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Nature

Top wildlife ideas when you are out with the kids.

30 Days Wild Day 12: Nature books for kids
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30 Days Wild Day 12: Nature books for kids

I’m finding it quite tricky at the moment to find any decent stretches of time to do something outdoors with my kids. So today we did something very easy and relaxing – took some books outside with a rug and read. Obviously you can choose any books, but I thought I’d stick with the theme of wildlife and nature and pick out all our books about the great outdoors and read a few of them to my pre-schooler son. So today we read nature books for kids outdoors!

This was a lovely activity to do, and it really made a difference being outside reading. Sometimes I think I’m trying to be on the go all the time. Being active outdoors is great, but is is also very nice to just sit, tune into the sounds around you and smell the fresh air. It was very relaxing and I wondered why I’d never read outdoors with my children before?!

Luckily for us it was also a lovely day – finally. So we had the sun on our backs and a good half an hour of studying our books and reading some nature stories.

Nature books with kids

Choosing our stories to read outdoors

Nature books with kids

B enjoying The Little Gardener

We have these nature books for kids:-

Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson

My favourite book. It’s just got great rhythm to it and I adore the story about these three seaside creatures making friends and making a home together. Great for two and up.

The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus by Andrea Pinnington and Caz Buckingham

A new book in our collection, after being inspired on this nature journey of ours to listen to birdsong more and try to interpret who is singing what. It’s a fact book, so my toddler wasn’t interested in anything other than pressing the buttons but my older son loves it!

Nature’s Day by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll

Another amazing book for older children, with great illustrations. It takes the reader through the seasons with pages on things like pond life, roots and shoots and birds that fly south with the sun. This would also make an amazing birthday present for girls and boys from five and up.

A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister

Another great birthday present idea. This hardback book is packed full of short folktales and legends about animals from all over the world. Examples include the story of the prairie wolf and the song of the armadillo.

The Little Gardener by Emily Hughes

A nice story for ages three and up about a little boy who loved looking after his garden.

A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies

A good book to dip into, with short poems and stories about nature in all its forms. Lovely illustrations too.

Boris Goes Camping by Carrie Weston and Tim Warnes

A tale about a group of animal friends who go camping in the woods, but come across some mischievous little wolves who try to spoil their fun. Good for ages three and up.

Tree by Britta Teekentrup

Another new story for us. I bought this a gift for a friend and liked it so much I bought one for my children too. It’s a cut out book which follows a tree throughout the seasons, highlighting all who live in her branches.

They are all really lovely and imaginative books. Some are stories, and some are more factual. The illustrations are beautiful too.

Nature books for kids

All our nature books

June 16, 2019 0 comment
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30 Days Wild Day 11: Studying a local street tree
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30 Days Wild Day 11: Studying a local street tree

In between the rainfall, we went outside to take a proper look at one of our local street tree. We have three oak trees in our garden but we also have an outdoor green near our house with a few big trees on it, so we headed there to take a closer look at a local street tree.

I got the idea from a worksheet which you can download from The Wildlife Trusts Wildlife Watch website – My Street Tree.  There’s lots more wildlife activities on the Wildlife Watch website too if you want to try something else.

First F wanted to climb the tree, so I helped him up into the lower branches. I don’t think many kids climb trees now which is a real shame. I understand that it is risky but then so is a climbing frame in a playground? Some of my favourite childhood memories involve clilmbing three trees of varying difficulty in my local park. It felt like another world and each tree had it’s own quirks and challenges and felt different to the other.

Local street tree, Red Oak tree canopy

Our local street tree canopy

Local street tree, boy climbing tree

F climbs our tree and B investigates the trunk!

Then we had a little look around the tree to see if we could find any creatures. We found a woodlouse on the bark, some fungi around the roots and could hear some birds high up in the branches. We were also on the hunt for worms as it’s been raining, but we could not find any. Where have they gone?!

Then we went back home and drew our local street tree, coloured it in and sellotaped a fallen leaf next to it. We looked up what tree it was using The Woodland Trust’s Tree ID app, and thought it was probably a Red Oak tree.

Other things you can do are measure the tree’s trunk and estimate its height, do some bark rubbing, and water the tree (I don’t think we really needed to do this last one on this occasion!).

This was a really fun and quick outdoor activity. It doesn’t take any effort at all to do it, and is a good after school activity when you are short of time but want to get your kids outdoors for a bit. My older son, who is five, particularly loved it and wants to do it again with another tree. B, the toddler, was admittedly more interested in poking about in the mud at the bottom of the tree but that was fine with me too!

