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This one’s for the parents…

As I sit here, rather manically looking at dates for childcare support over the summer holidays, I’m trying to make decisions while keeping the importance of space in mind.

Although winter is often seen as a time to restore and slow down, the summer holidays can also offer a chance to change pace, notice the season’s beauty and create space for the children — and for me — to slow down, play freely, rest and reconnect with ourselves, family and the rest of nature.

While the summer holidays can be a juggling act, they can also be an opportunity for families to do things differently in the pockets of time we may have together. With warmer weather often encouraging more time outside, and nature offering so much colour, joy and wildlife, it could provide some gorgeous moments to make space for connection, curiosity and even environmental action.

Here are just a few ideas….

Patterns in Nature:

Spend some time in your garden, local green space or while out walking looking for patterns in nature. Take a little notebook and sketch what you see. It could be on a leaf, shell, insect, spiderweb, tree bark, wildflower or even look up and notice the gap/spaces between branches against the sky (which is particularly lovely on a clear blue sky day!)

You could even take out a small piece of clay/playdough to take prints of patterns in nature that you see to print with an inkpad once home or even take a small inkpad out if you want to get multiple different prints? 

Drawing of a leaf

Write a poem or story inspired by summer days in Somerset

Use your creative writing skills to capture the beauty of Somerset in the Summer. What do you see, what can you hear, what do you find beautiful, interesting, hopeful, weird or wild? As a starting point, you could try a short Haiku which is a Japanese writing style of 5-7-5 syllable structure – for example: 

A tree with one eye (5)
Wide open, bark line wrinkles (7)
Watching dancing clouds (5)

Landscape view over Westhay Moor

Image: Emily Weatherburn

Visit Westhay Moor

If you have time and are able to travel, why not visit the beautiful Westhay Moor. On Sunday’s, throughout the summer holidays, we will have a table of FREE activities for children to do while onsite. 

There are also still slots available for private guided walks throughout the 6-week break. These are for up to 5 people (including at least one adult) and can be booked here.

Take Action for Nature YOUR way

Children and young people often come up with the best ideas of how to act for nature in their community. If inspiration is needed – encourage them to think about the things they care about and enjoy doing, as well as how they want their community to be! 

Front cover of the book We Have a Dream by Bird-Girl

Local naturalist, environmentalist and race activist Mya-Rose Craig’s Book ‘We Have a Dream’ Offers some pretty inspirational stories of how young people across the world have taken action for nature in ways that are important to them. For example:

Vanessa Nakate from Kampala, Uganda, protested outside shops and parliamentary buildings against government inaction on climate change after seeing how rising temperatures and climate impacts were deepening poverty in her community. She began protesting alone for several months before others joined her leading to her founding Youth for Future Africa. Vanessa is also passionate about Climate Justice recognising the importance of ensuring all voices are heard within conversations about nature and climate. 

Other things you could think about doing in your community include:

  • Litter Picks in your community – follow in the footsteps of Theo from Wiveliscombe and his Super Litter Pick Theo’s Super Litter Pick | Facebook
  • Fundraising for nature and wildlife in your community Fundraise for us | Somerset Wildlife Trust – Like Elsie, aged 8, who raised money for us via a bake-sale she told us ‘I think it is important to raise money for wildlife because it helps to make the countryside nicer for animals to live in and helps save their lives’.
  • Join a National Youth-Led Campaign like Kids Against Plastic Kids Against Plastic – KAP or write a letter, poem, story or draw a picture for your MP about something important to you that you want to see change for nature – a big topic at the moment for example is River Pollution (sewage and agricultural).
  • Talk to young people in your community about how you could combine your hobbies with environmental action like The Skate Park Pollinator Billy Tompsett (@theskateparkpollinator) • Instagram photos and videos

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