are enthralled by all the dramatic life-and-death happenings. As far as your young family is concerned, your wildlife garden will be a wonderful, life-shaping experience that should not be missed. Involve them from the start in your wildlife garden project.
How to record sightings or finds
Take photographs from a hide – You could build a hide (see opposite), show your kids how to use a digital camera, and leave them be. Once they appreciate that a good part of taking wildlife shots is about being secret, there will be no stopping them.
Make plaster casts – This is a good way of saving footprints such as badger tracks (see method opposite).
Make drawings and pressings – If your funds do not run to a camera, or you prefer a more direct, ands-on approach, making drawings and pressing leaves and flowers is a good option. Keep it simple, using just a fat pad of plain paper, brown paper, lick-and-stick tape, and soft pencils.
Create a showcase – Your kids will need a little display case in which to keep and display their finds. A salvaged item such as a glass-fronted cupboard with two or three shelves would be ideal. Make little labels that record the name of the item, and the date and place it was found.
Join a group – If your children become interested in a particular sighting or find, such as a rare bird or an unusual bug, a good idea is to join a local group. Contact your local wildlife organization for details of specialist groups in your area.
The bright red colour and black spots of ladybirds will captivate most children.
In a wildlife garden, your children will be able to see animals fighting, eating, mating, being born and dying. Once they know how food is grown, how eggs hatch, and why all the animals do what they do, then all their natural feelings of wonderment, enjoyment and involvement will follow. Kids love collecting natural objects such as snake skins, bird pellets, bones and feathers.
A good way of involving them in the wildlife garden is to tap into their collecting and exploring interests, and show them how to record their finds (see above).
Warning – always be aware of the dangers
Children are fascinated by water, but even the smallest pond can be a killer. If you have toddlers, or small kids that cannot swim, then if you have a pond in the garden you must watch over them at all times. While you might be fairly certain that your own children have an understanding and respect for water, you have no way of knowing how visiting kids are going to react if they slip or fall into the water, so constant vigilance is absolutely essential.
Other risks lurk in the form of animals and plants. An injured badger or a handful of poisonous berries can pose a real danger. Again, you may not have to worry so much about your own kids, because by the time you let them loose on their own they will have a good idea of all the dangers, but visiting children must be supervised at all times.
You must always supervise your children when they are exploring the watery areas of the garden, which can be dangerous.
HOW TO MAKE PLASTER CASTS OF ANIMAL TRACKS
Having found a track, carefully remove any loose sticks and leaves from around it. Use a 5 cm (2 in) wide strip of cardboard to build a circular ‘wall’ around the track. Fix the overlapping ends of the cardboard with a paper clip and press the ring into the soil, taking care not to damage the track as you do so.
Mix up some plaster of Paris (two cups of plaster to one cup of water) and stir until you have a thick, but still slightly runny, mix. Carefully pour the mix into the cardboard mould so that it fills and gradually tops up the track marks. Lift the plaster when it is hard, leave it for a couple of days, and then use a soft brush and running water to clean away the debris.
HOW TO MAKE A HIDE
A hide is a little shelter that is disguised to look like its surroundings. • Cut or find eight wooden poles – four that are about 1.8 m (6 ft) long, and four that are about 1.2 m (4 ft) long.
• Set the four longer poles in the ground so as to make a 90 × 90 cm (3 × 3 ft) square.
• Use string to lash the four shorter poles horizontally to the tops of the longer poles, so that you have a stable structure.
• Cover the structure with plastic sheet topped with old sacking or canvas – or anything that looks dirty and camouflaged.
• Cover the whole structure with leaves, branches or grass so that it blends in with your garden, and cut a spyhole at a height to suit.
How to record sightings or finds
Take photographs from a hide – You could build a hide (see opposite), show your kids how to use a digital camera, and leave them be. Once they appreciate that a good part of taking wildlife shots is about being secret, there will be no stopping them.
Make plaster casts – This is a good way of saving footprints such as badger tracks (see method opposite).
Make drawings and pressings – If your funds do not run to a camera, or you prefer a more direct, ands-on approach, making drawings and pressing leaves and flowers is a good option. Keep it simple, using just a fat pad of plain paper, brown paper, lick-and-stick tape, and soft pencils.
Create a showcase – Your kids will need a little display case in which to keep and display their finds. A salvaged item such as a glass-fronted cupboard with two or three shelves would be ideal. Make little labels that record the name of the item, and the date and place it was found.
Join a group – If your children become interested in a particular sighting or find, such as a rare bird or an unusual bug, a good idea is to join a local group. Contact your local wildlife organization for details of specialist groups in your area.
The bright red colour and black spots of ladybirds will captivate most children.
In a wildlife garden, your children will be able to see animals fighting, eating, mating, being born and dying. Once they know how food is grown, how eggs hatch, and why all the animals do what they do, then all their natural feelings of wonderment, enjoyment and involvement will follow. Kids love collecting natural objects such as snake skins, bird pellets, bones and feathers.
A good way of involving them in the wildlife garden is to tap into their collecting and exploring interests, and show them how to record their finds (see above).
Warning – always be aware of the dangers
Children are fascinated by water, but even the smallest pond can be a killer. If you have toddlers, or small kids that cannot swim, then if you have a pond in the garden you must watch over them at all times. While you might be fairly certain that your own children have an understanding and respect for water, you have no way of knowing how visiting kids are going to react if they slip or fall into the water, so constant vigilance is absolutely essential.
Other risks lurk in the form of animals and plants. An injured badger or a handful of poisonous berries can pose a real danger. Again, you may not have to worry so much about your own kids, because by the time you let them loose on their own they will have a good idea of all the dangers, but visiting children must be supervised at all times.
You must always supervise your children when they are exploring the watery areas of the garden, which can be dangerous.
HOW TO MAKE PLASTER CASTS OF ANIMAL TRACKS
Having found a track, carefully remove any loose sticks and leaves from around it. Use a 5 cm (2 in) wide strip of cardboard to build a circular ‘wall’ around the track. Fix the overlapping ends of the cardboard with a paper clip and press the ring into the soil, taking care not to damage the track as you do so.
Mix up some plaster of Paris (two cups of plaster to one cup of water) and stir until you have a thick, but still slightly runny, mix. Carefully pour the mix into the cardboard mould so that it fills and gradually tops up the track marks. Lift the plaster when it is hard, leave it for a couple of days, and then use a soft brush and running water to clean away the debris.
HOW TO MAKE A HIDE
A hide is a little shelter that is disguised to look like its surroundings. • Cut or find eight wooden poles – four that are about 1.8 m (6 ft) long, and four that are about 1.2 m (4 ft) long.
• Set the four longer poles in the ground so as to make a 90 × 90 cm (3 × 3 ft) square.
• Use string to lash the four shorter poles horizontally to the tops of the longer poles, so that you have a stable structure.
• Cover the structure with plastic sheet topped with old sacking or canvas – or anything that looks dirty and camouflaged.
• Cover the whole structure with leaves, branches or grass so that it blends in with your garden, and cut a spyhole at a height to suit.
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