Alyssa has a lovely book, given to her by a relative, about a girl who visits her Granny and gets taken on a fairy hunt in the woods. The book has over 100 fairies hidden all over the pages, but the Granny and girl never find them, but still have an amazing adventure looking. I was reading this book to the AJ's the other day, when I felt inspired to take them on a fairy hunt myself through some local woods. Our car was having an M.O.T so I thought why not explore locally a bit more, and I am so glad I did as I have found a lovely new route to walk!!
After looking on the internet for ideas to make our fairy hunt a bit more magical, and more than just any old walk in the woods, I found a
fairy hunt sheet on the Woodland trust website as well as a fairy tea party sheet. These were wonderful for helping me get the children to slow down and look for plants in a new and interesting way, even If we only found a few items, Alyssa still shouts and points when she sees the 'trumpets.'
When we got to the woods it was great to see Alyssa gasp in suprise and say "faiwees" pointing towards where some sunlight was coming through some trees, and making bugs glisten and shimmer as the fluttered about. From a distance they did look like they could have been teeny little fairies flying about. (maybe they were!! ;D ) They also got excited looking along the groung for some nut shells for the fairies to use as cups, and finding a ladder, a rattle and some bells! We found some spiders webs which I told the were used as thread by the fairies as well, it is so lovely to see the awe on their faces.
We soon reached the end for the first part of the walk, and we started the next stage along the river, I was hoping this bit would be relatively short before heading to another part more in the direction of home....note the word hoping!! I really should stop saying to Arthur "do you want to keep heading this way? Or start heading back towards home?" I never plan very adventurous long trips, or really anywhere that I haven't already been. But in my defence I am alone with two small children and a bag, and do not wish to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, especially with two tired children who want to be carried!! But then again if I never asked that question we wouldn't discover new places and have such great adventures!
By carrying on up the hill we discovered an old mine, and a route that actually circled round and came to a place I knew anyway that led down hill (thankfully!!!!) to home. Although I am tempted to go there again on day and see where we end up if we go left instead of right. I am always amazed by how far Arthur can walk, he recently walked 6 miles around an event with granny and granddad. Alyssa though started to fade as we got towards the hill, I don't blame her I was too, so she went in the carrier for the rest of the way.
Just before we left the woods we used our little nut shells on a tree root filled with some water, and a little leaf 'salad' we made as a little gift for the fairies. All that is left for me to do now is create some more fairy items to be left in the garden as a thank you!
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| Can you spot the fairies?? |
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| Trumpets! |
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| Bells |
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| Racing on ahead as usual |
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| Tree climbing |
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| Snack time by the river |
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| What's this we've spotted in the distance? |
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| Exploring for a closer look |
