Pre-School (3-5) – Page 2

What to take camping for your dog?

We’ve just returned home from 2 weeks of camping in the UK, we tried out 4 different sites which I will write about soon. In October last year we got a dog, so we find camping perfect for us as a family. I can sit in a field and drink beer, my daughter can run feral with other kids and our dog gets to spend loads of time with the family and outdoors.

A lot of campsites will allow well-behaved dogs, we did find that some do charge a bit extra, but it’s a lot cheaper than putting them in kennels while you’re away. However, the majority of sites will require you to have them on a lead at all times, which is understandable as they can get into all sorts of mischief. This is our dog on the naughty step after nicking Prosecco from another site.

We did find a couple of sites that had areas (paddocks) to run your dog and a few dog friendly beaches. You might also want to check that certain breads are not banned from sites as we did see this as well.

We’ve taken our dog camping a few times now and these are a few things that we recommend that you take with you.

13 Things to Take Camping for your Dog

Folding Crate and Bedding: We have a folding canvas crate that he sleeps in at home, it folds down flat so easily slips in on top of our camping gear in the car. The crate is not only a safe and familiar place for them but can also keep them secured at night. We also found that he used it during the day to get some rest but do be careful if you are blessed with good weather as tents, like cars can get incredibly hot. Also take their bedding as temperatures can drop at night.

Ground Peg, Flexible Lead and a Karabiner: As they will be on the lead a lot of the time I would recommend getting a ground peg and a flexible lead, this gives them a bit more freedom. We find the easiest way to attach them is using a large Karibiner, which will also come in handy when you get home. We use ours a lot in pubs and parks.

Dog Shampoo: After two weeks our dog started to get a bit smelly, but to be fair so did we, in hindsight we wish we would have brought his dog shampoo with us. He also went into the sea a few times, a local farmer claimed the sea water is good for parasites etc, but I can’t imagine it would feel nice.

Food and Water: This one is fairly obvious but do take enough food for the time you will be away, especially if they tend to have a brand that is not readily available in all stores and store in a water proof tub to avoid soggy food and other animals getting into it.

Travel Water Bottle: As mentioned before we do take food and water for him, depending where you are a lot of places will have water bowls for dogs but not always. We tend to keep a travel water bottle in the boot of the car at all times.

Towel: Definitely take a towel that is dedicated for the dog, unless you fancy sharing yours with your pooch.

Poo Bags: Take a plethora of poo bags with you, you can never have enough. Plus, they also come in handy for other things.

Tennis Ball and Ball Thrower: These don’t tend to take up a lot of space and are an excellent way of running your cooped up dog when you get a chance.

Warning!

The only downside of taking an adorable dog camping is that you will have every other kid at the camp-site at your pitch from morning till night, but it was a great way for our daughter to meet other kids.

Did I miss anything? If so, please do leave me a comment.

Summer Holiday Camps for Kids

Outdoor Holiday Activities for Kids near St Albans

I really didn’t think this one through. On Sunday we arrived home after two weeks of camping; playing in the woods, tenting it and building fires. So, when I checked my diary and realised I had booked my daughter in for a Bushcraft Survivor Course with Wild Child Activities first thing on Monday morning, I wasn’t sure how she was going to take it, but she absolutely loved it. It probably helps that she is obsessed with Bear Grylls.

Wild Child Activities is based at Phasels Wood Activity Centre in Kings Langley (near Hemel Hempstead). They do an exciting selection of Holiday Activities for kids 7+ including Archery, Animation, Fencing and Residential Camps for kids 8 and over. I’m all up for getting kids outside. Upon dropping her off, I was rather impressed with the facilities. The Centre is set in 95 acres of rolling meadowlands, woodlands and fields in Hertfordshire. It’s only 20 minutes from St Albans, access is via Kings Langley and the return journey takes you along the A41.

I’ll leave the 7 year old to tell you more about it.

So how was it?

‘It was really good.’

What did you do?

Water Filtration

‘We roasted marshmallows, made dens and then played games. We had to try and clean water by ourselves. We got a trouser leg and one big pot of clean water, they asked us to put mud in it and all stuff icky like leaves, we had a tipi thing and we tied the leg of the trouser to it, we then tied a knot in the bottom of the trouser leg and we poured the dirty water in it and clean water dropped out of the bottom of the leg.’

Games

‘We played a game of Man Hunt which was different to normal. Two teams go off and hide and then they have to try and spot each other without getting spotted first. If you are spotted you lose. It’s a good game. We played 4 rounds.’