Local street tree, boys drawing and colouring

Busy colouring in our tree

Local street tree, Child's drawing of a tree

F’s street tree drawing with leaf and acorn

Local street tree

June 16, 2019 0 comment
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30 Days Wild day 10: Going on a eggbox scavenger hunt
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30 Days Wild day 10: Going on a eggbox scavenger hunt

We wrapped up as warmly as we could and headed out to Staffhurst Woods, one of Surrey Wildlife Trust’s loveliest reserves, for an eggbox scavenger hunt. If you come earlier in April and May, you’ll witness a carpet of bluebells. We try to come every year as it’s a truly beautiful place in Spring for a picnic. It’s also lovely any time of year, even this damp and gloomy day in June!

Where’s summery June gone? We’re struggling a bit in this damp weather. That said, I’m in the middle of reading Simon Barnes’ brilliant book ‘Rewild Yourself’  and one of the chapters talks about ‘magic trousers’. Basically, if you arm yourself with a pair of waterproof trousers as well as a rain jacket, you’re set to get out there into the UK’s predictable weather. Such a simple tip but so true. My kids have got waterproof trousers, but I haven’t so I’ve ordered a pair in case this downpour continues on throughout June.

B painted an eggbox before we came (outdoors!). We let it dry before sticking on some ideas for what to look for on our eggbox scavenger hunt. There are tons of ideas out there for scavenger hunts depending on the time of year and environment you are in, but today we went for a woodland-inspired scavenger hunt collection from The Woodland Trust. 

Then we hunted around for bits and pieces in Staffhurst Woods, before having a quick snack on our picnic rug. We looked for:-

Something yellow (couldn’t find much but found a yellowy/green leaf)

A nibbled leaf (bramble leaf)

Something bendy (leftove of a bluebell stalk)

Something weighless (fern leaf)

Something rough (bark, complete with woodlice)

Something delicate (moss)

B enjoyed poking around close to the ground but also just clambering over fallen logs and jumping about being silly. Must be something about the fresh woodland air! The heavens opened before lunch so we admitted defeat and headed home and back to buy those waterproof trousers.

Eggbox scavenger hunt, toddler on fallen log in woods

Enjoying the woods’ natural playground

Eggbox scavenger hunt, toddler in woods

B looks for items to go in his eggbox

Eggbox scavenger hunt

June 13, 2019 0 comment
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30 Days Wild day 9: Exploring the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey
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30 Days Wild day 9: Exploring the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey

The British Wildlife Centre is in Lingfield, Surrey, but only open on weekends and holidays. We’d never been before so we headed over there at the weekend to see what it was like. The British Wildlife Centre is home to over 40 native UK species including otters, badgers, foxes, deer, red squirrels and owls. It was set up in 1977 by dairy farmer David Mills, who was passionate about our native wildlife.

We were greeted with an enormous hedgehog – Snuffles – which the boys thought was funny. We bypassed the cafe and shop and headed straight for the home of the red squirrels where a talk was about to start. The red squirrels aren’t keep in captivity, they are free in the trees. We had to enter a small woodland area through two doors which took us onto a walkway around the woods.

The keeper told us about the squirrels. There are about 12 here now, along with a couple of muntjac deer. They are fairly new and are very shy and not used to humans yet, so unfortunately we didn’t spot any though we did do a couple of circuits peering up into the trees.

Red squirrels are still found in the wild, up in Northumberland and Scotland and also on Brownsea Island in Dorset. Some have recently been released onto one of the Scilly Isles too, Tresco. They used to be prolific here but unfortunately due to the release of grey squirrels into the country from America, numbers have dwindled. The grey squirrels carry a virus which they are immune to, but the reds are not. Deforestation and fragmentation of forests are also causes of decline.

The red squirrel is more agile than the grey and spends more time up in the trees than its relative. Squirrel apparently means ‘to sit in the shad of your own tail’, which is what they do when it’s chilly. Very sweet!

After the squirrel lesson, we headed up to Pip’s corner, a mini natural playground for kids, which my two loved. It’s a peaceful spot overlooking the deer, with various wooden play equipment, a sandpit and tunnel under a grassy hill. There’s also a picnic area if you want to bring a picnic with you.

British Wildlife Centre, Pip's Corner

Pip’s Corner playground area

We peered in on a couple of otters fast asleep in the observation room, an adder and grass snake, then over to the aviaries to see lots of owls. One keeper had an eagle owl out which my boys were actually a bit scared of. Their talons are very long up close. Over to say hello to the very tame foxes mooching about before we stopped for a rest and some lunch in the cafe.

After lunch, we went into The Hedgerow for all the mini species. I liked this bit the best, as did my two children. They loved peering in to look for hazel dormice, rats, field voles and weasel. They also were really interested in the honeybee hive, where you could see all the worker bees going in and out of the hut, hard at work!

