Walking is good for the soul….
Well some types of walks…. I remember lots of fabulous walks as a child around the highlands and glens of Scotland with my Dad. Around Lochs, up mountains and then there was the we will just do a short walk…. “I know a short cut” says Dad…. six miles later…..
Lots of walks with my primary school across Surrey Heath completing an in depth Heath lands study project as a class, soil layers and sundew sticking in my mind. Something that to this day inspires my efforts with the children I work with.
Lots of walks with my boys, jumping in puddles, stopping to examine a found treasure and carrying tired small people up hills and homewards.
On days when I have spent too much time indoors doing computery types of work a walk is always in order. It clears my mind, refreshes my thoughts and calms the children.
Just sometimes though we need to do something to entertain en route, or something a bit different to entice them out… hence Storywalks.
Most seasons around here we can find the mediums around the place to do an actual bear hunt (all you need is a bear toy in your pockets for the final hurrah. (and maybe a prize snack with said bear)
More recently we have taken photos, and started to draw maps of our walks, on one walk W took a piece of wood and a pencil to draw his map along the way.
This week I plan to make story stones with the children to hide along our favourite two main walks, some of these might need to be larger as they will otherwise want to take them home each time…