If you are looking for fun activities for kids then look no further. The UK’s National Trust has compiled a list of 50 essential things all children should do before they are 11 ¾. The project is aimed at getting us back to basics, getting out kids to play out, like we used to do when we were young, rather than being stuck in front of a screen playing computer games or watching TV. It’s about giving children and their parents the opportunity to play, to explore, to seek adventure by interacting with nature.
What’s wonderful about it is that it is progressive, it starts off with some wonderful fun activities for toddlers like running around in the rain and rolling down a really big hill (though when my kids tried this I had to join in and was quickly followed by mum!) and leads up to more teen activities like cooking on a campfire and canoeing down a river.
We were given a booklet from the National trust with the activities in when we went bug hunting at Hatfield Forest, which the kids use to tick things off when they have achieved or experienced the activities. For those of you who don’t live in the UK don’t worry, you can get you very own Outdoors Explorer to help you complete the 50 coolest outdoor things to do before you’re 11 ¾ (and use your own skills to find hidden secret challenges!). It’s all accessible from their website 50things.org.uk. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are – these are things you can experience anywhere.
And for those kid’s who like to go surfing on the net, they can register for free and gain rewards for completing each of the 50 activities by filling in the chart online. There’s also lots of online activities to do also. (Parental Email is required for this.) If you don’t want to register but just want a list of the activities,download the .pdf here.
We highly recommend this list, it’s crammed full of experiences that everyone should do and, if like me, you still haven’t got round to some of them by the time you’re well past 11 ¾, then it’s a good way to get started and bring back some zing to your own life.
