Mud and bloom- an easy way to connect children with nature

You will know by now that we like to get outdoors, splash in puddles and get a bit closer to nature, the Little Ones like nothing better than putting on their wellies and getting out to explore, get dirty and have a bit of fresh air whilst learning about the outdoors. We heard about Mud and Bloom, a monthly subscription box which delivers four seasonal growing and craft activities to your door and were asked to review the February box. 

As we have three children we were sent the sibling box which contains two of everything, a standard Mud and Bloom box contains one of each activity. First impressions were good, no excess packaging, in fact Mud and Bloom inspires to be environmentally friendly by sourcing plastic free materials and packaging and certified organic seeds where possible, and the biodegradable box fit easily through the letterbox.

Inside each box, designed for 3-8 year olds, are four activities suited to the season, as well as full instructions, nature news, and games designed to teach children about seasons, plants, insects, birds, soil and rainfall which have been designed by teachers and support the National Curriculum and Forest School approach.

Mud and Bloom was set up with the hope of inspiring families to get their children outdoors more and connected to nature, each box is developed with the busy parent in mind and contains almost everything you need to get started, even compost pellets.

Inside our February box we received
- a kite making activity with full instructions, red paper kite templates, raffeta strings for tails, string for flying (we just added a toilet roll tube to roll the string around to stop it tangling).
- Aubergine seeds and compost pellets (you just need some yoghurt pots or plant pots)
- Cosmos seeds and compost pellets
- Wildflower spotting card and February Quiz
- Ice sculptures activity card

The Little Ones were keen to get planting right away, thanks to the addition of the compost pellets in the box we were able to do this right away. Detailed instructions were included so we knew what depth and spacings we needed between the seeds and where it was best to start them off.

I raided the recycling for some pots and we got planting, first soaking the compost pellets and watching Little 3's amazed face as they grew and expanded, we planted the cosmos first and put them on our sunny kitchen window sill.

Then the Aubergines, which needed to go into the dark airing cupboard to germinate. it didn't take long for the plants to begin to grow, our Cosmos germinated in a few days and now, three weeks on, are a few inches tall and beginning to thicken. Our Aubergines took almost two weeks to send up their first shoot in the airing cupboard, and are now on the kitchen window sill until we need to replant them into a bigger pot. Little 2 likes to keep and eye on then all and waters then a little everyday, she keeps asking when they can go outside and into bigger pots but they are not ready yet.

All three Little Ones loved the kite activity in the box, we followed the simple instructions and had built our kites in no time, then we headed out on our scooters to the park to fly them armed with our flower spotting guide to look for the flowers along the way.

We had a go at creating little ice sculptures using the lids of pringles tubes, the girls picked petals and berries on the way back from our walk and arranged them in water inside the lids which I then froze before we hung them on the trees out in our garden the following day. The weather was rather sunny that day and they melted quickly, before I remembered to take any photos!

A single Mud and Bloom one child box costs £9.95 a month with free delivery but sign up for a year and this reduces to £7.95 a month. Sibling boxes cost from £11.95 to £12.95 per box depending on the length of the subscription and can be cancelled anytime.