Outdoor play | TheBoyandMe

Days 167-172 of Project 365

June 22, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 21 Comments

167-173 of 365

167. Drip! (We spent the day at Legoland Windsor as guests of the MAD Blog Awards for their family fun day. Late on the Saturday night, reviewing the purchases and outgoings over the previous week, we had actually realised that we weren't able to pay for the petrol to get there! Luckily a sponsored post opportunity came in on the Sunday morning and we were able to peg it up to Windsor before you could shout, 'I'm a MAD blogger!' I'm so pleased we did, because we had a brilliant time, and The Boy thoroughly enjoyed the Duplo Valley waterpark.)

168. Horsey, horsey (We spent a very quiet day playing in the house and garden to recover from the weekend's events. The Boy adores his new hobby horse we're reviewing from Great Little Trading Co.)

169. Squidge! (The one thing that The Boy asked for on his birthday list was the PlayDoh bakery playset which he'd seen in countless shops and on television. Mum bought it for him and he was over the moon, and spent most of the morning making cakes and icing them.)

170. Joy! (This is my favourite photo of the week, and possibly of this year's project. On Wednesday we took The Boy to his new school for an induction session. He adored the facilities and wanted to get stuck in to everything. Afterwards, the three of us walked home hand-in-hand and decided to go to Barry Island. It was a glorious afternoon with temperatures at 27°C at 4pm! We anchored the kite to the parasol, played frisbee, football, built sandcastles and ate chips on the sand. It felt slightly bittersweet to go from the introduction to the school – which will put a stop to these spontaneous afternoons – to being so carefree, but the sunshine soon wiped that feeling away.)

171. I will fit! (Packing for Britmums Live! and The Boy was trying to squash the important things into his rucksack, like him!)

172. Contortionist (Today was the first day of the Britmums Live! blogging conference. I took a lot of photos of yummy food and various bit and pieces, but thats not what my 365 is about. Instead I've chosen a photo of my shattered boy who went to the Maritime Museum with daddy and spent a restless night in his Premier Inn bed.)

173. Famous? (Another full on day of blogging advice in excellent sessions, and also brand schmoozing in The Hub. Coca-Cola have a stand here offering personalised labels; this makes me chuckle!)

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Are You A 'Wild Thing'?

June 14, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

In the past few months you might have noticed a slightly different tilt on my blog; there's a lot more outdoor play activities with a whole section dedicated to promoting a 'Natural Childhood'.

We had been trying to spend time outside anyway, usually so that we had content for our 'Country Kids' posts, but ever since we were invited to attend a National Trust bloggers' event in March, it's become embedded in our daily behaviour to get outside as much as possible. We've gone from having the television on in the background during play, to watching around thirty minutes worth a day, and that is mainly due to the actions of one man; David Bond.

Marketing manager for Nature, David attended the NT Bloggers' Day and introduced us to Project Wild Thing which is a feature-length documentary that examines the dwindling connection between children and nature. He showed us a clip from it, asked us to discuss why parents are reluctant to allow their children to play outdoors, and then shared some chilling facts with us (obtained from a UNICEF study).

Children in the UK are the most depressed in the western world.
The roaming distance that children play from their home has shrunk by 90% in 30 years with time spent playing outside down 50% in just one generation.
The UK is the third worst country in the developed world for getting children outdoors and playing (after USA and Australia).
Our children's generation has a lower life-expectancy than us.

And that last point, coupled with two videos that David showed us is the main reason why our play has changed. Why we now spend a good few hours outside each day. Why we are all happier feeling the effects Mother Nature has on us after only minutes outside. I didn't go through that birth to bring a child into the world who is unhappy, disconnected from his environment and who won't have the full life that he should.

The Project Wild Thing 'promise' involves pledging to spend equivalent 'outdoor time' as 'screen time'. It seems impossible? It's not. It's daunting at first, but it's not impossible. Furthermore Sunday is a screen free day in our house (for The Boy); no television, iPad, Kurio, nothing electrical.

And this is why…

PROJECT WILD THING – official trailer from Green Lions on Vimeo.

