Forest school again, and it's freezing!

Brrrrrrrr, cold today. We wrapped up warm, and went to the woods for a home ed group. Luckily mum came over and looked after Meg, so it was just me and the big kids.

We made wooden hammers. The kids found whittling pretty difficult, so they left me too it *sigh*. The handles are made from willow, the heads from some sort of hard wood (Abbie did say, but I've forgotten).

They are excellent hammers, they function as they should!

Freddie tended the fire again, but it didn't stay in so long this time. Never mind, he enjoyed clearing the embers with his new tool.

Betsy used hers to knock a tent peg through little pieces of elder wood, and we made a necklace from them.

Freddie found a, well, we're not too sure. A baby worm? A caterpillar? A maggot?

Betsy made piles of leaves and twigs into pretend bonfires.

The poor girl was freezing by the end. next time I'll give her an extra layer and bring a blanket.


They played an elaborate game of spiders and flies. Freddie was king of the spiders. I'm not sure what the rules were.


The sun was low on the sky as we headed home to nanny, meg and a nice cup of tea.

Forest school

We went to our first forest school session today. It was a unreserved success - we all had the best time.

Freddie was delighted there was a fire. He spent most of the time tending the fire, adding sticks when they were needed. He did join in with a couple of games of hide and seek, and later went exploring with another 6 year old. We didn't see either of them for half an hour or so.

Betsy warmed up to the group much quicker than usual. Together we made elder drawing sticks, with bits of elder wood, chalk and charcoal. She enjoyed the hide and seek too, and went leaf collecting with the Abby, the session leader.

Then she made a woodland picture with her finds.



Abby had brought refreshments, so the kids munched on cookies and bananas, and I had a cup of tea.


Meg enjoyed throwing leaves onto the fire, and drawing on her face with a red pen. More than one of the kids in the group asked if she was bleeding!


There were some magnificent looking mushrooms (hmm, or toadstools?) that looked edible.


We will definately go back, it was such a lovely couple of hours.