Yes, we’ve made it; the summer holidays are well and truly here!
Six weeks of glorious sunshine, ready for exploring our coastline and making memories. But how to have all that family fun without breaking the bank on plastic beach toys?
Here are our top 5 tips for making the most of the coast for free this summer:
1. Discover natural treasures
Why not go out and discover what natural treasures are waiting on the beach for you to find? At our Wild Beach School sessions, children (and adults!) of all ages love setting off on a beach scavenger hunt, searching for all sorts of shells, seaweed and even lucky hagstones. You can even take your scavenger hunt a step further by contributing to a citizen science programme – we love the Natural History Museum’s Big Seaweed Search and the Shark Trust’s Great Eggcase Hunt. Did you know that shark and ray eggcases wash up on beaches around the Solent all the time?
2. Get creative
After you’ve scoured the shingle for all sorts of amazing finds, you can put your creative talents to good use by designing a wild beach person or sea creature using all the natural materials that you’ve found. We’ve seen mermaids, half man-half crab creatures, and even a beach Hulk made of green seaweed!
3. Borrow instead of buy
Look out for beach toy libraries, where you can save money and reduce waste by borrowing buckets and spades (and other beach equipment) instead of buying new. While we’re not aware of any around the Solent yet, if you’re travelling further afield you might be lucky enough to find one in Dorset, Devon or Cornwall!
4. Keep our beaches clean
Get involved and join us at the Final Straw Foundation for a beach clean!
It’s a fun outdoor activity for families, and it’s always satisfying to see the immediate difference you make in helping keep your local area clean and protecting wildlife from the harmful impacts of litter. Check out your nearest beach clean event here.
5. Get crafty at home
Finally, for those rainy days when you can’t quite make it out of the house, why not get your crafting hat on and have a go at upcycling old clothes or fabric into a reusable Borrow Bag? These handy bags reduce the need for single-use plastics and have more personal meaning and style too! You can either make them to share in your local community through the Borrow Bag scheme, or keep them all to yourself – the choice is yours.
We hope these simple tips will help give you some inspiration for how to fill those long summer days with a few activities that won’t cost the earth. And getting out into nature by the sea is great for mental health and wellbeing too, so it’s a win-win!
See you on the beach!
By Frankie Singer Ince, Education Outreach Coordinator at Final Straw Foundation.
Want to take outdoor learning even further?
Grab a copy of our team member Georgie’s book, Beach School, via our online shop!
