We love to spend time out in the garden and always looking for new family based games for outdoor use, Molkky fits the bill for us this wooden throwing game is simple to set up and also to play!
Mölkky is a Finnish throwing game invented by Lahden Paikka company in 1996. It is reminiscent of kyykkä, a centuries-old throwing game with Karelian roots, our version is by game makers Tactic and was sent to use to try out and review.
With all the lovely sunny weather we have been having lately it was a perfect time to try out our new game, The game set up is so simple all you need to do is set the wooden pins up in the order shown in the instructions and then take turn in throwing the 'Molkky" to knock down the number pins. the winner is the 1st person to reach 50 points, but if you go over 50 your points drop down to 25 ( so not as easy as it 1st seems )
Bodhi who is six loved playing this game and i liked that he was also practising his adding skills, as you need to add up the points from each throw , be careful tho as the pins need to be fully knocked over to count. I can see this game getting a lot of use over the summer and we will take it with us to friends and family.
You can by Molkky on line via argos and this version comes in a little wooden crate, This will last well and be an investment game due to it being wooden. I really enjoyed playing this game as did the rest of the family. This was sent to us in return for a blog post and review. Thank you
Our Garden has been a little un-loved over the last few months due to building work! But now the garden has pretty much been cleared we have had a new patio laid and the fences have been started.
When we moved into our house over five years ago the garden was a bit of a waste of space, a dull patio , 45 ft of grass and two huge trees. the plan was to cut down the tree at the back fence and to build a shed for hubby Chris but not just any kind of shed this was going to be a man-land heaven shed!
once the tree was cut down, it took my dad and Chris just over two weeks to build the shed , looking back on it we should have made shed a tiny bit smaller but hey it keeps the hubby happy! Chris will spend most of the summer evenings in this shed, He likes to make things from wood and has a huge pile of the stuff inside of the shed, the smaller side part houses the lawn mower and other garden type things.
It is a lovely shed and when we had our house valued last year we was told to market it as a workshop and that it would be a plus point for a lot of viewers, We do have a garage but its in a block away from the house, so having this space even if it was just for the garden bits is a real plus point to any garden.
We love spending at much time out in our garden as we can, with a young child its a great place to run around and play while being safe and close to home. we made Bodhi a small own space towards the back of the garden we turned a old flower bed into a wood chipping patch that was safe for him to play and dig and well just be a boy! He loves the space he has a sand pit and a fold away water table, we spent most afternoons out in the garden this summer and i am looking forward to spending more time as a family in our garden in summer 2017
It is also wonderful to have a space to eat outside, we will soon have a new side patio to enjoy BBQ's with friends and family or just lazy weekend lunches on a rug on the grass. I feel its too easy to spend all of your time in the house , with my work i spend my time looking at my iMac screen so to have a space to work outside via my iPad would be lovely.
The large cherry tree is staying in our garden ( for now ) i feel the garden would feel much larger without the tree and it would also be a lot less work , no leaves in the autumn and no blossom in the spring. but... Chris loves that tree and is sticking his heels in that it is staying. so we shall see on that one.
I can't wait for my new patio to be finished along with the new fence, i love the fact that we have such lovely neighbours on both sides of our house so we have gone with 3ft fences and on one side we are putting in a jack & jill gate so the little boy next door and Bodhi can play.
I think that Phil Spencer is a man who knows gardens , and this ideas in the above video are just what i am trying to do with our small space garden. I can't wait for spring 2017 so i can get out into the garden and get it all ready for a wonderful summer of play, relaxing and BBQ's
This post was a paid collaboration with Channel 4 all words and views are that of my own.
When asked if Bodhi and myself would like to review a product from interplay's my living world range it really was a no brainier, Bodhi loves all things creepy and crawly , when i was a child i used to spend my summers filling empty ice cream tubs with lady birds and setting up snail farms ( we even held snail races in out back garden )
Now i knew i was being sent the worms with the worm world by post ( live worms are an add on of £3 ) it was still a little bit of a shock finding a tub of soil with live worms in and yes i did squeal just a little bit !