Exploring Tredegar House & Gardens (Country Kids)

May 10, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 27 Comments

Growing up in south Wales means that I have a heads-up on the types of places and activities that are good to take The Boy on weekends; there's now't as good as personal experiences and happy memories as a reference bank to fun!

One of the places that I didn't really experience much as a child was Tredegar House in Newport, probably due to a mixture of cost, subject matter (my mum doesn't like history as she doesn't like to dwell in the past) and distance. I do remember going there once when I was about eight years old, and have a photo to prove it, but haven't been since. And that was a long time ago.

Having a media pass to the National Trust for the year, and being a NT blogger, means that we are now visiting places that we wouldn't have thought of going to before; Tredegar House is one of those. It was taken over by the National Trust last year and since then there have been changes to make it more interactive and interesting to children, something I've noticed in every National Trust property we've been too.

And so we decided to visit Tredegar House last Saturday when they were running a special event to promote the 50 Things campaign. The irony is that we spent so long playing on the lawn with the old fashioned games, having a picnic and exploring the house, that we didn't have much time to try and tick off some of our 50 Things. It's just as well we're making good progress anyway.

Spring had definitely sprung; the brilliant sunlight was glistening through the freshly budding leaves, casting dappled shadows on the lush lawn and providing a veritable paradise to play on. From the huge conifer, spreading its arms over the lawn protectively, hung tyre-horses swinging back and fore with the giggles of The Boy and other delighted children. The huge open space provded him with the ideal opportunity to fly his kite with just enough breeze to lift it.

And after we'd enjoyed our picnic lunch and explored the partly restored manor house, we managed to find a cracking tree to explore inside. The only problem was… how to get up to it? Well, that's what daddies are for, isn't it?

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Days 118-124 of Project 365

May 4, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 34 Comments

118-124 of 365

118. Zoom! (We went back to Hotham Park next to Butlin's today, this time taking Laura and her family from Tired Mummy of Two. The Boy had a great time playing with Alison and Elizabeth, especially showing Alison exactly how much fun a zipwire is!)

119. Every Drop Counts (We called into The Vyne, a National Trust venue, on the way home from Butlin's today. More about that in my Country Kids post!)

120. Builders' Yard (I set up another small-world play scene for The Boy today in his water table which he spent quite some time playing with, before we headed off to gymnastics and shopping.)

121. Green Fingers (Wednesday today = first day at work of the week. However, this is not a sleeping photo which is a bonus. The Boy was determined to water the plants in the garden, something tells me this could take some time!)

122. Turning Point (After a good day in work, where I was more than happy to be on playground duty due to the glorious weather – so much so I took my classes out on the playground to do ICT that afternoon – mum and I took The Boy down the pier for an ice-cream and cycle ride. The sun casts such amazing shadows at this time of year. The Boy was having an amazing time racing up and down the pier, until he fell off and ended up with more than fifteen splinters in his right hand!)

123. New Glasses (After picking The Boy up at lunchtime from nursery, we nipped over to a small park in Cardiff Bay which I found a month or two back. It's next to the busy area of the Bay, but because it's behind a high wall and in a residential street, it's usually empty and so we get a chance to play in peace and quiet. I love this snap today for the comedic value.)

124. #22 Explore Inside A Tree! (We went to Tredegar House in Newport for the first time today. I vaguely remember going there once as a child with my parents and sister, but didn't think there would be much for children aside from a play park. It transpires that the National Trust had done a huge amount of work to make it interactive for children and they were also having a launch weekend for the '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' campaign. We actually spent so much time having fun exploring the house – more on that later – that we almost missed the opportunity to cross off about eight of the fifty things. In the end we saw them and got ideas of how to fulfill them, but we didn't actually do any apart from #22 with the help of daddy.)

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Exploring The Hidden Realm (Country Kids)

May 4, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 48 Comments

On the way home from our weekend break in Butlin's on Monday, we decided to break up the journey with a visit to a National Trust venue. We picked The Vyne in Basingstoke as it would be a perfectly timed mid-way and mid-day break, and I'd also recently seen MummyMummyMum's post about the new Tolkein-inspired play area; The Hidden Realm.

