Share your ideas for getting kids interested in nature - win a copy of BORN TO BE WILD plus a pair of Barbour wellies!

[TinaMumsnet]

Looking for ways to get the children away from the screen and into the green?

Packed with great photos of real families in the outdoors, Born to be Wild contains easy-to-follow instructions for activities that require nothing more sophisticated than a small person's imagination and access to a little outdoor space. And the best bit? Everything you need to engage in the activities can be found in your kitchen cupboard. No expensive art supplies or outward-bound kit required – just ordinary household essentials like recycled food containers, scraps of paper, string, glue and an empty jar or two.

With spring and Easter holidays on the horizon, it's a perfect time to get inspired. Create a Jam-Jar garden, build a nest, make a treasure map or do some pond dipping! Born to be Wild will show you how.

To enter the draw to win a copy of Born to be Wild plus a pair of adult Barbour wellies (got to get you outside too!), just share your ideas for getting kids to love nature.

This discussion is sponsored by Bloomsbury and will close on 11 April.

Geocaching and also using nature in every day play so it's not unusual to be outside or using natural objects in play. Imagination goes a long way!

Since the weather has picked up, we've been doing some gardening. Our 2yo likes digging with her plastic spade, while I use my proper one.

In general, we express our love of the outdoors, which seems to be transferring to her :)

I think that if a child's parents enjoy being outdoors, the child will too. We do things like bike rides and park visits, and we also attend local events that are like forest school for families- even preschool children learn about building and extinguishing campfires, watching seasonal changes, growing things, wildlife spotting, playing in mud kitchens etc. So I think that if parents enjoy these things and if children are given unstructured play time then being outdoors is great for the whole family.

Going for walks every day and creating a nature diary with found treasures

Taking our three year old to a hide to spot different birds. She loves her little binoculars and looking up the birds in a book to find out their name. We have a lovely walk through the countryside to get there and she helps to prepare a picnic too!

Make everything exciting and not a chore. Wrap up well in the cold weather and take a picnic in the summer. Just make it fun!

We go to national trust places, which often do fun things for children on bank holidays. My dc love those. In the holidays we drive to different locations to go on walks spotting animals.

I try and get them involved in our garden by choosing their own flowers to plant.

I always make a weekly plan that we have to visit somewhere different and make a list of things to fine and collect like leaves, acorns thing like that. I'm lucky that I so many places around where we live to keep my girls active. We also go on a fairy hunt now and again and I will hide one for them to find which is always fun.

My children love fauna but do tend to moan about going on long walks. But if we do it with their friends they barely seem to notice how far they have gone. In times of desperation (we have a big dog who needs a long walk every day) we have a 'chocolate picnic'.

Get muddy. As soon as they can walk a bit, get the wellies on and get out in the fresh air

We're city based but we get out to parks and nature reserves often. We always bring a kit of things like magnifying glass, rainwear, binoculars etc. We have a nature spotter's book to help identify insects and plants.

Treasure trails at National Trust properties.

Jumping in puddles!

Letting children help in the garden, talk about all the different animals and teach them about the flowers and the trees so eventually they will develop an interest in most things to do with nature. Vists to farms and zoos helps as well as walks around parks and gardens. There are always things to spark their interest in nature.

Lots and lots of mud

I always find offering the DC the chance to get properly grimy and covered head to toe sends them running outside quicker than if I bribed them with sweets

When they were toddlers, just wearing wellies and going to find the biggest puddles to jump in

Later now they're a bit older, building "dams" in streams with sticks and mud patties; scrambling round for worms to put into jars with soil; making forts in meadows with hay bales and ferns

Love it

DD is fascinated with anything to do with creepy crawlies - we spent ages examining the woodlice she uncovered in my parents' garden (til they all very wisely ran away!)

Get a dog. Then you have to out out every day, whatever the weather.

My answer is simple just get them out and about in nature and make it fun so dont expect too much from them. I print off spotter pages from Wildlife trust website and we head out for walks to see what we can find. We take a notebook and camera and let them take pictures of everything and anything and work out what they are later.

