Hi guys, just a quickie- could anyone recommend a few activities to help build a child's care and concern for living things and the environment? I've got it as a "next step" for2 of my kiddies but got a bit of a mind block! Thanks :)
Printable View
Hi guys, just a quickie- could anyone recommend a few activities to help build a child's care and concern for living things and the environment? I've got it as a "next step" for2 of my kiddies but got a bit of a mind block! Thanks :)
Plant potatoes, seeds, bulbs, etc. (and try to stop them dying.)
Feed the goldfish.
Visit local urban farm to throw carrots at (sorry, "to") the rabbits, etc.
Failing that, they could just learn to use a bottle-opener and bring me a cider from the shed before they go home. :rolleyes:
Look closely at nature, watch it develop.
We do a ' Darwin walk' every day if we can, take the same route and observe the plants, taking care not to damage them.
Feed the birds in the garden, observe , put out things birds will use for their nests, watch to see if it gets taken.
Have bug boxes, watch them fill up.
Provide toad house and hedgehog home and bat boxes. Have a butterfly farm.
Grow your own everything. Children plant then water everything, dead head/ harvest etc..
Indoors we have Dannios that they care for, plants each to water and watch , stick insects , and I have a dog that they all treat with respect and love.
It's my favourite area, all resources are easily and cheaply made / found, it's what we always do in our garden so garden is easily set up and doesn't look like children play in it .....but they do. They check out all the habitats before they go near a sand tray.
I have the resources to ( ie retirement present was an Omelet chicken run) look after chickens, but haven't done so yet.
Lovely ideas already mentioned. We also visit the pet shop - they occasionally have feeding sessions that we can watch. If you log on to the RSPB website you will find some sweet ideas to do with children of all ages. My DD (6) has just completed the bronze level 'Wildlife Action Award' and I am now going to do it with my three year old mindees and work towards the silver level with her. They get a lovely certificate through the post and the activities were lovely to do and really manageable. If you go onto 'Insect Lore' you can get lots of lovely ideas and resources. We bought caterpillars last year and released them as butterflies. We will definitely do this again this year. Nature Detectives is another lovely site. If you have a pond near you there should be lots of new life about to happen. Spring is a great time to focus on this objective! x
RSPB wildlife action awards look good to encourage focus- how did you join? As a group?Quote:
Originally Posted by Maza
Great ideas Maza - proving that you can still promote and discover the natural world without a garden.
I'm not actually a member of the RSPB. You don't have to be a member to do the awards (or to do the 'Big Garden Birdwatch' which I first heard about on here). To do the awards you need to send off for the booklet which tells you all about the tasks. The booklet costs £3 and is a great resource/source of ideas and snippets of information. It came within a week and you only need to buy it once and can do the awards with as many children as you like. Once we had sent off evidence of doing the tasks (the cost of a stamp an envelope) the certificate arrived within a few days. DD took the certificate into school yesterday and her teacher gave it to the Headteacher to present it to her in assembly today! She's quite nervous about it, bless her, and so I can't wait until she gets home to tell me all about it. I think it will be really lovely for the mindees to get the certificates sent to their homes as they all love getting post at their age!Quote:
Originally Posted by FloraDora
I didn't join as a group - just me.
Floradora def get chickens, I had them for years in an omlet eglu, so easy and lovely to have in the garden and kids love them.
Took a break after last ones died, but have eglu in the shed waiting for when we get more, kids will love them plus they eat all leftover food so no wastage :-)
You make a convincing argument, but a neighbour who isn't keen on the idea seems to think it's in our deeds that we can't keep poultry...it would cost me to check, so I am biding my time for them to move out -their house has been up for sale for a while ....then chickens will move in.Quote:
Originally Posted by alex__17
Good they're moving, yes I've heard it can be in deeds you cant keep poultry or livestock, so ridiculous, they do squwark a bit after laying an egg (understandable) or if there's a fox near but apart from that hens are very quiet.
And the eglu is so low maintenance...I'm convincing myself to get some hens again!
Prohibitions on livestock are frequently in deeds from way back when the land was originally sold. They very rarely get enforced: you'd need to check with a solicitor whether they are enforceable in practice.Quote:
Originally Posted by FloraDora
We have the same thing on our deeds, as does every property in the block, I imagine - but several people keep poultry nearby.
It usually means the houses are built on former farmland. The farmer sold off the land on the understanding it would be used for building. He will have had the livestock ban put in to prevent anyone buying up the land before it got built on and setting up a rival farm. It's therefore a bit of an historic hangover, which makes me wonder whether anyone could enforce the ban, but you'd have to check.
My guess is, if you went ahead and got faced with legal action, you could just flog the coop on eBay and enjoy a couple of chicken dinners and no further fuss. :rolleyes: