Cara Kliman shares 3 great ideas of ‘projects’ or activities for you to do with kids into the park – no preparation other the occasional a bring along picnic. For even more tips, check the Instagram link at the end of the blog.
I’m always trying to think of new ways to get my daughters, Alice, 6, and Zoe, 4, to love nature, and if there was a way to hit this message home using screens and sugar, they’d be mini David Attenboroughs by now.
However, getting them to feel really connected to the park is also a good way to turn them into mini-environmentalists. And as we happen to live right across the road from Heaton Moor Park, it should be easy to implement my three-pronged ‘Love Nature’ plan this summer.
And the only ‘screen’ we’ll need is ‘suncreen’!
Prong One: Get them to choose their favourite tree in the park
It is a beautiful sunny day when we attempt this. Who wouldn’t fall in love with every tree in the park on a day like this, with sunlight dappling the leaves and a gentle breeze lifting the branches?
The cunning part of getting them to choose their favourite tree is, they have to spend ages wondering around the park examining every tree! Kills a lot of time! Result!
After ten minutes, an inevitable argument breaks out; of course both girls want the same tree. An extremely tall, leafy one near the tennis courts. (I hold my hands up, I’m totally ignorant about the names of types of tree. Beyond oak, which I reckon every child who went to a British primary school in the ‘80s can identify).
I tell Alice and Zoe that if they both want this super-tall tree, then neither of them can have it.
Alice eventually choses another tree, one in the mini-playground. Zoe choses one that looks out onto Park Road, it’s the tree nearest our house. She says she’s chosen it so she can ‘
‘But what do you think it is going to get up to, Zo?’ I say.
‘The branches might fall off because owls will come and eat them.’
‘Fair point,’ I say.
Prong Two: Have a competition to see who can find the biggest number of different colours of flowers in the park.
Note: All shades of pink must be allowed otherwise the game will be dead in the water after five minutes.
My daughters are only sixteen months apart, which makes them very competitive with each other, sometimes ridiculously so.
Anyway, I will use this to my advantage, to get them to notice the wonderful diversity of plants in our park.
When I start the flower hunt, I realise that I haven’t factored in that there’s only one of me and two of them, so we’ll all have to stick together.
Which means the two of them basically spot the same flower at the same time. Arguments start to flare up. I change tack and turn it into a ‘family effort’, we will work as one team.
After half an hour I call time on the competition and am chattering away happily about how wonderful it is that we’ve managed to find eight different colours of flowers, and aren’t they all beautiful, and isn’t nature amazing, when Alice says: ‘So who gets the prize, me or Zoe?’
Prong Three: Where is the best picnic spot in the park?
This prong is easy to implement, because who doesn’t love a picnic, and my kids seem to think ‘picnic’ means ‘a meal where normal rules of healthy balanced eating need not apply’.
And why wouldn’t they think this, given that it has been the principle at pretty much every picnic I’ve ever attended involving young children. Chocolate spread and cake sprinkles sandwich, anyone?
Anyway, I figure that me, Alice and Zoe will embark on a mission to find the best picnic spot in the park by doing research, we will have numerous picnics and then score the locations out of ten.
I also plan to introduce some low-level philosophical banter in each location, along the lines of, ‘What’s the best thing you can see from this spot?’
‘Is there anything missing from this spot that you think would add to the view?’ ‘Do you really think this picnic spot would be improved by a flatscreen on that tree trunk, showing Gaby’s Dolls House on loop? Really?’
This prong proves to be by far the most successful of my three. We have six lovely picnics:
- One next to the tennis court (‘We might be able to steal some balls, Mum’. I ignore this.).
- One ‘near the fairyland bush’ (as Alice calls it)
- One in the kids’ playground (not sure this really counts as a picnic but I just go with it, at least there is on-site entertainment)
- One at a designated picnic table (seems contrary not to)
- One in the field with the goal posts
- And then another one in the same field but in a rather gloomy spot near the railings
This , which happens to give a very clear view of our house. I can see the mini rice cakes packet that one of the kids has dropped on our front step. The spot is too shady and the ground is uneven. ‘I score this spot ten out ten, it has by far the best view,’ says Alice.
If you would like regular tips on 10-minute activities you and your kids can do to enjoy nature, help the planet and reduce climate change, please follow Cara on Instagram @mums_who_love_the_planet