Hands up whose kids are arguing at the moment? Over here at Jaeger family HQ, we're talking Tom and Jerry, we're talking World Wide Wrestling Federation, we're talking off the hook sibling spats about super important things like pencil-case rubbers, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books or socks, which usually end in tears. And with me wanting to walk out the door. 

There is nothing more glorious in times like these, than when your kids disappear out of earshot for hours on end because they are fully engrossed in some secret activity. We had a lot of this during the holidays. There were four families with at least 12 kids between us. Every now and then a parent would go, "Has anyone seen the kids?" and then depending on the parenting style (helicopter versus hey we're on holiday), either go and look for them, or leave it at that - a dangling question, a mystery as to where oh where they could possibly be. 

Most of the time, they were down the hill, through the tall grasses, over the boulders and into a hidden little nook, to hang in the "tree house". I use speech marks here, as technically it was just a tree with a few planks of wood nailed in and a ropes slung around it. There was no roof, no walls and there was certainly no raised platform. Did the kids care? Did it make it any less exciting? As if. And then it went a bit Eureka in my head. You don't need a house to have yourself a tree house. You just need a kid.

Here's my 3 take-away tree house wisdoms: 

1. Today is the day. You don't need to wait for the perfect tree, the perfect garden or the perfect DIY person to come into your life to have yourself a tree house.
2. House. Shmouse. You don't actually need a house in that tree. All you need is some random planks of wood, some leftover rope and a few rusty nails and a kid with some imagination.
   
3. Distance = Result. The further away the "tree house" is from where you are, the more likely the kids will go there and hang. 

The children's author Shel Silverstein sums it up in his brilliant poem 'Tree House', published in Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Top tip: Let them take food, blankets, reading material... they might decide they want to move out. Yay.
Top quote: "The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself." William Blake. 

When was the last time you really got excited about making something with your kids? I'm talking so excited you felt like a kid again yourself, where you're practically budging them out of the way because you want another go - RIGHT NOW...

I sort of turned into that kid the other day when we built a marble run from scratch. When I say scratch, I actually mean bark. On a recent stroll in the woods, we came across a whole bunch of tree bark, big fat chunks of it. It was all gnarly and gnawed up by bark creatures. They'd created entire tapestries within the wood. It was utterly beautiful. Not unlike Grayson Perry's The Vanity of Small Differences, just fewer pop culture references.

The kids went about sourcing the largest pieces they could find scattered about the forest floor and piled them up. At that point we had no idea what it would be useful for, we just knew it was too brilliant to leave behind. Once back at the house we played around with it, turned it upside down, placed one piece into another and then realised it could become a bonafide marble run. 

The kids created tracks that led down the sides of trees, down stairs, down chairs. Then we realised we didn't have any marbles. Bummer. So we sat on our hands for a bit. Pondered. But then Bobby shouted, "Quick! Get the playdough!"
"Eh? Playdough?" 
"We'll make our own marbles." He said. Atta boy. He'd outdone me in the spirit of creative action. Why hadn't I thought of that?

I'm not sure what was best... looking at the intricate patterns in the wood, making therapeutic round balls in different colours, letting them roll down the tracks. All of it was ace and it definitely beat going to ToysRUs. But let's face it, it wasn't about me. It was about the kids. But am pretty sure they had fun too though. Check it out:

What you need:

• Bark from a tree
• Playdough

Top tip: If you lay each successive piece of bark under the last, not over, you won't create a lip where the marble can get stuck.
Top quote: "The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself." William Blake