Mushroom Hunting in Epping Forest | Wild About Autumn Challenge

We’ve always make an effort to make our way to a forest at the start of each November, especially as this year we have Halloween pumpkins to drop off into the forest so that animals can munch on them as a tasty treat. Getting your used pumpkins out into a forest is a great way to feed some wildlife that’s probably out searching for food at this time of year, especially as there isn’t much left on the forest ground.

We decided to make a day out of this, not just dropping off the pumpkins, of course, but instead taking the kids out into Epping Forest to play around. All three of them do enjoy simply wandering around, even if it’s a touch on the chilly side, but we decided to make a game out of the forest floor. As it’s covered in leaves at this time of year, we figured it would be good to have the children try and spot various mushrooms! Mushrooms are all over the place during the autumn months, but they really do blend in with the forest floor, so it becomes a challenge to pick them out among the leaves.

Soon, Amelia and Robin were jumping about, seeking and pointing out each and every mushroom. Kai, who is 9, doesn’t like much beyond Minecraft, so he quickly took the ‘villager’ role to heart and started speaking in ‘hmm hmm huhhh’ noises like villagers do, finding the dens that were made in the forest and walking in and out of them like villagers. We played along, speaking back to him like this while helping to build up the dens using the sticks that were dotted around. Once we were done in a area filled with den – after all the mushrooms were found – we moved onto the next area.

Amelia is really into photography, so we gave her the camera after a while and she started photographing the various mushrooms she spotted, as well as leaves and trees, creating a great picture-diary for the day. We plan on getting these printed for her to add to her picture wall for this season! If you’ve got slightly older children, taking them on nature walks to take pictures of everything is always a fun activity. Both Jupiter and I still enjoy doing that as adults, as it’s so much fun to find new angles and take new pictures while wandering about, as well as find new ways to look at the world around us.

Blogging about our time in the forest was inspired by the Wild about Autumn Blogger Challenge created by AliKats Mountain Holidays and Going Wild authors Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield – who challenged bloggers to get outside with their children and play in nature! Children do need to get out and play, even if it’s just pretending that they are from video games like Kai tends to do. Going to a local forest is not only free but can be fairly low effort, as children tend to make games and fun out of new environments. As a bonus, after a day of bouncing around the forest, climbing trees and hanging out in dens, the children really do sleep well in the evening!

Check out our other Days Out.