Today we all had a lovely sunny day for our St Patrick’s Celebrations. Sophie’s mum brought in some lovely decorations and fancy dress accessories, the Little Seedlings had fun taking turns wearing them. Even Tracie and Emma had a go!
Theo
Fearne
Tracie and Chloe
Emma and Leo
Sophie
Emma designed and created these lovely hats and the Little Seedlings enjoyed painting and sticking on some green glitter. We had glitter everywhere all over the tables, our clothes, in the hall, bathroom and all over Alfie!
Alfie
Alfie and Theo
Fearne
Georgia
At one point we thought Alfie was a glittery Leprechaun! Georgia thought he was a green smurf, from the Trolls movie!
Sophie
Theo
Alfie
Georgia
The Little Seedlings loved colouring in the masks. Tracie asked the children to choose any pen to colour the face in, but not to colour the eyes as we are cutting them out.
What’s the first part they all coloured? Yes the eyes!
Chloe
Poppy and Her Green Cucumbers
Mason
Even the Wildlife Rangers enjoyed taking part before and after school.
To Tracie and Emma, Thank you both for the last year and a half, for all your care and fun that you have given Niamh. She loves it at Tracie’s Treasures and has met some lovely friends. We are so grateful for all your hard work and we know Niamh will miss you all! Lots of love, Christine, Gary and Niamh.
We had that #FlashbackFriday feeling this afternoon so we sat down to take a look through all of the lovely cards we’ve received from Mummies and Daddies over the years. Thinking about all memories we’ve had together and the children we’ve watched grow from Little Seedlings right the way through to Wildlife Rangers
To Tracie, Emma and all at the nursery, Thank you for looking after me on a Wednesday! See you all in September, Love Connie xx
Remembering Connie
Sophie Joining in
Georgia Looking at Faiths Drawings
To Tracie and all your helpers, I can’t thank you all enough for the help and care you have given our son over the years. You have all been positive role models and have enhanced his development both emotionally and educational. I will miss you all. Ty will always have great memories and we will ensure he never forgets. We wish you many, many more years in making a positive difference in many more children’s lives. Thank you!!! Love Chelle & Richie xxx
Sometimes our little ones move up to big school. Sometimes they move away. Sometimes they’re only term time. And other’s come just for the holidays!
Dear Tracie, Thank you for taking such amazing care of both Martha and Ivor for years now! It makes me really sad to think of him not coming every week, but he is happy knowing he will get to come back “just like Martha does.” I am so grateful and feel so lucky to have had you there to make them both feel welcomed and happy and secure. All my love, Nina xx
We’re always sad to see our friends depart when they grow up or move away, but we feel lots of love when we’re sent pictures and photographs or cards and thank-yous!
To Tracie, A great big thank you for taking care of Fearne. You make her time at yours so enjoyable and she is coming on so much. She loves going to see you all. Thank you again, love Fearne and Family xxx
We love watching you all grow, learn and develop so we keep this file for all the memories with have with you!
Dear Tracie, we would like to thank you for all the support you have offered we and our children over the past four years. Both Leo and Lily Mai have really enjoyed their time with you and other members of staff. Both of us and the children will truly miss being with you, but we know you will be grateful to help. You are a star, thank you so much. Lots of love from Antonia, Justin, Leo and Lily Mai xxx
We hope to see you all when you’re grown up and to keep in touch! Lots of love from Tracie and Emma! x
In July 2013, tennis tables were installed in Stanley Park by Liverpool City Council to celebrate the success of the 2012 Olympics! This picture was taken of Poppy and Chloe when they were just two and three!
Poppy and Chloe 2013
Chloe and Poppy 2020
So in 2020 we returned to take this flashback picture, taken six years later! They still cant play it! Maybe we should have tennis lessons?
As we’ve been on isolation this week, Poppy and Chelsea decided to watch the YouTube video of Simple Politic’s second session on ‘What Matters Most?’ from the comfort of Chelsea’s bed! The session started with some fun questions about ‘What Matters Most?’ to us: Reading, Playing Games or Making Videos. We put our favourites in a ranking order and discussed why they were ranked in that order.
Tatton’s First Question!
Charlotte From Simple Politics
Tatton then told us, if we had 45 minutes to split between the three activities, how much time would we spend on each activity? Chelsea split hers 25 mins on Reading and 20 mins on games because she doesn’t really make videos that often and she loves reading!
