Mud & Bloom – January 2018

Mud & Bloom is a brand new subscription box for children! We’ve been exploring the very first box of nature- and garden- related activities and crafts. We live near the countryside, and Little C goes to school in the country, so we do like doing outdoor things!

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)

 The box fits nicely through the letterbox, and has a pleasingly natural look!

This is what we saw when we opened the box. Seeds, string, glue, toothpicks, muslin, and some lovely bright material.

Underneath were these cards.

The enclosed cards had a quiz, information about what’s going on in nature this month, a list of birds to spot, and three different project cards!

The first project was to use an avocado pit to grow a little tree.

As you can see, there’s not space in the box to include an actual avocado, but fortunately there was one in the fridge! I also found an empty jar.

We removed the avocado pit and cleaned it, then using the toothpicks included, pushed them into the pit. Little C needed a bit of help with those, as they were tricky to push into the avocado pit, but we managed it together.

This is one which is definitely a longer-term project, but it will be interesting to see what happens.

The sprouting seeds were a lot of fun. This also required another jam jar, but the recycling bin turned out to be a great source!

Little C could easily do the seed washing and decanting into the jar, and we ended up with this:

This is what the seeds looked like after being rinsed and put in their jar (they have to sit at an angle to allow the water to drain).

And this is what they looked like four days later!

The jar is full of amazing little sprouts! And best of all, you can actually eat them. Apparently they are full of fantastic nutrition, plus they look so pretty!

The final activity was making a little raft from twigs. That pretty red and white material you saw in the box was for the sail.

Once the weather had calmed down a little we went to the park on a twig collecting expedition. As it’s been incredibly windy we had plenty to choose from! We took a few home and made a start.

Also included was some string to tie the twigs together. This was a little bit tricky, as our twigs weren’t particularly straight, but eventually, success!

OK, the string is a bit haphazard, but it held together and floated! It was definitely a joint effort, but it was great fun, and certainly made us get creative. The addition of material for the sail was a lovely touch.

Little C also enjoyed the nature quiz, and was very happy to discover she’d spotted most of the birds on the winter bird card.

This was a very nice collection of activities. It gets you out of the house, and encourages children (and you!) to look at the world around you.

The favorite was definitely the twig raft, and then the sprouting seeds. The avocado tree was fun to set up, but didn’t have the immediate satisfaction of seeing something happen quickly. Of course, nature doesn’t provide instant gratification!

It was fun to see the seeds gradually sprouting over a few days, so it didn’t require too much patience.

This is definitely a collaborative box, for children and parents to get hands-on together. Parental help will vary with age, and Little C, age 7, was able to take a pretty proactive part in putting everything together, though she definitely needed help with the activities. The quiz and bird spotting she could do completely independently.

We do love getting outdoors, but this was a great way to add some focus to our expeditions. If you’d like some inspiration for your adventures, this is a great place to start!