30 Days Wild!

30 Days Wild!

Summer and Thomas share a few of the things they get up to for 30 Days Wild!

30 Days Wild is a fun event that takes place every year in June. Individuals, families, schools and care homes can sign up and get lots of help and advice about what 'random acts of wildness' they could try! From taking your shoes off and standing in the grass, to having breakfast outside, and even planting some wildflower seeds, you take can part however big or small your acts. 

Sign up for 30 Days Wild 2022

We heard from Summer and Thomas who live with their parents in Stockton-on Tees. They like the way their garden has been turned into a fun nature-filled place where they can look for toads and they even have a resident blackbird called Bert that they feed every day in June, as part of the 30 Days Wild Challenge. 

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Summer, Gemma and Thomas ©Gemma Nixon

Thomas is 7 years old and enjoys football. He says: “I like it when the sun comes out and we get to do more outdoor things in June. My mum is always doing things outdoors in the cold too and taking us to find things around here. I found an owl feather, which was pretty good. When we made the pond we were excited to see what would come and visit. We got frogs in there and we were happy about that. I like frogs. I like their eyes and the tadpoles are slimy. Sometimes I like it just to be on my own and get a stick and see what I can see.

I like to look under rocks too. Rocks are interesting because they have holes in them and you can find ants and woodlouse under there.  What are they doing? I watch them moving about and I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. My mum says just being outside is good for us and for our imagination. It gets us away from the TV too. It’s not good to be on phone all day. I really enjoyed the beach and I remember that last year too and when dad buried us in the sand and we wrote names in the sand. 30 Days Wild is fun and I think I will keep doing it. Maybe one time I will play football instead, but nature is cool. We make art from what we find and that is another thing that is good about it.” 

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Reading outside ©Gemma Nixon

Summer is 9 and enjoys stories. She says: "My mum gets really into 30 Days Wild. Every year we know it is coming and it’s like when Christmas comes around. It is special and you look forward to it. My special favourite thing is all the time we spend as a family. We plan special projects like making a toad house, or painting, one time we decorated the shed to make a nice place to read bedtime stories. It has lights and lots of things on the walls, like leaves and feathers and things.

The animals are good too. We didn’t have that many animals in our garden, but they came when we tried and made houses for them and we put the bird food out for Bert the blackbird. And mum also helps us to grow plants as well. We grow things, like tomatoes and we eat them. Eating them tastes really good. I think it is better tasting when you grow your own. If you have been bored at home, just go outside and try some 30 Days Wild. It’s fun and it’s easy. You don’t have to be in the countryside and some of the things, like taking your shoes off, are funny. We even had the radio station BBC Radio Tees come to our house to talk about 30 Days Wild this year and we think we are pretty good at talking about it now and so do they.” 

A dingy skipper butterfly feeds on a flower

© Amy Lewis

Do you want to live life on the wild side?

Sign up now!

Did you get involved this year? Why not get in touch and let us know some of the wild things you got up to! 

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