How we kept 30 days wild 2019 really simple

We have been joining in with 30 days wild 2019.  If you’re not familiar with this then it’s a month long nature challenge in June to inspire you with ideas and help from Wildlife Trust. 

At the start of the month you can download or be sent a 30 days wild pack tailored for individuals, families, nurseries, schools, care homes and other organisations to take part in.   From our 30 days wild pack we stuck our downloaded wall planner on our kitchen door this is a great reminder for us to keep track of what we have done.  The planner also really inspired our 5 year old to do a bit of writing every few days and fill it out, this in itself was great to see, he has even doodled a few illustrations on there.

If you’re worried that 30 days wild is a bit too much to commit to then the key is to keep it simple.  There of course has been plenty of days over the past few years of taking part where we have have missed the odd day.  There are days where we may spot or do more than one wild thing and that to me makes up for any missed days.  The key to the challenge for my busy family of 6 is to keep it simple, especially on weekdays and busy days. If you haven’t been outdoors together for long enough then it could be as simple as reading a nature book at bedtime, putting on a wildlife programme or watching an animation like the Very Hungry Caterpillar when it’s pouring with rain outside.

Some of the things we have been doing this 30 Days of Wild

As I said we have very much kept it simple.

• We have been on bug hunts, looked through the bug viewfinder at ladybirds, snails, worms and other insects.

• We have been on a wild walk and found what we think is a badgers set, found nibbled nuts and collected sheeps wool for our vegetable patch.

• We have started a nature journal of which we will continue to fill long after June.

• We have pressed some wild and garden flowers and then added them to their nature journal

• They have drawn wild pictures of stag beetles and butterflies.

• Florence our toddler has stuck bug stickers all over her drawings to add to the journal.

• We have done some planting and caring for our new vegetable garden.  We spotted lots of bugs in there.  We also potted some wildflowers and sowed some seeds into patches of the garden.

• We have put up a new bird feeder and watched the garden birds come, we’ve listened to the evening birdsong. We have also watched the squirrels in the garden.  

• We went for a walk through a common and looked at tracks in the mud, we also looked at poo droppings and tried to guess what animal had been there. They enjoyed this as what child doesn’t find poo gross but fun to discuss!

• We hatched our own butterflies and released them with an easy to use Butterfly kit.  We released 5 into the wild and the children thoroughly enjoyed seeing the life cycle.

• We read Percy the Park keeper stories and learnt some fun facts on parklife.  We read books such as How to help a Hedgehog and protect a Polar Bear to make them more aware of ways to help the environment going forward.  We have also looked at bug books at night time and found out facts about them.

So you can see from all of the above we have kept 30 days wild really simple this year and yet the children were just as excited about what we have done and learnt. We also have our nature journal to add to now throughout the year as we focus more on specific areas of nature as and when we have more time. It will be fun to continue filling in over the Summer Holidays.