Making this easy bird seed cake with children is a great activity to get them engaged with the local wildlife Not only will they have fun making these little bird feeders, you’ll also encourage birds into your garden, where the kids will be able to watch them more easily.
Bird seed cakes are simple enough for even very young children to have a go at – and the worms are entirely optional!
This easy apple bird feeder is a great nature craft to do with children, especially in late autumn and into winter when the birds are struggling to find food.
Stringing up a feeder or two is also a great way to bring birds into your garden if you want to try a bit of bird spotting too, and you might be surprised who comes over for dinner!
Cooking bread on a stick over a campfire is a great Forest School activity that’s suitable for almost any age. The recipe is both super-simple and versatile, catering for vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free diets, while also allowing lots of scope to adapt and add ingredients for a more decadent treat.
Call it Damper bread, Bannock bread, or just plain bread twists, you can cook this over a campfire or barbeque in minutes, and it makes a fantastic (and slightly healthier) alternative to toasting marshmallows with kids.
Painting pumpkins for Halloween is a simple and fun alternative to carving pumpkins that allows even the smallest children get in on the fun.
Want to get little ones involved in decorating for Halloween, but not ready to let them loose with a knife? This activity is the perfect solution.
Painting pumpkins is so simple that even very, very young children can do it, it also only requires stuff that (apart from the pumpkin) you are bound to already have at home.
And the kids LOVE it!
Forget the plastic, and have some spooky fun in the woods with a Halloween forest school session.
Over the years I’ve built up a whole assortment of frightfully good nature activities to do with children in October.
Here are thirteen of my favourite tried-and-tested Halloween activities for nature play.
Pumpkin hammering – or rather, hammering golf tees into pumpkins – is a fabulously easy and fun activity that children love. It is perfect for the autumn season, and, come Halloween, it’s a favourite activity at my forest school sessions.
And don’t let the simplicity of the activity fool you. Not only do kids LOVE it, but there are also lots of developmental and educational benefits. And there are some great extension activities you can do as well.
Read on to find out what you need to get started, and why pumpkin hammering is a must-do activity for us!
Last Halloween I had the challenge of putting together a pumpkin trail for small children. This meant carving pumpkins that were friendly rather than frightening, and more gorgeous than gruesome. And so what could be more perfect for little ones than a Pumpkin Animals trail?
Want some inspiration and ideas for your own unscary pumpkins? Read on to see what I made!
Continue readingOne of our favourite autumn activities is making conker creatures. Like most families, we absolutely love collecting conkers (or horse chestnuts) in the autumn. There’s something so tactile about those smooth, shiny shells that’s just irresistible. A conker hunt means the thrill of finding a shiny conker hiding under crinkly leaves, or revealing hidden treasure by winkling them out from a spiky green casing. Just irresistible!
It takes the kids no time at all to amass a great big pile of them and, as they last for ages, they make a great material for some lovely autumn crafts. We’ve come up with lots of ideas on how to use them, and one activity we often do, is creating these cute Conker Creatures.
A kids treasure hunt is a great activity for mixed age groups, as even little ones can get involved.
But if you’ve ever been on a hunt where a few bolder and quicker kids scoop up all the loot, leaving the rest trailing behind in tears, then you’ll know that there’s a trick or two involved in keeping things fair and fun for everyone.
Want to know the secret? Read on to find out!
This home-made DIY scratch art card project is perfect for keeping the kids entertained over the summer.
You (and they) can make these scratch art cards out of ordinary arts and crafts supplies, and they’re really easy to make. Even my pre-schooler has done it! Read on to find out how.
