Mud & Bloom – February 2018

This is the second ever Mud & Bloom subscription box for children! This box box of nature- and garden- related activities and crafts is superb for helping children learn and enjoy the outdoors. Quick blurb & pricing:

The boxes are for 3-8 year old’s and will be delivered through your letter box at the beginning of each month.

Each box includes everything you need for two seasonal activities: one gardening and one nature craft – along with instructions, quizzes and games aimed at teaching children about the seasons, plants, insects, birds, soil and rainfall.

Activities have been created by qualified teachers and they support the national curriculum with influence from Forest School, Steiner and Montessori education.

Cost: £7.95 per month including postage (UK only)

This month’s box is very gardening/planting oriented.

There are three activities, seasonal information and flower spotting, and a quiz!

We’ve not seen any daffodils yet, but there are snowdrops, primroses, and crocuses in the garden already. We’re on the lookout for the rest!

This looks like a great craft. Painted pebbles are very popular right now, and in fact people are starting to leave them around in parks and open spaces for other people to discover, so there’s terrific scope for creativity here. You’ve got a nice set of acrylic paints included, plus a brush, so all you need to do is go pebble hunting!

The other two activities are growing basil and cherry tomatoes. They are both plants which are easy to grow, delicious, and of course complement each other! You need to provide a couple of pots (yogurt pots are fine) but you get four little pellets of earth to plant the seeds in. You don’t even need a garden for these, a windowsill or balcony will work just fine.

I’ve not been able to do my usual interactive review, mainly because until half term starts we’ve got a crazy busy time, so we’re going to have to save the pebble hunting for them.

We did manage to plant the seeds though:

As they are due to take a couple of weeks to sprout, this is more of a long-range project. I can say that Little C is extremely excited to see what happens with the seeds, and also to grow things that she can eat!

We’re slowly getting closer to Spring, so this is the perfect time to start growing things. I think it’s a particularly good idea to encourage children to grow edibles, as seeing how your food comes into being is a refreshing change from the usual supermarket fare.

It’s also very good for teaching patience! Last month’s sprouting seeds took just a week (which is why there are a lot more pictures!) but this is definitely more long-range.  I’m looking forward to having basil we’ve grown, which I’ve never done before. We’ve also got a sunny wall which will be perfect for the tomato plants when they eventually get big enough.

Mud & Bloom is a lovely interactive set of activities. I think it’s fantastic that you have ton actually get outside to find the things for the crafts, such as pebbles and twigs, and you can talk about all the nature information while you’re there.

There are so may people who like the idea of growing things and nature, but feel slightly lost when it comes to how to make a start, so this is a fun and gentle (and extremely good value) way to encourage your children outdoors and learn about the natural world!