Nature play ideas in North London. Making paper boats and looking for somewhere to float them at the Olympic park in Stratford. Watching starlings in Camden Lock Market. Getting muddy and rained on on Hampstead Heath. Finding fallen treasures at Waterlow Park; Using a compass to navigate the way to the tube; Exploring Highgate Cemetery; urban night time adventures with borders, water and light; urban map reading v. navigating by instinct; Finding your favourite London tree and being a Junior Adventurer at London Zoo.
313 – Making paper boats and looking for somewhere to float them.
Saturday 22 January. Sunny. 12°C
It’s the February half term and we’re in London visiting relatives. I haven’t planned much. I’ve got vague ideas about canal walks and getting B to find her way to things (continuing the wayfinding challenges we started last week). Slightly to my surprise we have a really productive few days finding lots of unexpected things to do. We also finally find ourselves revisiting some of the old classics from when B was little
We’ve just arrived into Paddington and I’m planning to get B to walk along the canal to Camden Lock. B however has other ideas. She wants to go shopping. She’s almost ten now and is rapidly turning into a tween. I do some bargaining.
Me: “Ok. We’ll go to Stratford Westfield instead BUT you have to come and do a challenge in the Olympic Park before we go and find Sephora and Primark.”
On the Elizabeth Line we hunt around for an idea. We’ve only been to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park once before. We settle on making paper boats and trying to sail them. B was obsessed with making boats over Christmas and I’ve been storing this up as an option. We can’t remember how to make them but thankfully the internet provides some assistance and we’re off. Equipped with three bits of paper we aim ourselves to the park.
And then we find some of the best big city play options right at our feet: Wonderfully ornate pavements! Not sure if this counts as nature play – probably not – but we really enjoy ourselves following them round to make circles and diagonals and doing funny walks. There are also some small walls to walk on – the gold dust of small children’s entertainment. Eventually we take a break from the walls to make three small paper boats (labelled 3,1,3) and head off into the park looking for somewhere to sail them.
And here we hit a problem… I’d remembered there was lots of water round the Olympic park but forgotten it’s not easy to access. There are locked gates everywhere or high walls with water far below. We find lots of bridges and lots of water edges but can’t get near the river at all. In the end B puts her foot down and we head to the shopping centre in a state of complete failure but keep an eye out for fountains or big puddles. We finally find the latter as we get off the train a couple of hours later in a gutter. I make a note, next time we play with boats, to make sure of water beforehand!
312 – Bird watching at Camden Lock Market.
Sunday 23 January. Cloudy and windy. 10°C
The next day I have a plan. I’m challenging B to find her way to London Zoo without any help or directions. We agree that, if she goes wrong, we’ll give her five minutes to get back on track and if not can give her a general direction to walk in. B is very enthusiastic and only a little worried.
Turns out this is actually not challenging enough. She finds her way ridiculously easily. I need to raise my game with wayfinding challenges clearly. However, maybe because she’s leading, she gets completely sidetracked at Camden Lock Market (which we have to walk through) by the starlings. They weren’t around last time we were here at Christmas but they’re back now and everywhere. They’re cheeky and amazingly tolerant of being followed and photo-ed. B stalks them for about half an hour and takes some brilliant pictures. We head out onto the canal and find coots and ducks, some amazing Egyptian Geese and the usual group of hungry pigeons. There’s a plastic bag in the water and we find a stick to fish it out with and put it in the bin. We end up spending more time with the birds than the Penguins at the zoo – which is saying something. It felt like a very London sort of activity too.
311 – Getting lost on Hampstead Heath
Monday 24 January. Sun, rain and cloud. 10°C
B and I head to Hampstead Heath on Monday. B wants a playground and has an urge to swing. I’m hoping I can get her to explore the woods and wild areas on the Heath with me. At the entrance to the park we take a photo of the map and B locates a playground and starts to lead the way. Map reading is a big thing at the moment. After a while I start whining though – she’s just leading us along boring big paths – and I persuade her to try a short cut. It’s really muddy but the mud isn’t deep, just slippery. B finds a dogs paw print perfectly captured in the mud. We try and locate the parakeets we can hear above and try breaking off on different paths, competing to find the least muddy ones.
The inevitable happens of course. We get lost. This seems to be something that happens on Hampstead Heath – not sure why. We finally emerge from the muddy woods onto a path and don’t know which one it is on the map. I tell B to turn left… and we find ourselves back at the point we turned off. B is not happy. Then the rain, which has been slowly building, turns torrential.
We look for some sort of shelter but in winter, with mainly deciduous trees about, there’s not a lot of options. We find a small tree covered in ivy which provides a bit of cover, squeeze in and wait for about ten minutes for the rain to stop. It’s rather lovely. It’s ages since I’ve needed to shelter like that and it’s funny watching people run by while being aware we probably look a bit ridiculous. We watch the puddles to work out when it’s finally dry again.
310 – Gathering ‘fallen’ things at Waterlow Park, Highgate
Tuesday 25 January. Cloudy. 9°C
On Tuesday we head to Waterlow Park in Highgate to meet a family friend and take a brown paper bag to collect things in. It’s a lovely park, not overly big but full of different sorts of plants and the borders are full of interesting ‘fallen’ things. Within a few minutes of arriving we see pine cones, holly leaves, and some ferns, some big yellow leaves and some lovely large brown ones left from the Autumn. I set rules – you can’t pick anything, you have to see what you can find that’s on the ground already – and we set off.
