Stick Pencils and Conkers Week 14

Today before Uncle Nigel left we went to the local park. Hannah had a delightful time being pushed by Uncle Nigel for 20 minutes! In the meanwhile James and I had an explore and looked at the lambs. James found a stick and then started to pretend it was an axe and said he was an axe chopper. He then took that stick home and realised it made marks on the ground. I said the stick is like a pencil and that maybe we should get daddy to use a knife to sharpen it. He then started to write letters on the floor (including a J that was backwards) and as he was writing said the "world in a big piece of paper and this is my pencil!"

While we were at the park James wanted to try and climb a tree. The first branch was quite high so I found a big stone and helped him up - he loved this and was so excited to think that as he got bigger the tree would be easier to climb. As we were doing this I noticed something on the floor - I showed James and he was really interested - they were old cases of something and were spiky. James said they were like a cactus. I thought they had something to do with chestnuts but was not sure. James got to me carry loads in my pocket to take home for the nature basket. I said that may hurt my hand and he said that I "should not squeeze my hand in my pocket too hard!"

When we got home we looked on the computer and saw that they were conker shells from a horse chestnut tree. I am so illiterate with nature BUT I am learning! I explained to James the game you can play with conkers and he was so excited. He asked if he could pick some up - he knows that you can only pick wild things up and not from people's gardens. I said yes and he was so pleased. I noticed a rhyme when I was searching for information - "Oddly oddly onker, my first conker" - you are meant to say that when you see your first conker - the children loved this and kept saying it! We are going to keep looking at the tree - I have had a good look already while James was playing and noticed the leaves look like hanging bananas and that the buds are very sticky!

We now have to wait until the Autumn to be able to play the conker game - something to look forward too. I also read that the best conkers are kept for a year in a dry place to make them really hard. We could have some really good conker games then....