BBC Springwatch event at Aston Rowant Nature reserve

Almost 2000 people visited Aston Rowant Nature reserve this Saturday and joined in all the fun. Natural England kindly lent us a fantastic tent, not for shelter but to provide valuable shade as the temperatures soared! Probably about 200 or more children visited Going Wild and made a fantastic selection of Tree People who apparently live hidden in the trees on the reserve. There were vampire monsters, ugly sister monsters, fabulous fairy princesses and terrifying zombie boggarts with sharp blackthorn fangs! Every tree person created had a different character and many told us stories of the adventures their creature had had in the woods!

We had a fantastic day, of imagination and creativity all inspired by the natural world. Best of all their tree people were made from natural materials gathered whilst on a walk, there was not a bit of plastic in sight and hours of entertainment came absolutely free!

Naturefest

We have just come back from 3 days at Naturefest. The new outdoor event that celebrates the rich diversity of the Natural World. Set in the beautiful grounds of the Bentley Wildfowl and motor museum near Brighton people all committed to nature gathered together to share their skills and experiences. Organisations and individuals from country pursuits, wildlife, conservation, bushcraft, forestry and green woodwork, primitive living skills and traditional country crafts participated many offering hands on activities and demonstrations.

After a very soggy start on the Friday the weather cheered up and everyone felt much more excited about celebrating being outdoors! We had a wonderful time and loads of creative children visited us and tried out a few activities from our new book.

Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Going Wild event

To celebrate their 2nd anniversary the Yellow-Lighted bookshop in Tetbury, Gloucestershire put together a small programme of events in May. They asked us to run a "Going Wild" event with a few activities from our latest book "Make it Wild". Unlike many other book signings or meet the author events we decided to get the audience really involved and run a hands on activity outside!

On a wonderful spring morning last week about 20 families gathered in a beautiful little park in Chalford. Bounded on two sides by streams surrounded by woods full or flowering wild garlic , it definitely had a "wild" feel about it. We signed books, drank tea and ate delicious cakes then set children and adults to work making fantastic stick men made from clay,twigs and leaves. They decorated them with natural pigments made from chalk and red earth and designed and built intricate rafts and crafts made from natural materials to transport their people on journeys to foreign shores down stream. There was a wonderful shallow area ideal to test out their creations and see if they floated then, for added excitement (and there was lots) we challenged everyone to a boat race. Excited children (and adults) lined the banks and many unable to contain their enthusiasm made a plunge for the icy water! So many boats lined the start line that we had to run two heats, however no one really worried too much about who won they were having such fun running behind their boats getting totally drenched!

Luckily parents had suspected how it might end up and had bought plenty of spare clothes and everyone settled down to a glorious picnic lunch warmed by the May sunshine. Everyone seemed to have had a perfect day "Going Wild"!

Make it Wild book launch

On a very beautiful Friday afternoon we launched "Make it Wild" our 3rd book, alongside Natural England's "Let's go Wild" family activity programme.

More than 200 children and their families turned up to enjoy the sunshine and have a go at many of the activities from the book. They tested their design skills by making flying machines out of sticks and newspaper, made clay Boggart puppets, wind kites, willow and wool insects, moulded scary clay faces in the trees to surprise unsuspecting walkers, had a go at painting with natural pigments, made beautiful felt pictures, went on an adventure trail through the woods and ancient sunken ways on Aston Rowant's Nature reserve and ate lots of cake!

It was wonderful to see so many people, parents and children having such a wonderful time without a screen or bit of technology in sight!

Our thanks go to all the people who helped make it such a wonderful day.

Make it wild

We have teamed up with Natural England and are launching our new book - Make it Wild 101 things to make and do outdoors, alongside their new family engagement programme - Let's Go Wild! at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve on Friday 16th April. We have planned an afternoon packed with activities from the book and hope many families will join us for a fun afternoon in a most beautiful setting.

Go Wild Book launch at the Northmoor trust in Oxfordshire

This weekend saw the launch of our new book Go Wild! 101 things to do before you grow up.