It’s a nice activity we haven’t done this way before. We get excited when we see a feather and B enjoys pointing out things I haven’t spotted. As we go B is also finding some really good trees to climb and we find a sundial in the grounds of Lauderdale House and spend some time (under cloudy skies) working out how it works. Then B makes an amazing find in one of the formal gardens. In the middle of February there’s a bush with lots of small pink flowers about half of which have fallen off onto the earth below. It’s like we’ve won the lottery.
When we’re ready to go we find a bit of a mound and empty out the bag to make the days’ 310 picture. It’s really varied in colours and we’re both very proud.
309 – Navigating London by compass
Wednesday 26 February. Raining. 9°C
On Wednesday we have to head back to South Wales. I’m looking for a challenge to do on the way. It’s pouring with rain and I’m not overly optimistic when B finds the compass I packed as an after thought.
B: “Can I use this to find the way to the tube?”
Challenge sorted. It’s a nice addition to our wayfinding challenges last week and I prefer it to the map reading she was doing at Hampstead Heath. We head out and stop at each corner to see which way she’s going. Sometimes the road curves round and she realises she’s suddenly going a different way. We keep referencing it all the way home and I make a note to get it out in a less urban environment soon too.
February: A few extra things
I was surprised to find we ended up with more activities than we needed for the challenge during our time in London. Spring is definitely around the corner and we found lots of daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops. My mum pointed out mimosa, which we didn’t know, and then we kept spotting that too.
The biggest extra thing was probably pavement walks. B got obsessed after the amazing pavements at the Olympic Park and found endless different ways to walk normal pavements too. It got her a long way when she’s probably have normally moaned at having to WALK.
The big missed opportunity was foxes. On the first night we arrived I popped out to the shops and found a fox trotting, bold as brass, just a few metres from me. I was hoping to get B out with me for a night time challenge to see if we could find more but we never got there. It’s definitely one we’ll do on a future visit though (check out our July fox encounter here).
The final one was listening challenges. We started a new game – listen for 15 seconds and then say what you heard. It was fun and London provided a big landscape to tune into. I’m hoping to do a few listening based challenges soon and this was a great start.
163 – Exploring Highgate Cemetery
Monday 21 July. Cloudy. 21°C
I’ve managed to bribe B to come with me to Highgate Cemetery. I’ve never visited before and I’m hoping it’s going to work as a challenge. It does, sort of. It’s an amazingly atmospheric place thanks to the trees and other plants which are flourishing and pushing through the gravestones and crypts. B finds it hysterically funny.
B: “What IS this place? It’s so weird!”
She’s not going near a spooky movie yet and clearly finds looking at graves an odd idea. We have fun following the paths round, and she tries to get into all the crypts (and fails). I tell her about Doctor Who’s Weeping Angels and she has fun getting freaked out by statues and not blinking.
128 – Night time urban adventures
Sunday 24 August. Clear. 25°C
It’s been a hot day and we’ve been hiding inside. Now it’s getting dark earlier and we decide maybe a night time adventure could be fun. It’s been months since B’s been out in the city in the dark. We don’t want to go far so we decide on Kings Cross and the fountains at Granary Square. I have a feeling they might be lit up at night.
They’re not, and we have a moment of disappointment before we realise that the water is reflecting all the other lights in the area. It’s really pretty. We’ve explored the local flower beds on the way to make a 128. I spend a while trying to get them to stay (it’s windy) but B just does it in water by the water’s edge. Artificial fountains may be pushing it a bit as a ‘nature’ challenge but playing in the water in the dark is fun and exciting.
127 – Urban map reading v. navigating by instinct
Monday 25 August. Sunny. 23°C
B’s navigating skills are coming along well these days. She’s walking herself to school and she’s ready for a bigger challenge. We’re heading into central London to meet my mum whose got a hospital appointment. We work out the route before we leave and both look at the map.
Me: “Look, when you come out of the train station you have to turn left and walk down this road and then keep on it till you get to a park on the left. Then it’s the next right.”
B studies the map and learns the directions.
Me: “Are you going to be ok to get us there?”
B: “YES!”
She is too. She’s already questioned me about all the turns she needs to take before she guides the familiar route to the station and onto the train. Coming out, she finds her exit and gets on the right path, having occasional panics over road crossings.
Then my mum and I raise the stakes. “Ok, you can go to your favourite place for lunch if you can find it”.
B: “where is it? Show me”
Me: “No map this time. We’ll follow our instincts. It’s sort of that way.”
I point vaguely westwards and of we go, crossing roads, looking for the next path on the right, wiggling along. It’s a lot more fun and we find it pretty easily (though I think the grown ups are doing most of the work on this one).
126 – Finding your favourite London tree…
Tuesday 26 August. Sunny. 24°C
We’ve been wandering round London for a few days and have a new game. ‘Find your favourite tree’. We do this with cars sometimes – trees have more variety and are more fun. B votes for a sort of palm tree in a West End tower block. I fall for a little one with beautiful purple flowers in a residential street in Kentish Town. We both admire a fig tree forming a natural ceiling over a lane and a beautifully decorated neighbourhood tree with a name and attached metal butterfly. We finally agree on the two side by side conifers in Regents Park… because trees you can squeeze between have got to cherished.
125 – Being a Junior Adventurer at London Zoo
Tuesday 26 August. Unexpectedly rainy. 22°C
The end of the summer holidays are approaching but we have a few hours to visit London Zoo. We’re regular visitors and normally head off to see the infant gorillas or the ostriches annoying the giraffes but this time we’re checking out their summer holiday ‘learn to be a zookeeper’ event.
B gets a leaflet and visits four different areas, learning about zoo scientists; clearing up different (fake) animal poo; learning about conservation work and being a zoo nutritionist. She likes the nutrition one best but they’re all fun. I’m really impressed with the waterproof waders she gets to put on.