set up so very simple and Bodhi really enjoyed helping getting the worm world ready for the worms, the set comes with everything you need apart from soil ( no big deal ) we had fun digging in the garden for this part of set up
we have also enjoyed watching the worms before bed as this is when they are most active ( worms don't like bright lights so will stay hidden in the day time ) Bodhi is amazed at the tunnels and the disappearing leaves ( the worms drag them into the soil to eat them )
I am very impressed with the worm world , i feel it is something that could work well in a classroom or playgroup. Bodhi is loving having pet worms in his bedroom and has asked for a butterfly kit and the ant farm next !! ( maybe Christmas? ) the age range is just about right ( marked at 5+ ) this isn't something id have left Bodhi to do by himself but this would make a prefect gift for that hard to buy for age of child between 5-8 years
watch our youtube video of set up and unboxing of the worm world below
Thank you to Interplay for sending the worm world for review
I have always dreamed of picking my fresh produce from my garden for cooking and the idea of a few chickens for eggs, when in reality it isn't going to happen, last year I grew tomatoes that didn't ripen and my raspberry plant produced seven ( yes seven ) berries so I am putting the veg patch space to better use this year and just sticking to my little herb garden.
The other reason I wanted to grow our own is for feed our pet tortoise Tuc he eats salad leaves and green, I also wanted to get Bodhi a little more green fingered so I popped to the shops and picked up some cress seeds and Cotten wool.
You can't get any simpler then growing cress !! I had saved and old plastic egg box and this was perfect, bodhi pretty much did it all him self, from ripping up the Cotten wool to sprinkling the cress seeds onto the Cotten wool and lastly giving it a good drink !
After only a few days we had fresh cress growing and I had one very happy four year old and a very happy tortoise , you can pick cress seeds up from garden centres/pound shops and most supermarkets I got our from wilkos
#Toddler approved Tuesday for this weeks post i am keeping it REALLY simple. we are in the middle of decorating our living and play space so poor Bodhi hasn't had much space to play so when i saw that summer dry weather was on its way i dragged out this plastic dinosaurs and got making a small world space in the garden,
For this i used items we already had in our garden, i found a shaded spot by our shed and added rocks/sand/and bark chipping down for different zones for the dinosaurs to live and play, i also placed an empty seed tray for Bodhi to add water to for either a bath or lake, this was all done while Bodhi was at morning nursery , Once we got home we headed into the garden i didn't tell him about the Dinosaurs, didn't take him long to find them, he so really pleased to have a game to play out in the garden, for a little while we just lay in our long grass ( yes i know it needs cutting ) and watched the Dinosaurs pretending we was at a ( in Bodhi's words ) " Dinosaur Zoo "
Bodhi spent well over an hour playing with this simple set up ( i know this as i got to put washing on and out on the line with out a little helper ) we stopped for lunch and then i let him play with the water, we don't have an outside tap , but we do have a water but, he loves nothing more then filling and pouring water soon all of the dinosaurs were all in the 'sea' having a lovely time!
I have just ordered a kids Tuff spot tray from Amazon for £14.99 i am sure something like this would be a perfect play idea for a tray ( but doesn't have to be ) i am looking forward to spending many an afternoon out in our little garden having fun and playing pretend games together.
I am linking you with the lovely LarabeeUK for a blog hop with 13 other bloggers each sharing a great kids in the garden post, we love spending time in our garden and lets face it we could all do with a little less screen time and more fresh air time!
If you would like to read the other #kidsinthegarden blogs please pop over to LarabeeUK blog to check them all out, it kicks off with dinosaur plant markers and my blog is day 5 !
Bodhi has been asking me for a few weeks now to feed the birds in the garden as he often sees our next door putting out bread on her grass. i really don't like doing this as we have a lot of cats in our road and the often catch the birds when they are eating from the ground, so we came up with the idea of making bird feeder cups.
what you will need -
paper cups
garden string
lard ( yum )
bird seed
nuts
dried worms
jug
scissors
spoon
Now i let Bodhi play and mix all of the dried parts together on our kitchen table but this is up to you and how OCD you are with cleaning and mess! Body loved this and really wanted to try a worm! ( crazy boy )
1 - get your paper cup and make a small hole on two sides, thread the garden string to form a handle and a stand for the birds. 2 - mix all the dried parts into your paper cups 3 - ( grown up help needed ) melt the lard in a jug ( I just put the while block in for 2 mins and it was melted, it will smell !! ) 4 - pour the melted lard over the dry mix and stir well 5 - leave overnight to full set 6 - hang in your garden and enjoy bird watching.