The Hidden Realm is a new play area, only opened since the beginning of April, and inspired by the well-loved book The Hobbit. Tolkein is thought to have based his tales on the ancient, gold ring on display on site, and so it was an obvious theme for a play area to occupy the once abandoned area of walled garden. Over the past six months, it has been transformed into a unique fantasy landscape for children with elements of jungle, mountain and stream, based on the Middle-Earth landscapes.

When we arrived there were only a couple of other children playing and so we pretty much had free run of the place, the perks of weekday visits! It amazes me how much has been fitted into such a small space, bridges, tunnels (with inter-connecting communication pipes), slides, stepping stones, fireman's pole (very Middle-Earth), and the best bit (for me anyway) was a dammed stream with a standpipe nearby to allow the children to play with the water.

The Hidden Realm at The Vyne, Hampshire

I really hope that the National Trust start building some more of these themed play areas in their venues, such great fun and a joy for both adults and children to enjoy.

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country kids

The New '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾'

May 3, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 3 Comments

I'm a really big fan of the '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' campaign. Combine that with 'Country Kids' and it has transformed our weekend activities. That is genuinely no exaggeration; I like completing challenges and blogging about them as part of our lives, if it was the initial motivation for becoming more physically active then I see that as no bad thing.

The '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' campaign has been created to help ensure that our children are having the natural childhood they deserve. With children in the UK being the most depressed in the western world, providing them with a sense of achievement and pride in their accomplishments (while also reconnecting them to nature) is essential. The exhilaration experienced from managing to climb that tricky tree or seeing a kite that you've made soaring through the sky is second to none for a child.

In order to update the list and make it more relevant to children in the UK, the National Trust have made a few changes. Initially I was a little irritated as quite a few things that they've removed were challenges that we'd managed (feed a bird by hand, visit an island, bury someone in the sand, balance on a fallen tree) but upon further examination I realised that they are now far more accessible for all, and realistic to achieve. It's all very well having the challenge of 'getting behind a waterfall' but if you live in the middle of the flattest part of Britain then it's rather tricky to achieve. Likewise for landlocked residents, visiting an island or hunting for treasure on a beach is nigh on impossible. And I can't thank the National Trust enough for changing 'see the sun wake up' to 'go star gazing'; after many years of teaching The Boy to not wake up at the crack of dawn, I wasn't relishing that task!

I've blogged previously about the Fifty Things so am not going to write them all out again, but I would like to highlight the changes:

	Out	In
11.	Throw some snow	Go on a really long bike ride
12.	Hunt for treasure on a beach	Make a trail with sticks
15.	Go sledging	Play in the snow
16.	Bury someone in the sand	Make a daisy chain
18.	Balance on a fallen tree	Create some wild art
19.	Swing on a rope swing	Play Pooh sticks
20.	Make a mud slide	Jump over waves
21.	Eat blackberries growing in the wild	Pick blackberries growing in the wild
22.	Take a look inside a tree	Explore inside a tree
23.	Visit an island	Visit a farm
24.	Feel like you’re flying in the wind	Go on a walk barefoot
27.	Watch the sun wake up	Go star gazing
29.	Get behind a waterfall	Explore a cave
30.	Feed a bird from your hand	Hold a scary beast
33.	Catch a butterfly in a net	Catch a falling leaf
36.	Call an owl	Make a home for a wild animal
42.	Go wild swimming	Go swimming in the sea
43.	Go rafting	Build a raft
44.	Light a fire without matches	Go bird watching
46.	Try bouldering	Try rock climbing
48.	Try abseiling	Learn to ride a horse

I'd urge parents to sign their children up for a '50 Things' account as it's fun to use and a great record of all the tasks completed, ours shows we've completed 21 of the tasks so far.

50 Things

I have a linky running for anyone who has blogged about their children's '50 Things' challenges, I'd love for you to join in below.

Days 111-117 of Project 365

April 27, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 31 Comments

117-123 of 365

111. Too busy! (Today was a stay-at-home day and The Boy's cousins came over to play in the morning and stayed for lunch. We spent hours in the garden, them playing, mum supervising and us gardening. The day was so busy that I forgot to take any photos until the evening when we were playing a calming Orchard Toys game before bed.)

