Earth Trust, Forest School, Bug hunting

A morning at Forest School

A morning at Forest School – sounds like fun!  I’d discovered the Earth Trust website recently and loved the idea that they organise nature time for pre-schoolers.  I made a note in my diary of the next Discover and Play: Forest School for pre-school children and decided that this was a date we would definately keep.

As you know we’re working with the RSPB on their Giving Nature a Home campaign, and I really want Monkey to appreciate the natural world around him.

The day came, I put the Earth Trust postcode into my SatNav and off we went.  Earth Trust are based near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, not an area I know particularly well, but it didn’t take us too long to get there.  We were early so we had a little walk along some country lanes first.

Earth Trust, walk, countryside, Oxfordshire

Earth Trust, walk, countryside, Oxfordshire

We then walked back to the Earth Trust Centre to meet up with the team, led by Jenny, and a large number of Mums, Dads and children of varying ages for babes in slings to young school children.  The Trust asked for a £2.00 donation per family which I thought was great value for a 2-hour session of fun with nature.

We set off across the lane and headed for the woods.  When we got there you could see that the team had been busy setting up various activities for us to try with our children.

We started by playing with clay, twigs, lavender and googly eyes.  Monkey loved this activity.

Earth Trust, clay, hedgehog

We then set off on a bug hunt – we found some slugs and ants.

Earth Trust, Forest School, Bug hunting

Then my son decided he wanted to make a log pile house – he does love the Gruffalo so!

Forest School, Earth Trust, log pile house

Then on to make mud pies, plant some twigs and generally get messy 🙂

Forest School, Earth Trust, mud pies

My son had a really wonderful time, the session was very relaxed and there was no pressure to do anything.  It was all about parents having fun with nature with their kids.  I loved the idea.  Also, I felt very safe in the environment.  I’d love to take him to the woods more often, but as we’re generally alone, I don’t like the idea of being isolated in a wooded area.  But this was great, we had the freedom to do what we wanted, with the safety of a group around us.

We’ll definitely be going again when we have free days.  For more information, visit the Earth Trust website.