activities – Mediocre Mum

Things to do with Kids Outdoors in Dorset

Go Ape, Moors Valley near Bournemouth

I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or the adults. We were recently camping at Eweleaze Farm in Dorset and thought we’d take the opportunity to check out Go Ape, The UK’s #1 Forest Adventure. One of my friends always wanted to take her daughter and as we were in the area, approx 30 miles away, we thought ‘why not?’.

I stayed on the ground and supervised the 3 girls aged 6 and 7 on the Tree Top Junior Adventure, while the two adults, I use the description ‘adult’ loosely as you will see by the photos, went on the main Tree Top Adventure.

The Junior Adventure is suitable for children aged 6 and up but they have to be over 1m. They have an hour to clamber around the site, navigating wobbly crossings and zooming down the zip wires. The nice thing about the Junior Adventure is that they are connected the entire time via a cable so incredibly safe. The girls absolutely loved it and charged around like loons and got 5-6 ‘goes’ on the two routes, even though it was rather busy.

Once the girls finished we tracked down their mums on the Main Tree Top Adventure so we could watch/laugh at them from the Forest Floor. There’s takes a bit longer 2.5-3 hours with 5 different circuits, is higher, scarier and more physically challenging (suitable for 10+) but by all accounts they loved it!

One of the mums said ‘she can’t remember the last time she had that much fun!’

Outdoor things to do with Kids Near St Albans

Mead Open Farm, near Leighton Buzzard and Go Ape, Black Forest

With Summer holiday looming I thought you may be interested in a few days out I discovered for kids recently near St Albans, Herts. These two places are perfect for letting kids burn off a bit of that energy.

Mead Open Farm

On the weekend we went to Mead Open Farm, it’s about 30 miles from St Albans, Herts near Leighton Buzzard. I’d heard good things about their Christmas Grottos in the past but have never made it. It was absolutely perfect for two nearly 7 year old girls.

Open Mead Farm, Leighton Buzzard

It’s your typical Farm, but was a great time to visit (early July) as there were loads of new babies. Upon entering the farm you are faced with a wonderfully new adventure playground. Luckily as the weather was nice we managed to avoid the soft play area, it is perfectly adequate but I have an irrational fear of the places.

Go Karts Mead Open Farm

Even though the car park was fairly busy the site is big enough to swallow people up. There were absolutely no queues and plenty of places to sit and enjoy a coffee whilst the girls played. They absolutely loved the Go-Karts, I have to admit that I imagined they were motorized but was pleased they were not. Once the girls got them going, they zoomed around squealing with laughter.

Mead Open Farm Leighton Buzzard

Within minutes they were rigged up in climbing harnesses and exploring the Sky Train. There was no time limit and they could stay on as long as they liked. At this point, I want to commend the young staff that work there, true professionals, if the children wobbled they joined in and helped them overcome their fear with gentle encouragement.

Rock Climbing Open Mead Farm

Similar happened on the climbing wall, my own daughter was struggling, so the attendant put a harness on and climbed alongside her encouraging her. She didn’t manage to make it to the top, but was pleased with her efforts.

There was also mini-golf, which could have used a bit of TLC, but the girls still loved it. Thankfully for us, we managed to avoid the tractor ride. :-)

All in all a really good day out. If you decide to get a yearly membership they will deduct the cost of your day ticket, so it may be something worth looking into.

Black Park, Near Slough – Go Ape

Go Ape Black Park

We’ve been to Black Park before and absolutely love it, it’s only about 30 minutes away from St Albans. It’s a beautiful site with a lake you can walk around, a very impressive adventure playground, cafe, open spaces and recently they’ve added Go Ape Tree Top Junior. Kids can climb through the trees and zoom down the Zipwire.

Go Ape Junior Tree Tops

The sessions are one hour long and they can go around as many times as they like. It’s suitable for children 6+ years. What I really like about it is the children are connected to a safety rope the entire time they’re in the trees, so there is no chance of them falling.

Go Ape Junior Treetop Black Park

I really was tempted to have my daughter’s birthday party there this year, but the only thing that held me back was worrying if some of the younger children bottled it. I may wait till next year when they are a bit older. It’s £17 per child for parties and you can also hire the Forest Shelter and lay on your own picnic. It’s definitely on the list of future birthday venues.

