made with love – Tracie's Treasures

childminding, christmas activities, communication, conversations, family, Uncategorized, wanderers, wildlife

Christmas Party Week

Posted on 22nd Dec 2023 by Tracie Dowling

We have had such a fun few weeks getting ready for Christmas. The house has been well and truly glitter bombed!

Holly is looking forward to her first Christmas. She has grown so much this year and been such a good girl, Father Christmas will definitely be bringing her something nice.

Ben and Jack absolutely loved these star shaped doughnuts, who doesn’t love Christian treats!

We have made so many different crafts over the last few weeks for our parents and grandparents. We loved making our Snowmen, let’s hope it really snows so we can make a real one.

Below are some photos Tracie has taken over the last few weeks.

We looked at some old photos of Chloe, Poppy and Tracie. We could see how big they have grown! can you see who is who?

These are a few Photos sent to Tracie over the festive holidays. George looks super lucky standing with all his Presents, Father Christmas has left him! Tracie had a lovely meal out with her family and has enjoyed the festive time off to re charge her batteries for the New year’s activities.

Ben and his mum look super excited to open their presents.

Look at our Debbie, she scrubs up well. I bet Father Christmas leaves her something lovely for Christmas.

Elsie and Evie are very happy with their lovely gifts. I particularly love her Spider Girl outfit! Wonder if she can climb up the walls? Let’s hope she wears a bungie rope for safety.

We wish everyone an amazing Christening and a Happy Healthy New Year.

bug hunt, childminding, family, frogs, Garden Classroom, greenhouse, Honey Bees, Bees, Great British Bees, outdoor play, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers, yoga

Half Term Fun

Posted on 1st Jun 20231st Jun 2023 by Tracie Dowling

It was lovely having Emma come and help Tracie care for us, we miss her so much during term time. It was also lovely to catch up with leo and Martie who came and spent the day with us, they have grown up so much!

The weather has been so kind for us, We have spent lots of time in the garden playing, planting, hiding and relaxing.

Our Jack took advantage of the lovely summer day to play out in the front garden, he loved this hot poker flower, he pretended it was a microphone and kept us all entertained with funny rap songs.

The long flowers were an amazing yellow colour which went with his t-shirt.

Jack practiced his ball skills, we tried to have a game but the table was to small. Next time we go to the park we will take our rackets and balls as they have a tennis table there!

Jack Showing off his Ball Skills

Lottie had a lovely time playing at Sector8 in the bouncy little ones play area. The big kids Georgia, Leo, Jack and Chloe played for a whopping 2 hours in the ‘big kids’ area.

We went for numerous walks around Stanly park. We took picnics, balls and got to play in the playground as it was very quiet.

Georgia loved playing with the Ello bricks and shapes. She made a lovely flower garden. She also made lots of crafts, this one was a pre printed princess dress, hair, shoes and gloves. Georgia then had to draw the princess’s face and join the arms and legs. It was so good she wanted to display it on the wall and make another one to take home. Georgia was so clever writing her full name on the top of the picture all by herself.

While walking around the park we kept an eye out for ‘Liverpool Kindness Rocks’ we were just about to give up when Tracie found one! She screamed and had to jump high to reach it.

We finished the week off starting our ‘30 Days Wild’ campaign by putting up bee and insects houses .we made sure the wild birds have enough clean water and seeds.

childminding, family, frog Spawn, frogs, Garden Classroom, hydroponics, outdoor play, rangers, Seedlings, The Theatre, wanderers

A Walk Around The Garden

Posted on 1st Apr 202321st Apr 2023 by Tracie Dowling

Today we walked around the garden to look at all the changes we made last year and to make notes on what we want to plan for this year.

The winding footpath we made last year is ideal for walking and running about avoiding the messy mud. The children love how they can run around and peep through the planting bug hunting, plant spotting and watching everything grow. They love the bug pile and saw some worms and ants.