Our next question was which is better: Playing Games or Doing Chores? The participants in the interactive session were almost unanimous on Playing Games. However, Tatton pointed out that sometimes Doing Chores comes with rewards! Poppy chose Chores because she loves tidying and organising her room and toys!
The penultimate part of the session was a role playing moment. We were asked if we were the Prime Minister and had £5 million to spend on our services, how would we split the money? Out of Education, Hospitals and the Environment – but knowing that it takes at least £2 million to really make a difference.
Tatton Explaining Our Options
This was one of our hardest questions so far from the series of sessions. Chelsea felt that Education could improve the hospitals and medicine sector in the future and also build on the sciences and awareness of looking after the environment at the current moment. Chelsea chose to give £2 million to Education, £2 million to Medicine and £1 million to the Environment, with hopes that a boost in Education could later garner awareness and knowledge of what we can do to help the Environment.
Whereas Poppy felt the Hospitals were in dire need of help at the moment and schools had enough at the moment (because they’re closed). She originally wrote £3 million to ‘Hospitals / Vaccine / Medicine / Cancer’ and £2 million to help the Environment. But later changed her decision to split the money more evenly: £2 million to Medicine, £2 million to helping the Environment and £1 million to schools. Even though she knew it wouldn’t make as much of a difference, she felt the Medicine sector and Environment were more important than schools at this present time.
Our Answers!
Our last decision was a tough one. What is most important to us? Family, Community or the Country. We thought about why our chosen options mean more to us than the other options. Poppy’s choice ‘Family’ was based on her closest environment, whereas Chelsea chose the broader option of ‘Country’ as she believes in nationwide equality. That’s not to say she doesn’t love and care for her family and local community but when big decisions are made, these decisions trickle down into the local community and then into our family’s lives.
It was super interesting to see the views a of 9 year old, compared to the beliefs of her older sister of 26 years! We really enjoyed working together and pausing Tatton to have in-depth chats about why we make the decisions we make! Again, we talked about how there are no right or wrong answers in politics just your own!
You can watch the full video here! Get your children involved, ask questions, listen to different thoughts and opinions we all have!
This morning, Chelsea, Chloe and Poppy sat down for the first session of SP Politics Half Hour ran by Tatton from Simple Politics. It was the first trial run for a weekly politics session aimed at Key Stage 2 children and our topic this week was ‘What is Politics?’ We hooked Chelsea’s laptop up to the TV in our snug and sat comfortably as Tatton began a 15 minute structured session. Over 200 people were also tuned in and we could comment in the chat box if we had any opinions or questions.
Chloe and Poppy Ready to Learn!
Chloe Holding the Notebook
On his presentation, Tatton asked us three questions, which we had to answer and use our one vote on the poll on the screen. The first question was ‘Which is better: Cats or Dogs?’ Chloe said Cats, Poppy said Dogs and because Chelsea also said Dogs, the majority vote meant we entered Dogs on the poll. Dogs was the winner! Tatton then asked the ‘Dogs’ voters why they chose dogs. Poppy said ‘because they’re protective’ so Chelsea entered this comment into the chat box. A lot of people also said comments like ‘they’re cute’ and ‘you can walk them’. Tatton then asked the ‘Cats’ voters why they chose cats. Chloe said she chose cats ‘for the kitten at Grandma Phyllis”. Some of the other people in the chat said because ‘they’re cute’ and ‘you don’t have to walk them’. Tatton pointed out that this opinion is completely valid and depends on the circumstance of the person, for example some of the people in the chat were in colder areas and it was snowing! Who wants to walk a dog in snow, right?
The next question was ‘Which is better: Pizza or Pasta?’ Chloe said Pizza, Poppy said Pasta and again, because Chelsea also said Pasta, the majority vote meant we entered Pasta on the poll. Pizza was the winner! Chloe was a little grumpy because the winner was the option she wanted to pick, but we talked about opinions and how having a different opinion that wins or loses does not mean you are right or wrong. Chelsea explained that because we only had one vote (one laptop) we had to give the majority vote on the poll. When Tatton asked the ‘Pasta’ voters why they chose Pasta, we typed in the chat box ‘because there are lots of shapes and options.’ Tatton then asked the ‘Pizza’ voters why they chose Pizza and a lot of people in the chat said ‘because there are lots of toppings to choose from’. So it turns out, majority of people chose their vote based on the variety, but we still all chose differently.
