If you’re sat inside watching the snow falling and enjoying the picturesque view well curled up with a hot beverage, something chocolatey and a good book then you’ve stolen my preferred idea of how to spend the winter season.  The chances are, however, you don’t have a young person looking out of the window next to you who, instead of thinking ‘isn’t that pretty and aren’t I lucky to be inside out of the cold’ is actually thinking ‘playtime!’  That young person would find a friend in one nature organisation that’s keen to encourage families to get out and about enjoying what winter has to offer us.

“Brrrr! The coldest and darkest months of the year are here, and it might be tempting to curl up indoors to wait for spring to arrive but DON’T! There are loads of things to do outdoors, and lots of wildlife to spot at this time of year!” so says The Wildlife Trusts and they’ve produced a booklet full of ideas to prove it.

“On a mission to help keep families wild and connected with nature, whatever the weather”, the downloadable 16-page printable My Wild Winter is full of inspiration including places to explore, information on feeding our feathered friends and building nest boxes, identifying wildlife tracks and signs, a spotting sheet and jokes and puzzles.

You might want to print it off and prepare for your outing at home first unless you can laminate the pages to stop them getting soggy in any unexpected snow storm.  Or, better yet, try and schedule in a stop at a coffee shop somewhere so you can look through the booklet again and refuel and defrost while enjoying a hot chocolate and the view from the window.

Do you love finding printables on the internet?  Do you have particular favourites?  Or have you featured some on your own blog?  Email karen.malpass@inkfactory.com with your links and we may be able to feature them in a future post.