10 things children should do before ten

[aloha]

Did anyone see a news report on this and can do a link? A charity drew up a list of ten things every child should do before they are ten - eg make sandcastle and I wanted to see it.

our local radio station is reading one a day and suggesting we do it whatever our age!!!!

Just cut and pasted the list to my bf - with notes added as to what my two have done...

The 33 things a child should do before they?re 10:

1. Roll on your side down a grassy bank (yes)
2. Make a mud pie (no)
3. Make your own modelling dough mixture (no)
4. Collect frogspawn (no)
5. Make perfume from flower petals (no, thank God, I used to and make my Mum use it!)
6. Grow cress on a windowsill (yes)
7. Make a papier-mâché mask (yes)
8. Build a sandcastle (yes)
9. Climb a tree (yes)
10. Make a den in the garden (does the tent count?)
11. Make a painting using your hands and feet (yes)
12. Organise your own teddy bears picnic (Star Wars figures maybe)
13. Have your face painted (ds1 - not in a million years, not for a million pounds)
14. Bury a friend in the sand (yes...well Daddy - does he count as a friend)
15. Make some bread (yes)
16. Make snow angels (yes)
17. Create a clay sculpture (no)
18. Take part in a scavenger hunt (yes)
19. Camp out in the garden (over my dead body)
20. Bake a cake (yes)
21. Feed a farm animal (ds2 has, ds1 hasn't!)
22. Pick some strawberries (ds1 would faint with horror [reckons he's "allergic" to all fruit], ds2 has - in my parents' garden)
23. Play pooh sticks (yes)
24. Recognise five different bird species (swan, duck, sparrow, pigeon, robin, flamingo, eagle...haha, that's seven at least!)
25. Find some worms (er....why?)
26. Ride a bike through a muddy puddle (yes)
27. Make and fly a kite (fly, yes. make, no.)
28. Plant a tree (no, but we've grown some big sunflowers)
29. Build a nest out of grass and twigs (no)
30. Find 10 different leaves in the park (possibly, but not intentionally)
31. Grow vegetables (cress? can I count the cress again?)
32. Make breakfast in bed for your parents (yes, with help from Daddy)
33. Make a mini assault course in your garden (well, the amount of toys left out there constitute an assault course imo!)

Sh*te...ds1 has only properly done 15, possibly 16...and he's running out of time [he's 9 next birthday]!!!!!!!

I AM SUCH A BAAAAAAD MUUUUUUUUUUM!!!!!!!

Just showed this to dh and he said "right, we'll do the rest this weekend". Men are so competitive

Reading the list through again I think I did all of them myself as a child - except the snow angels. I think that idea is fairly recent and - someone will correct me here I'm sure - originated in America.

Ah....snow

How odd, mine have done 27 of these and I did 27 as a child,but different ones. Not too bad on the whole... - I collected frog spawn but would have a fit if my children did!

but enid if you are born and bred wouldn't you have bought your rural house before prices went bonkers.

If you know of an affordable rural location please pass it on!

Marthamoo, I love your dh's response!

Are we all going to be doing that this weekend???

wwb"I was referring more to the comments that some people have made about parents doing these things out of guilt, and that things like planting vegetables are odd. It's a shame that it's perceived to be weird to do such child-friendly, interesting and exciting things."

think you missed my point becuase it certainly was not that made above.

its a how smug/inferior are you list.

We did all that before 9am.

i dont understand gingerbear?

I don't see it as a "smug/inferior" list. I see it as a list of things that children (and adults) like to do, and like to have the freedom and creativity to do. I don't feel smug that my dd has been able to do some of these things, just privileged that she has had the chance to do them, and is interested enough to want to do them. Although if wanting and encouraging a child to have as broad an experience of life and nature is smug, then perhaps I am smug.

I saw that list as a celebration of childhood, both our own and our children's, and I saw most of the items on the list as things that most parents would do with their children, or allow their children to do, quite naturally, rather than some list of achievements to be ticked off.

Perhaps I should be more cynical, but I'm not. And if my dd enjoys rolling down hills, planting peas and watching birds then who am I to stop her just because someone else thinks it makes me smug?

Custy, tongue firmly in cheek, being smugger than smug, and completing list before 10am (not 10 yrs old).

Lovely post WWB. Smug doesn't come into it surely. I would like to think that these are things that you would not purposely MAKE your children do just for points?? I was never consciously manouvered to take part in any of these activities as a child, they just happened, just as some but not all have 'happened' to my children. These are the kind of activities that create memories - but they are best when spontaneous.

Sorry, rambling again.

