Exploring the outdoors #naturalchildhood

Last Saturday the children and I were invited to an event at a local National Trust site to learn about Project Wild Thing.

I had my eyes opened to some shocking statistics.

The current generation of children are the first to have an expected lifespan shorter than their parents. How can this be? We have access to healthy food, medical care is always improving and we understand what is needed to keep us and our children healthy. So what is going wrong?

According to UNICEF our children are also the unhappiest in the Western World, and a big factor in this is that children are not getting outside enough. Our easy and constant access to TV, video games, and possible parental fears of dirt and dangers of playing outside as well as shrinking play spaces are meaning our children are not getting the connection with nature and the outside playtime they need.

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I know from experience how easy it is to sit kids in front of the TV or an iPad, and how much effort it can be to get outside sometimes, but I also know that being inside all day means we all get grumpy, cross with each other and restless. I know that when I do make an effort and get everyone out, something I try to do once a day at least, we all feel so much better and come home invigorated.

I am lucky, we have a nature reserve at the side of our house, I have almost instant access to a green space where we can build dens, roam around or collect pinecones and sticks. Not everyone is in that position, I understand that, but as a nation we are making out children unhappy and damaging their future.

Project Wild Thing is trying to help children reconnect with nature. This app is fantastic, you enter an amount of time and it gives you an activity you can do in that amount of time.

I am inspired to get my family out and about more than we are, and reduce our screen time. I will let you know how we get on.

The event on Saturday was one of the best blogger events I have been to. In the morning the children made bird feeders and mud sculptures while the blogger mums were given a sneaky preview of the Project Wild Thing film, which I can tell you now is going to be pretty amazing!

This is little H with her snail.

In the afternoon, we had the great pleasure of helping the children build a den, and this was no ordinary den, it was the best den I have even seen. We usually build ours around a tree, this one stood up by itself.

Then we added some sticks, followed by leaves and then bits of tree. What do you think?

The highlight of the day for little S was toasting a marshmallow.

Z was quite impressed by this also.

Thank you very much to the National Trust for an amazing day, and do go and take a look at Project Wild Thing.