A celebration of rhymes, books and the great outdoors!
In Summer 2023, we teamed up with Essex Libraries and Essex Country Parks to bring you ‘Read With Me Under a Tree’ borrow bags. The bags included story books, a themed activity sheet and den building kit to help you get outside and have fun!
To celebrate the launch of ‘Read With Me Under a Tree’, a number of events took place across Essex, including themed baby and toddler rhyme time sessions at Essex Libraries and family events at selected Essex Country Parks.
Reading with your child is a wonderful way of helping them develop their communication skills and expand their vocabulary – and the best bit is you can read together almost anywhere!
The great outdoors offers lots of possibilities for learning new things and being creative, and books can often be the starting point for coming up with your own games and activities.
Top tips:
- Go on an outdoor adventure: head into your garden or local Country Park with your ‘Read With Me Under a Tree’ bag and encourage your child to join in as you read together
- Bring your story to life: you could act out your child’s favourite story together using homemade props and soft toys
- Use our ’50 things to do before you’re 5 checklist: you can tick off number 38 ‘read a book under a tree’
- If your child is on the Autistic spectrum: The Autism and Nature Organisation have created free books designed to help parents, carers and teachers to engage children with autism and related disabilities with the countryside: New free Autism and Nature book available
