When was the last time you let your kids get lost on purpose?
Last Autumn, we went to Brussels for a big family reunion with my Belgian side of the family (my uncle and his kids etc). We stayed with my cousin just outside Brussels and enjoyed the views of the countryside. The kids were in heaven. There was a giant trampoline, a vast, communal garden my cousin shared with his neighbours and a giant cornfield behind the house. Even better was the fact that Leo-Paul and Luca (their Belgian cousins), and Finn and Jamie (their German cousins) are older, and therefore automatically the coolest thing on earth.
They got up to all sorts of mischief together, but the highlight was probably their intrepid walk through the extremely high cornfields which stretched for miles. Minu, being the only girl in the crew and five at the time, was not at all scared by the fact that the crops were at least twice her height. The only thing that mattered was that she was with her four older boy cousins. So off they went. I did turn to my cousin, Damien, and say: "You sure they'll find their way back?" He just smiled and nodded them off.
An hour or so later, they tumbled back out of the fields, elated, excited, talking a hundred miles an hour about what they'd seen, heard, experienced. They fell about laughing, and went straight back in for round two and from that point were inseparable for the rest of the weekend.
Top tip: If you don't have cornfields nearby to explore, you could try sunflower fields, or look into your nearest natural labyrinth. They are all over the countryside, and a lovely way to spend a day.
Top quote: "Not all who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring
Last Autumn, we went to Brussels for a big family reunion with my Belgian side of the family (my uncle and his kids etc). We stayed with my cousin just outside Brussels and enjoyed the views of the countryside. The kids were in heaven. There was a giant trampoline, a vast, communal garden my cousin shared with his neighbours and a giant cornfield behind the house. Even better was the fact that Leo-Paul and Luca (their Belgian cousins), and Finn and Jamie (their German cousins) are older, and therefore automatically the coolest thing on earth.
They got up to all sorts of mischief together, but the highlight was probably their intrepid walk through the extremely high cornfields which stretched for miles. Minu, being the only girl in the crew and five at the time, was not at all scared by the fact that the crops were at least twice her height. The only thing that mattered was that she was with her four older boy cousins. So off they went. I did turn to my cousin, Damien, and say: "You sure they'll find their way back?" He just smiled and nodded them off.
An hour or so later, they tumbled back out of the fields, elated, excited, talking a hundred miles an hour about what they'd seen, heard, experienced. They fell about laughing, and went straight back in for round two and from that point were inseparable for the rest of the weekend.
Top tip: If you don't have cornfields nearby to explore, you could try sunflower fields, or look into your nearest natural labyrinth. They are all over the countryside, and a lovely way to spend a day.
Top quote: "Not all who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring
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