Autumn is such a wonderful time to appreciate the outdoors. The October Mud & Bloom gardening and nature crafts box gave us a great opportunity to get outside and look for treasures.
We had three crafts to make this month, so we went for a (slightly soggy!) walk in the park to collect leaves, conkers, acorns, and twigs.
As it had been raining, I decided the best way to dry everything out was in a very low oven. It worked a treat.
One of the crafts was to make little figures using conkers, acorns, and twigs.
This was a lovely opportunity for some creativity. Little C used a wine cork (OK, it’s not from outside but it’s natural), walnut shell, and twigs to make a little figure. She also made a tractor/cart thing from a conker and more walnut shells.
The instructions for making the figures was to use a skewer to make holes for the twigs. This worked well, but I decided to use my beloved glue gun for some extra support. It’s sort of cheating, but I also used it for some other things, as you’ll see below.
There’s a lovely succulent plant in the conservatory, and Little C decided it would make a rather nice treehouse for her little cork and walnut figure. You can see it on the right, perched on the swing. He was also given ladders, a leaf shelter, and a twig platform. Underneath is his little tractor cart, and there’s a little pine needle branch creature sitting on a high branch. You might also be able to spot on the left of the ladders, the little ceramic toadstool from the March box!
The second craft was making a decorative bowl from autumn leaves. There was a balloon plus generous supply of glue for this, though it’s still a work in progress so not pictured.
The final craft was simple but very satisfying: making seed head tiles. We didn’t find any suitable seed heads, but we had some lovely leaves. There was a nice chunk of air-dry clay in the box.
This kids of clay is pretty easy for kids to roll out and cut into pieces. Then it’s just a matter of rolling whatever you would like to make a pattern. I also made little holes in the tiles so they can be hung up a decorations.
(I don’t own a rolling pin, so always roll things out with a wine bottle, because I do own several of those.)
We’ve not decided yet if the tiles are going to be painted or left as they are, but either way they look lovely.
Now, this wouldn’t be a nature and gardening box without something to plant out.
This month we have snowdrop bulbs.
There are little earth pellets included in the box, but we decided to plant them under our silver birch tree. Little C even found my mother’s dibber with which to make the holes for the bulbs.
These will be very welcome in a few months’ time. Flowers in winter, especially such delicate yet hardy ones, are always a joy.
Mud & Bloom doesn’t just have crafts and gardening, there’s plenty to learn too. Every month you have a list of things to sport while you’re out and about, and a little quiz to test our knowledge.
We’ve seen lots of rose hips, and are keeping an eye out for everything else. I really want to find some damsons, as they make delicious jam.
We did make a lovely bonus discovery when we were at the park collecting our conkers.
We found walnuts! Did you know they look like this when they come off the tree? It was actually Little C who spotted them. I’ve walked through that park many times and have never seen them before. I didn’t even know there were walnut trees!
If we hadn’t been on the lookout for things for these crafts I don’t think we would have noticed them. We found quite a few that were ripe and edible, and the shells came in handy for our crafting.
This month has been a real treat. Even though our outdoor adventures were a bit on the damp side, we made lots of lovely discoveries. Little C’s imagination was really sparked by the crafts, and we’ve both learned a lot.
Mud & Bloom is a lovely way to get outdoors with your children, and explore and learn about nature. You get all your information and instruction cards, compost pellets for planting, plus any other bits and pieces to use for your creations.
As always we have had a delightful time, and even on the wettest day you can discover a little bit of natural magic!
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Quick blurb and pricing from the website:
A Mud & Bloom box costs £7.95 a month inclusive of shipping if you’re based in the UK.
Get 20% discount off your first box with the code FIRSTBOX20
The boxes are for 3-8 year olds and will be delivered through your letter box at the beginning of each month.
Each box includes everything you need for two seasonal activities: one gardening and one nature craft – along with instructions, quizzes and games aimed at teaching children about the seasons, plants, insects, birds, soil and rainfall.
Activities have been created by qualified teachers and they support the national curriculum with influence from Forest School, Steiner and Montessori education.
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