Nature treasure hunt

Nature Treasure Hunt #CountryKids

I’m having a number of technical issues with the blog again this week, which is making photo galleries impossible.  So instead of the post I had planned, I will offer you a little one instead based on a nature treasure hunt I had with Monkey earlier this week.

We’ve been up to Derbyshire this week, visiting my best friend.  After lunch we decided to go for a walk and explore the nearby old railway line walk again.  We agreed to walk in the opposite direction this time, and to keep Monkey amused we made up a Nature Treasure Hunt for him.  If  I’d been organised I’d have written a discovery sheet up in advance.  I wasn’t, so my friend and I made it up as we went along.  Monkey didn’t mind.

Nature Treasure Hunt

We gave Monkey a plastic bag for his finds and off we went. Look for a yellow flower, can you see a stick, can you find a white flower?

Nature Treasure Hunt

Being the eagle eyed bug and mini beast spotter that Monkey is; he was happy adding his own categories to the search.  Look Mummy, snail! worm! slug and ant!  We did agree that it was fairer to leave all of these little creatures where they were.  But he did spot the tiniest snail, his eyesight is considerably better than mine!

It was a wet afternoon, not the weather for butterflies unfortunately.  But we spent a good hour walking along, spotting different things, lots of different shaped leaves (note to self – must buy a book on trees, used to know most of them, but that skill has been lost over the years!).

Monkey carefully carried his bounty from our nature treasure hunt back to Auntie A’s house.  Mummy, you won’t forget the bag will you??  No Monkey, I’ll make sure it goes in the car!

When we got home, we emptied his bag out and I suggested that we should press his nature treasure hunt finds, so he could put them in a scrap book.  But Mummy, the pine cone won’t squash!  No, that’s fine, you can add that to your ever growing collection!

Nature Treasure Hunt

So we pressed the collection of goodies between a couple of heavy books and here we are a few days later.

photo 1 (4) photo 2 (4)Monkey had a wonderful time, we had talked about the plants, the shapes of the leaves and the various wildflowers that we’d seen.  Rather than just going for a walk along an old railway line, he was really looking at the countryside around him.  It was a simple thing to do, he had lots of fun, we will certainly be doing a nature treasure hunt again.

6 thoughts on “Nature Treasure Hunt #CountryKids

  1. What a lovely idea and often it’s the simpler ideas that turn out the best I find. I do hope you get these issues sorted out x

  2. Brilliant. Sometimes the best ideas are the ones made at the last minute, so no need for cards to look for items

  3. I’m like you, seriously need to remind myself of all the animals, bugs, butterflies, birds and trees I used to know when I was in a nature group as a child. It’s quite embarrassing how much I just can’t remember.

    I’ll definitely be trying this kind of thing with N when he’s a bit older. Tried asking him to look for things recently, and he’s just got no staying power, he just wants to run along!

  4. Such a great idea to connect children with nature and have fun at the same time, I love the idea of pressing the treasures too. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.

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