Our Summer Bucket List - things to do with a 4 year old in London

I finished work yesterday ahead of my maternity leave. It's a very strange mix of emotions and even though I've been off for a year before it still feels very odd! I've finished work a few weeks before my due date so that I can spend some quality time with Wiss over the summer, and we've drawn up this wish list to keep us entertained.*

Swim at Brockwell Lido - the lido is gorgeous & there is a great cafe too. The water temperature is a very doable 21 degrees at the moment due to the hot weather. There is also a brilliant kids adventure playground at the other side of Brockwell Park so we can head there after lunch.

Visit one or some of London's Fountains - there are some near London Bridge or Kings Cross, an installation on the South Bank terrace, and more at the popular Diana Memorial Park. Take your pick, and a change of clothes!

Kids Workshop at the V&A - I'm actually leading one of the drop-in architectural drawing classes being held at the V&A on Sundays during August, so Wiss will be there anyway, but it will also be great fun. Held in the courtyard, we will be looking at different ways to draw and there is a 4m long drawing board so all the kids can get involved. Plus there's the shallow lake to paddle in afterwards!

Most of the museums in London are running child-friendly workshops through the summer holidays so check out their websites to find something original to do.

Have dinner at the pub after nursery (Wiss's suggestion!) - a very simple one this but it will be a novelty for both me and Papa to collect Wiss from nursery.

Day (or two) at the Beach - it's no secret how much I love being beside the seaside so I'm hoping we'll get to spend some time at either Whitstable in Kent or Chalkwell in Essex.

Summer of Gold Stars - I learned about Parragon's preschool workbooks at BritMums last month. They are encouraging little ones to complete a page a day of their fun & educational books. I thought it would be a great way for Wiss to prepare for the start of school - and he seems to agree. 6.30am phonics anyone??!

Weekend & Toucan Boxes - as much as I'd like to be out and about all day every day this summer, I'm also aware that being 8 months pregnant may mean we need some quieter days too! We have been really lucky to have been sent these boxes to review for the blog. Both of them are filled with different fun activities so we can't wait to try them out and report back.

Sharky & George's Party: Mothers Meeting - I can't believe I hadn't heard about Mothers Meetings before: they have been talked about as for 'The Coolest Mums' (I'm sold already!) but I agree that new mums don't only want to talk about nappies and nipple cream, especially if they are from a creative background. Check out their calendar full of original and exciting meetings for mums, and their kids too. We are booked to go to the Sharky & George Massive Kids Party at Battersea Power Station but there's lots to choose from, and all for £5 each.

What have you all got planned for your summer holiday activities with the kids? As always, I'd love to hear from you so either leave a comment below or you can tweet me @thisiswiss. Happy Holidays :)



*all dependent on the baby not making an early appearance! ;)

Graze Box Hack - Whitstable Crabbing Game

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know what a wonderful time we had in Whitstable a few weeks ago (there's a post all about it here.)

One of the things that Wiss enjoyed most was crabbing on the beach. He was taken under the wing of a very experienced 9 year old crabber who showed him the ropes, and he caught 5 crabs!

I wanted to make something that would remind Wiss of our holiday and so the 'Wonderful Whitstable Crabbing Game' was invented! We made it together in an hour or so and it's been played with every night this week. Beware, it can get very competitive!

To make the Wonderful Whitstable Crabbing Game you will need:

I stuck a photo of Wiss on the beach on the lid of the Graze box, and a sea bed image inside the base. I used the same image to make half of the card disks, and the other half were just plain white.

Onto the plain card disks I drew 10 crabs, 8 seaweeds & two extra bonus disks - some pirate treasure and... a cake, of course! (This was Wiss's idea) Finally I drew some bacon to add to the crabbing line as bait. This is the magic ingredient - all crabs find raw bacon irresistible! While I drew, Wiss coloured them in.

