Woods

We had a Bank Holiday on Monday this week. My wife is preparing lots of work at the moment, she monopolises our home PC, so I decided to take the children to the woods while she worked. My kids love to listen to Enid Blyton Famous Five audio books at bedtime, so while we walked through the woods they play-acted as the children from the stories. My kids love adventure stories and it makes me happy to listen to them playing. I remember doing similar play-acting as a kid. I actually think its good for learning improvisation techniques. There were lots of picnic spots and we set up our small pop-up tent in one, stretched out our blanket and I got the wine gums out and apple juice out. I played football with them and a noisy kind of tennis game (the rackets had a clear thin vinyl material stretched across which make a noise like a biscuit tin lin: infact I'll christian the game now - Biscuit Tin Ball! I lay on the blanket, looked up at the sky framed by the tops of trees and suddenly a glider swooped around low over the trees. It was a great sight. Gliders can often be seen when out walking on the hills near us, I even drive by the airstrip where they take off to see if I can catch a glimpse quickly. There are several nice things about having the day off and taking the kids somewhere like the woods: they get fresh air, they get to run around and use up lots of energy, they can be as loud as they like, they get a chance to discover things about nature, it gives them some dedicated time with me, they can watch other families and it all costs next to nothing. Finding something good to do as a family is not easy, most of the time pressures of life and work compete. But I'm glad that this Bank holiday we did something that was enjoyable for me and the children and got us out to experience some nature.