Grow Wild Club

🐛🦋 The Very Hungry Caterpillar came to the woods… 🦋🐛

Last week at Grow Wild Club we explored one of childhood’s greatest stories - and along the way discovered the magic of life cycles.

We threaded elder pieces to make wriggly caterpillars (enjoying the sweet smell of elderflower all around us 🌿), wrapped them carefully in fabric chrysalises and tucked them safely into the trees to rest.

Then came the transformation…

Using flowers and leaves, the toddlers gently bashed beautiful colours into fabric to create fluttering Hapa Zome butterflies - ready to fly through the woods.

There was butterfly wing matching over rainbow snack and story time, bug hunting, and a giant woodland caterpillar built together from logs and sticks before heading off to forage colourful treasures to feed our very hungry friend 🌈

We didn’t find any caterpillars this week - but the woods are bursting with tiny creatures right now, and there was certainly no shortage of bugs to investigate 🐞✨

One of the things we love most about Forest School is helping children experience big ideas - like change, growth and transformation - through stories, movement, play and wonder.

Thank you for joining us toddlers! 💚

This Friday we continue our insect adventures as we discover pollination magic through bees, butterflies and flowers 🌼🐝

See you in the woods! ✨

❤️❤️❤️ The poppies are here ❤️❤️❤️

Bright flashes of red, dancing through verges, fields and quiet lanes - one of summer’s briefest beauties.

And yet, there is so much more to them than first meets the eye

A flower only here for a short while, wafting in the wind before its delicate petals disappear. A favourite for beetles, drawn to their pollen-rich flowers. 🪲 Tiny seed heads quietly preparing for next year.

And then, their story.

Poppy seeds can lie dormant in the soil for years, only appearing when the earth is disturbed. During the First World War, battlefields churned up by trenches and shelling suddenly bloomed with red poppies - becoming a symbol of remembrance, hope and peace.

👀 Have you spotted the poppies yet? 🌿

# rickmansworthmums

☀️ June is HERE - and the farm is BURSTING into life!

Wildflowers spilling through the grass. Butterflies fluttering past. Beetles busy at work. The air buzzing, chirping and humming with life 🐝🦋🪲

🌸 There’s no better time for bug hunting, wandering the pathways and noticing all the little signs that summer has arrived.

Smell the elderflower. Hear the crickets. Spot butterflies drifting through the hedgerows. Watch fungi quietly appearing on old fallen logs.

Because the walk is always part of the adventure 💚

Sometimes the biggest moments of wonder happen on the way to somewhere else.

What made you go WOW today?

See you soon Explorers! 🌿Forest school meets on Friday! Tickets available from link in bio ✨

Woodoaks Farm Melanie - Flower Grower

We planned for rain… and of course the rain stayed away 🌿Perhaps we were the only ones to miss it this week.

The shelters still went up anyway. Small woodland bases appeared across the site, and slowly our afternoon found its rhythm.

To some, it might just look like children playing in the woods. And of course, it is.

But underneath all that, something important is growing too - confidence, creativity, resilience, friendships, physical activity, problem solving, and a connection to the natural world.

Time outdoors like this gives children space to move, imagine, regulate, take risks, and find their own way.

Sometimes the most important things look a lot like muddy hands, bug hunting, and the freedom to simply be children 💚

🐛🦋 Join us in the woods this Friday for The Very Hungry Caterpillar at Grow Wild Club! 🌿

We’ll be exploring caterpillars, chrysalises and butterfly wings through woodland play, stories and hands-on adventures.

🐛 Caterpillar hunting
🪵 Woodland caterpillar making
🌿 Chrysalis wrapping
🦋 Butterfly wings and woodland fluttering

Plus mud kitchen play, a colourful snack and lots of forest school fun 💚 The puddles are looking good at the moment!

✨ Last 5 tickets remaining!

📍 Woodoaks Farm, Maple Cross, WD3 9XQ
🕙 Friday 10:00–11:30
🎟 Book tickets at bookwhen.com/growwildclub

🌿 I had to save this lovely moment for its very own post!

Getting to know the woods in summer, Vicki and the toddlers created their very own woodland sensory trail - inspired by

Together they gathered soft leaves, crunchy sticks and straw, squishy mud and prickly pine cones from the woods to build their path.

And then, of course, Vicki led the way. With plenty of encouragement (and a little bravery!), she guided the toddlers on their very own barefoot woodland adventure - helping them slow down, explore with their whole bodies and discover the woods in a whole new way.

Would you have been brave enough to try the woodland trail? 🦶🍃

We’re back this Friday for more summer adventures in the woods… 💚 Tickets available via the link in bio

🌿✨ Welcome to the Woods… in Summer! ✨🌿

This week the toddlers returned to the woods for the start of our summer term at Grow Wild Club with Vicki. 💚

As with every changing season, we began by slowing down.

🌞 Summer has quietly arrived at Woodoaks - the leaves are big and green, flowers are blooming and tiny creatures are busy everywhere.

So this week, the children became Guardians of Tiny Things.

Stepping through the woodland doorway with the chime of the bells, they headed off on a tiny things adventure - magnifying glasses in hand, looking closely for moss, lichen, bugs, feathers and little woodland wonders 🌼🐞

There was bug hunting, tiny treasure boxes, Guardian Memory Sticks, and shadow play in the old den ✨

One of the things we love most about Forest School is this gentle slowing down - helping children notice, wonder and connect with the world around them.

Thank you for joining us everyone 💚

This week we continue our buggy adventures with The Very Hungry Caterpillar 🦋 Find us in the woods this Friday! ✨

🌤️ The swifts are back.

One of my favourite signs that summer has returned - those high-pitched screams overhead as they race through the evening sky.

Fast, noisy & wild.

After travelling thousands of miles from Africa, swifts return to the UK for just a short while to raise their chicks. Many return to the very same rooftops and nesting places each year.

Swifts spend almost their entire lives in the air - eating, drinking, sleeping and even mating while flying.

Parent swifts also gather hundreds of insects at a time to feed hungry chicks. One tiny mouthful can contain hundreds of insects 😋

But they won’t stay long.

By late summer, many will already be gone again. Back to Africa.

So on warm evenings, pause for a moment. Look up.

One of summer’s small wonders is racing overhead right now. 💚

🌿 Throwing ropes. Sawing logs. Building ladders into trees.

Not because children need to know how to throw a rope into a tree… but because powerful things happen when children are trusted with real challenge.

They practise. Problem solve. Try again when things don’t work first time.

And slowly, confidence grows 💚

Plus… it’s really good fun.

And who knows where this idea might lead us on next week’s adventure 👀

This is the kind of thing we love at Forest School - real skills, muddy hands, plenty of rain (this week!) and children discovering what they’re capable of 💚

Our Home Ed Forest School group begins on 19th June 🌳 A small, welcoming group for children and parents to build confidence, friendships and connection in the woods.

Join us in the woods 🌿 tickets available at link in bio.

🪲🐛 The bugs are BUGGY at the moment!

One slow stroll down the lane at taking time to stop, watch the movement and look closely… and what a wild and wonderful collection of critters we found ✨

Beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, hoverflies, bees - all hanging out in the wildflowers, busy doing their thing 🌼🐝

This tangle of wildflowers is a giant buffet for wildlife, full of nectar, pollen and places to rest 🌿

And these tiny creatures are doing important work too.

So many are pollinators, moving from flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen, helping plants reproduce - meaning more flowers, more food, and more life 🌱

Today at Forest School, the children had a gentle go at bug hunting in the woods and along the pathways 🐞

Who did you spot today? 💚