PARENTING
Alas the summer holidays are over for another year! While a part of me mourns the seemingly endless days filled with the promise of quality time with the kids, for the most part I welcome the return of a somewhat normal routine and the end of having to come up with something ‘fun’ to do to fill any and all free moments. But truth be told the end of the holidays is not the end of quality time or the end of having to come up with things to do. If anything fun activities is a must over the first few months of term to ease the transition back into school. We are not really ‘planners’ when it comes to what we do at the weekends, tending instead to wait and see what mood we’re in. Then we mentally scroll through the list of possible things to do and scurry around coming up with a last minute plan to ‘make the most of the weather’. Over the last few months I’ve found the best way to give a bit of purpose to our outdoor adventures, whether it be a walk or a bike ride or just a trip to the park, is the latest craze of rock painting. It doesn’t matter if they are searching for painted rocks along the way or seeking out the perfect hiding spot for ones they’ve painted themselves my girls can’t get enough of it. So we recently hunted out some rocks to paint and had fun turning them into ladybirds, rainbows and princesses… although my youngest is only 3 so some of them were just, shall we say, ‘colourful’. 32 | BROXBURN
Then we loaded up a wee basket on the front of the bike and headed out. We are really spoilt for choice in terms of places to go so we headed out first along the Murieston Trail and round Campbridge Pond and then ended up hiding our rocks in and around Bellsquarry and Williamston Woods. It is a craze that has really taken off so we came home with almost as many as we hid. The girls were very happy with their haul and we will have a good excuse to head out again soon to enjoy the wilderness on our doorstep and hide the ones we found for someone else to find. So keep your eyes peeled when you are out and about and if you want to get involved check out West Lothian Rocks on Facebook to see where people have been hiding their rocks recently. Happy hunting!
The parenting column is contributed by Laura Archibald. Laura lives in West Lothian with her husband and two young daughters, and their campervan Hank. She enjoys trying new things and rare moments of peace. @KonectMagazines
