Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Posted on June 27th, 2014

Water free nature fishing

For Activity Hour at Coombe Mill this week I wanted to try something linked to nature and the seasons. My age group averaged at two so I was conscious that whatever we did would need to be easy for little ones to understand and enjoy. It was whilst walking round the farm for inspiration that I found myself faced with sticky weed on the bottom of my leggings. That was where the idea began. I picked up a long stick and wrapped some sticky weed around the end and then I tried to see if it would have enough stickiness to collect a leaf from the ground. If they were textured leaves it worked. From there everything fell into place.

On the afternoon with help from Farmer Kym and Amber our new Coombe Mill apprentice we set up a rug under the shade of the trees and I handed out some activity sheets to the parents so they knew what we were trying to achieve.

To help the children with the notion of imagination we brought out the dressing up boxes and invited them to choose an outfit, I even found a tutu to go round me! Sitting under the trees we read a lovely story about colour and things we might find on the farm from our Parragon Books collection.

Then we set off on a nature hunt to find sticky weed in the hedges, some ferns which were the perfect texture and shape to be our fish and the essential ingredient: a good long stick for everyone.

Back at our activity centre under the trees the rug became our blue lake and we made our fishing lines and set out the fish & flowers. It was such a simple activity but one that kept everyone happy. A few triumphant faces on catching a fish and even the parents couldn’t resist a turn.

With time to spare and the sun losing its heat we played ring a ring a roses in the sunshine.

A lovely end to a holiday at Coombe Mill.

This was a perfect activity for tots, just enough to create the pretend, but not too fiddly that they couldn’t do it themselves with a little help attaching the sticky weed.

Joining in with Country Kids

Country Kids is all about enjoying the outdoors. Whether you are playing in the park, out on an adventure, enjoying a family day at the beach or the woods or learning and crafting as we were here please do come and join me. There are only a few restrictions namely to please include at least one photo of your activity and that it should be outside. From there anything goes, the more ideas we share for enjoying screen free fresh air time the better. Please do take time to comment on others linked up, there are always some wonderful ideas which might just inspire your next adventure.

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A few of my favourite posts from last week:

Would like to be shares Rosie’s love of scooting with some adorable photos

Time to Craft shows how to make a fantastic Teepee. I really want to try this in our Coombe Mill Fairy Garden

Mommy Loves plays an educational Tree Game that could be done anywhere from the woods to a park

I love this biking challenge from A Family Day Out and the cakes at the end look well deserved.

This is the last weekend for voting in the Loved By Parents Awards. I am up for Best Family Friendly Travel Destination and Best Family Friendly Accommodation and would love your vote. This is the form, I’m under special awards but it is not easy to navigate. If you are happy to email me your name at mail@coombemill.com or DM me your email and name on Twitter I can pop a vote in for you and I would be so grateful of your support.