Even if you don’t fancy Go Ape, I would strongly encourage you to visit Black Park, take a picnic and enjoy the facilities. There are also cycle tracks.

We’re off canoeing the week after next and will let you know how we get on.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Tears and laughter!

At what age do children show empathy?

To give myself a bit of a break on the weekend, I’d checked the weather report and it looked grim, so I booked my daughter and hubby into the Cinema to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. She’d watched the first one and has also watched How to Train Your Dragon Legends on Netflix along with countless other kids films on there.

Textbook lesson in ‘How to Do A Sequel.’

My husband came home and raved about it, saying it was just as good if not better than the first. He said she was sitting on the edge of her seat most of the time smiling, totally taken by the story. However, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but there was a part that made her cry, apparently someone dies but I’m not going to tell you who. It sounds like the writers have taken it to a deeper darker level, maybe they realise the children who watched the original in 2010 have grown up a bit. As I haven’t seen it, do you think it’s too dark for littlies?

Personally, I think it’s a sign of a good movie if it can make you laugh, cry or think.

With School Holidays looming, I’m doing my usual panic of things to do, especially if it rains. I’ve been trolling the net looking for Dragon Activities and was inspired by the movie How to Train a Dragon 2 and it’s characters.

All Things Dragon – How to Survive Summer Holidays

How to Get Rid of Hiccups

Teach her how to get rid of hiccups by drinking a glass of water upside down. I’ve done this for years and it really does work.

Create a Joke Book

How to Train Your Dragon Jokes – my daughter is really into jokes at the moment. We may sit down and create our own Joke Books and see if we can make Toothless Laugh.

Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppet Template from British Museum

We hope to do a fair amount of camping this summer and shadow puppets are genius at night in the tent with a torch. You can find instructions and a template for making your own at the British Museum.

Play a Game of Tag

If we can get a few of her friends around I love the idea of playing Dragon Tag. It requires to teams, children form a human chain, with a scarf as a tail and try to steal each other’s tails. Chains can’t become separated.

Learn a New Song

I may take the opportunity to introduce her to one of my all time favourites ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Bake a Cake

How to Make a Dragon Cake

Personally I think this one would push me over the edge, but if we’re really desperate we could have a go at making this Dragon Cake.

Dragon Boat Festival

I’ve never been to one but I’d love to check out a Dragon Boat Festival.

I really have gone off on a tangent but now have a few more things in my arsenal to survive the school holidays. :-)

Activities for Kids Over Easter 2013, near St Albans, Herts

Just having my pre school holiday panic! We don’t have any built in playmates for our 5 year old except the cats and us and we can only take so much so I do try and arrange a few things for her over half-term. As an only child we really like her to socialize with other kids and to be active.

On my travels around the net I found the following activities and thought you may find them useful. We haven’t signed her up to all of them we do like to set aside a couple of days to chill.

Westminster Lodge is running Activity Camps over the holidays. It’s a bargain at £20 a day!

Ashridge Easter Egg trail – We are huge fans of Ashridge Forest and have been on the Easter Egg Trail before. We have plans to go on the Sunday possibly followed by lunch at The Red Lion in Lower Dagnall.

Butterfly World Looks like they have lots on. I like the sound of Easter Art on Easter Sunday

Stockwood Discovery Centre (Luton) another one of our favourites, also looks like they have a lot on during the holidays. It’s free to get in but then you just pay a couple of quid for craft activities. If it’s a nice day bring a picnic and a blanket, alternatively there is a cafe.

Down in the Woods – I’m absolutely gutted that I’ve already booked our daughter into something on the 2nd of April as I love the sound of their play scheme. Children spend either a full day or half a day the in the woods playing woodland games, camp building, natural crafts and cooking on an open fire. (scroll down the page for the description)

Fine Art 4 Kids – Are running a series of 2 hour workshops for kids. They learn about an artist then make their own work of art. I’m still undecided as I’m not sure if it’s too old for our daughter.

I’d really like to find something that involves dance or drama. If you of anything please do leave a comment below!

We’re going on a Raindrop Hunt!

It rains 1 day out of 3 in the UK. I know I’ve researched it. So we have to make the most of it. Last week, when it had just stopped raining, I armed my 5 year old daughter with my camera phone and we went for a walk in search of rain drops.

It was brilliant, however, it took fricking ages to get to Sainsbury’s.

What do you do with your kids in the rain? Would love some inspiration.