112. Bubble Jedi (At 9.05am The Boy requested we go in the garden. And because I wasn't at all awake (although I was dressed, I agreed. I know. We then proceeded to spend two and a half hours in the garden; me pegging out the washing and pottering about with titbits of gardening, him making up games, blowing bubbles and making dams in the water 'future' (feature). We only went in to decide on what to eat for lunch, which was enjoyed al fresco! I love Spring.)

113. #30 (After a very good day together; playing in the garden, making cakes and chilling out nicely, we had a gargantuam parenting fail/threenager situation in the evening. Basically, The Boy took ages to eat his dinner and we both got cross because we were waiting to take him to the park to feed the swans and have a run around before bed. After a temper tantrum from him when he had the audacity to say I was taking ages (!), I put my foot down and said he could feel the swans (I needed the fresh air) but would not be allowed to go to the park. Being a parent is tough sometimes!)

114. Bottoms Up! (A play in the garden after I'd finished school and The Boy has found a new use for the non-slidey slide; it's a part climbing frame and then head first down after the rolling hoops!)

115. Flying Boy (This is his new way of going on the swing, he likes the way it makes him feel like he's flying! We took mum down the beach for an ice-cream after school but she was feeling her age today and didn't want to go for a walk and so we nipped to the park instead.)

116. Back Again! (I know this is a very similar photograph to one I recently had up but there are subtle differences; mainly the lack of coat and a great deal more sunshine. We've come back to Butlin's for the Butlin's Ambassadors weekend with many of the other ambassadors. Keeping my fingers crossed for dry weather and sunshine.)

117. Even Higher! (That was what he called to the attendant on the bungee trampoline he tried out earlier today! He screamed that he didn't want to go on it, and then I couldn't get him off.)

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Fifty Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ (The Link-Up)

April 25, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 12 Comments

My childhood garden was large and full of little nooks and crannies (notice you never get a cranny without a nook?) that offered hours of entertainment. Summers were long and balmy, filled with the squeals of laughter of four siblings who would tie each other to trees with their pigtails (thank you brother 1), hold talent contests on the picnic bench, splash around and soak each other with the hose, play badminton in the quiet side road next to the house, race on the go-kart from the side garden and under the archway to the garage into the back garden, and practise tennis or netball against the side wall of the garage. All under the watchful eye of my mum from the living room or kitchen window, both of which were upstairs (weird layout) and commanded a magnificent view over our 'empire'.

The point I am trying to make here is that we spent hours and hours every day outside.

As my siblings grew older, I had less playmates but it didn't affect my desire to get out into the fresh air. Even now, I feel free when outside, it soothes my frazzled nerves and I can feel my spirits lifting.

When we went to Nymans for the National Trust event earlier this Spring, David Bond (marketing director for Nature!) asked us whether our happy place was inside or outside. The split was about half and half, which is very different to most families. Most adults (and children) now have an indoors happy place. It is therefore, hardly surprising that children in the UK are the most depressed in the natural world; they don't know about the joy of feeling the wind through their hair and tingling their senses, the sun caressing the skin, the sense of achievement when they climb a tree or jump the brook, skim the stone or make a den.

Last year I blogged about the 50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ campaign by the National Trust. I set us a goal of 5 Things To Do Before You're 3 and we attempted four of these things (the waterfall was always going to be ambitious!). In the past year we've ticked off a few more of these (mostly easy to achieve) targets and are making steady progress, mainly thanks to the Country Kids linky over on Coombe Mill.

