For the month of June we took part in the ‘30 Days of Wild’
challenge. It was set up by the Wildlife Trust to encourage people to be more
at one with nature. I read somewhere that a recent study found that on average
child spends less than one hour a day outside! It apparently is less than a prison
inmate! That's crazy!! It made me feel relieved and reassured to know that our boys spend lots
more than that getting muddy and being free every day.
We really enjoyed our month of wild. Here’s what we did...
Day 1 – Bug hunting and identification.
Day 2 – Made a bird feeder.
Day 3 – Had our Friday tea time outside.
Day 4 – Went for a walk along the canal. Fed the duck and
swans and collected some elderflowers to make cordial.
Day 5 – Held a tiny owl at the canal boat festival.
Day 6 – Spent the whole day playing outside at one of our
home ed meet ups.
Day 7 – Spent the afternoon enjoying (and feeling jealous
of!) a friend’s garden.
Day 8 – Planted sunflowers and bought a window bird feeder.
Day 9 – Took part in the Friends of the Earth bee count.
Day 10 – Observed the huge change that had happened in the garden to our plants since
all the rain, ate peas from the pod and watched an episode of ‘Life’. Later it
absolutely poured down again and the boys danced naked in the rain!
Day 11 – Made a little friend.
Day 12 – Read one of our lovely eye-view library books. This
one was 'The Frog' and the boys loved it. It’s a brilliant series of books, I
totally recommend them.
Day 13 – Pressed some flowers in a flower press I found in a
charity shop.
Day 14 – Made survival bracelets.
Day 15 – The children took charge of filling all the bird feeders.
Day 16 – Riding his bike in the rain naked (I think rain now
triggers the need to strip off!!).
Day 17 – Scattered our bee friendly flower seed freebies.
Day 18 – Rode bikes to the park and climbed trees, play
football and found some wild mushrooms.
Day 19 – Got thoroughly filthy on the beach.
Day 20 – Went for a barefoot walk!
Day 21 – Squished up some old grapes for fun before chucking
them to the chickens.
Day 22 – Went for a walk in the Severn Valley with Daddy.
Day 23 – Wrote out a Shirley Hughes poem about mud.
Day 24 – Had a wonderful time at our monthly farm group making
elderflower cordial, collecting grasses to make displays using natural clay,
found rabbit warrens, bumblebee nests and badger sets, enjoyed the river and
found a crayfish claw! We love this group!
Day 25 – Went strawberry picking.
Day 26 – Observed the house martins in our eaves. The Boys
really enjoy finding the tiny eggs shells on the ground.
Day 27 – Harvested the seeds from the grass displays and
scattered them in the patchy grass in our garden.
Day 28 – The children did some natural weaving.
Day 29 – Made flower fairies out of the flowers we had
pressed on day 13.
Day 30 – Went for a bike ride in the mud.
We really enjoyed putting aside a bit of time each day to do
our wild activities. Nature plays such a big part in our education and we will
definitely continue to stay wild!
