Wonderful Woodland Fun with Well Natured - Explore. Learn. Outdoors

(Review - Gifted)

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise! Hidden away, just off the beaten track in the beautiful grounds of Rudyard Lake (in the Staffordshire Moorlands), you'll find a miniature woodland wonderland waiting to be explored!

Well Natured - Explore. Learn. Outdoors is run by Nicola, who has a background in education and working with children. She has recently taken the brave step to put her lifelong passion and dreams into action and create a magical, outdoor, multisensory learning experience for young adventurers.

I asked Nicola what her motivation was for starting up her woodland stay and play sessions (suitable for early walkers up to 4 years of age) -

"I have always had a love of the great outdoors, having had lots of exposure as a child on long country walks and bird watching with my parents and nana. Something I continued to do once I had a family and in schools setting up nature clubs. It was whilst completing my degree I discovered forest schools and the benefits of outdoor learning. Since then, I have continued to read more research and discover the benefits to children’s well being. More than ever now children spend much more time using technology and children’s access to outdoors is decreasing because of this. I feel that children are so much happier and creative when the walls are removed!"

We had the pleasure of joining Nicola on one of her exciting sessions this week, to try out all of the activities she had on offer - and we were not disappointed! I'll let the photos tell the story of our afternoon...

Our Favourite Places to Visit in North Staffs: Westport Lake

In this series, we will be telling you all about our favourite places to visit in our local area, North Staffordshire. We are lucky enough to live right on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the beautiful Peak District, so we are spoilt for choice when it comes to the great outdoors! We're also a stone's throw away from the hustle and bustle of busy towns and of course Stoke-on-Trent city centre, not to mention the M6. So with the best of both worlds on our doorstep, we have plenty of places to visit!

The first place featured in our series is Westport Lake. It's the perfect nearby place to go to get outdoors for a few hours.

WESTPORT LAKE

Where is it?

Westport Lake is located in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent, near Middleport and Tunstall. It's Stoke-on-Trent's largest expanse of water and was created along side the Trent and Mersey Canal. Just off the A500, it's easily accessible by car. Once you're there, you can't really tell you're in the middle of a built up area on the border of the city!

Our Month in Photos: June Round-Up!

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to have a place to keep a record of the things we got up to, the little things that made us smile. 

Whilst I started off quite well with some of my earlier posts, I realised recently that I have been slacking on the diary side of things. So to try and catch up a bit, and because Hubby is doing bedtime duties, I'm going to put together our month in photos. So, here are the best moments from June! (I know we're in July already...I'll try harder this month!)

Let's Go: Teaching road safety to under 5s with The Children's Traffic Club

Teaching my two young children (2 and a half and almost 5) road safety is high up on my list of parenting priorities, so when The Children's Traffic Club asked me to review their new interactive road safety programme, I jumped at the chance! 

The Children's Traffic Club (CTC) is an award-winning road safety and active travel education programme aimed at the under 5s. For over 25 years, the CTC have been positively influencing children's road side behaviour and helping to reduce casualties involving children, by teaching them the skills and attitudes needed to ensure they stay safe when out and about.