It’s not every day you get the opportunity to play in a giant mud volcano is it? POD was lucky enough to do exactly that at the Persil Wild Explorers launch which is part of the #DirtIsGood campaign. Standing 7ft tall and 10ft wide, this impressive volcanic structure carries over three tonnes of mud and even has a crater that erupts with ‘molten lava’.
With 39% of Brits avoiding family outdoor time in the summer holidays due to lack of inspiration, the independent survey also found weather (40%) and cost (30%) a factor in parents planning outdoor activities. Deciding what to do outside, fretting about what to wear and forgetting to pack the essentials were also barriers.
The free Persil Wild Explorers app has been designed to provide parents with a range of activities that can be done in ten minutes that cost very little. As part of Persil’s commitment to encourage children to get outside and enjoy outdoor play, it has 100 activities to choose from – with making your own mud volcano just one of them! The app was created with The Wild Network who work together to build products and campaigns to get kids outdoors.
The app allows you to pick where you want to explore – either on your doorstep, in the park or woodland or by a river or the coast. You can choose how long you want to play for, from ten minutes up to 2-4 hours. You can also search for activities by age too – from 2 to 5, 6 to 11 and 12+. As POD is five, there are a wide range of activities that are suitable for her from building a wild den, pond dipping and stone art to nature hopscotch, crabbing and making a bug net.
I’m sure she’ll want to have a go at making a mini beast cafe, a snail farm and being a seashell artist though! There are easy to follow instructions for each of the activities and you can share each too if you want to involve others. Once you’ve completed an activity you can save it to your profile and select another. If you’re feeling undecided you can also go for the ‘surprise us’ option which generates a different activity each time based on the location and age criteria you selected. We got worm charming, rock pets and owl vision.
We’re big believers in the great outdoors and it really is the best playground for kids. Adopting the attitude that #DirtIsGood is the best one to have regardless of whether you’re beautifying a beach, being a park ranger or making your own nature show. POD always enjoys going on treasure hunts – in this case looking for different types of leaves and twigs along with a butterfly, a caterpillar and feather.
Even if you only have ten minutes for outdoor play, you can squeeze in all kinds of activities from colour counting, making a grass trumpet and being an ant detective to a going on a fox walk, giving tree hugs and playing animal charades. You can download the Persil Wild Explorers app from the App Store now. It promises to provide us all with hours of fun!