To make the counters you will need to sandwich a piece of the magnetic strip (or you could use a paper clip) between a disk with a drawing and a disk with the seabed. I used double sided tape on each disk for speed but glue will also work .

Next make the crabbing lines for between 2-4 players. 

Now you're ready to play!

The rules: place all the counters in the Graze box with the sea bed image showing (they should camouflage with the box). Take it in turns to lower your crabbing line and see what you catch.

Depending on the age of your child, you can alter the ways to win. The easiest way is whoever has the most crabs, or whoever has the bonus counters. For older children you could assign 0 points for seaweed, 2 points for a crab and 5 points each for the bonus counters.

Happy crabbing and happy holidays!

If you'd like more ideas on upcycling your Graze boxes check out my previous post. And if you do make any Graze Box Hacks yourself then please share them with me, I'd love to see them!

Wonderful Whitstable - our holiday in pictures

A couple of weeks ago we took a little family holiday to Whitstable, Kent. You can never guarantee the weather on a UK holiday, so I had prepared lots of activities and researched the area just in case. There is a castle to explore, the downs for walking and kite flying, an indoor swimming pool, and even more to do in the surrounding areas.

As it turned out, the weather was amazing! We ditched all other activities in favour of the beach. Every day. And in the evenings too!

I adore being near the sea and it seems Wiss has inherited this love. He was so happy just digging around, collecting stones, pouring water, paddling, crabbing and even swimming in the sea. There are tons of gorgeous independent coffee and gift shops and lovely restaurants in Whitstable (and we are keen to return to check them out properly) but we didn't want to leave the beach so we opted for packed lunches and take away dinners eaten on the beach, followed by ice cream for dessert as the sun went down. Bliss!

We finished off our holiday with a stop off at one of Kent's many pick-your-own fruit farms. It was so hot that it felt like we were in Italy amongst the vines! We picked strawberries, blackberries and raspberries and bought an extra punnet of cherries for good measure. We showed Wiss how to choose the ripe ones and he happily spent nearly an hour searching for the best fruit (and looking for bugs!) We had fruit salad for dessert that night, berries with breakfast and still had enough for blackberry granita and 2 pots of jam. Yum!

Apologies for the photo heavy post this time but the pictures really do say more than words could. And if you want even more beach pictures you can see my other posts here and here!

Happy holidays wherever you are :)

That 'Brand New' Feeling

To launch their brand new website, Ryman's are asking bloggers what gives them that 'Brand New' feeling. Well, I love a new notebook or sketchbook...or in fact any new stationary! Writing on the first page is so exciting and strangely daunting at the same time. The first page has to be worthy so I make sure I use my best handwriting, or draw especially carefully. The first page contains so many possibilities, it is the beginning of something, something unknown! And I love that. I know I'm not alone in this stationary fetish!

But I had an ever better experience of feeling brand new just last week. We went on holiday to Whitstable, Kent and we were lucky enough to have the most amazing weather. (Watch out for a holiday post coming this weekend!) But whatever the weather I was determined that I'd swim in the sea. I grew up by the coast and I have always loved being at the beach. I'm not much of a sunbather to be honest but a swim in the sea? Oh yes please!

Swimming in the sea makes me feel alive. I get the feeling of being totally free, of being powerful and at the same time, of being very small compared to the vastness of nature. I have time to think, away from everything. And if you are swimming in the British seas you also get the added feeling of being very, very cold! But just for a while, until you get used to it. And then it is amazing, honestly.

And once you are done swimming you can wrap up in a towel, feet in the sand (or pebbles) and just listen to the sound of the waves. For me, there is no better way to feel brand new.

*in association with Ryman's

#SilentSunday

#BlogBumpClub - 32 weeks

A very simple post from me this week as we're on holiday in wonderful Whitstable. Our last holiday as a family of 3! There will be a longer post about the holiday itself and what we got up to but for now, I just wanted to record these moments :)

Don't forget to check out how the other bloggers are getting on over at the BlogBumpClub... Bye for now!