Get them out, having fun and try answer their questions about what they observe (or if you can't, go online together afterwards to find the answer). Start them young!
Talk about the seasons, get them to collect leaves and twigs in autumn and make their own artwork.

Out on walks, they can learn about tracking animals by identifying different types of animals spoor. This is especially fun when its been snowing and lots of animal tracks are more clearly visible. A great excuse to get out for a long walk in the cold!
Encourage them to help with things like filling up birdfeeders, cleaning nest boxes, setting up wildlife shelters in the garden. Get them a basic bird book of their own so that they can tick off new birds as they see them - they can help with the RSPB bird survey (As they get older, they can write down what time of year they spot different birds and you can discuss migration etc).
Get a picnic blanket, lie down and just listen to the sounds of nature. Try and identify which birds you can hear.
Installing wildlife cameras is great fun to allow them to see shy animals close up, especially nocturnal ones such as badgers.
Let them get filthy! Lifting stones and branches can unearth all sorts! They can learn about all the little insects and small mammals in their garden's own little ecosystem. Teach them to respect habitat and try to return things to how they found them.

I need these wellies!

I took DD2 to a nature conservation area last week to do a nature inspired Easter Egg hunt.

I only have those ankle wellies. Big mistake. We went wrong on the route and I ended up knee deep in mud. I was banned from re-entering the visitor centre due to the absolute state of me!

However, DD had a fabulous time and howled with laughter at me stuck in mud and wobbling about like a jelly.

As i have chosen to homeschool my 5 little ones 'no day is a bad day' to spend it outdoors. I'm usually the odd mummy seen pushing 5 little children outside when most would deem it too wet or cold to bother. I take them for walks along the beach looking for driftwood and shells that they use to make pictures with, bike rides in the often pouring rain or just jumping in puddles (thanks to Peppa Pig;-), bouncing on the trampoline we found through freecycle till dark ( if they can get mummy off it first).
With renting everything we use has to be movable so this month alone, all 5 pairs of little hands have helped start our veggie and herb patches using anything we could recycle/paint and make into planters. With left over plastic bottles, bits of wood, some old paint and lots of string we now have a hanging supply of herbs, salad items and fingers crossed fruits. We even used our old wellies to grow bee-loving plants inc Lavender, as they all love honey and it's a way to show them where food comes from. We have also chartered the life cycle of the Catterpillar, after rescuing one from the garden we were digging over. Now at Pupa stage, they have looked after it in a recycled Fish Tank as if it were another pet and so attached to 'Johnny' will be sad when it eventually leaves as a Butterfly - but by bringing the Outdoors inside, they are learning about nature even when eating their lunch!!

I'm really lucky to live in Kent, so am close to lots of lovely woodland and the seaside.
I've always encouraged my children to be out and about in nature - and they have had a real outdoorsy childhood - climbing trees, making dens, going for long walks etc.
When they are small, I literally let them rin wild (under supervision 😉), but as they have grown older we have taken in more about their surroundings and made it a bit more educational.
My eldest two are 13 now and still enjoy coming to the woods for a bluebell walk in the spring 😊.

We make our trips to the local forest a nature hunt....we find leaves and twigs etc....when we arrive home we draw/paint a forest picture, then glue the actual findings onto the picture! Dc love it

We do nature spotting walks and nature art work. My two love it.

We recently took out a National Trust membership again. We are a 10 minute walk from one venue but yesterday took a drive out to another. DS did not want to go but signed up for the Easter egg hunt and was given a clipboard and pencil and was well away finding the clues and having a good run about!

We are lucky to have loads of good walks near us, today we joined friends for a muddy walk by the river.

With my boys just get muddy is the best way they keep enjoying outdoors! They are 6 and 8 and plan to go to a nest making activity at a park with the ranger! Unfortunately mum need to get involved too! Now where are my boots!

Ive heard alot about the national trust parks and i am thinking of getting a membership! My sister send me lovely pics with her boys!