I know what Custy means, it is a bit Junior Magazine having lists like these

Its just a bit of fun though isn't it.

Custy if you want to play Pooh sticks (and I know you do) you can go to Pooh Corner in Sussex and do the real thing

Its at Hartfield.

I did all those things myself and i think my children too, but not in an ambitious way...and it depends how you read it i thought oh I definitely never planted a tree but I remembered I grew plants from orange pips and my children planted avocado stones.

I also made paper dolls, a raft, played on the railway line, marbles, clackers, jacks, wrote stories using the slogans on lovehearts, table tennis, reorded pop songs on cassette, babysat my brother, had an obsession with Aqua Manda, made bonfires and baked potatoes and apples in them, did french knitting, made pompoms....

i dont think it makes you smug. why would any person on the planet think that a child rolling down a hill is smug? i dont understand how its been twisted that way.

i dont doubt every child should be afforded the opportunity to be able to do the things on the list. but evry child isn't and its not becuase its mother doesn't love them.

however i think it crass that its phrased as being expected of every mother despite their circumstances.

none of my children have made bread.
they have modeled with clay
they have picked up leaves in the park and made pictures with them and taken them to school to be put up on the wall.
they have played versions of pooh sticks
we made cakes for the school fete last night
i am the only mum not sunbathing but on the big twisty slides on holiday. you dont see me holding the coats and bags when it comes to big rides
the only mum with daughter on karaoke
the only mum i know who is begged my her 15 year old to go swimming

but to be told by the press that these things on that list are some sort of expected standard is pathetic.

we bought clay for the youth club and lots of kids didnt know where to start.

i think it speaks volumes that many people think it is actually an expected that all kids will automatically be afforded the opportunity to do these things. they wont. and its not always becuase their parents dont love them - or as the press would infer dont love them enough to be able to fit in the time to do these things.

so some can grow plants and strawberries.
my mum grew a carrot top.

my kids went halfs to a rose in the ound shop that they nurtured and it lovely on my front doorstep as we speak.
is this an expected standard. no. i am fortunate beyond words to be able to have the luxury of these memories with my kids. many mothers arnt and they too try just as damed hard as i do to bring their kids up - the best way they can even if it doesnt involve growing carrotts.

i can look down the list and feel quite smug - thats what i meant.
i can also look down the list and feel inferior

my comments did not pertain to you personally but rather the subject as a whole.

Kiss and hug to you Custy

kisses back to cam

Well its a bit one size fits all and too tick list to inspire me!

The joy of doing most of the things on the list (and the additional things that Custardo lists) lies in their sponteneaty. The lets do x, y or z just for the hell of it, right now!

Now they've been transcribed to a list, it will just feel like another, perfect parent have to do list, which I think is so sad.

Surely we should all be aiming to find the unique things that trigger the imaginations of our own children, and yes Custy, according to our means. For some that will be growing a carrot top for some it might be a hiking trip to the Himalayas, both are equally valid choices, and to the children involved evidence of a parent's love!

I totally agree with you Custy..
Who the hell should tell us what our kids should do by the age of 10... to whose rules/standards are we living our lives?

I agree it's another 'easy' piece of journaleese..

I think there are better ways of presenting possible interesting activities for your child to do (and that really is all it is fgs!)

kisses to unicorn and soapy

There are loads of children who don't have private gardens. Going to a park is different. There are more rules and a young child is usually dependent on an adult to take them. This list is elitist rubbish IMO when considering what the average under 10 year old can do in a public park.

Just looking at the first 10:

Make a mud pie - hmmmm..might be possible after it's rained. Otherwise limited access to water so cannot make mud out of dry earth

Collect frogspawn - probably against park rules

Make perfume from flower petals - meaning you have to pick flowers - against park rules

Climb a tree - ditto

Make a den in the garden - ditto

And from the next 23 on the list:
Camp out in the garden - in a public park, I think not!

Pick some strawberries - very unlikely your park has a fruit garden and if it did, random picking not allowed

Ride a bike through a muddy puddle - so many parks ban bike riding nowadays so have to have this experience by riding on a pavement or a road...

Plant a tree - parks department would have something to say about that!

Make a mini assault course in your garden - ditto

• = sweeping assumption you have a garden of your own.

However, if your gardenless under 10 plays out on some nearby waste ground or in the streets they might get to do more on the list....

That list brought a smile to my face. Brings back good memories from my childhood.

I hope dd does experience doing things like that.

I do think though that lists like these can make you feel like crap when you look down them and realise you haven't done the things they say.

That could be just me though.