Cats or Dogs?
Flying or Invisibility?
The last question was trickier! It was, ‘Would You Rather: Be Able to Fly or Be Invisible?’ Chloe, Poppy and Chelsea all agreed on Flying. So the majority vote was put into the poll and flying was the winner! When Tatton asked the ‘Fly’ voters why they chose to Fly, the group had lots of ideas! Chloe said ‘to go up into the sky, and you can still be invisible in the clouds’ and Poppy said ‘because if you were invisible your parents wouldn’t be able to see you, but if you fly down to the ground they can still see you.’ Other people put in the chat that you could ‘go on holidays’ and ‘flying would be quicker’. When Tatton asked the ‘Invisible’ voters why they chose to be Invisible one person put in the chat ‘you wouldn’t need money’ which is an interesting thought!
Chelsea Asking Our Question ‘What is next weeks session Topic?’
The second half of the session was Questions Time. This was where the chat box got very busy! Tatton answered a number of questions like ‘when can I vote?’ for the UK the answer is 18 years old; and what’s the difference between a Prime Minister and a President, which was ‘countries that have a monarchy (which is a king or a queen) have a Prime Minister to make political decisions, and countries without a king or a queen have a President as the leader.’ This sparked a question from Chloe, ‘do we have a king or a queen?’ and Chelsea explained that we do have a queen and that monarchies are a lineage, meaning the sons or daughters become the next king or queen and that they aren’t chosen by the people.
During the last few questions, we managed to ask ‘What is next session’s topic?’ which Tatton replied would be about ‘Prioritising’, he said ‘there won’t just be two options, there will be some bunnies thrown in there’. We’re super excited to learn more about how to prioritise situations next week and will report back on what we find out!
You can watch the playback of this morning’s session on YouTube here and the link to join next week’s free online session is available here.
Christmas is an exciting month at Tracie’s Treasures. We love doing various activities and making gifts for our families. This year we have had to make changes due to the pandemic.
Father Christmas normally comes to give us gifts and treats but we wanted to keep him safe. We celebrated this year by sending him our photos, emailed him our Christmas lists and he sent Tracie our gifts by Reindeers to pass onto us.
In August the Wildlife Rangers asked if they could keep some caterpillars they had found. We talked about what they would need for a habitat and that we had to look after them and once they had turned into butterflies we had to let them free.
Caterpillar
Cocoon
The first thing the Wildlife Rangers did was look on the internet to how to make the best habitat for the critters, to keep them safe and well. Tracie found a fish tank in the shed which the Rangers cleaned to make into a little habitat.
The Rangers put some gravel, soil and plants into the tank to provide the caterpillars with food. They used an old lid from a coffee jar and filled with water for them to drink.
The caterpillars seemed happy munching away for a few days. The Rangers kept checking the tank every day, they showed the younger Wanderers and Seedlings the tank and told them all about the facts they had found out about the mini beasts.
One day, when the Wildlife Rangers checked on the caterpillars they said they had all gone and asked me if I had let them go? I asked the children to go back and take a good look in the tank. They were delighted to find they had changed into chrysalises. The children kept an eye on the chrysalises every day. In September, the Rangers found one had hatched into a White Butterfly. They were all delighted. Within the week all the butterflies had hatched and were flying around. We decided it was time to set them free.
Googly Eyes
Stuck on Tracie’s Fingers
Everyone watched as Tracie opened the lid. What happened next we did not imagine, they flew out onto Tracie then flew off on their travels!
As it was lovely and warm, we all spent the day outside. We looked around the garden and took photos of our favourite flowers of the week.
We noticed that there were hundreds of caterpillars on our leaves. Unfortunately they had eaten all of our cabbages and nasturtiums. Tracie was not happy.
Cornflower
Poppy
Camellia
Martha and the Caterpillar
Sunflower
Agapanthus
The Gang at the Park
Martha was brave and handled the caterpillars but Ivor screamed when he went to touch one! hahah Poppy and Chloe made a caterpillar home so they could study them and see what happens while they are in there! Watch this space…
Tracie's Treasures 