The National Trust aims to lure sofa-bound children to the great outdoors and is encouraging more people to connect with nature.
“Sofa-bound” children who have lost touch with the great outdoors have been handed a must-do list of simple activities to help overcome the growing problem of “nature-deficit disorder”.
The checklist is one of a number of measures aimed at reconnecting youngsters with nature after a report showed that rapidly dwindling numbers were taking advantage of their environment, even in the stunning landscapes offered in Devon and Cornwall. The National Trust has published the list of 50 outdoor activities that every child should complete before they start secondary school.
Suggested adventures include running around in the rain, bug hunting, snail racing, wild swimming and going rafting.
We’d like to help you get started by either joining us by taking part in a Blue Mile near you or helping you organise your own.
The list – “50 things to do before you’re 11-and-three-quarters” – was drawn up after research by the charity found that fewer than one in ten children regularly play in wild places compared to half just a generation ago.
The 50 Things to Do Before you’re 11-and-three-quarters
- Climb a tree
- Roll down a really big hill
- Camp out in the wild
- Build a den
- Skim a stone
- Run around in the rain
- Fly a kite
- Catch a fish with a net
- Eat an apple from a tree
- Play conkers
- Throw some snow
- Hunt for treasure on the beach
- Make a mud pie
- Dam a stream
- Go sledging
- Bury someone in the sand
- Set up a snail race
- Balance on a fallen tree
- Swing on a rope swing
- Make a mud slide
- Eat blackberries growing in the wild
- Take a look inside a tree
- Visit an island
- Feel like you’re flying in the wind
- Make a grass trumpet
- 26. Hunt for fossils and bones
- Watch the sun wake up
- Climb a huge hill
- Get behind a waterfall
- Feed a bird from your hand
- Hunt for bugs
- 32. Find some frogspawn
- Catch a butterfly in a net
- Track wild animals
- Discover what’s in a pond
- Call an owl
- Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
- Bring up a butterfly
- Catch a crab
- 40. Go on a nature walk at night
- 41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
- Go wild swimming
- Go rafting
- Light a fire without matches
- Find your way with a map and compass
- Try bouldering
- Cook on a campfire
- Try abseiling
- Find a geocache (like letterboxing)
- Canoe down a river