Den Building

‘We were given a piece of rope and a sheet, so then we had to try and make a den, we could use all the materials that were all around us in the woods but we were not allowed to pick things off the trees.’

How come there were so many adults?

‘Two teams always stick together, there are three adults. Two of them go into the woods and one stays with each team and the third stays at the base camp getting the fire and everything else ready for when we came back.’

Would you do it again?

‘Yes, because I enjoyed it and I found it interesting. My favourite bit was playing the games, because we got to go into all the parts of the wood except the boundary line.’

How many kids were there?

‘There were 10 children in the group.’

Did you meet some nice kids?

‘Yes, I was the youngest and the oldest person was 10 or 11. I worked well with another little girl, we worked as a team when playing Man Hunt and Den Building.’

Residential Camps for Next Year

We will definitely be looking to book more sessions next year. I’m particularly interested in the Residential Camps but she won’t be 8 years old for a few weeks. The Residential Camps include two full days of outdoor adventures and Bushcraft Activities and an overnight stay in a Bell Tent Village.

We had the opportunity to stay in a Bell Tent during our Camping Trip and fell in love with them.

Win a Trip of a Lifetime by Geocaching #mwgeotrail

I’m all up for an opportunity to win a FREE trip courtesy of Mountain Warehouse. I love travelling and my daughter is turning into quite the intrepid traveller. I have no idea where we would go if we won. Anyhow, the task was simple really and involved one of our favourite activities Geocaching. We had the Shaun the Sheep Trackable, and all we had to do was find a cache, take a photo, instagram it and leave the trackable for the next person. I checked our Geocaching app and there were 3 in close vicinity to our house. So we got kitted up and headed out.

Kids Walking Gear Courtesy of Mountain Warehouse

We absolutely love geocaching and hopefully this doesn’t put you off. Part of the fun is that you are not always successful and it can be challenging.

The first one was only about 8oo meters from our house, we read the notes and it mentioned we would need a long pole to grab the cache so we took an umbrella, we closed in on it quickly with a bit of bush whacking involved, my daughter shouted ‘I found it’ and then proceeded to come out of the bushes with this.

As you can imagine, I nearly had a heart attack. It’s paraphernalia for taking Heroin – needles, swabs and citric acid. Thankfully it had not been used and the needles were not open. I rang the non-emergency police number and they had no one to come and collect it and our local police station was shut on the weekend so I couldn’t drop it off. They gave me very bad advice and suggested I stick it in the closest bin, I did question the safety of the Bin Man. Anyhow, for future reference pharmacies tend to have places to dispose of needles safely.

If at first you don’t succeed……

Anyhow that didn’t put us off so we headed for the next one which was only a few hundred meters away. We had to climb over the railing on the wooden walk way, we hunted high and low, even crawling under the bridge, we even resorted to reading the notes but no clues, I did then check previous logs and it looks like this one may have gone on a walk about as others were not able to find it either. We weren’t doing so well today.

Try and try again!

We decided to have one last ditch attempt, there was another one within 500m and our dog needed a walk anyhow so we toddled off along the river. When we popped out the other side, we knew it wasn’t going to be our lucky day, the site of the geo-cache had been completely dug up and was fenced off so we wouldn’t be able to get to it even if it was still there.

We still have Shaun the Sheep so will try again soon.

Kids have no idea where food comes from

Too many children grow up thinking vegetables come from the supermarket rather than from the ground’ Alan Titchmarsh

Why it’s important to teach kids gardening

I was doing a bit of research for this post I wanted to write about the fantastic things the Gardening Club is doing at my daughter’s school and became distracted and stunned by how little kids know about where their food comes from.

In 2010, as part of a promotion for his Food Revolution, Jamie Oliver went into a class of First Graders (six-year olds) and presented them with a variety of common vegetables. He holds up a few tomatoes and asks the kids what they are. They are all stumped, faces screwed up and then one offers ‘potatoes’. They thought Cauliflower was Broccoli and that a Beetroot was Celery. This was truly frightening.

But, Apparently it’s not just American Kids who are oblivious when it comes to food.

‘In 2013, a British survey found that almost a third of the country’s primary school children thought cheese was made from plants and a quarter thought fish fingers came from chicken or pigs.’

‘LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), surveyed 2000 people aged between 16 and 23 years and found a third of them did not know that bacon came from pigs.’

