You all know that we love to get outdoors and explore the natural world around us. It’s something I did a lot in my own childhood and so it was second nature (excuse the pun) to bring Monkey up the same way. Children are like sponges, and they just soak up information. Show them a world that’s at their finger tips and hopefully it will nurture a love of nature and their environment. It’s something I feel strongly about, and it doesn’t need to cost you anything. Nature literally lives on your doorstep. You can find it in your back garden, the park or even the beach. We’ve been going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB, in our back garden. My 7 year on Monkey son, loves nature and it’s certainly something I want to encourage.
We’re definitely up for The Wild Challenge and have already received our Bronze award, having completed our Bug Safari. This one activity has also, seen us making a start towards our Silver award. We have a few observation jars that Monkey can look at bugs through, which use a magnifying glass. They are great for letting kids really see the details in mini beasts.
We both have a bit of a fascination with snails, so they always feature quite heavily in our garden bug safari’s. They really are rather fascinating to watch. But we also got to look at worms and woodlice. Monkey even found a millipede, but I didn’t have my camera to hand at that point.
It’s free to sign up for the challenge, there are lots of tips and ideas on the RSPB page and most of all, it’s fun. I’d love to hear if you do sign up, and what fun you’ve been having to complete the various activities.
disclosure: I was approached to promote this campaign, I haven’t been given an incentive, and I willingly agreed, because it’s something I really feel passionate about and would happily have written about anyway.