Today is the first day of the 30 Days Wild challenge, and while I’m not 100% sure what we’ll be doing every day, we are going to try to do something outdoors every day. This isn’t normally too hard for us as we’re out fairly frequently anyway, but I’m going to try to be focused with it, and throw out short little posts about it each day.
Today we visited the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight with friends who’ve come over for a little half term break. One of the things I love about going to the woods with the children is that there’s something freeing there for them. It’s why Aviya’s Trolls party was in the woods – they didn’t need any formal entertainers! It was the girls climbing trees at the Garlic Farm that inspired the post about Girls Who Climb Trees and also that led me to thinking about the value in climbing trees. 
Aside from climbing them, though, a walk in any woodland area will inspire the most amazing imaginative play – if we just leave the children to get on with it. Some guided activities are fantastic, and lots of fun, and make for great photographs, but sometimes, letting the children just play is amazing.
This little ‘secret garden’ opens up to a field, hidden amongst the trees, and in these trees, under a large, sprawling, half fallen tree, the children ‘built a house’. They didn’t move a single branch, but among the branches as they lay, they had a living room, three bedrooms, and even a toilet. They were proud, showing me around their imaginary mansion. They didn’t need to be told how to fill their time.
They were in the woods, and that’s always a great adventure.
Follow along with #30dayswild from The Wildlife Trust
The secret garden sounds amazing, and that is a gorgeous picture. I agree, there is so much value in just playing! Thank you for linking up, feel free to pop by and add more posts too. #LivingLifeWild
Thank you! Yes, it’s lovely that they have such great imaginations. Enjoy 30dayswild! 🙂