I’m all for books that encourage children to get outdoors and have fun. Time spent in the fresh air, whatever the weather is what childhood should be about in my opinion. Today sees the publication of Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures through Norton Young Readers which expands on just that idea.
Written by nine-year-old Ollie, his six-year-old brother Harry and their father, Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures is packed full of adventurous ideas for children to enjoy. The idea of the book follows on from their Facebook page – The Days Are Just Packed.
The book features twenty-eight different adventures and each one gives clear instructions of how to complete each task. From sending Lego mini-figures into near space and building a real igloo to photographing the seafloor. This is not your ordinary kid’s adventure ideas book.
I love the idea of Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures but to complete some of the adventures in this book, you will need to invest in equipment before you can complete them. My son and I are rather envious of the boys, who live in northeast Scotland. We rarely get enough snow to build a tiny snowman, it must be wonderful to have enough to build a proper igloo.
We also loved the idea of putting one of my son’s toy pirate boats to sea with a message held inside. I think we might well have to try this when we next go to the seaside, perhaps like Ollie and Harry, one day someone far away will find it and reply to our message. Their boat ended up in Denmark, three months after they launched it.
Another idea that looks like great fun and something that I think my son and Daddy P would enjoy trying together is Casting Metal Toys using pewter. I like the idea of creating our own moulds and seeing the results when they are cast with molten pewter.
We’ve made fires and shelters before a few times on bush crafting days, and both ideas are always good fun to try. Geocaching is something we’ve also tried in the past and really should do more of, it’s a great way of getting kids outdoors and exercising without them really realising it.
I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate link below in case you fancy trying some of these adventures out for yourselves (I do earn from qualifying purchases). To order Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures at a special discount of 25% + free shipping go to https://www.wwnorton.co.uk/
disclosure: we were sent the item mentioned in exchange for an honest review
I’m pleased to be able to offer one reader the chance to win a copy of Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures worth £12.99 for themselves. Complete the Gleam form below for your chance to win. Good luck!
Terms and conditions:
(Please note that all entries will be checked against comments for validation).
Only the first step of this form is mandatory, all other steps are optional. Only one entry per person is allowed.
This giveaway is for UK residents only.
Once a winner is randomly picked, I will check if the winner has done what was requested and I will contact them, if they do not reply within one week, the prize will be allocated to another person. The winner’s details will be sent to WW Norton, in order that they can arrange delivery. Please allow 28 days for delivery.
The giveaway will close on 6th November 2019 at midnight.
Don’t forget to visit my Giveaways page for more great prizes on offer!
playing rounders – fun and energetic and all my children can join in!
We belong to the National Trust. The children are not that interested in the houses yet but many of them have amazing gardens with nature trails, adventure parks etc. The National Trust works hard to involve children as much as possible and our membership allows us to visit fabulous places whenever we like.
We have a lovely local playground so my son cycles there on his bike.
We love to play hide and seek in the garden!
More recently we have started to catch insects in a bug catcher so we can identify them and draw them too!
we love doing most things possible outside
We like to explore the local park on our scooters because it’s a lot of fun.
We like going on long dog walks along our local riverbank, there’s something different to see every time we go
Going to the local park; playground equipment, tree climbing, duck feeding, shelter building and exercise
Our local park has GIANT games – connect 4 is great fun
Puddle walks are a lot of fun and means you still get out in bad weather, we just dress appropriately and then it’s hot chocolate when we get back
We love going in walks because there’s always so much to see and enjoy. This time of year we love the colours and crunching through leaves
we love finding nature related scavenger hunts online then going out with the dog and doing them, keeps the kids entertained
We like to go for autumn walks and collect leaves and conkers then make leaf prints when we get home.
We love going geocaching in the woods & along the canal.
Going to local park, as it has a playpark, beautiful gardens and a pet corner. So variety of activities :- walk, swings, slide, etc. We love to see the animals also :- ducks, canaries, donkey, etc.
at the moment got them into bird watching walking by the river and looking for the kingfisher and herons
My Son loves going out and taking pictures on his camera or phone that’s my favourite thing as we are outside and I get too see. All the photos.
We love finding a spot hidden in the local woods and taking a picnic.
We enjoy geocaching with our kids, plenty of time outside visiting new places and the kids get to discover treasure
We like to gout kayaking. It is very relaxing
We love to go to the beach with the dog and paddle in the sea
We love going to the beach. It’s nice to be near the sea, and there’s always plenty of stuff to find. 🙂
We love to go crabbing at the beach, we can be there for hours looking under the rocks and finding all sorts of things.
We love building dens in the woods
I like exploring our local forest with the kids, hours of fun!
we love driving up to the lakes and just stopping at one of the lakes and take a walk round the lake or explore the surrounding forests and mountains xx
We love visiting the zoo, it’s a great day out and a fab way to burn energy
Hide and seek as we are always all in hysterics and can play for hours! Xx
Hello, It is probably paper darts, it is really fun and playing it outdoors means there is a lot of room to run around and chase after the paper darts.
we love camping so we can watch the stars at night
we love to g o camping so we can star watch at the nighttme
We love going on adventure walks and nature trails
We like going camping, cooking and eating our meals outside, then when it gets dark snuggling down in our sleeping bags
we enjoy going for walks in our local nature reserve, always something new to discover, and trees to climb
We love a walk in the countryside or along the beach, we’re really fortunate to have both where we live.
Cycling in the forest because it’s fun.
Playing Garden football.
Nature walks, you discover new things all the time, not forgetting making lots of memories
Exploring new places on walks and hikes because you never know what you’re going to find and geocaching is really fun too.
We love going to the Slimbridge Wetland Centre – my son loves getting his wellies on, seeing all the birds and playing on the children facilities such as soft play and the playground too.
Love going on fresh outdoor walks especially at this time of year crunching leaves and looking out for nature!
We like St Ives in Harden. There’s walks through the woods with all kinds of carved sculptures along the way, and an adventure playground at the end, and a cafe xx
WE are national trust members so love to walk around the grounds as a family
We love going down to the beach near where we live. Not only does it offer shell collecting, donkey rides and ice cream, it also offers plenty of Pokémon! (Pokémon Go is a hit in our house haha) Smiles all round!
Going to walks on Dartmoor and because all the fresh air and being together.
A walk in the woods, so much to see and discover
We love to paint rocks and hide them around our area, we then go on a hunt finding other peoples and post them online. We also do the same with a local bookshare
love going up into the woods behind our house x
My youngest loves coming out in the woods and finding out what all the different tress and plants are
Feeding the ducks, it s lovely 🙂
Waterskiing is a great active and family friendly hobby and there’s nothing quite like messing about on the water.
We love our walks over Cannock Chase, and go-ape!
The little ones love collecting so we set them on a mission when we are out on a walk – collecting conkers, different leaves, feathers or something.
We love camping with the children and go regularly in the summer months with a group of friends. I love watching the children playing and running around with their friends all day. The best part is probably the evenings, where the children help the adults to build a fire and we all sit around it, chatting, toasting marshmallows and singing camp songs.
Camping, you can’t beat getting away from it all into the countryside for a few days
Love having playing football with the kids as they love it and I love seeing them enjoying there selfs.
we love find new places to walk the dogs
We love going on dog walks and hikes in new areas that we enjoy exploring.
we love cycling, it keeps us fit and we get to enjoy the countryside too