Saturday 14 April 2012

50 things to do before you are 11¾

This blog is based around an urge to give my son the sort of childhood that kids had before the advent of computer games; all day children's TV and too many cars on the road to be able to play out. I know a lot of parents who have similar aspirations and want their kids to have an actual childhood. This urge has been reflected in National Trust's 50 things to do before you are 11¾which sets kids the challenge to get out and do the stuff we used to do when kid's TV was only on for two hours per day and we were allowed to roam free.
To date, my son has been able to get to 31and we are going to try to get to the round 50 by the end of the summer holidays.
This is the list:
The 50 Things to Do Before you're 11 ¾
1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you're flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what's in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

Ironically kids can log on to www.50things.org.uk and create a diary of their adventures. I guess that's just a modern scrapbook, isn't it?


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Sunday 8 April 2012

The long and winding path






My mother had a very different experience of raising me than I have of bringing up my son. In his entire life he's never been truly naughty and the worst thing he ever did was eating a couple of pieces of chocolate hiding in the yard when he was about three. I was significantly more of a challenge. Indeed, the stories of the adventurous and inquisitive scrapes I got into when little can take up most of an evening. The most famous one is about me, aged about 6, saying I could walk from my grandparents' house in the wilds of rural Dorset to the local village a couple of miles distant. Unwisely my grandparents said I couldn't. So I did.
Today, being Easter Sunday, we started off with an egg hunt in the garden. My son wasn't allowed sweets or chocolate until he was nearly at school and it makes me laugh to remember this looking at the haul he found lurking in the garden this morning.








After a really unseemly quantity of chocolate we decided to go for a walk. The Purbeck Hills are always visible from my parents' house but generally I don't think about climbing up the big hill. Once I had hauled myself up the 70 steps to the top I could see all of the Isle of Purbeck spread around me. I could also see the distance from the little hamlet my grandparents once lived in and the trek I'd done along winding lanes alone, to prove I could. A top the Purbeck hills there was glorious sun and a clear path to Swanage so my son and I did the 5 mile walk from Corfe to Swanage. And very lovely it was too.












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Saturday 7 April 2012

Fun with my son

I've just realised that I've missed out a couple of the fun days out I've had this Easter. All I can say is that I always forget to do my homework on my holidays. Also I wonder what I did with my time before he was born. We get to go to great places and usually only because he's a kid.

On Monday we went to the Hepworth Gallery and got to make sculptures based on Barbara Hepworth's work.




Mine


My son's



We also got to see what Hepworth created







And my son got to get tactile with a sculpture (supervised and with gloves on)







That day we also went to Conisbrough Castle which has a fabulous Norman keep and was the birthplace of Richard of York (readers of this blog will be aware of my obsession with the House of York in the Cousins' War)





A few days later and we are hundreds of miles south and enjoying the beach at Studland . We took part in an Easter egg hunt and got the traditional reward.











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Roman invaders to Italianate Palazzo

Holidays are fabulous, aren't they? The freedom to sleep until you awake and to spend your time as you will. Sometime soon this blog will be a year old and, like last year, I'm in Dorset.

I've been coming here all my life and so I'd think that there aren't that many attractions that I haven't visited already but I'm always surprised by how much this county offers. My family hail from the area around Corfe Castle which was thoroughly wrecked in the Civil War. This week I got to visit the home, Kingston Lacy, that the Bankes family moved to following the destruction of the castle.

It's a very imposing Italianate building and set in stunning grounds.




My favourite room was the little attic room where little Bankes children slept in a room decorated to look like a tent.





The National Trust think about all their visitors and are great about putting out toys for children who might find herbaceous borders less than interesting. My son had a great time playing cricket and tennis against his Grandpa and joking that the mummy sarcophagus playing backstop moved a bit faster than me as fielder.




Kingston Lacy's grounds are famous: particularly the quiet grace of the Japanese garden.







After we finished at Kingston Lacy we went to the Iron Age fort at Badbury Rings The weather had been gloriously sunny all day whilst in the refined gardens of Kingston Lacy but the sky turned grey and brooding for our trip to the fort, very appropriately.








When up on the ramparts looking at Dorset rolling into the distance you get a real sense of how alien Dorset must have been to the Roman centurions sent here all those millennia ago.


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Monday 2 April 2012

Gorgeous Georgians

It's the Easter holidays and so every minute is important as they are my minutes. Additionally the sun was out and we had a new sat nav to try out. My son researched the two options of Conisborough castle and Beningbrough Hall and chose the latter.

Beningbrough is a beautiful Georgian house with great gardens and an amazing cafè. We sat in the walled gardens in the spring sunshine reading my book whilst my son read 'Black Beauty' on my new Kindle. He also played tennis with some of the games thoughtfully provided.



We also had a walk round the gardens which are great for kids as there are labyrinths to run around and secret dens inside bushes.






Inside the house they have a brilliant interactive portrait room where you get to Photoshop yourself into a Georgian portrait.










Finally, as is traditional, we had tea. I discovered the joy of fruit cake and cheese. Game changed.








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