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A post from my friend at Get Fitter…
It was a gift of a day yesterday with puffs of cloud scudding across a blue sky, and golden spring sunshine. My kids are on their Easter break, a time when many parents feel the pressure to provide entertainment and expensive days out; the first second that you set foot inside a kid-oriented venue, there will be someone at hand to lighten your pockets. Why do you have to exit the zoo through the shop, why do you need an LED sword in order to enjoy a pantomime, why do our kids need to be tempted by overpriced and unhealthy snacks EVERYWHERE we go? Sometimes the more effort and expense involved in a day out, the more stress, less enjoyment and greater risk out burn-out, and/or disappointment. If you are fed up of spending holidays queuing with swarms of other stressed parents and hoards of spoilt kids, returning home in the car to half an hour of tired bickering and pockets full of sticky wrappers and plastic junk, simply opt out! Arm yourself against pester-power and let the spring time be your theme-park!
Yesterday I spent a perfect sunny afternoon with a friend and our four children out in the woods and fields. We took a bag with some water, bread and raisins, some binoculars, a camera, blanket and a wild flower guide. The kids mucked about in the stream, poked sticks under rocks, explored the woods, ran in the fields and had a great time. My friend and I even had the time to laze on a primrose bank, soak up some sun and watch them bumbling around at a distance, enjoying some of the independence and freedom that city kids rarely experience. The afternoon was fantastic, everyone has lots of fun, it cost only the petrol to get there, and there was no whining and pestering about wanting this or that; pure simple enjoyment. All the kids are desperate to get back and re-explore their favorite places.
A simple day out is a healthy-option for the holidays. All you need is a little preparation; wellies, spare clothes in the car in the event of over-enthusiastic puddle stamping, a bag of fruit and water and a few good ideas to keep all ages happy;
- Take wild flower or animal guides, a flower press, or camera.
- Build a bivouac or shelter with bigger kids.
- Find a bridge or stream for pooh sticks, or build little boats or rafts from found materials to race with bigger kids.
- Hold a roly-poly competition (ensure that you know what dock leaves look like).
- Find a climbing tree, or logs to balance on (endless entertainment).
Keep it simple and energetic, and look for areas with plenty of places to explore and poke around in. Every time we do this I am freshly surprised by how much fun can be squeezed out of a simple walk, and fresh air and open space will let the kids blow away the cobwebs and fully exercise their bodies.
For ideas on urban and other places to visit www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
For wildlife info and games for kids www.naturedetectives.org.uk/springwatch/index.htm
For the Ramblers association Festival of spring walks http://www.ramblers.org.uk/news/archive/2002/festivalofspringwalks.html (For walks in the US and Canada try http://walking.about.com/od/trails/Walking_Trails_and_Destinations.htm or http://www.trails.com/activities.asp?area=14949 )
Once again, the urbanites will not miss-out, as there is a collection of walks through towns and cities: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/urbanwalks.html (For walks in the US and Canada try http://walking.about.com/od/trails/Walking_Trails_and_Destinations.htm or http://www.trails.com/activities.asp?area=14949 )
For mountain bike paths and trails www.moredirt.co.uk
Also check out your local council website which can be a wealth of info on free events in local parks and museums to keep kids entertained.
For country side walks without using a car to get there check your local council website http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Environment-Planning/Countryside/countryside-walks—exploring-the-countryside-without-a-car.en
We have been led to believe that children can only be kept happy and educated if they are provided with an interactive button to press, a zillion opportunities to purchase souvenirs (which they will immediately leave under the bed and forget), and crammed full of kid junk food. There is a reason that we are fed this line, and it is that other people are making huge amounts of money out of our desire to keep our kids happy. But these things don’t always provide golden memories, happy smiling relaxed children and contented parents, in fact usually the opposite. Toddlers to teens will benefit from some time spent outside surrounded by nature and away from the endless noise and expense of the commercial world. So chuck some snacks and a blanket in a bag, and get out into the open with your family and friends to enjoy simple holiday pleasures.
Until next time,
Be springy,
Vikki.
this is from the Global Village Venturer Camp (13-16 years I think) a couple of years ago…
Weather: windy but bright
We had quite a lot of children today, partly as lots of us turned up and partly as we’ve been reluctant to turn people away. It was great, as usual, but we need to stop taking more children now!
