Children discover wildlife at Lackford this summer

Children and Summer go as well together as fish and chips. Where there is sunshine and open spaces you can be assured the children will follow and even when there isn’t sunshine you needn’t worry for the joy of jumping in puddles is more exciting than a classroom any day!

This Summer has been no different and the reserve has been a hive of activity with throngs of people calling in daily. For the first summer ever we have been offering families the chance to do self-led pond dipping! Watching the excitement on their faces as they toddle off with nets clutched in their hands and curiosity on their faces couldn’t be better.

Summer is a time for children to step away from technology and really connect with the outside world. Here at Lackford we have had more family events and activity days than you could imagine and each one has brought a new flurry of excitement and joy!

At the start of the holidays we had our Family Wild play Wednesday! This morning was all about families coming together to play in our woods. We had a mud kitchen where children whipped up magic soups followed by courses of mud pies and cupcakes. Not quite full we also made wild art on the woodland floor and explored our senses on our blindfold trail. By the end of the morning mums, dads, grannies, and grandads were all happily playing with their young ones and trying to pull them away at the end was a challenge!

Come mid-summer we were going on Barefoot safaris where we squelched through mud, tip toed over pebbles and swished through long grass. We even had a chance to see what lived beneath our feet before making clay versions of these Minibeast!

Around this time our young wardens had their summer celebration and to top off a brilliant year we decided to have a Crayfish boil! The children loved learning how to catch the crayfish safely and legally and we tested out different bates (pedigree chum works best!). Once we had pulled them up we took them back to the workshop and boiled them up for lunch. The sweet taste of crayfish on a summers day washed down by lemonade can’t be beat!

We finished off our summer with our fun with science days where the children made solar smore ovens out of cake boxes and even though it was cloudy they were thrilled to find that at least the chocolate had melted slightly! During our science day, we also let off bottle rockets using bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar and watched them soar high into the sky and then in the afternoon we mixed up bouncy balls and made towers using marshmallows and spaghetti!

Overall it has been another amazing summer at Lackford Lakes and although summer may be over it won’t be long till we get some excited school children turning up on coaches’ eager to learn!

By Sophie Mayes – Wild learning officer