~~Climb a tree~~ (04/11/12)
~~Roll down a really big hill~~
Camp out in the wild
~~Build a den~~
Skim a stone
~~Run around in the rain~~
~~Fly a kite~~
~~Catch a fish with a net~~ (25/07/14)
~~Eat an apple straight from a tree~~
~~Play conkers~~
Go on a really long bike ride
Make a trail with sticks
~~Make a mud pie~~
Dam a stream
~~Play in the snow~~
Make a daisy chain
Set up a snail race
~~Create some wild art~~ (21/07/13)
~~Play Pooh sticks~~
~~Jump over waves~~
~~Eat blackberries growing in the wild~~
~~Explore inside a tree~~
~~Visit a farm~~
~~Go on a walk barefoot~~
Make a grass trumpet
Hunt for fossils and bones
~~Go star gazing~~
Climb a huge hill
~~Explore a cave~~
~~Hold a scary beast~~
~~Hunt for bugs~~
~~Find some frogspawn~~
~~Catch a falling leaf~~
~~Track wild animals~~
~~Discover what's in a pond~~
~~Make a home for a wild animal~~
~~Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool~~
Bring up a butterfly
~~Catch a crab~~ (25/07/14)
~~Go on a nature walk at night~~
~~Plant it, grow it, eat it~~
~~Go swimming in the sea~~
~~Build a raft~~ (05/08/13)
~~Go bird watching~~
~~Find your way with a map and compass~~
Try rock climbing
~~Cook on a campfire~~
Learn to ride a horse
~~Find a geocache~~
Canoe down a river

I've decided to write this post for me so that we can cross off the other targets as and when we meet them. And because it's more a of a reference bank for me, I also thought I'd open it up as a permanent linky until… well The Boy is 11&¾ quite frankly. Either that or until he does them all!

I'd love it if you joined in with your posts or photos (Instagrams/twitpics) showing your children fulfilling one of their Fifty Things To Do Before You're 11&¾.

50-things1

Westonbirt Arboretum (Review)

April 24, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 14 Comments

There is a sign that I have passed on the M4 more times than I care to remember. I've always thought, 'Oh we must visit there in the Autumn, it must be beautiful then.' or 'I bet The Boy would love to explore there.' but it's not been a real possibility as we've always been on the way to somewhere or rushing back home after a tiring day out. When we lived in Reading for three years, we passed the sign on our monthly return home and I thought then it must be amazing to visit there, and that was in 2001!

Finally we had the opportunity to explore the mystery behind the sign for Westonbirt Arboretum when we headed down for our Butlin's Ambassadors holiday at the end of March. I arranged for us to visit Westonbirt the day before our holiday started and we decided to stay overnight in Basingstoke as it would ensure we weren't rushing.

Westonbirt Arboretum is well signposted from junction 18 of the M4 and takes a further twenty-ish minutes to reach beyond the motorway. There is a pay kiosk upon entry to the main drive, and then a good size car park with ample parking for all. The site is massive, far bigger than I ever imagined which seems silly to say considering it is a large forest and woodland!

Westonbirt arboretum

The circle above shows the main reception area with Westonbirth Restaurant, forest shop, visitor services, education centre, toilets and an excellent play area for children. To the right of this circle is the Old Arboretum, and to the left are the collections (Japanese Maple, Oak, Cherry collections) alongside the longer paths and trails. Unfortunately we didn't get to explore this section because what I haven't said is that it was -3°C that day.

Yes, that is a minus symbol.

Even though we are hardy explorers and were all togged up in everything we owned, it was the type of cold that chilled to the bone. Nonetheless we persevered and did explore the Old Arboretum and the children's play area. First of all though, we were invited to sample the wares of the Westonbirt Restaurant.

The restaurant has recently seen a changeover, at the time the manager and chef had only been there a manner of weeks, and is an incredibly pleasant and trendy venue with huge wooden tables, floor to ceiling windows (with frosted leaf patterns embossed on) which overlook the site and provide a light and airy place to eat.

Westonbirt restaurant

The Boy had a child's version of the 'Calcot fishcakes' which is usually served with tartar sauce and a mixed leaf salad, but for him they served it with tomato sauce and a pot of fresh peas. This couldn't have been a better dish for him to have if the chef had been a fly on the wall in our house! The Boy loves salmon and mixed with the dill, it smelt and looked delicious (and this from a vegetarian) and he wolfed the lot down.