Despite rather challenging weather many families rugged up in warm clothes and braved the elements. A fun day was had by all, evident by all the smiling faces of the many young people running around. It was also lovely to see so many parents not being scared to getting their hands dirty, and having a go at things they had never experienced before; building shelters, lighting fire without matches, making junk bows from plastic plumbing pipe and making and throwing atalatl spears further than you ever imagined you could. Plenty of marshmallows were toasted and then eagerly consumed around the fire and amazingly children (as young a 6 yrs in some cases) were in trusted with knives and taught how to whittle without cutting themselves!

We are very grateful to Harry Barton, Chief executive of the Northmoor trust, who kindly explained a little about all the wonderful things the Northmoor trust are doing to promote conservation and nature awareness. He also introduced our book, and Duncan Mackay, Principle Specialist of Natural England. He helped put our book into context, and explained the wider message behind our book, the need to reconnect our young people to the Natural world. "If we don't encourage our children to learn these basic skills and to appreciate wild places and nature then we will regret it...Natural England will be consulting this year on a new policy for understanding the natural world and I hope that this important book will shape societies response and ensure that we all recognise how critical this subject is for the happiness of everyone who live here."

Of course our heartfelt thanks must go to everyone who has been involved in making Go Wild a reality.

Thanks to our publishers Frances Lincoln, everyone there have been so supportive, especially Jo Christian, Andrew Dunn, Sarah Slack, Anne Asquith and Emma O'Bryen.

Thanks must also go to The Northmoor Trust whose staff were so committed and helpful in every way and helped make our launch such a success. Special thanks must go to Harry Barton, Charlotte Clarke, Zoe Burns, Angela Dearlove, Chris Parker, Loretta Waters and Oliver Rathmill.

We mustn't forget mentioning all our other helpers at the launch. Duncan Mackay from Natural England, Martin Maudsley, Peter Hearn, Alex Travers, Rod Anderson Boyle, Mick Rudman and Micheal Danks.

It is so lovely to finally have it in our hands, and we hope the word will spread and more families and children will go out and have some fun outdoors! Memories made now will only help towards making a more healthy generation and a more healthy environment!

Go Wild our new book published today and Natural England "One Million Children Outdoors" survey

Go Wild, our second book in the series is published today! This is also fantastic as it co-insides with the launch of a survey by Natural England called "One Million Children Outdoors". They are encouraging children to visit the countryside and our book is giving practical ideas and solutions on what to do once you've got them out of the door!

In the survey they "found fewer than 10% of children played in natural places, compared with 40% of adults when they were young.
A total of 1,150 adults and 502 children took part in the online survey conducted by England Marketing.
The organisation said children were being denied the independence and experience which came from exploring the natural world.
Natural England's Childhood and Nature survey found only 24% of those with an area of nature near their homes visited it weekly.
More than 70% of children said they were supervised wherever they played (that total rose to more than 80% when they played in natural places) and 81% said they would like more freedom to play outside.
'Independence and freedom'
The majority of parents - 85% - said they would like their children to be able to play in natural spaces unsupervised.
But they said fears of strangers and road safety prevented them from giving much freedom to their offspring.
As part of Natural England's One Million Children Outdoors project, farm visits and visits to national nature reserves will double for school-aged children.
An interactive wildlife gardening website is being launched and it will promote a nationwide marine conservation campaign.

"If a generation becomes detached from the natural world, it is in danger of becoming indifferent" said Chris Packham Environmentalist.

Poul Christensen, acting chair for the organisation, said: "Children are being denied the fundamental sense of independence and freedom in nature that their parents enjoyed.
"Our research shows that contact with nature has halved in a generation and that the overwhelming majority of children now want more opportunities to play outdoors.
"Whether through pond-dipping or tree-climbing, nature-based activities can play an important role in the educational and social development of children."
He added: "The natural environment is there to be explored by children, it is their right. The memories they collect from it stay with them as adults and inspire them to pass on a healthy environment for future generations."
Chris Packham, naturalist and television presenter, also welcomed the new programme.
He said: "If a generation becomes detached from the natural world, it is in danger of becoming indifferent and whilst some skills are learnt in the classroom, others only come from being knee-deep in mud and elbow-deep in frog spawn.
"It is these early years of inspiration that set in motion a life-time passion. Today's young explorers are tomorrow's naturalists, biologists. If they don't learn how it works, how will they look after it for the future?" "

We totally agree and want to inspire you all to get a copy of Go Wild and go out and have some fun!