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Family country walks in Surrey

We live near some beautiful English countryside and when we aren’t sure what to do for an afternoon we just pop on some flip flops or wellies (English Summer, amirite) and head out to the nearest field. Yesterday was glorious and sunny and we spotted the first juicy blackberries in the hedgerows, so we grabbed a couple of pots and went blackberry picking.

I love being outdoors with kids; there’s something about doing nothing in particular that opens up opportunities for exploring new trails and natural treasures, and not having to follow instructions to ‘do an activity’. We can just ‘be’.

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The girls picked loads of berries, although less than half made it into the pots as they were a bit too delicious to save! Our eldest was particularly thrilled when an unripe blackberry that she’d picked turned out to be a raspberry; got to love the English countryside!

There was plenty of time for stopping to smell the roses (or in this case, those ‘giant daisy things’- hey I never said I was a naturalist!)

ï¿¼Our eldest isn’t exactly the most sporty person in the world and likes shade, so she enjoyed a little rest…

And another…

Good things come in threes, right?!

Meanwhile our toddler was finding out about seeds…

Including how they feel stuck in your shoe. Has anyone ever gone on a day out with kids without them removing at least one item of clothing?

Our little cutie did well keeping up!

When we got back we looked up a recipe for traditional English blackberry crumble and got cooking. It’s such a good starter recipe for toddlers as it takes just enough time to hold their attention span (around 0.4 seconds, if ours is anything to go by).

Cooking is a great way to incorporate maths into home education…

We stirred a morsel of history into our baking by reading up about the origin of crumble. Did you know it was a staple dessert during rationing in WWII, as eggs were scarce?