Mr. TBaM had the 'The Cotswolds Platter' which was a much nicer version of a ploughman's than I've ever seen. Served on a wooden platter (as all the meals were) it included Woodchester ham, a local pork pie and double Gloucester cheese and was served with homemade chutney and Hobbs House bread and butter. The quality of the items were excellent and very filling, he really enjoyed the taste of everything, especially the cheese (different to the standard orange Gloucester cheese in the supermarkets) and he said everything worked really well together.

I was served with a delicious Spring vegetable risotto with fresh asparagus and parmesan. I'm a sucker for a good risotto and this was definitely one of them; the arborio rice had just the right level of crunch to it, the asparagus was very fresh along with the other Spring vegetables, and it was very creamy.

Full of sustenance we set off to brave the cold and explore the beautiful woodland park. First off was the 'Exploratree' adventure and interactive playground for under fives.

Exploratree Westonbirt Arboretum

Designed to completely encourage children to explore the forest, there are crawl tunnels, a wooden tree house, play saws (made from wood, no sharp edges) and trees which are perfect for climbing in with their low level branches. We spent a good half an hour here with The Boy playing with all the different parts and exploring and discussing why there were saws and what they were used for.

There are a few interactive elements to the Exploratree park as well:

exploratree westonbirt arboretum 1

The wooden tree wall is interactive and encourages the children to question and observe the wildlife in the trees, while there's also a fantastic xylophone made from wooden planks.

After a while we needed to charge around and practise our climbing so we went to explore the Old Arboretum.

westonbirt arboretum

We only managed a small section of this part of the Arboretum as The Boy was actually starting to cry and turn as blue as his suit with cold (-3°C remember?) and so we had to turn back unfortunately.

We will be returning to Westonbirt Arboretum in the next month or so to take advantage of temperatures in the positive double figures. Especially because I also wanted to explore the nature play trails hidden amongst the trees of the Old Arboretum and Silk Wood (aimed at 5-11 year olds), where the children can build explorers' dens, balance and clamber over fallen logs, and plan expeditions in a tree fort. I particularly want to find the mystical troll bridge!

Westonbirt has four excellent seasonal play booklets with a multitude of activities to encourage natural play like weaving sticks and treasures together, an insect treasure hunt and many more wonderful ideas. There are also a host of family events coming up over the next few months like Bug World, Forest Folk and Tree Potions.

Entry into Westonbirt is £8 for adults and £3 for children aged 5-18, under fives go free (between March – September) and there is half price entry on Wednesdays in April and May 2013. This is a really reasonable price for entry into somewhere which could easily occupy a whole day, and the half-price entry would be perfect to help children complete the Fifty Things To Do Before You're 11 & ¾. (They also have a Quality Badge awarded by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom)

Now we've been once, I'm not sure why we took so long to get there! We'll definitely be visiting what must surely be a jewel in the Forestry Commission's crown?

We received free entry into the Arboretum and a meal at the Westonbirt Restuarant in order to complete this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased as always.

The One Where Everyone Went To Roath Park (Country Kids)

April 21, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 17 Comments

Roath Park Lake

When it's sunny, there are three places which the entirety of south Wales flocks to; St. Fagan's, Barry Island and Roath Park. Yesterday, we joined the eleventy billion people also heading to Roath Park, to meet up with my brother and his family. (They weren't going to meet up with him by the way.)

There's a really good reason why it's so popular in the sunshine, the above panorama is just one of them. The boating lake was laden with swans sailing along with open wings, students valiantly attempting the row boats, and mums and dads navigating the flailing oars in the more sensible pedalloes. It's a beautiful sight to behold.

We didn't venture on to the lake, but we did fight for our turns on the swings and slides, scoot around the crowds of urban folk getting their weekly allowance of fresh air dressed rather bravely in Summer dresses or shorts (The Boy only fell of his scooter seven times with one graze to the forehead, and yes he did have his helmet on), and climb some magnificent trees. Has anyone else ever had to queue to climb a tree?!

roath park

The Boy loves spending time with his cousins, and she was so good with him as she let him win at scooting, stood her ground against bigger children in the playground, and showed him where to put his feet when tree climbing!

Hurrah for the Spring!

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