The Best Playground (Country Kids)

by 14 Comments

Considering what an advocate of outdoor play I am, I've found it increasingly difficult since The Boy started school to get out and about more than once or twice a week on a school day. When he comes home from school he's utterly exhausted and collapses on the sofa for half an hour or so, vegetating in front of the television while chomping down on a snack. Invariably by the time he's recovered enough to do anything it's pitch-black outside.

I must try harder next half-term.

However, while we have managed to get down to the nature reserve to feed the swans once a week or popped to a park, we seem to have neglected the best playground around; our back garden. With a climbing frame and slide set, plus a swing, there's really not much more he needs to create some fun and games in his own time. Therefore on Christmas Eve morning, when things were becoming a little fraught in the house, I sent The Boy out with Mr. TBaM to rediscover how easy it is to get 15 minutes outdoors a day.

The Best Playground

Watching him through the kitchen window as I made our Christmas cake, it struck me how more physically aware and confident he is than six months ago when he first had the climbing frame. The Boy now scampers up the side of the frame easily and balances at the top with no problem. The swing seems to have become a challenge for him; how many acrobatic moves can he perform on it? Standing on it gave me a few palpitations, and then I saw him jump off the seat…

He ended the play with an attempt at flying. Because he's four and if he wants to believe he can then I'm not one to stop him!

—

country kidsOutdoor play party

50 Things Challenge: #18 – Create Wild Art

by 12 Comments

Playing outdoors over the Spring and Summer months is easy and enjoyable for all; it's normally dry, warm at least, and the world is full of greenery to fill the heart and soul. I know that during the Summer holidays we've spent more waking time outdoors than we have in, and have almost forgotten what the television is.

I started in February or March of this year vowing to play outside with The Boy for at least fifteen minutes every day, and we've managed it every day since. So much so that it's now part of our routine and we both feel like we're going stir-crazy if we stay in for too long.

However, with school starting and Autumn (and the other season which shall remain unnamed at present) approaching, play tendencies change; the temperature drops slightly, another layer of clothing is needed, wellies not sandals are the footwear of choice, and sometimes time just doesn't allow for a huge amount of outdoor play. Regardless of all of these factors, our need to reconnect with nature doesn't diminish and it's a well-documented fact that time spent in the great outdoors can have massive benefits for all involved; specifically our children.

So MumOnTheBrink and I had an idea in the Natural Childhood Facebook group to set a challenge to help people continue the National Trust's 50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ project during the forthcoming, less-inspiring months.

Each month we will identify one of the 50 Things as a project, and open up a blog-hop for the month to encourage other bloggers to get outdoors and complete their lists.

50 Things Challenge - Create Wild Art

September is #18: Create Wild Art

You could decorate picture frame, make a forest face from mud or air-dry clay, create a beachcombing treasure tile, or a whip up a woodland weaving. There are oodles of other ideas out there too, check Pinterest for some great ideas.

Please enter your wild art activities completed during the month of September into the blog-hop below, Monika and I would love it if you'd copy the code into your post as well as it will spread the word about the 50 Things challenge.

Now pop outside and have fun!



Don't forget to link these up to Coombe Mill's Country Kids weekly; Fiona is the main reason that I continued last Winter to play outdoors before we started working with the National Trust.

Days 90-96 of Project 365

by 44 Comments

90-96 of 365

90. Rolling, rolling, rolling! (We went to Dyffryn Gardens for the National Trust Easter Egg Trail and had an absolutely marvellous time exploring the recently reopened Dyffryn House. However, the best bit of the day is that The Boy got to cross off #2 of the 50 Things: Roll down a really big hill – really big is subjective when you're only three!)

91. A-maze-ing! (Despite yesterday's beautiful weather and the hint that Spring was on its way, today was blindingly cold and dreary! We spent much of it inside chilling out after our hectic previous week and weekend, with Nanny and Grandad coming to dinner. I'd bought The Boy some new wipe-clean books from Usborne; this is a maze book and he is completely devoted to it.)

92. Spiderman (Having popped up to the local butcher we went for a walk in the main park in our town, a park which has many different 'zones' to it which provide ample play opportunities. We discovered yet another tree that needed to be climbed, although he decided to jump out of this one, rather than climb down. As it was only a foot drop, I let him off.)

93. Hello down there! (Another day, another park! Swing time took on a different angle today.)

94. Nearly there (The Boy is obsessed lately with trying to make different colours and I decided to let him loose with a colour mixing experiment. My sister would be pleased to know he just wanted to make brown – her favourite (boring!) colour – and he very almost managed it.)

95. Cookie dough (Today was dominated by The Boy having his preschool MMR booster in the afternoon, and it appears I may have been quite anxious about it as I was a grumpy mummy most of the day. I managed to summon up the inclination to make cookies with The Boy, but even that was staight from a packet and add two tablespoons of water; how lazy! Turns out that The Boy was fine with his booster, didn't even notice the injection.)

96. Where's the hole? (We returned to Dyffryn Gardens today, as I hadn't had long enough to explore the inside of the house, and get the photos I was after – I still didn't manage it today as The Boy wanted to explore the gardens. The garden rooms are plenty and full of little holes and pathways leading through into a different 'room'. Only thing was, there wasn't a hole in the hedge here, despite The Boy trying his hardest to push through. Look closely and his head had half disappeared inside. It reminded me of Tom in Tom's Midnight Garden.)