British Wildlife Centre, keeper holding an eagle owl

One of the keepers with an Eagle Owl

British Wildlife Centre, boys look at beehive

Fascinated by the bees

The Nocturnal House and badger sett was another top experience, as we saw four badgers asleep all curled around each other, and a hedgehog curled up in the corner resting.

Finally we had a run around The Dell where kids can run up and down a small dell and balance on a fallen log.

We spent about half a day here, but you could spend longer, particularly if you listen to more of the talks. It’s a lovely place, where conservation and education come first rather than it being a place for kids, but there’s lots for kids of all ages to enjoy and we’ll definitely return.

The British Wildlife Centre is quite pricey to get in, but money does go towards the upkeep of the centre so it’s a worthwhile spend. It’s £12 for adults and £8.50 for 3-15 year olds. If you live close by you can join for the year at £60 for adults and £35 for 3-15 year olds.

British Wildlife Centre

 

June 11, 2019 1 comment
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30 Days Wild Day 8: Gardening with kids
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30 Days Wild Day 8: Gardening with kids

We liked planting our wildflowers so much, it spurred me on to do some more gardening with the kids and sort out the front of our house, which was looking a bit of a mess with weeds and dead plants sprouting out of every pot.

We took a trip to a local garden centre to buy some bee-friendly flowers – both seeds and plants – and then came home to plant them out in pots. However, before that, we did go on a bee rescuing mission. One of the plants we bought still had a bee on it, which then decided to fly up and away into the corner of a windowpane and into some cobwebs in the garden centre. So before we left, we went and found a fishing net to rescue the poor bee and set him (or her) free back outside. Good deed for the day.! 🙂

gardening with kids, collection of bee-friendly plants and seeds

Our collection of bee-friendly plants and seeds

We bought:-

Cosmos

Pyrethrum

Lavender

Rosemary

Marigold

Sweet Rocket

Verbena

Nepeta

Mint

Papaver

Vegetables we are trying to grow include:-

Courgettes

Cress

Beetroot

Carrot

Strawberries

The my two boys used trowels to dig out compost and three quarter fill some pots, sprinkle some seeds in/put in the plants, and cover with more soil before watering. Our pots are out in the front of our house as it’s nice and sunny there. I’ve given my eldest the task of daily watering. So far we’ve not needed to do any extra watering though, hello rainfall.

gardening with kids, boy planting flowers in pots

Putting the finishing touches to our plants

Both boys loved getting a bit mucky and digging about in the compost, but they also seemed really interested and concerned about what we were doing, questioning what this flower was and that vegetable, how often we needed to water them and so on.

Even if you don’t have a garden you can grow plants and vegetables in pots – like we are doing. We just rent our home so it didn’t make sense to grow flowers in somebody else’s garden right now.

I’d love to get into gardening properly when I have my own garden, and when the boys are a little older. I don’t really have the time for much right now, so these little efforts here and there are a nice insight into the reward you get from it.

Crossing my fingers they don’t all die, and we get some of the seeds growing. I’ll take a peek later and let you know.

Gardening with kids

June 11, 2019 2 comments
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What we did on the 30 Days Wild challenge: week 1
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What we did on the 30 Days Wild challenge: week 1

It’s already the end of week one of the 30 Days Wild Challenge and it’s flown by. So far I’m really enjoying being creative and planning fun but simple activities with my kids to get outdoors and enjoy nature on the doorstep. It’s also been rather challenging to find the time to fit it all in, but actually getting outdoors doesn’t have to be an onerous task – it can be as simple as just stepping outside the backdoor to peer at the clouds, listen to the birds and smell the fresh air. And, even though I’m extremely passionate about nature and conservation and how beneficial it is for myself and my children, I don’t often do these simple things so it’s been good to check in and make sure I am. Anyway, pondering over, here’s what we’ve been up to on week one of 30 Days Wild.

Beachcombing in Felixstowe

We were lucky enough to catch the end of the half term holidays as it started up and we were staying with my parents, so we made the most of being out on the beautiful Suffolk coastline. Day 1 took us to Felixstowe for a super interesting activity – beachcombing. You don’t need to be guided to do this, but it is hugely beneficial as you’ll have someone on call to tell you what stuff is and give you some background information. You may also hear some gruesome marine stories as my post will tell! Both boys loved pottering about scavenging for coastal debris – they are naturals at it.

Crabbing in Walberswick

On day 2 we went to gorgeous Walberswick – one of the best places in the country to go crabbing. We’d never tried it before and it’s safe to say it was a massive hit. We had to go back three times and I’m sure it will be top of the list when we visit my parents again. I think next time I’ll be a top parent and even print out some information about crabs and seaside nature to chat to my sons about, and I’m going to search out a book about our coastal wildlife at the library next time we go.

