Book Spotlight: Small Fry Outdoors by Caroline Webster

I really hate to admit, especially because I’m an educator who knows better, that I’m afraid of the outdoors. I’m scared of getting sunburnt or getting wet in the rain, I get the shivers just thinking about what dangerous creepy crawlies I might find nestled in the dirt and I’m petrified of letting my daughter near any plants in fear that they may be poisonous.

I recognise and highly value the importance of children exploring the outdoors. I desperately want to change my attitude, but the simple truth is that I need some guidance in this area. I need to know what’s safe and what’s not. I need some inspiration to entice me to walk out of those doors away from a place where I feel warm and safe. I need some ideas that will help me enjoy the outdoors with my daughter so that I don’t pass my anxieties onto her.

Small Fry: Outdoors meets my needs and offers much more. Maybe you’re nothing like me. Maybe you enjoy being outdoors. I assure you this book will still be a winner for you.

We currently have a copy of this book to give away. Find out more.

Small Fry Outdoors is one in a series of books which also includes Small Fry: Cooking and Small Fry: Play. It is a great sized book and is full of inspiration for being outdoors with kids, making it one of the handiest reference books for parents.

The author, Caroline (Caro) Webster is a passionate believer in the magic of being outdoors and encouraging unstructured play in children, and this really shines through in the book.

Small Fry: Outdoors has so many wonderful attributes:

It’s visually appealing: Possibly taking up more space than the text itself are the most captivating images. They are bright, colourful, motivating and they capture the authentic curiosity of children as they enjoy the outdoors. Honestly, the photos alone are enough inspiration to explore the outdoors.

It’s an easy read: Small Fry: Outdoors takes on a straightforward structure. The ideas in the book are practical, simple and very easy to employ.

It’s extremely versatile: Small Fry: Outdoors is not a prescriptive book for parents. The layout actually means you can make use of the book in a number of different ways:

Read it from cover to cover and work through all of the activities listed

Read through the book and mark those activities that capture your interest

Search the book for recipes and activities suited to particular seasons

Use the book based on a concept you’d love to explore with your kids. For e.g. imagination, senses, colour etc.

Read through parts of the book with your children and ask them to choose an activity that interests them

Randomly open the book to a page

It is thoughtful: Keeping with Caro’s philosophy of unstructured play, many of the activities in the book require very little planning. For those activities that do require planning there are some helpful numerical codes used to describe the difficulty of the task, the mess factor involved, the age suitability of the activity and the preparation time required.

It recognises the hurdles parents face when getting outdoors with kids: The book begins with an outline of what your child is likely to do outdoors at a particular age. It provides parents with a ‘getting started’ explanation, not only of how to use the book but what you need to consider when playing outdoors including the equipment you might need and safety issues.

It’s rich in content: There is such a large range of ideas and activities in the book (not to mention yummy recipes); Some are easy (cloud watching), some are more difficult (time capsule), some encourage free play (the humble puddle), some are more structured (baby leaf birds), some invite discovery (asking your children questions), some call on the imagination (making potions), some are spontaneous (shadow puppets), some are planned (visiting a nursery or farm) and some make ordinary life more fun (washing the dog). Activities can be found under these thoughtful chapter headings:

Where the wild things are (personal discovery and imagination)

Every day (activities and chores)

Seasons

Senses

Concepts (Colours, shapes, letters and numbers, time, web of life)

Some of my favourite inspiration ideas from the book include a flowery high tea, egg carton delights, pet rocks, viola ice cubes, DIY (Flintstones-style) board game and adopting a fairy.