If you want to take kids fishing it does not have to be expensive. A child’s fishing rod can be bought for under £20. There are various types of kids fishing rods on the market. Children’s fishing rods start on Amazon for about £10 which are ok but you may wish to spend a little bit more and get one from either your local angling shop or somewhere like Whitby Angling Supplies
Children’s fishing rods start at about 4ft 6 and go up to about 7ft. My lad in the picture above is 5 and has been using a rod which is 5ft 6 which is an ideal size for him. With a 4ft 6 rod I would be a little worried that he would be a bit too close to the water.
Don’t forget that along with your rod you will need some other kit such as barbless fishing hooks, shot (weight for your line), floats, and a disgorger (for getting the hooks out of fish).
Baits can be anything such as maggots, sweetcorn, spam, or even bread. If you know nothing about fishing it may be an idea to go to your local angling shop. Obviously some shops are better than others but most are friendly and can give you some good advice.
Children under 12 can fish for free and do not need a fishing licence. I would suggest that if you are taking them you should have one. To find out about fishing licences go to the Environment Agency website or enquire at your local Post Office. Do check with your local angling shop or club about close seasons. There are places to fish where there is no close season.
Remember that fishing is fun but it has to be treated seriously as you are using hooks and are near water. That said have fun!!!
Gardening does not have to be expensive and taking cuttings of plants is cheap and easy. If you buy plants at a garden centre it is probably going to cost you about £10 a plant but it is so much more fun to grow from seed or take a cutting and not to mention cheaper.
I cannot see the point of buying a plant from a garden centre dumping it in the ground and then claiming to be a gardener. Full grown plants being driven all over the country on the back of a lorry thats belting out pollution seems a lttle counter ptoductive as well…
So here is how to take cuttings of plants. Snip a little bit of the plant off with your cutters. Be sure to cut it at a 45 degree angle as seen below.
The next thing to do is put a bit of rooting gel or powder on the plant cutting and then plant in a pot in give it some water but try and keep it out of really bright sunlight for the first day or two.
After a week or two you can plant it in the ground and wait. You will find that kids love doing this and watching your plant cuttings grow. It is worth making clear that not all the cuttings you take will prosper and some will die. Don’t give up though. Taking cuttings is proper gardenning and a darn site better for both your wallet and the planet.
Here is a picture of the apple tree we started growing from the pip. As you can se it is now outside and doing well.
Stevington windmill near Bromham in Bedforshire is a great place to go and visit with kids if you have little or no money. Stevington Windmill is clearly signposted from Bromham and surrounding villages and after driving past the signs for years I’m glad that I actually took a detour of a few miles and visiited Stevington Windmill because the kids loved seeing it.
Stevington windmill was built in around 1770 and in medieval times nearly every Parish would have had either a watermill or a windmill. Stevington windmill was restored by Bedfordshire County Council in 1951 as part of the celebration for the Festival of Britain.
Stevington windmill is one of the finest surviving postmills in the the country and it can be turned to face the wind.
Apparently if you want to go inside the windmill a key can be obtained from the local pub for a deposit. We didn’t bother as by the time we got there is was getting dark.
So be sure to visit those places of interest that you almost pass by everyday but never go out of your way to see like Stevington windmill.
The Top 10 Kids Bedtime Stories of 2008 is here, however, are they really the best best bedtime stories ever?.
1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
2. Mr. Men by Roger Hargreaves
3. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
4. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
5. Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort
6. Thomas and Friends from The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry
7. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
8. What a Noisy Pinky Ponk! by Andrew Davenport
9. Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child
10. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southey
Now I’ll grant you that I’ve read most of these bedtime stories to my kids. But we can’t all be reading the same stuff can we? What hidden gems have we got tucked on our bookshelves. Let us know at Kids Stuff And stories and leave a comment.
The lads just love playing with Puppets. You can see how much fun puppets are by looking at this photo or even better by downloading the video by clicking the link below.
The lads call their monkey puppets Chimp & Zee after the books by the Anholts.
Puppets don’t have to be expensive and you can soon make some by sewing 2 buttons for eyes onto an old sock. Try it soon. i bet you all have a lot of fun with your puppets.
Some great legal music downloads are now available on Amazon. I had been looking for the punk version of Nellie The Elephant forever and here it is. Downloads cost about 69 pence on Amazon and you can put some quite good albums together for very little cash
Had a fantastic idea a few months back when I was eating an apple. I was about to throw away the apple core when i thought wouldn’t it be fun to plant it with the kids.
