The big nature count
Last week I read a great post from A family day out who linked up to my Tuesday Let kids be kids linky. She gave some fab suggestions for family days out in the summer holidays. Top of her list was ‘The big nature count‘ in Thatcham, just round the corner from me…..perfect!
The weather for last saturday was looking dodgy with many thunderstorms forecast, but we decided to risk it anyway and I am so glad we did. It didn’t rain and in fact the sun actually made a lovely appearance and we all had a fantastic time.
When we arrived at Thatcham discovery centre we headed straight for the information tent where we got shown some moths close up. I had no idea just how pretty they could be. My favourite was definitely the pink one. I also didn’t realise just how big they could be too. The children were really fascinated by them.
When we could finally prize them away, we wandered up to the top of the lake for a spot of pond dipping. This is something the children have never done before and I was quite excited to show them. The volunteers lent us a tray to put our findings in and three nets. The kids couldn’t wait to get started. They dipped their nets in and excitedly looked to see what they had caught.
We emptied our findings into the tray and had a good look. By the end of our session we had caught a fish, a water boatman, pond skaters, a mayfly larvae, damselfly larvae and many other creatures that I’m sorry, I have forgotten the names of. It was amazing to get up close to nature and for the children to realise just how much life there is in a pond/lake. They loved looking at all the little creatures in their tray.
Eventually we had to persuade the children away to let others have a go, with the promise of an ice cream. I must admit that worked! We all had a delicious ice cream sat outside in the sunshine looking out over the beautiful lake, watching the ducks, geese and swans.
Inside afterwards, we looked at the butterfly collection and tried on some bug costumes. I think we all had a bit of fun with that, though they didn’t keep the costumes on for long as it was too hot!
It was such a wonderful afternoon, learning about nature and life in a pond with our family and all for free! I would highly recommend going to this type of event if you ever get the chance. I remember pond dipping when I was at school, but I am not sure if my kid’s school do this sort of thing, so I am very glad I have had the opportunity to show my children the wonders of a pond myself.
A great day out and for free too – brilliant. It looks and sounds like they had a great time exploring nature and inspecting their findings in the pond. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
We all had a wonderful time, thank you x
So glad you enjoyed it, our kids love pond dipping too.
Thank you for letting us know about it, it was fab!
aww sounds like such a fab day out with so much learning! Pond dipping was great as a kid so I hope we can show Monkey one day too! xx #countrykids
There was loads of fun and learning. I hope you get to to this one day too x
What a great day out. We love pond dipping and its a great way of getting children looking and exploring for bugs and insects!
Pond dipping is fantastic, fun and a great way to learn!
That sounds like such a great day out! Looks like you had a fab time
x
We did have a great time thanks x
Excellent day out – I used to do this type of work of work in school grounds but with all the cut backs more schools were stopping. Long may free days like this continue because the look on your 3 watching the moths so perfectly sums up how much they are getting our of the visit.
That is true, they did get a lot out of that day. It is sad that schools stop doing this sort of thing as kids learn so much through experience
Looks like a great day out! X
It was great thank you x
This is something new! What a great place to visit and sometimes you just have to go and not mind the weather =) #countrykids
It is a lovely place to visit, we love going there a lot.