This is not an easy time of year to persuade children to head outdoors. Unless it snows. Or Santa gets ideas from the Easter Bunny and hides gifts in the garden.
As neither of these look likely, you could try to tempt them into daylight this weekend by having a go at wreath making instead.
Being slightly Christmas-obsessed, I've experimented with a few different versions and I think this is the most child friendly - and probably the cheapest way to do it too.
To make a frame, get some thick green garden wire and wrap it twice around a plant pot to make a double circle, twisting the ends together and leaving a little extra wire at the end to make a hook.
Remove the ring from the plant pot and then take a second piece of wire and wrap this round and round the ring. This holds together the two loops of wire as well as creating lots of spaces you can slot foliage into.
Now you're going to need some lengths of ivy. If you've none in your own garden, you can probably ask around friends and neighbours. It tends to grow rampantly so they'll be a plentiful supply somewhere.
You'll need about 10-15 strands of ivy for each wreath. Take one end and slot it between two pieces of wire before wrapping it around and around the ring and securing the other end the same way you did the first.
The just do this again, and again.... and again until you can't see any wire showing and the wreath base looks nice and full.
You can also hunt outside for things to decorate your wreath. Pine cones, berries (avoiding the poisonous ones is always a good idea...) seed heads and nuts all work well. You can wrap a piece of thin green garden wire around each and then use this to poke into the wreath base and secure the decorations.
I've even made a film showing you how to do this. Excitingly it includes a cameo appearance from our cat Eric who has an alarming tendency to disappear completely at times due to my dodgy editing. I call it the Schrodinger Cut.
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