Making nature creatures

This was a quick activity for after school. I loved it as there was NO MESS and it was a very funny and creative game to play with my kids. Check my post above for full details (and the best shell crab you’ll ever see) but the idea is to collect some bits and pieces from around the garden or your local park, then create creatures of your choosing out of them.

Watching garden wildlife

Another easy win for after school. This is a nice one for all ages, as it makes you stop and just be in the moment. It was quite a lovely half and hour of just wandering around looking in the flowers and bushes for insects and birds. My boys loved this and it also calmed them down a bit before bed!

Exploring Headley Heath

I had my toddler for the day so we went off exploring a new patch – Headley Heath in Surrey, which was an awesome find. It’s managed by the National Trust and it’s even rarer than tropical rainforest – staggering! Go visit if you haven’t already. My son was still talking about how ‘he spotted the butterflies’ there today. It’s buggy and dog friendly and there’s lots of wildlife spotting opportunities.

Planting wildflowers

If you signed up for the 30 Days Wild challenge, you should have received a small packet of wildflowers. We planted ours today. I’m not that hopeful ours will come out as I used very old compost (I am not a gardener) but we’ll see. Apparently ox-eye daisies are very easy to grow so I hope they like where we’ve sown them. The boys really enjoyed helping with this so let’s see how our daisies progress over the month.

Making art with mud and feathers

I can’t believe I’ve done another crafty activity with my sons. I never do craft as I hate all the mess. But! The beauty of all these outdoor activities is that it is outdoors. The house stays clean 🙂 Admittedly this is a messy task so we did it before bedtime, and we all had fun and enjoyed messing about outdoors in a creative and muddy way.

Roll on week 2!

30 days wild

June 8, 2019 3 comments
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30 Days Wild Day 7: Mud and feather writing
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30 Days Wild Day 7: Mud and feather writing

Today we tried mud and feather writing. My eldest is always picking up feathers so we usually have a collection of them at any one time in a box. I picked out a couple of better looking ones and we headed outside with them plus some card and two painting tubs to do some nature art, inspired by the success of our nature creatures from earlier in the week.

We first dug up a little bit of claylike soil – the muddier and stickier the better I thought. Then we added a bit of water and gave it a bit with a stick. So far, so muddy.

Then we dipped in our feather pens into the muddy ink and created our masterpieces outside. As well as feathers we also used some leafs to create some prints, and some oak leaves as a brush.

Mud and feather writing, boys do art with mud outdoors

Getting started with the mud art

Mud and feather writing

We used leaves and hands as well as feathers to create our masterpieces!

Mud and feather writing

The final pieces – stunning

Then it all got a bit messy with hand prints.

I’m not sure my sons will be winning any prizes soon for their artwork, but they had a lot of fun getting creative and muddy. A bit of rain today added to the excitement. Kids really don’t care if it’s raining. I was wanting to go back inside more than they were today.

Our mud and feather writing activity only took about half an hour but was a great way to unwind and is a good activity to do just before bath time as well!

Mud and feather writing

June 8, 2019 2 comments
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The best walks in London
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The best walks in London

Ditch all those thoughts of London being polluted and overcrowded. Our capital has some beautiful places to walk in. Did you know London is one of the greenest cities on earth? And that we’re going to become a National Park City in July? Here’s some of the best walks in London you can have. Some of these walks in London are well-known, and with good reason – they are beautiful; others are under the radar, more peaceful and just as picturesque. I’ve noted where you can get the essentials – coffee and cake – as well as where the nearest toilets and playgrounds are,  so all these walks should be pretty family-friendly walks in London too. Settle in with a cup of tea – this is a long post. Told you London was green. 

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February 10, 2019 5 comments
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Dorset with kids: family beach guide
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Dorset with kids: family beach guide

Dorset with kids is a must-do holiday. Dorset has always appealed to me as a fantastic UK holiday destination, particularly now with kids (it’s not called the Jurassic Coast for nothing). Plus who needs to fly abroad in summer with this gorgeous weather in England?!  Here’s my itinerary for families who want to enjoy the best of coastal Dorset with kids. 

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July 16, 2018 1 comment
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Adventure after parenthood: Catherine Edsell
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Adventure after parenthood: Catherine Edsell

Part of why I set up The Smaller Explorer was to connect with like-minded families. There’s nothing like chatting with others who have managed to do something amazing after having children. It’s so inspiring, and also gives me loads of ideas of what I could do in the future too, and how to do it.

This series hopes to inspire other families who want to get back out there after parenthood, but don’t quite know where to start, or if it’s possible. There was only one lady I could start with – Catherine Edsell.  Catherine is an adventurer, expedition leader, PADI divemaster, Reef Check trainer, yoga teacher, FRGS, TED talker, podcaster and mother of two daughters. Phew.

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May 9, 2018 1 comment
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