Continuing to follow our children’s interests involved a shopping trip to Country Baskets and B&M for Kirstan and Tracey, as you know that at Jollies our children’s wish is our command!!

A little bit of time, love and imagination later and the Jolly Garden Centre was open for business…. xxxx

…..and lead to an exciting adventure!

Free-Flow are currently obsessed with growing things after planting their sunflower seeds at nursery a few weeks ago. We can’t wait to see how these sunflowers continue to grow when they are planted in their gardens at home (we are hoping for lots of lovely photos in the future which we can share with all our friends )

At the same time that they planted their sunflower seeds and were ever-so-slightly obsessed with planting seeds they noticed the seeds in the Honeydew melon when it was being prepared for them all at snack time…. Would a melon seed grow they wondered?!?!

So they popped a few seeds into some soil in a couple of spare pots and a couple of weeks later the seedlings had grown! This then led on to Kirstan, Emily and Laura’s room’s next adventure…

The seedlings needed potting on, but they also needed to be protected from the weather; as it can still get a bit chilly overnight, so Kirstan had a brainwave and asked if they could go into Tracey’s greenhouse to continue to grow…

Later that day the room went on a little walk around Woodlesford (as they often do!) but this time the destination was…. Tracey’s garden!!

The children appeared at the side gate and had soon spotted the greenhouse and they helped to re-pot the melon seeds and they placed them into the greenhouse after carefully watering them.

Before potting Tracey carefully separated the seedlings after encouraging the children to look closely at the roots and shoots that could be seen and they talked together about how long they would take to grow and they are now hoping that Tracey will be returning a melon or two for them to eat in the near future… Tracey will be keeping them all updated with photos of how they are growing and progressing in her greenhouse and garden too in the meantime.

Before leaving Tracey’s garden the children looked at the different flowers and they also explored the herbs that were growing and they carefully rubbed the leaves and smelt oregano, mint, thyme and lavender too!

They also talked about watering the plants and the children looked at the water butts Tracey had and she explained how the water runs off the roof, down the drainpipe and fills one butt and then the other and how this can then be used to give all the plants a drink

Our children love a walk around our lovely local area, but this destination was certainly a first! (Although on the way back they went to an old favourite, via the station, as you know we are all obsessed with trains here at Jollies!! )

There’s always method in our madness here at Jollies and following our children’s interests is an amazing part of our job! We can certainly say that we had some very motivated, excited children fascinated with finding out more about the growing process and filled with awe and wonder all sparked by the tiniest of seeds!!!!

Watch this space for awesome sunflowers and melons….. ….. and maybe a Jolly garden centre coming our children’s way?!?!?! xxxx

…. a storm is cooked up in the mud kitchen by our babies!!

They were super proud of themselves too when some of them managed to press the button on the water dispenser to make it pour out some lovely water (as we all know that water makes a mud pie even better!! ) xxxx

Katie and her little ones had fun blowing bubbles together and then, once they were floating, catching them to make them pop!

An excellent way to have fun in the and, as you all know there’s ALWAYS method in our madness here at Jollies, and blowing bubbles gets the mouth moving in different ways and forming different shapes and strengthens muscles and these are all required for effective speech development… So get those tubes and wands out as you’ll be filling the sky with bubbles and your child with increased speech development skills xxxx

We are having a splashing time before the sun gets too hot….

Why have one paddling pool when you can have 4?!?!?! xxxx

We just love exploring all the exciting resources on offer using our senses here at Jollies… so many different textures, so many different colours… What will we do with them? How will we choose to play? Xxxx

When you’ve got a room full of toys but all a little one truly wants is……..the basket!!

Hiding ways and peekaboo days spent giggling together here at Jollies xxxx

Blossoming days and potion-making ways

Our beautiful blossom tree has provided us with some wonderfuly imaginative play opportunities…. from being the ‘confetti’ at our weddings to the main ingredient in our potion making…

We springtime here at Jollies xxxx

A few of our youngest babies were enjoying exploring the sensory room and suddenly their visit got even more lovely as one of their older sisters popped in for a snuggle with a few friends.

It’s so sweet when siblings catch up with each other throughout their nursery day and they love a quick snuggle and smile together as they go about their Jolly way…

Our oldest children are just so kind and caring towards their younger friends when they encounter each other throughout nursery. Although we wouldn’t expect anything else as we are just one BIG lovely family here at Jollies after all xxxx

Our lovely friends at Midland House gave us some money to spend on our children so Tracey nipped to the shops on her lunch and came back with some lovely new Eastery books to add to our collection… thank you so much!

Also a HUGE thank you to Megan and Marjorie who made each of our Free-Flow children a mini Easter bag with chocolate treats and stickers… it was such a lovely thing for you both to have done….. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

How lucky we are to have such kind friends at Midland House. We have loved visiting you at Christmas and Easter time each year over the past 20 years…. Thank you for being such lovely friends

Happy Easter from all your friends here at Jollies xxxx