To help you get your children outside at this time of year, there are some great seasonal craft and cooking activities to try.

Making Leaf Heart Cards for Mother’s Day
For this activity you will need to collect some evergreen leaves so it is a great reason to get outside and forage for them as part of your daily exercise. If you are lucky enough to find wood sorrel you could collect their leaves as they are already heart shaped.

What you will need:

• Some evergreen leaves 
• A piece of A4 card
• A pen
• Glue
• Scissors

What to do:

• Fold your card in half.
• Draw a heart on your leaves and cut the shapes out.
• Glue the leaf hearts onto the outside face of your card.
• Write a greeting inside your card. 

Making Pancakes
For Shrove Tuesday, why not try cooking outside on a fire or BBQ with your children, combining a daily dose of fresh air with a something a little adventurous?

What you will need:

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk1 egg

What to do:

• Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. This will make a thick batter.
• Melt some butter in a frying pan.
• Put a large spoonful of the batter into the frying pan. When you start to see air bubbles in the mixture flip it over. Once cooked through lift onto plate.
• Serve with your favourite topping. We like to keep it simple with a squeeze of lemon juice and some sugar.

Joanne Evans, of Aberdeenshire-based gardening school, Gardening4Kids, knows all about encouraging children outdoors. Joanne advises that even if your garden has reached its summer peak with flowers and veg and fruit cropping, it’s time to start thinking ahead for the autumn and winter.