We have sown all our bedding plants this year to save money, we also used peat free compost to help save our planet. The seeds have now grown into healthy young plants so we potted them on, ( put into bigger pots) and put them into the cold frame to wait for the last frost, we will then put them in our living wall.

This years project is to make the decking area into a nicer living ‘Outdoor Classroom’ We have chosen

Petunia, Lobelia and Fuchsia’s to have trailing, ground cover in the vertical wall garden. We will add the Herbs (growing in our greenhouse) for tasting and smelling into the wall as soon as they have matured.

We have Roses, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Passiflora for climbing up the trelliss and giving off a floral fragrance. Our aim is to make the ‘Outdoor Classroom stimulate all our five senses. To make the decking more accessible for the babies we are going to add Astro turf so it’s safer for them to crawl and play on.

We were so excited to see our frogs while out and about, they were keeping an eye on their spawn, this will soon turn into tadpoles and frogs. Tracie taught us how to carefully remove some of the water weeds and she added some bunches of watercress to freshen up the pond to make the water less Murky so we can see the pond life without disturbing them.

Our Big Plans For This Year 2023:

We have decided in our living classroom we are going to:

Lay artificial grass to make the decking completely baby friendly.

Make a toy box storage area for outdoor equipment

Pot up the Herbs and make labels.

Make a water feature for relaxing sound and to have water play

In the Greenhouse we are going to grow:

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Loofa , Chilli and start off our Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli

Sow winter flowering plants to give out Garden all year color and edibles.

In the front garden:

We want to encourage more wildlife in, so we are thinking about making a new pond, putting in more hedging, and adding some hidden bird feeders.

So we have BIG plans, so keep watching our blogs to see how we go….

childminding, family, rangers, Seedlings, Uncategorized, wanderers

Christmas At Tracie’s Treasures 2022

Posted on 25th Dec 2022 by Tracie Dowling

Our Christmas Photo Collection From All At Tracie’s Treasures

childminding, family, Garden Classroom, Seedlings

What A Month For Our Seedlings!

Posted on 27th Jan 20226th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

This month the children have been working hard on their physical skills.

Izzy is now confidently walking the whole of the play rooms. She is growing in confidence even walking up the soft-play equipment.

Watching Everyone From Standing Position

Our youngest Seedling is not even 1 years old and can walk around the room with encouragement from adults and peers. Well done Alba!

Edie is well and truly walking, even running at times.

The three eldest Seedlings have been practicing their balancing skills. Balancing on the soft play equipment and balancing boards.

childminding, Seedlings

Edible Play-Dough Play

Posted on 29th Sep 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

Today we made some edible play-dough for the Little Seedlings to manipulate, use cutters and mould into shapes. It was fantastic for the babies to play with because it was completely edible.

Charlie and Alfie sat well together and used cutters to make some shapes. Unfortunately the dough got stuck in the moulds, we added extra cornflower to make it more malleable and easier to play with.

The babies started the activity having sprinkles and chocolate stars on their trays.

They were given the Play-dough and were encouraged to move it around their trays to collect up all the sprinkles to make it tastier.

Because we normally use Play-dough and our rules are not to put it in our mouths Alfie was apprehensive to try and taste it. He watched everyone else have a go first. He soon got stuck in and had a go, he didn’t like the taste but loved the sprinkles.

Charlie tried to convince Emma and Tracie he hadn’t eaten any! Think this picture tells a different story.

childminding, family, Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Summer Holidays: Week 4

Posted on 10th Aug 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

Week 4 already! Wow the summer holidays are going fast!

Izzy has had lots of fun with everyone and has settled into our setting really well. She is always so happy, bubbly and watches everyone playing. She lets us know when she wants something or not, and thrives on all the interactions with children, Emma and Myself.

We had fun at the play centre, Jack loved looking through the peep bubbles and trying to point out his friends.

Charlie and Martie both finished off their ‘Liverpool Kindness Rocks’ paintings so next week we can all go out and hide them in all the parks we are visiting.

