It’s been a hectic wee time in Strathmashie Forest. With the summer holidays coming to an end and holiday goers heading back home it is definitely time to recuperate, relax and compose ourselves for the next round.
Last week saw the forest become alive with children. For the whole week Laggan Forest Trust teamed up with Backcountry Survival to run part two of their forest nature club. We were back with a vengeance! After part one of the nature club it was evident that we needed to extent the time slots, so the club ran for 3 hour slots instead of 2. This allowed for more fun and mischief to be had. We also added an overnight camp for those older children who were brave enough to sleep out a night in the forest.
This time round we learned how to light fires; built shelters; plucked, gutted and roasted a pigeon; learned some wilderness first aid; built catapults; learned how to whittle feather sticks; and learned about edible plants, mushrooms and about natural materials which were good for fire lighting.
The overnight camp went exceedingly well, with no rain and NO MIDGIES!! The children slept out in a shelter they had built themselves, cooked their dinner on the campfire and followed a tricky rope path blindfolded weaving in and out and over and under trees.
Once the local primary school is settled in after the summer holidays I am starting up an after school club entitled, “Mini Scientists”. Our first project will be to set up a weather station within the school and get the kids, recording and reporting the weather. 🙂 Following that we will be looking at map reading, trees, invertebrates, species recording. Giving the children all the skills to become citizen scientists of the future…