I had been experimenting a bit without much luck just planting the apple core in a plant pot with some soil on top. Then I got some tissue paper and wet it and then put the tissue in an old yogurt pot. Popped 3 or 4 apple pips on top and added more tissue paper on top wetting it again. Then I left it on the kitchen window sill and watered it regularly so it stayed nice and damp.
I had just about given up on the appples and then last night I saw 2 massive shoots. It was really exciting and the kids are going to be planting them in a pot today.
Apple trees are quite big and I don’t think they will fit in our garden. So I have two ideas. Number one is to find a bit of waste ground away from buildings and plant it, or even better let the lads take it to school and see if they will let them plant it there. Which I think is quite a cool idea. Number two is to wait until they are bigger in the pot and then put them on ebay buyer collects. Then the kids can have some extra pocket money.
Camberwick Green was first shown on the BBC in 1966 and Trumpton and Chigley soon followed. The stories were all set in Trumptonshire. All 3 series of the Trumptonshire stories had 13 episodes each and were narrated by Brian Cant.
It may look a little dated now but it was shot in colour and my lads still enjoy it because I found the whole set of Trumpton, Chigley, and Camberwick Green in a boxset of DVDs on Amazon brand new for under a fiver I mean a fiver for quality TV like this. It is almost criminal not to buy it. It was a lovely little birthday present for my youngest lad.
I can’t help wondering why the BBC ever stopped showing these programmes. It makes me quite sad actually., and whatever happened to bagpuss? I know Lazytown is wonderful but there must be a place for this in the schedule somewhere.
Go on be daring and give your kids a treat with the boxset from Amazon.
One last thing just for the record. The Trumpton fire brigade are: Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, and Grub. I don’t want any arguments because I’ve checked the boxset!!!
Here is a simple electronics project to try with your kids. Making a circuit with a switch. It is a low power experiment but Kids should not do this alone. It should not be tried anywhere near petrol or where the slightest spark could be dangerous.
Let me state the following. Never touch either mains electrics or car batteries. They are very dangerous. Never play with them. Always use normal batteries to play with models and games. Never touch plugs, sockets, and fires etc.
The project is to make an electrical switch to turn a light bulb on and off. To recreate this you will need:
A normal 1.5volt battery
Some sellotape
A torch bulb
Some wire
A piece of card
2 paper fasteners
A paperclip
First push the 2 paper fasteners through a piece of card. Attach the paper clip to the top and a piece of wire to the underneath of one of the paperfasteners. This will be your switch. (The photo below shows the 2 wires at the switch which is how it will look when it is finished)
Now get your tape out and run your wire from the end of the paperclip switch to the bottom of the battery.NB Sellotape is not really great but I am trying to use things that you will have in the house. It is reasonably safe for such a low power experiment but nothing else. Most hand held torchs would use 2 of these batteies…
Then run a wire from the top part of the battery and connect it to the bottom part of the torch bulb.
Then run a wire from the top part of the bulb back to the switch. Connecting it to the paper fastener with nothing connected to it.
The bulb should now light up. If it does not check your connections are tight and that the wires at the bulb are not touching each other causing a short circuit.
Have fun turning the bulb on and off by taking the paper clip on and off. You can’t really see the the bulb alight in the photos above but it does work and to prove it below is a photo in the dark. The photo on the right below is with the switch in the off position (not connected to the second paper fastener).
Have fun but please remember: Never touch either mains electrics or car batteries. They are very dangerous. Never play with them. Always use normal batteries to play with models and games. Never touch plugs, sockets, and fires etc.
Even simple experiments like this should be done with a responsible adult.
Let me stress this is a low power experiment and it not meant to be a bright light. The materials I have used here are things you will have in the house but would be very dangerous if used in a proper electrical circuits.
When you are finished take it apart and put it away and to be safe do not leave it unattended.
You know how really young children always have a problem with scalextric cars flying off on the corners and soooner or later there are tears. Yeah, usually sooner than later…Then it goes back in the box and no-one dares to get the Scalextric out again. Well I have solved the problem!!!
All that is needed for really young children is a Scalextric speed limiter to stop the cars flying off on the corners. Here are the build it yourself instructions for the Acme No Tears Scalextric Speed Limiter…
You will need either a piece of plastercine or blu-tac and stick it to the trigger of the hand controller. This stops the child making the cars go too fast at first. In addition in means young children can play with older children and no-one misses out. See my scalextric photo below and the accompanying video to show that even a two year old can play Scalextric without crashing. The controller on the right in the photo below has the lump of plastercine fitted.