—

TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

akiltandacamera.com

Days 48-54 of Project 365

by 74 Comments

48-54 of 365

48. 'Sandcastle' (It feels like too long since The Boy has played with his sandtable, so we uncovered it and he got stuck in making mini-sandcastles and driving his cars through the sand. A chillier day than it had been the previous week, turns out Spring wasn't on its way after all!)

49. 'Downfall' (I was sorting through one of the boxes in the Ikea unit in the living room when I found Downfall nestled at the bottom of it. I got it out for The Boy and we spent most of the morning playing the game; he picked it up quickly and was really good at developing a strategy. It has remained the most played with toy of the the week!)

50. 'Chilled Out' (Every day-off morning before Mr. TBaM goes to work, The Boy sits on our bed while I shower quickly and get dressed. This morning I climbed back into bed to warm up and The Boy leant against me chilling out playing on the iPad. I love how completely relaxed he is.)

51. 'Run, run as fast as you can!' (In lieu of the fact that we want an XBox Kinext but can't afford one, we've introduced The Boy to the Wii this week and he has become a fan of the bowling game. However, we introduced him to running on the Wii Fit and he is now obsessed with it and wants to play it all the time! He loves competing against us to see who can run the fastest and it's very cute to see his little legs flying around the place as he tried to run as fast as he possibly can.)

52. 'Eggy Words' (Yes I know it's another technology shot, but such is our life this week as it has been so damned cold! I've just downloaded Eggy Words by Reading Eggs for review, and The Boy has completely taken to spelling out simple CVC words on it, I'm very proud of him!)

53: 'Slumber' (Zonked out after a long morning at nursery, and a long afternoon playing with nana, The Boy slept soundly all night. Just before our bed I went to check on him and found this tousle-haired young man cuddling Oliver Monkey tight, I do love watching him sleep.)

54: 'Lazy Saturday' (We've been very lazy today and done hardly anything! I feel quite rotten this morning and Mr. TBaM very kindly let me have a lie-in which knocked out most of the morning, and they both went shopping to give me a bit more space. Upon their return I walked into the living room and found The Boy having a bit of a chill out session on the sofa with the iPad, again. I think it's the jeans which make him look like older, it's why I tend not to dress him in them.)

I'm actually a little ashamed of the fact that there are four technology photos in this lot and only one outdoor photo. We've failed a bit on our 15 minutes outdoor play this week (only managing it five times) because of how horribly cold it has been; next week will be better!

—

TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky
MWTWbadge
akiltandacamera.com

Country Kids: Three Boys, A Hoop & Copious Amounts Of Rain

by 13 Comments

I detest this time of year; from the second week in January until the third week of February, the post-Christmas blues hit me and Spring seems such a very long time away. It was alleviated somewhat by our snow days, but this past fortnight has been foul. I needed a break and so we booked into a Premier Inn in Weston-Super-Mare and headed directly across the channel. (Or rather around it, due to a lack of ferry or barrage.)

As we were in the area, I checked with Jenny from Mummy Mishaps if she and her gorgeous family were free; they were and we spent the day with them in their gorgeous, palatial, new house. Both Jenny and I were hopeful we could go to the beach or one of the beautiful parks in the area, but the torrential rain put pay to that. We did however spend a fun half an hour in the garden with the boys and an old hula-hoop, and really tested the theory that there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!

20130210-231800.jpg

Giddy up, horsey!

20130210-231915.jpg
A friendly game of tug of war!

20130210-231959.jpg
Running through a rolling hoop!

20130210-232101.jpg

Jumping up and down in muddy puddles!

We had a brilliant time with Jenny and her lovely family, the boys played beautifully together and it was so great to see The Boy enjoying the company of his friends. I've also got a new vegetable recipe to try out with alongside my Jenny Craig meals, and need to try and convince Mr. TBaM that we don't really need an XBox Kinect (while I actually want one myself!).

—

coombe mill

Five Things To Do Before You're Three

by 15 Comments

I was chatting with my sister-in-law earlier and she mentioned something that she'd read through her work (outdoor adventure leader for children with behavioural problems) which I found fascinating, and wanted to share.

The National Trust, as a part of their nationwide campaign to encourage outdoor adventure and play in our couch-potato children, has published a list of 50 Things To Do Before You're 11¾. I'm a big fan of Country Kids over on Coombe Mill and try and take part most weeks with photos and posts of The Boy having fun outdoors and generally getting mucky. This list has a great range of things on there, quite a few of which he's already experienced:

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, eat an apple straight from a tree, play conkers, throw some snow, hunt for treasure on the beach, make a mud pie, dam a stream, go sledging, bury someone in the sand, set up a snail race, balance on a fallen tree, swing on a rope swing, make a mud slide, eat blackberries growing in the wild, take a look inside a tree, visit an island, feel like you’re flying in the wind, make a grass trumpet, hunt for fossils and bones, watch the sun wake up, climb a huge hill, get behind a waterfall, feed a bird from your hand (09/12 – Coombe Mill), hunt for bugs, find some frogspawn, catch a butterfly in a net, track wild animals, discover what’s in a pond, call an owl, check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool, bring up a butterfly, catch a crab, go on a nature walk at night, plant it grow it eat it, go wild swimming, go rafting, light a fire without matches, find your way with a map and compass, try bouldering, cook on a campfire, try abseiling, find a geocache, canoe down a river.

There's obviously quite a few things on that list that are a bit tricky for a two and three-quarter year old to do, but he's got nine years to scare the hell out of me and try abseiling and canoe down a river. However, I'm going to set him a little target of five things from the list to do before he's three years old in six and a half weeks time (eeek!):

I reckon they're achievable?

What five things are you going to do with your tiddler from the list?

—

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...