Lists and the great outside

This holidays we have used a rough list of possible activities. This has worked really well. We haven't done everything but it has been useful to have ideas. Having this as a reference point has meant that we have done more than we would have done without.  It can be easy for holiday time to just get lost. I'm already thinking about a summer list so was rather interested to see that the National Trust has produced 50 things to do before you're 11 3/4. The aim is to get children off sofas and into the open air.

This fascinating list includes skimming stones, rolling down a hill climbing trees, canoeing, mud slides, throwing snow, light a fire without matches, find a geocatch and abseiling.

 My three year old has done 15 of these-not abseiling- and I'm not too sure about encouraging more eating apples straight from trees. My 11 year old is running out of time and has about 15 that he hasn't done. I'm planning to use this for ideas although haven't decided about signing up for the whole challenge yet.  Some aren't practical yet-not sure about 3 year olds canoeing but a mud slide is another matter. I'm just surprised that with all the interest in mud and mud painting this hasn't happened yet.

 There must be some doubt about how accessible some of these ideas are for many families-there are significant costs to canoeing, bouldering and  abseiling. In some ways it is a shame that they didn't keep to the large number of free or low cost items. However, this list is worth a browse even if you don't decide to go for the whole 50.