'To Do' List For Under 11s

I don't think under 11s are into making lists yet but a list has been made for their parents to help provide children with a taste of a 'traditional childhood'. I read an article in Saturday's Courier Mail and its actually a modified list (to make it more suited to Australians) from one that the UK National Trust came up with.

I try to remind myself to keep things simple and low tech with the children but I'm guilty of turning the TV on too. While I don't think this list is fantastic, its good enough for me to pick out a few things that I had forgotten about. For example, catching a butterfly with a net. I used to love doing that! We don't need to examine the details of the list to know that apart from showing children a life away from computer games, TV, iPads and the internet, its purpose is also to let children experience that feeling of being free and unscheduled, to explore their imagination and maybe indulge in a little day dreaming.

Its been a lazy afternoon for me but I like to position it as me free and unscheduled time. They did a fantastic job at keeping themselves occupied and fully utilizing their imaginations. They've role played in a paper making factory, doctor's clinic, mechanic's workshop and now they're in a kitchen. Somewhere in between all that, they let themselves out to the backyard to hunt for bugs. One had a magnifying glass and the other a pencil and notepad to write down everything they come across. Here's a photo of some sort of animal shelter where they were cooking for the animals and putting them to sleep.

Now back to that list. The very first 'to do' on the list is to climb a tree. Aaron has actually been trying to climb trees these whole holidays but hasn't progressed very high yet. He'll get there. In the mean time, look at this amazing tree that we found last weekend.

I'm not going to put the whole long list of 50 kids activities here but its worth a click here if you do have under 11s.