For absolutely ages now Little Miss C has been obsessed with the idea of becoming an explorer and naturalist of some kind. She loves nothing more than being outdoors and hunting for insects and bugs. We have so many bug hotels situated around the garden - many of them made from old shoeboxes and other things pilfered from my recycling bin. It therefore seemed perfect to ask her to review the Pocket Microscope from Interplay. We've had handheld magnifying glasses before in various kits, but this is the first time that she's had a microscope to play with. In the box you get the microscope ... read more
Born to Be Wild with the RSPB #BornToBeWild
Photo Credit: RSPB With a daughter who currently has her heart set on being "a nature explorer who also is an artist" an invitation to the RSPB reserve at Rainham Marshes to meet Hattie Garlick, author of the wonderful new book Born To Be Wild, was absolutely perfect. Both kids love being out in the fresh air, but Little Miss C really gets a buzz from doing nature based things outside. At school she seems to spend hours and hours in the playground building bug hotels and feeding snails and when inside she's always happiest when sat at the kitchen table with some gloopy glue and a load of ... read more
The Children’s Garden – Matthew Appleby
It may be freezing cold whilst I sit here writing this, but looking out at our back garden there is no doubt that there are lots of signs of spring out there. A very early spring when you consider how many daffodils are already brighting up the flower beds. I have so many good intentions about how we're going to use our back garden going forwards. Every year I say that and so far I've been foiled every year by the kids not quite being old enough to join in enough for me to make actual progress. 2016 WILL be different though. I'm sure of it. Master C is now very nearly three and a half, and ... read more
Exploring nature in our back garden as a Wilko Wild Bird Blogger
I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only parent that's keen for their kids to understand and appreciate the nature that's all around us, but the thing that always amazes me is how many people overlook the nature that's right there under their noses in their own back garden. Mr C and I have always been big nature lovers and that was cemented when we bought our first home together. Instead of having a back garden we instead explored a local community nature reserve that was at the end of our street. It gave us the desire to create our own little bit of a nature paradise once we had our own back ... read more
Trying to choose a family tent
The last time I slept in a tent was when I was 17. It was part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition on the North Yorkshire Moors and it was an eventful trip. We reached our campsite that first night and one member of the team pulled something out of her rucksack and said with a flourish "here's the tent inner". Seconds later another member of the team did exactly the same. Word for word the same. Now, I don't know how much you know about old fashioned tents, but two tent inners isn't exactly right. Especially when it's raining! Luckily things improved from that point on, although ... read more
Stick Man at Wendover Woods #weloveforests
Stick Man, oh Stick Man, beware of the mud... I think that's probably what we should have been chanting as we went round Wendover Woods just after Christmas. After loving the Super Worm trail last year we had been invited back to try out the new Stick Worm trail and we were not disappointed. Stick Man seems to have become a huge celebrity this Christmas. Not only did he get a Christmas Day show on BBC1, but he was also on the cover of the Christmas Radio Times. Do you get any more famous than that? Still not got round to watching everything I recorded last Christmas but that's not ... read more
Autumn Fun with Superworm at Wendover Woods #weloveforests
Autumn has to be one of my favourite times of year. There's just something about the colours of the trees that I love so much and that always make me feel strangely emotional. I didn't therefore need much encouragement to head up to the gorgeous Wendover Woods with the family the other weekend to investigate the Superworm Trail that was there until the end of October. The Superworm book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffer is one that has strangely passed me by until now. I'd heard of it and seen in bookshops, but just not read it until now, although it seems both kids are very familiar ... read more
Criccieth Castle
When you think of north Wales castles have to be one of the first things that come to mind. There are apparently over 600 castles in Wales and as you drive around you certainly keep coming across them. The castles, along with the gorgeous scenery and coastline, were one of the big driving reasons for wanting to visit Wales in the first place with the kids. On the first full day of our stay at Haven Hafan Y Mor we decided to get out and visit the nearest castle to the site - Criccieth Castle. Just a few miles along the coast Criccieth Castle is high up between two beaches and has some of the ... read more
Review: Learning Outdoors with the Meek Family
Wow! What. A. Summer. I'm sat here surrounded by bits of Little Miss C's school uniform that I've been busy sewing name tapes on to all evening. She's back to school in the morning and incredibly excited about it. It seems hard to believe that I was worried about 6 weeks of summer holidays stretching ahead of me as I just had no idea how to fill all that time. As it happens though I've had no real problems at all (although I won't deny that there have been some afternoons that have felt like forever!) and we've had a really busy summer with lots of days out, a planned holiday to Wales and ... read more
Family Walk along the Alban Way
Before we had kids, one thing that Mr C and I often spoke about was a dream of going on long family walks with our children. Heck, I think we even mentioned it on our first ever weekend together! Anyone who actually has kids will know though that this dream isn't actually all that close to reality - instead you're likely to get lots of moaning about tired legs and children wanting to be picked up. Master C is now two and a half (I know, I still don't believe it either!) and he's now confident enough on his feet that he's walking around quite a lot and we've started to introduce a regular ... read more