Outdoor Activities

Stick Family

May 4, 2020 by The Mad Maker Dad Leave a Comment

Not in any way inspired by the Hey Duggee stick we decided to make some of these little stick people for the garden! Keep reading to find out how we made them or check out the video!

First we had to collect some suitable sticks of course so we set out into our local woods and responsibly collected some small sticks.

I must admit I worried that onlookers might have thought I had my child collecting firewood but I’m not that cruel.

Besides the chimneys currently blocked and I need to send her up there to clear it out.

Once the sticks were home and on my workbench we cut a small mouth into them with a pull saw and Ellie coloured in the mouth with some sharpies. Ideally we’d have painted the wood but she was impatient!

Then the mandatory googly eyes were added as its not a proper thing unless it has googly eyes. I did this myself as the self adhesive on the googly eyes wasn’t good enough to stick to rough wood so I had to use some super glue.

We then stuck hair onto them with PVA glue. This consisted of some twine and wood shavings.

And finally planned in the garden so they can look after our freshly grown seeds!

I’ve also made a short video here if you want to watch!

A Day Out at Manor Farm

June 22, 2019 by The Mad Maker Dad Leave a Comment

On the edge of the River Hamble valley country park in Hampshire is Manor farm, a working farm with loads of fun activities for the kids!

A given that a child-friendly farm would have a range of animals you can pet but Manor farm is so much more than this. It’s a working farm where the animals are milked, sheered, and erm….sold to be taken to shall we say somewhere else.

Incidentally, the restaurant does some fine local sausages! The rest of the food is also pretty nice and reasonably priced with plenty of seating both indoors and out. There are also a few places you can take a picnic.

The animals look happy and healthy and many can be petted or played with!

At the time of writing this they are building an over-winter area so the animals can be sheltered but still seen during those colder months.

There are so many little activities for the kids and is interesting for the grown ups too.

If you’re into engineering they have some old farm machinery on display including vintage tractors. History buffs can check out the old farmhouses and Victorian schoolrooms and kitchen.

There’s a blacksmith’s forge, a deer hide, cottage gardens and duck pond as well as a fantastic little adventure play park that includes a little tractor racing track!

Prices are extremely reasonable and annual passes make it the sort of thing that’s brilliant for a day out without having to worry about seeing everything in one trip. We have them so can just go any time we want!

Despite the focus on history the farm is extremely progressive with its facilities with disabled ramps nearly everywhere so almost everything is accessible.

There is also a modest but fantastic use of technology with an interactive map that can show you where to find everything.

I absolutely love our little visits to the farm and really recommend you go take a look especially if you’re in or near Hampshire.

Autumn Scavenger Hunt

November 3, 2018 by The Mad Maker Dad Leave a Comment

Last year an amazing mum friend of mine, Victoria organised an autumn scavenger for our then 1 and half-year-olds and it went down extremely well.

Everybody had fun although with the young toddlers it was a case of dragging them around and doing most of the work for them.

This year I teamed up with Victoria to do this again but this time hoping they might be able to do it themselves. They might also start to understand what the things they were looking for are! I thought this was a nice opportunity to try to explain the change of seasons and some of the things you might find in Autumn.

This is a little guide will explain how we did it.

The items to find were printed on some card and we used stamps to check each one off like a game of bingo. You could use stickers or just a pen of course but I think the stamps made it a little more fun for them and you can find the ones we used here.

I’ve included copies of the cards so you can download them yourself at the end of this post. We did one with 9 items on for most of the toddlers and one with 12 for anybody that wanted a little extra challenge. I also included a special version for those parents who hadn’t had much sleep 😉

We picked a local park as it was a nice child-friendly enclosed space and some interesting stuff could be found as it was next to some woodland.

The basic list of things to find was based on a quick recce of the park beforehand as we weren’t exactly sure what trees were there. This makes a difference as without pine trees you probably won’t find any pine cones, without oak no acorns etc.

Our main list was as follows:

Leaves in green, yellow and brown. You can use this to explain the changes of the trees with the seasons.
A feather. There are always feathers around especially in a neighbourhood with lots of cats for some reason.
Flowers. Even in the Autumn, you will probably find flowers in bushes and grass.
Conkers. Note there were no horse chestnut trees in the park but we took a bucket of conkers with us as if we forgot to pick them up, they would harmlessly decompose or even grow!
A squirrel. Its possible especially if cold you might not see one but squirrels don’t actually hibernate just spend lots of time sleeping and hiding in cold weather. We took along a cuddly toy squirrel we could hide around just in case!
A log. We knew there were a few felled trees at the edge of the park and this was also a nice excuse to tip them over to see what creepy crawlies could be found. Just remember to always put the log back where you found it.
A snail. You can’t fail to find a snail!

We also made a slightly harder version for those kids who took it a bit more serious with a dog, holly leaf and ivy leaf on as well as a special version for the sleep-deprived parents…

Victoria handed out stickers to the kids (and some of the big kids like me) as a nice reward.

As expected the toddlers had another great time. This was challenging enough that they still needed a little help but easy enough so that they could do most themselves but also not lose interest.

We did regret choosing this park a little as unfortunately as the play equipment was a bit of a distraction. All good fun though!

I’ve included the scavenger lists in PDF format here in case you want to just print them out.

If you wanted to modify them I’ve put the Adobe Illustrator files in a zip file here.

I encourage you to try this little activity as its great fun, a little educational and gets everybody outside away from the TV.

If you do try this please let me know how you get on!

Pumpkin Picking Festival at Sunnyfields Farm – Hampshire

October 28, 2018 by The Mad Maker Dad 2 Comments

Halloween is around the corner and if like us, you are ill prepared and haven’t fulfilled your parental obligations of dragging a child around a pumpkin patch yet then have no fear!

Today we went to Sunnyfields Farm on the edge of the New Forest and took part in their annual pumpkin picking festival. I say “pumpkin picking” but clearly they had already been picked and most were arranged in a field nice and clean, ready for the little ones to pick the pumpkins they want. This was fantastic however as it gave the farmer experience without the actual hard work of uprooting cleaning up etc

As well as a field, you could find slightly better quality ones in a tent with sizes small to massive and other colours including blue? I didn’t even know you could get other colour pumpkins!!

Wheelbarrows were provided to help carry your pumpkins and of course to help with the obligatory photos of wheeling around your child.

Once done, you could pay for your pumpkins and then leave or take advantage of the great stuff there.

There is a lovely little farm shop where you can buy fresh food as well as an amazing little cafe that does some great vegetarian and vegan food.

Tractor and trailer rides were available and looked like great fun. We didn’t partake as I can’t see my little girl sitting still for long enough to enjoy it.

Facepainting and a pop up cafe selling warm pumpkin soup and mulled cider certainly hit the spot on the cold day we were there for!

Most importantly there was organised pumpkin carving and for about £2.50 you could borrow all the tools and templates needed to carve your pumpkin on site. We had to have a go of course and I think our daughter really enjoyed herself.

She’s only two years old but happily was scooping outside the insides of the pumpkin with a worryingly determined zeal. She did however, need some assistance with the serrated knife. It wasn’t sharp but it takes a little strength to stab all the way through the pumpkin flesh.

The end results were a simple little carving that we can now stick a candle in for halloween presumming she doesn’t destroy the thing before then. I’ve been trying hard to stop her feeding it toy dinosaurs.

The festival is still on until 31st October and no doubt will be on again next year. So if you don’t have your mandatory carved pumpkin in the window for halloween yet go check it out!

https://www.sunnyfields.co.uk/

We will definitely be going again next year!