Create a wildlife garden

Create a wildlife garden

Children love to play outside so why not get them interested and learn about nature at the same time by creating a wildlife friendly garden. Many products are available to buy like Butterfly biomes, Hogitats, Bug houses, Bee nesters, frog shelters and bird boxes. However many can be self made to attract wildlife to your garden. The RSPB have run a long campaign to encourage people to embrace nature and welcome wildlife to your garden so do check out their website for lots of ideas. Why not have a wildlife week in the holidays, do fun activities about a different creature each day. Minibeasts Monday  Make a bug hotel. There are lots of ideas out there to create your own Bug-ingham Palace or Creepy Crawly Towers, but we do like The Eden Project's take on it. Be as creative as you like, but try to use natural resources where possible to be more bug friendly. Butterfly Tuesday  Invest in a butterfly biome or if you like a bit of DIY you could build The Butterfly Site has some great instructions). Let the children decorate to personalise it, bright red, yellow and orange colours will attract the butterflies more. Butterflies love over ripe fruit like bananas so leave some out for them and also sugar water is great too. Butterfly Sugar Water Recipe: You will need: - A suitable container, a shallow dish is perfect - Cotton wool or sponge - 3 teaspoons of Sugar of Honey - 1/2 pint of Water - Rich Soy Sauce Instructions: Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in a jug. Add in a few drops of soy sauce. Allow to cool then pour over cotton wool in the dish. Place outside for the butterflies to enjoy. Bird Wednesday Buy a plain bird box and let children colour them. The Works have them for just £1!! And look at this great guide on what to feed birds from The Telegraph. Hedgehog Thursday You can easily buy or make a hedgehog house and our local Hedgehog Rescue centre has some great tips for attracting and looking out for hedgehogs. Try out some Hedgehog crafts with the kids. We love these, found on Pinterest and saved to our Pinterest board 'Activities with the children'.

This time around we’re making cute hedgehog painted rock art! We love stone painting and we love hedgehogs so these cute fellows were a must.

Source: Hedgehog Painted Rocks - Rock Crafts for Kids - Easy Peasy and Fun

With the summer holidays looming, we know it can be a struggle to find something at a moment's notice to entertain the kids. That's the moment when origami is your best friend - all you need is a few tutorials and some paper to get them going!

Source: 14 Easy Origami Ideas for Kids - Hobbycraft Blog Bee Friday Bees are massively on the decline in the UK and are much needed for pollination of foods we all eat. Invite more bees to your garden with this great idea from Baker Ross. Whatever you do, have fun. The Easy2name Team.