She sells seashells...

We were so lucky to be in Brighton at the weekend - it's a superb place to be when the sun shines. As we were staying in Hove, we spent a lot of time on the beach there. The sea gleamed and sparkled, enticing nearly everyone into its icy shallows, and the shore's pebbly surface was a treasure-seeker's paradise. There were translucent glassy gems, large rounded pale stones, smaller jagged rocks shot with quartz, and an interesting variety of sea-smoothed shells - all within easy reach of our beach-towel base. 

We used these fabulous resources for our play; building structures, making collections, setting up a seashell shop, and decorating pebbles with (washable) felt-tip colour. We even enjoyed a few games of beach noughts and crosses. As you can see below, we marked out a grid with some string then selected some pebbles - as the noughts, and shells - as the crosses, from our surroundings. It couldn't have been simpler.

And, for some, there were highly energetic aqua-frisbee games too - brrrrrrr.  I would have joined them of course, but someone had to stay out of the water to photograph the action, didn't they?

Panning for gems

We've enjoyed panning for gems before - at school fetes with large trays of watery sand hiding gemstones purchased online, and at home using watery rice studded with sparkly sequins and beads. Both were exciting, sensory activities for the children but neither compared with our recent Southwold beach version; panning for gems 'au naturel'. Here's how we did it:

1. We took a sunny stroll past the beach huts to the beautiful, sandy seaside.

2. We removed our shoes and socks and paddled in the sparkling sea.

3. We felt the golden sands shift and pull away from between our toes as the waves broke around our ankles.

4. We marvelled at the tiny gemstones revealed around our feet as the sand drew away with the sea.

5. We selected a sparkly stone or two before the next wave covered our patch with new sand.

6. We rinsed our treasure in the sea, enhancing its rainbow colours and shimmering gleam.

7. We repeated this until our shoes were filled with stones and our hearts with sunshine.

'Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside...'

'...I do like to be beside the sea.' So goes the popular music hall ditty by John A. Glover-Kind.

But if you don't like it, or can't easily get there, here are five ways to recreate a bit of British seaside magic in your own backyard.

1) Fill a bag ready for your beach trip.

I prepared one for my Under Fives group at the Geffrye Museum and we began the session by unpacking it together to establish our theme. At home I simply handed over the huge bag of goodies to very a excited Buddy and Daisy.

In our beach bag they found:

• beach towels
• sun-cream
• sunglasses
• sun-hats
• buckets and spades
• a fishing net
• toy binoculars (for spotting ships)
• a magnifying glass (for rock pool investigation)
• pots of seashells and pebbles
• a toy bristle worm and anenome
• bath-time toys; fishes, sea creatures and boats
• a mini home-made kite

When they announced 'Let's play seasides' I knew Buddy and Daisy would be occupied for a while. Using the paddling pool, already out in the garden, they became happily involved in creating their own imaginary world; they sunbathed, 'applied' sun-cream, and filled the pool with pebbles, sea creatures and fish - scooping them up with their nets and plopping them back in the water over and over again.

2) Make your own rock pool - a physical and musical activity.

At the museum, with about 15 children, we made our own huge imaginary rock pool. Sitting in a circle we threw in invisible pebbles, and pretended to be seaweed - waving our arms when underwater, and making crunchy, rigid shapes when exposed to the air. Then the children entered the rock pool like sea creatures; we had crabs, starfish, anenomes, jelly fish, bristle worms and there was even a shark in there - I told you it was a big rock pool. I played them Saint-Saens' Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals and responding to the music they danced, swam, crawled and shimmied around. The water was provided by the grown-ups in attendance - they wafted a large piece of turquoise chiffon about a metre above the children. We also played a fun variation of Sleeping Bunnies (Sleeping Sea Creatures) - altering the lyrics slightly; all under the undulating blue fabric. It was all very under-the-sea; beautiful and magical.

[No photos of this, I was too busy playing...]

3) Read a story about a rock pool adventure.

We had the wonderful Julia Donaldson's Sharing A Shell - such a fun story starring a hermit crab, a bristle worm and a sea anenome. It has great glittery and shimmery rock pool pictures and plenty opportunities for counting and joining in.

'Three friends sharing a shell

happy as house-mates can be,

rocketing all round the rock pool

in their wonderful home for three.'

4) Make your own seaside souvenir; a paper plate rock pool.

We used:

• paper plates - we had blue plates, but of course watery paint colours could be added to create the background
• shredded paper seaweed - or use shredded leaves from your garden or local park
• pebble-printed paper - or use gravel mixed with PVA glue
• neoprene shells and sea creature pictures or stickers - or draw onto plain sticky labels
• pipe-cleaner bristle worms
• lots of silver glitter mixed with PVA glue to stick everything down and make your rock pool shimmer in the seaside sunlight

And after all that exertion...

5. Share some good old-fashioned Fish & Chips for tea.

Hide and Seek

Audacious. That's one way to describe our journey out of London on Friday afternoon. But it totally paid off on this occasion. We had bus luck, we had train luck and I had well behaved children who charmed the amicable commuters. This is Buddy at about 7.30pm on the beach at Hove having checked into our hotel, having had a picnic tea. Glorious.

A sunny Saturday morning dawned and the children played Hide and Seek in the hotel lounge. This is a very popular game at the moment. Buddy and Daisy hide themselves, they hide their toys; they've even hidden my wedding ring and an Oyster card in the past. And yes, I did help seek those items with a slight cold sweat upon me. Langford's Hotel is a big old rambling place - rather ramshackle, to be honest - and as such is a great place to play Hide and Seek. It was while they were playing a particularly absorbing round that we received a message calling daddy away to London for a few hours. Once I'd got over some grumpiness at the whole unexpected-lone-parenting-on-a-holiday thing, I put my mind to ensuring we had a lovely time.

Captivating kite flying on Hove beach was followed by a scoot along the seafront to the marvellous beach-side playground. As Buddy and Daisy zoomed off, I enjoyed a rare treat; an uninterrupted coffee, watching the sparkling sea. I'll admit it, I was a smidgen smug that for once I didn't need to be in amongst the throng of toddlers and tantrums, tumbles and tears - what with my two being so grown up an' all.

And of course within five minutes all that changed. Mummy to the rescue, I found myself elbow deep in the sandpit, sifting through its damp and dank depths. Buddy's game of Hide and Seek with a toy figure had gone wrong. Very wrong. Buddy was inconsolable. 'Please find Yojojo! I will never find him!'

I always think of The New Shoes, one of The Ten Tales of Shellover by Ruth Ainsworth, whenever I'm digging for something lost in the sand (which is surprisingly often). This story from my childhood, is a cautionary tale involving two sisters, new shoes and a sandy beach. I eventually found Yojojo in the sand just where Buddy had been sitting. A joyful reunion, sandy tears wiped from Buddy's face, and an immediate resuming of play followed. Clearly, he hasn't heard the ending of The New Shoes - the sisters never find them! I'm sure if he knew this story, Buddy wouldn't be quite so keen on burying his toys. As it is, Yojojo lives to hide another day.

Suffolk skies

So we had perfect conditions for flying a kite; Southwold's beautiful beach, blue skies and plenty of wind. But having previously tried this activity with young children, I was sceptical they'd have much success or enjoyment. Kites, in my experience, take forever to get out of their packaging and are so huge and cumbersome they hinder anyone under the age of twelve's handling and control of them. All in all a bit of a damp squib. However, my aunt had sourced these fantastic mini kites (Zipaway Kites) that not only zip away into tiny pods when not in use but also need absolutely no construction. They are incredibly easy to use and Buddy's was soaring within seconds - and he loved it. Perfect.