Do you kids love Stick Man? When my boys were younger they obsessed over Julia Donaldson books and I loved them too. In fact, Julia Donladsopn books are many peoples favourite books. We have an abiding love for Stickman and his Stick Family too. We are big fans of books and activities that encourage exploration and love the collaboration between Stick Man and the Forestry Commission with the Stick Man Trail.
We had a lot of fun looking for the epic stick figure whilst exploring our local Forestry Commission site. Being outside in nature is so important for the health and welfare of families, check out this research from Natural England.
‘In February, Natural England issued a government-funded study which found that more than 10% of English children have not been to a natural environment (beach, park, forest etc.) in the last 12 months’,
I have to say that I found it pretty shocking, especially as I am such a freerange parent. I think having two energetic boys means that we spent more time outside when they were younger than inside our house. We live around 40 minutes away from Dalby Forest and it is a regular weekend haunt and somewhere we spent a lot of time over the summer. At 10 and 11 the boys are a little too old for the stickman trial if we do not have a friend’s little one with us, but there is so much for kids of all ages to do and we get to take Alvin to which is ace, plus they do both love the Go Ape! course there.
We made the most of a break in the rain to enjoy some fresh air and a snack and I often back a book for the kids to read when they have exhausted themselves running around. This is one of the reasons we love Julias Children’s books as they often have characters that link to nature such as worms, bees and spiders.
So back to making the most of the fantastic great outdoors. A great way to extend the activity is to keep a lookout for sticks and treasure on your adventure and make a stickman when you return. You must only pick things up off the floor, do not cut or dig up any twigs or leaves.
Make your own Stickman
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Materials
How to make your own Stickman
You need couple of sticks, ideally one with a Y shape for the legs. Place one stick across the other to form the arms.
Hold it in place by using a pipe cleaner wrapped around.
Then you can dress your stick person by adding things that you have collected and your googly eyes. We found that glue dots were perfect for this.
If you manage to find lots of sticks, then why not create a whole stick family.
Why not have a go at this Stickman suncatcher and instead of cellophane you could use leaves that you have collected on your walks.
Wow, that seems quite fun and easy to make. My son will surely like it. Great post 🙂
I love that your stick man has green ‘hair’ – fabulous!
We do love to make a stickman. My boys bring home loads of sticks and love nothing more than being outside building with them. Aria uses sticks as magic wands x
The stick on eyes just bring your stick man to life! Sounds easy enough to make.
We love making stick men. We live in central Birmingham ad it can be tricky for the kids to really get out and be a bit wild, but we make the effort to go to the ‘local’ forest (about 45 mins or so) as often as we can. We quite recently did the Stick Man trail and made one of these with the bits and bobs we found on our adventures!
What an awesome idea, and so simple and kid friendly too. My kids are a bit obsessed with stick man so I can see this being very popular next time we are out in Epping Forest!
You are never too old to make a stickman imho! Love the sound of yoghurt coated popcorn too- the perfect snack after all the fresh air. x
I like your stick men. It’s amazing how googly eyes can transform the most everyday objects into real characters! Filing this away for an idea for the summer…
I love this, we always try and make one whenever we are in the woods. Back in April we found the most perfect stick in the shape of stickman on the beach, I think I was more excited than the kids.
That is a shocking statistic, how sad that so many kids don’t get out into the natural environment. My boys are too old to make stick men now but they used to love Julia Donaldson and I think your man is cute!
Aw what a cute little fella!
That’s a shocking statistic – very sad too x x
Such a simple idea with such excellent results! My eldest was a huge fan of Julia Donaldson and could actually recite the words to several of her books by heart! My youngest is now getting to an age where she is starting to be interested in books and I can’t wait to bust out these books again!
This is great, Leo will love this in the summer break!
10% is a shocking amount of kids! I can’t imagine not taking my 4 out to enjoy nature when they were kids,it was a huge part of their childhood. Love your stick man! x
Sebby loves stickman and we have to make one everytime we go out!
This is such a cute idea yet so simple too 🙂 A great way to get the kids outdoors for a while x
Awww love this! Going to raid Bugs stick pile tomorrow and make him :O)
He is super cute Jen, we love Stickman, it’s one of my all time favourite books.
Love the stickman idea, I should do the trail with the boys as they love getting outdoors 🙂 x
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