Tracie, Martha, Ivor, Jack, Sophie and Georgia all went to the Odeon to watch ‘The Croods 2’. It was very funny and everyone behaved so well they had popcorn and sweets for treats!

While we were all in the Odeon Gemma took Poppy around town. They had lots of fun, in and out of lots of different shops. Poppy said the sweet shop smelled so sweet and Lush, which sells bath bombs, smelled like fruit! They both loved looking at the display made out of colourful umbrellas and comics. What a sensory time they had!

At the ‘Liverpool Lighthouse’ this week we went for fun, games and dancing. We played musical statues, musical bumps, superheroes, dancing and tag. We also took part in ‘make your own’ lunch. We all got to make a healthy bag full of fruit, veg and sandwiches which we took to the park for a picnic.

The game of the week was ‘UNO’ everyone joined in so we ended up using two decks of cards. Chloe won the most games, Poppy the most tantrums and Jack the most ‘give aways’.

Poppy and Izzy loved playing together, Poppy read Izzy stories, sang songs and had sensory mat play.

The soft play was used the most this week. The children used them as a playground, hiding seek, building, sleeping, relaxing and role play! Well worth the spends!

Last full week before our week off, then back to school. I wonder what fun we will be having?…

childminding, Seedlings

That’s Not My Monster! Story Sack

Posted on 30th Jul 202110th Apr 2025 by Tracie Dowling

Today’s story-time was chosen by Sophie and she wanted the story ‘That’s Not My Monster!’

Two children decided to join Sophie and take a role as a Monster using the stick puppets. Sophie chose a stripy, blue and purple Monster with five legs and two funny arms.

Georgia chose a funny-nosed and pink-horned Monster who she named ‘frog’ because he was green. Georgia recognised that hers was the Monster on the front of the book.

Counting the stripes, legs, spikes and arms

Sophie decided as Georgia had named hers, she wanted to give hers a name too! The striped Monster became named ‘Days Monster’ we have no idea why 🤣

Both girls loved the knitted baby monsters out of the story sack and played with them for ages. They even used them within their role play after the story.

Charlie wanted to listen to the story and turn the pages, even when we didn’t need him too! At least he joined in!

When Sophie asked Charlie where the Monster eyes were, he pointed to them. Georgia asked him to point out the ears and said they are really fluffy!

We have started selling our bespoke story sacks on our online store, check it out!

childminding, family, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Summer Holidays: Week 2

Posted on 23rd Jul 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

The weather turned too cold and wet for a couple of days. We went to the park on the Monday and got drenched so we all decided to have a games day. The sun ended up coming back out!!

We loved the game ‘Fast Fish’ it was fun rolling the dice and predicting the colours of the fish we had to rush and find. Jack beat Tracie and Martha beat everyone!

Poppy and Sophia love anything Japanese at the moment so after the cinema we decided to pop in to Yo Sushi to try some new foods. The girls loved trying to use chopsticks, it made our lunchtime last forever!

While in town, we decided to have a walk about. The girls loved climbing the suitcases on Hope Street.

Back at our setting we were busy painting our rocks that we made last week.

Tracie and some of the children went on a trip to Acorn Farm. We went into the petting station and loved sitting still and stroking the animals. Tracie made a friend with a goat and Jack loved the meerkats.

Emma went on a trip to Hollywood Bowl. They all jumped on a bus, played a couple of games and had a lovely lunch! What a lovely fun end to a busy second week!

Wonder what fun we will have in week three!? The summer holidays are going fast!

family, Garden Classroom, rangers, Uncategorized

Garden Challenge 2021: Gemma’s May Update

Posted on 12th May 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

At the beginning of May, Gemma sent us some pictures of her garden vegetable raised beds that she had made. They have come on so well and are all starting to grow nice and strong.

Its mid-May now and only two weeks since the above pictures and the raised beds have grown so much! Gemma and the children are doing so well, they must all have green fingers!!

Chloe has been helping Gemma after school with watering and trying to keep Cooper their dog from jumping on them! All our pets want to join in with gardening!