I’m listening to my kids in the kitchen with their grandparents. They’re doing a chestnut experiment. We collected loads, while out on walks. I can hear such varied vocabulary: peel, shell, sharp, brains. And they’re using a timer, to see how long they boil the chestnuts for, 2 mins – “poke,” 4 mins – “still too hard,” 6 mins – “perfect!” My kids love experiments you can eat! And they’ve been learning new words at the same time.

We have also put chestnuts into dump trucks and trains, eaten them at tea parties, and thrown them. Very multipurpose.

I’m using this Halloween craft from Made by Joel, tomorrow with a 6 year old client. We’ll be practising giving each other instructions – “colour the pumpkin with the orange pen” and “cut the bat with the small scissors.” Then we’ll use the finger puppets to act out sentences: “the ghost is scaring the cat!”

Let me know if you have any favourite seasonal craft activities for young children, I’m always on the lookout.