some big new spring flowers in the garden. Declan was quick to tell us that they had grown bigger and bigger because of the rain and had decided to pop out and say hello.