Do you want to arrange a family day out but can’t think what to do? How
about taking advantage of all the lovely parks and forests we have in
our area and having an autumn day out to remember?Take your kids over to the local country park and see if you can find some conkers.
Get a (responsible!) adult to make a hole through the conker using a nail, screwdriver or drill. Thread a piece of string or shoelace through the hole and tie a knot to secure the conker. One player lets the conker dangle on the full length of the string while the other player swings their conker and hits. The conker eventually breaking the other’s conker wins a point. You could set up a little mini tournament in the park to find the ‘conkering hero’ or bring them home and arrange prizes for the winners.
This might be your child’s only chance at playing this traditional British game as it seems to be banned in most schools in England and the few schools that do allow it ask the children to wear safety equipment such as goggles. The Health and Safety Executives have denied that they are to blame and have even set up a conkers championship to show they are not the killjoys we all imagine! However, it is worth being aware of the risks and making sure the children are properly supervised at all times. (There is also no evidence that children with nut allergies will suffer anaphylaxic shock).
If you can’t face the idea of all the children running wild with a potentially ‘lethal weapon’, how about a kite flying contest – the autumn is perfect kite flying weather. I don’t know about your previous attempts at kite flying but mine always ended up going really high and then crashing to the ground at 60 miles a hour. Last year we bought a couple of kites from a high street store and low and behold..the best kites ever! They stayed up so long we ended up tying them to the chair while we ate our picnic!
If you don’t want to buy kites, you could start making your own at home and then decorate it – there are loads of easy kite making tips on the internet – and then meet at a local hill top for the big contest! The person whose kite stays up the longest wins a prize (or the one whose kite crashes to the ground within 10 seconds wins the booby prize!).
If the above sound a little bit too boisterous, how about the old autumn favourite of leaf rubbing, especially for any younger children in the party. Collect some interesting leaves, cover with coloured paper and rub gently with the flat side of a crayon to make some interesting pictures to take home to mum. While the older children are searching for conkers, you could also collect some acorns to make ‘acorn people’. Find the acorns with the ‘hat’ still attached and use permanent markers to draw eyes, noses and mouths on the nut – you could create a whole ‘nutty’ family to play with!