‘Researchers also found that four in 10 young adults did not know where milk came from, with 40 per cent of them failing to recognise the link between milk and a picture of a dairy cow.’

Yikes!

Growing up as a child, my grandmother was an avid gardener, she had the most amazing vegetable garden, she grew absolutely everything herself in meticulously planted raised beds. She also had a cold cellar where she kept all the produce, what they didn’t eat fresh, she canned. She made the best Raspberry Jam ever. We also had our own vegetable gardens over the years and in my 30s I had an allotment so I’m fairly familiar with most vegetables.

However, I can now see why many kids are naïve when it comes to the origins of what’s on their plates and if you asked them they would probably say it comes from the supermarket. Children only see adults selecting fruit and vegetables from the produce aisle and putting it in the little flimsy plastic bags or having it delivered to their doorsteps, many kids don’t have an opportunity to see or experience the journey (Sowing, Planting and Harvesting) before the produce reaches the supermarket.

Gardening Ideas for Kids

Alan Titchmarsh believes children should be taught gardening as one of the “basic skills of life” and I agree with him. We are very lucky at our school and we have a gardening club which is run by a very enthusiastic parent volunteer. This year they are hoping to enter St Albans District Schools in Bloom Competition.

The kids have been very busy planting everything from potatoes to petunias and are involved in the process from sowing the seeds, to planting in the ground, harvesting the crops and they will also go on to sell some of the produce.

Meet Straw Barry! Genius!

Anyone for a game of Mini-beast Noughts and Crosses?

Who would have thought of planting potatoes in tires.

A Greenhouse made from Recycled Bottles courtesy of the Site Manager

It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do to a derelict picnic table. The kids now have a potting table.

My favourite is the Daffodil Welly planters.

We also received a selection of mystery bulbs from Spalding Bulbs. The kids had a blast trying to work out what they were. They haven’t come up yet but we will report back once they do. Hmmm. I wonder what they will be. They could be flowers or vegetables.

Thanks to all the hard work from our parent volunteer, I have no doubt that these kids know where fruit and vegetables comes from and if you showed them a potato they could identify it.

Good luck in the competition.

Trampoline for a Small Garden

I don’t know what possessed me to agree to an 8ft Trampoline from Asda. Our garden is tiny, at most measuring approximately 20 x 30 feet. The look on my husband’s face when the trampoline arrived said it all really as I hadn’t told him it was coming. It took a bit of persuading to get him to help put it together as he wasn’t convinced.

However, with Summer looming and no prospect of a big trip this year, I really need stuff to entertain her and she’s always wanted one. Our garden isn’t that enticing and she rarely plays out there. We did try a small Wendy House but she has outgrown that now.

Assembly

It really wasn’t that difficult to put together. It came in two boxes, with all the pieces, including a tool to stretch the springs and a set of instructions. Like with any instructions for self-assembly, they could have been a bit clearer but we managed.

I’d read a lot of the reviews beforehand and was prepared for it to take about 3 hours. It took us about 2.5 hours and very few domestics. We did have to improvise on a few occasions as a few of the punched holes didn’t line up but nothing a hammer wouldn’t sort. We did end up with 6 random plastic disks left over, but they don’t seem to be an integral part.

Design

I opted for the 8 foot design so it wouldn’t dominate the garden, but if I’m honest it does a bit, but we still have enough space to shift it around so the grass underneath survives. I love the fishbowl design of the netting as it gives kids more space, on a smaller trampoline, to wave their arms about. It’s low enough to the ground so you don’t really need a ladder. The black looks more stylish/contemporary than the usual green or pink ones. But most of all the springs are on the outside of the netting so no danger of trapped fingers or toes. A few reviews mentioned issues with the zipper but we haven’t experience that yet.

Capacity

According to the literature, it’s designed for one child up to a maximum weight of 50kg. But as you can see, which I wouldn’t recommend, my husband had a bit of a play on it as well. As a parent, I’d be happy for her and one other 7 year old child to play on it.

Value for money

The 8 Ft Plum Trampoline comes in at just under £200, you can get cheaper 8 ft trampolines, but I’d rather spend a bit more for the safety features and quality. It’s a bit heavier which means it’s not going to blow away the next time the wind kicks up but still light enough to move around the garden.

Our Verdict

It’s one of the best things we have done, we have had to sacrifice a part of our garden, but our daughter is hysterical with happiness.

She spent most of the weekend on it and we had to drag her off it this morning before school. She can’t wait to have a friend over to play soon.