Get outside and have an outdoor adventure

The school summer holidays have just started and like many parents you’ll be thinking about how to entertain the children for the next six weeks. With tablets, games consoles, smartphones and television you may spend some time trying to get them off their devices and into the outside world.

At Rock UK we are passionate about bringing adventure into learning in the outdoors. We give children and young people (and those young at heart) a chance to experience exhilarating adventure in a safe environment. Many studies have highlighted the health benefits children get from spending time outdoors.

Research by the National Trust showed that children now spend less time outdoors than their parents did growing up. The majority of parents believe that playing outdoors makes their children more imaginative and creative and feel it is important for children to have a connection with nature. When children and young people are outdoors there is more freedom to be active which keeps them fit and healthy, reduces stress and improves their mental health. It allows them to produce vitamin D from sunlight which keeps bones healthy and enhances their mood.

Having an outdoor adventure gets them to explore new things, develops their creativity empowering them to push boundaries and grow in confidence. With four centres across the UK there’s a centre not too far from you. Throughout the summer our centres run holiday clubs and/or activity days at Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire; Carroty Wood in Kent; and Summit Centre in the South Wales valleys. In the Scottish borders Whithaugh Park also provide family adventure days and holidays.

Across all our centres we offer a range of over 40 instructed outdoor activities from archery to climbing, high ropes to bush craft, raft building and many more. We asked some of our activity instructors their favourite things to do outdoors as a child. Here’s our suggestions for an outdoor adventure.

1. Build an outdoor den at your local woods or in the garden
2. Go for a long walk or bike ride around a nearby country park
3. Try a new activity locally such as archery, climbing or canoeing
4. Stay up ‘til it gets dark and stargaze
5. Go camping and enjoy living in the outdoors for a night or two
6. Go on a Scavenger hunt and collect stones, leaves, shells and more.
7. For the not so squeamish, go on a bug hunt, explore under rocks and logs for different creepy crawlies
8. Get a group of friends together and have a football or cricket match
9. Make a mud pie, the messier the better!
10. Go pond dipping and see what creatures you can find.

Rock UK wishes you a very happy (and adventurous!) summer holiday