We did a long-ish circle time to try to get some names but need to work out a better way to do this. We looked at some seeds in various fruits and vegetables and then put some alfalfa seeds in cotton wool egg box nest for watering at home. We went outside and let off some steam with the seesaw etc and parachute then Karen brought her guitar and some instruments for a rendition of ’she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes’ – amazing concentration by those who joined in, well done!
Paula told the story of the Little Red Hen and the Ear of Wheat on a growing theme and sang our Sparkling Seahorses song. Next week pine cone bees with Gem!
… top idea we did for Science Week – take about 3m of garden hose (so a 15m length will do about 5) and make cone shaped card cone thingies at either end (preferably different colours so red can be the listening end and blue the speaking) and then attach with gaffa tape.
Get the kids to whisper down one end and listen at the other and they’ll have hours of fun. You can, if you feel confident, explain the basics of sound waves and telephone systems…
Weather: spring-like, slightly chilly, clean and crisp
We met in St Andrews Park and coloured bunny masks to prepare for our egg rolling and hunting.
We squeezed some orange juice with a lemon squeezer thingy and some of the largest oranges available in the greater Bristol area. Paula forgets knife, Lindsey, like every good bushcrafter has about her person a small but deadly Swiss army knife. Orange juicing goes down a treat.
Egg rolling goes quite well but some initial concerns (voiced with wails) about the sharing aspect (none of us could bring ourselves to buy nasty eggs or waste free range / organic eggs) so we’d boiled our oldest eggs but there weren’t quite enough. Sharing seems to go better once the smashing and exploding of the eggs begins and hilarity takes over.
Egg hunting goes far better with the gentle breeze wafting the sweet smell of fair trade chocolate to the small but perfectly adapted olfactory recepticals of our sniffer children. Eggs were gracefully handed to Paula and equally distributed in a remarkably order fashion. We sang our Seahorse song and then disbanded.
We eagerly await our first Seahorse baby, due on Friday, good luck Cath, Elena, Thalia and their Daddy.
Kite flying at its best – the kids’ like this one.
So with the best planning possible, Paula set off in her car for her Tatty Bumpkin shenanigans, leaving Nige in charge of kicking off events. Despite military-style planning, she forgot to leave him the key to the Quaker Meeting House but left all the kit-and-caboodle in the hall. Despite a million missed (by me) calls and messages, the gang headed off for the park on the most windy day of the year and flew kites and made merry.
We did manage to get a papier mache volcano erupting in the park (thanks Scott, Ezra and Maya for the model, bicarb, vinegar etc) and mess about with ‘telephone tubes’, garden hoses of approx 3m lengths with cardboard cones on them, used as primitive telephones (hey it is Science Week after all!).
Hats off (literally in that wind) to them all (and sorry also) for so gracefully embracing the great outdoors instead of the nice, warm, snug hall with hot tea and a roof and everything… But then that’s the woodcraft folk.
Not our volcano but gives you the gist (instructions in the Boys Annual 2008 and also the Dangerous Book for Boys too)…
To the tune of something about a bullfrog, need to check with Pete!
“We are the Sparkling Seahorses
With out hands linked together a circle with make
Ish – Ash – Osh – Peace!
Together in friendship, we’re the Woodcraft Folk”
thanks Pete for making this up!
If you haven’t been badgered by me to visit England in Particular’s site or it’s sister site Common Ground, go visit it! It’s all about your locality and celebrating the vernacular. I’ve just finished a booklet on storytelling and landscape / locality and the author put forward the idea that part of the imminent environmental catastrophe is that we’ve forgotten how to hold the land in any sort of reverance. From their website:
When you have lived or worked in a place for a long time you may cease to notice it unless something happens to jolt you. It might be the sun glinting on a stone wall revealing the fossils in it, discovering that the street name cheap indicates a market place which explains the wide pavements, the felling of an ancient and much loved tree which makes you look more closely at the remaining mature trees in the place.
Understanding what makes our place different from the next, what accumulations of story upon history upon natural history give it its uniqueness may help us to maintain a relationship which ensures a future for local distinctiveness. Attachment to place is a prerequisite to endeavour on its behalf.
Creating an ABC liberates us from classifying things as rare or beautiful to demonstrate what we care about in the everyday. It is useful in that it levels everything, it reshuffles things and juxtaposes them in ways that surprise and make you think. This can change what we see, disperse our complacency, make things we take for granted seem new to us and encourage us to action.
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