My Road to School – Helping you to prepare your child for school Our pre-schoolers enjoy following “My Road to School”, our own version of the Government-supported initiative which helps prepare children in readiness for starting at school. All three and four year olds are entitled to Government-funded places, up to 15 hours during term time or the…

Broken crayons can be a trauma for parents everywhere; we are sure that you will identify with it! The thin ones snap in little hands (you know the ones, the kind that you get for free when you visit a restaurant!); pieces break off and embed into the carpet, or, at best, the crayons languish…

Creating Egg Box Gardens Research has shown that in our ever-busy lives, children are spending less time outside.  At Bumpkins, we believe that fresh air and the great outdoors grows little minds and allows children to explore the world around them.  Gardening is a great way to enjoy the outdoors. We love this recycling idea…

Children love spending time outdoors. At Bumpkins, we have Nature Ranger activities, which are about looking at the world around us and collecting natural resources. This Easter, the babies collected sticks outdoors. We made these wonderful baby hedgehogs out of the clay and sticks. ‪ We are sure you could try similar at home. We used air-drying…

Science is fun – and small children love discovering the world around them. This simple science experiment is crafty too, to make your own wind-sock to test which way the wind blows. Of course this will work best on a windy day. Use an empty kitchen roll tube Cut up some strips of tissue paper…

Science can be as simple as looking at the world around us and learning how things work. We love this simple experiment for pre-schoolers which we found on Let’s Explore. Can you and your child guess which items will sink or float? This experiment is about making predictions, about density and about water. Choose a number…

We had this great idea from one of our Facebook visitors. Thank you to Lesley for sharing this experiment! Buy a bunch of white carnations (Royston Market often has them for sale, very reasonably priced) Fill a glass with water and add in around 20 drops of food dye. Place the flowers in glass and…

Painting with Invisible Ink We had plenty of ideas for British Science Week at the end of March. Painting with invisible ink is fun and so easy to do! Mix fresh lemon juice and water in a bowl, and use a paintbrush to paint a secret picture on a fresh sheet of white paper. (Older children can…

Even if you don’t have school age children you’ll probably still be affected by the half term holidays. Groups and classes either stop for the week or are infiltrated by bigger children! The good news is that if you’re working during half term week, the rush hour traffic is usually better! Of course Bumpkins Nursery…

When the weather outside is frightful, with rain, wind, sleet and snow putting a dampener on your outdoor plans, it’s wise to have some back up ‘rainy day activities’ ready to go. Venturing to indoor soft play, eating out or a trip to the cinema soon get costly. If playing in the garden or at…