We finally managed to make it to one of Busy Kids in Bucks outdoor sessions in Amersham. Based on a curiosity-led approach, Busy Kids is run by two experienced teachers. Their groups and parties are suitable for under 5s, and have a plethora of fun and interactive activities to enjoy.
There are currently two weekly sessions running – an outdoor only session in Amersham on a Monday, and a Wednesday group in Great Missenden which a friend has visited and reviewed.
We went along to the Monday one. The group is located at Barn Meadow Playing Field, near the play area. There’s plenty of parking along School Lane, which runs alongside the playing field. On arrival we were greeted by the lovely and friendly Emma, who gave us a rundown on how the group came to be, introduced us to some regulars and explained the session set up.
The children have free access to a range of activities set up on the field. Emma had created a ‘barrier’ to show where her activities were located. Typically, my son had to start off by having a snack by the bubble machine while we took in what was on offer.
The group is really relaxed and friendly, so this was no problem (and we weren’t the only ones doing so)! My little one liked the look of the cones and hoops, so we wandered over to take a look. He had a great time having a go at throwing them on top. We moved on to flying giant aeroplanes – a fantastic exciting gross motor activity!
Emma had set up some tinker trays that were proving very popular – a water tray caught my son’s attention and he was happy pouring and splashing for a good while. We moved on to the magnetic tiles, where a few toddlers were happily building away together. Water painting was next, which was popular with everyone. As the activities are designed for children to use their imagination and creativity they can spend quite a long time on each one, so we didn’t manage to get around everything this time – we’ll have to come back!
The Amersham outdoor session is 45 minutes long, not too much for little ones to get fed up, and towards the end Emma let us all know there would be some songs to finish up with. This is always a lovely way to signify the end of a play session, and the children were all engaged and particularly curious to come and take a ‘lucky dip’ from the bag to choose the next song.
We even got to bounce teddy up and down on the parachute! The singing was kept to ten minutes at the end, so as not to lose anyone’s attention, and we all went away happy.
We had a lovely morning’s play, and found the location really convenient too, with the playground right next door and lots of space for our picnic on the playing field afterwards.
One other great detail is that Busy Kids is hoping to run throughout the school holidays – not many groups do so keep an eye on the website to book your space!
