The latest edition of A Year and a Day landed on our doorstep last week (gifted) after we successfully applied to be brand reps for the magazine. And it didn’t disappoint. With Autumnal crafts and stories, recipes and movement activities, it is just a pleasure to delve into.
This year already I’ve made Elderflower cordial and Elderberry syrup, alongside a jelly, which I just can’t remember what foraged fruit I used! So rather than make the rosehip syrup, which did sound delicious, we focused on the Hedgehog ideas. My 5 year old loved the movement – curling up, stretching out, and even learnt a new word – sploot – which hedgehog enthusiasts use to describe the behaviour of the hedgehog when it lies on its front with legs splayed if it’s too hot or uncomfortable!
The Brothers Grimm story, Hans My Hedgehog, provided a lovely opportunity to discuss new vocabulary, such as swine, but it was a little wordy and long-winded for her to keep up with! My 10 year old, however, loved it! We found leaves and animals on them, using them to represent the hedgehog’s food with drawings of slugs, snails and worms then made a plasticine hedgehog using a conker shell as quills, to re-enact him foraging through the leaves to find the food! I was even inspired to try my hand at a watercolour of a hedgehog – it didn’t turn out too badly although there’s lots of room for improvement. A simple Acrostic poem was also very achievable and encouraged my reluctant writer to have a go!
Rather than hunt for rosehips, we collected hundreds of Horse Chestnuts and introduced the girls to the game of Conkers. We used a beautiful mushroom shaped clamp to hold the conker and stop little palms being stabbed when using small hand drills to bore a small hole through the centre. Some conkers we threaded onto an old wire coat-hanger to make a door garland, and others we strung to play conkers.
There are still lots of ideas inside we haven’t tried and are hoping to make some blackberry ink before they finally disappear for winter and a shadow puppet box to retell the Briar Rose fairytale.
If you’d like to order your own copy and buy some of the gorgeous back copies of A Year and a Day, then pop my code in at checkout for a sneaky discount! Just use AYBON21 for 5% off.
Disclaimer: The magazine I received was complimentary for review purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.
The Chimney House 