The National Trust have launched a campaign to get children outside, I’ve been through the list and I reckon mine have done 37 of them. Definitely fossil hunts on Redcar and Saltburn beaches, skimming stones – last week in Saltburn, we have heaps of fossils around the surf shack in the garden, and discovering what’s in a pond and catching fish in a net from it – we live in a mill and they’re always out on the boat on the mill pond, or in it (wild swimming) or over on the island (oh there’s another one).
Burying someone in sand scars me to death after you hear the horror stories of children being buried and killed when the sides of the sand collapse and suffocate them so although they’ve done it it’s been very shallow sand and usually feet only. Paranoid mothers.
Camping out in the wild, does cub and guide camp count? Or Camp Bestival? Or the back garden?
Building a den – in the back garden with blankets and clothes horse or Wendover Woods in the proper wild. Flying kites – always take them to France and hit the beach with them, need to get bigger ones this year.
Small boy will only apples if he can pick them straight off the tree – can be a bit of a pain that. Stream damming in Hutton Le Hole – how to waste a whole day – perfect.
Watch the sun wake up – they did this lots when they were little and we were on holiday, Dads meet on the beach with toddlers that were awake from 5am so they didn’t wake everyone else up, sure you’ve been there but not sure this is really what they meant.
Catching crabs in rock pools – I’m an expert crab catcher, so good that when we’re on the Ile de Re I’m usually surrounded by children as they’ve ditched their parents to go over to where the ‘crab lady’ is as I’m sooo good at catching them, bit embarsssing really.
Bringing up butterflies – I think we still have the kit somewhere, done this at least 3 times and planting, cooking and eating is one of the things we do at Cooking Club, and of course they’ve cooked on a real campfire – well, at cubs and guides def. So we’re up to 37 how many have you done?
The 50 things to do before you’re 11 and three-quarters
1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what’s in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river
SOURCE: National Trust.