We are lucky in the UK to have so many Nature Reserves and Country Parks available to us. With a heathland and woodland site not far away from where we live, Harriet and I will often head over for a meander through the woods, go stick hunting, den building and see how many of the wild ponies and cattle we can spot.
Being a free activity, it also helps me to keep an active 3 year-old occupied over the course of the colder months.
I thought I’d share a few pictures of a recent adventure we had. Being autumn, we obviously had to go hunting for conkers and horse chestnuts and came home with absolute pockets full – finding a last remaining one in the pocket of her coat yesterday was what reminded to write this post!
A favourite game last autumn was also to see how many different coloured mushrooms we could find.
Nature reserves and the like are such a fabulous way to encourage your children to enjoy wildlife and the great outdoors – and to help them understand the change in the seasons through the year. I will admit to being somewhat of a more indoors type before becoming a mum, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the change in lifestyle since then and I revel in watching Harriet search for bugs, dig through leaves and of course, jump in muddy puddles!
Katie
The Wildlife Trust has a map of all of the Nature Reserves they manage, and details of the parks run by National Parks UK can be found on their website.
Links to all of the above and more (including RSPB, AONB) and all other National Parks and Nature Reserves in the UK are on the gov.uk website.
Autumn is a great time for finding treasures on the forest floor and nature reserves like the one you visited. Now there is the new spring growth poking through too so lots more to keep us outdoors for free! I love your daughter’s hair, such a beautiful colour. Thank you for linking up with me on Country Kids
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Love the red toadstools! Such a unique find, we can’t find them that often! here are the ones we did find once
http://www.playtravellife.com/life/pointshoot-forest-and-fashion-show/ x #countrykids
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