Snowed in? Us? When the heavy snow fell back in March, it was too good an opportunity to miss. We caught the train from Bramley to Walsden and stumbled over the hill to Todmorden, at times sinking up to our thighs in snow. On the way we found enormous icicles, had dramatic views over the Calder Valley, dug snow holes, slid down the snow bank at the...

Answer: tadpoles! I vividly remember collecting dozens of tadpoles to ‘grow on’ in a tank, when I was about 10 or 11. It was a complete disaster, because I didn’t have a clue what to feed them. They all died, and I felt so bad about my lack of tadpole husbandry skills ever since that I’ve never dared try again. But that’s...

Three-quarters of UK teens are worried about how global warming will affect them – and people elsewhere in the world, according to a Unicef survey. They want the government to take action and show strong leadership. That same government, has of course been busy drafting new national curriculum guidelines that will remove discussion of climate...

When nature just isn’t as interesting as a facial experiment.

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”  ~ Unknown

…at Flamborough Head.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised about the disconnect between children and nature, when it seems we’re not listening to them about what they actually want from their outdoor spaces. Studies by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson and her colleagues at the OPENspace research centre at the Universities of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt have found...

This adventure was in August 2011. The two older boys were nine, the youngest six. We walked  from Graig Wen campsite in Snowdonia, up some of Fox’s Path, to Llyn Cau lake and pitched the tents there, having arranged things meteorologically so that the boys could enjoy pelting rain and glorious evening sunshine within the space of a few moments....

Show your children this brilliant and compulsive viewing: Charlie Hamilton James and Philippa Forester get a botfly larva out of Charlie’s scalp. The bit I love most is how completely fascinated their sons are. When the botfly larva finally comes out, one child is on his knees in his school uniform searching the ground for it. And that computer...

Can you hold it? Can you see through it?   Could you skin a cat with it? Can you sculpt it with finger heat?   With nose heat? … and more smashing fun.