What to do with two almost 4yr olds bursting with energy on a crisp, sunny afternoon in February?

Far too good a day to stay indoors and with no babies to consider, the option of ‘shall we climb a mountain?’ like Owen did with his granddad in our book about ‘Owen and the Mountain’, was met with lots of eager enthusiasm and practical four year old suggestions such as ‘we need to take a picnic, don’t we??’

So we packed a bottle of juice each, a banana and some chocolate (emergency rations!), added a little travelling first-aid kit with parents contact details, made sure we all had lots of warm clothes and hats/gloves, went for a last minute wee, and strapped safely into our car seats.

The great thing about where I live is that there is a wonderful choice of places to visit within 5-30mins of my setting. We have woods, moors, beaches, play parks, leisure centres, farm parks, aquarium, indoor soft play centre and lots more interesting and exciting places for young children.

In the car we play games like who can spot a motorbike, horse, aeroplane etc and make up daft songs about being strong mountain climbers. Time in the car also gives me a chance to explain about safety when outdoors and teach the boys snippets about all sorts of related subjects – mountain/moor rescue, what to do in an emergency, can you remember your telephone numbers and addresses? The boys are especially receptive to learning when they are themselves about to climb a mountain for real.

Of course it wasn’t a real mountain that we tackled – it was a Dartmoor tor – but to the boys looking up at the granite boulders and the lumpy ground to travel over and climb it certainly looked daunting. We parked up by a small pond from which the Dartmoor ponies like to drink. Today it was almost completely frozen and an opportunity for a small science lesson as well as another safety lesson. The boys held on tight to each of my hands and we set off slowly towards the peak of our mountain. They gripped tight and their eyes looked both apprehensive and excited, but soon, as we all warmed up, they became more confident and intrepid and started to let go of me and run ahead a bit.

We saw our breath as we climbed over the grassy tussocks to reach the first outcrop and laughed at the sheep who ran away from us. We snuggled up together in the shelter of a big rock to eat some chocolate and have sips of our juice.

The car was visible to us at all times and we talked about how small it looked as we got further away from it and how much bigger the rocks in front of us looked now we had arrived at the top of our mountain. I took some photos for the boys to add to their daily diaries to show their parents.

When we got back to the car our cheeks were flushed and our legs were wobbly – but wow we had done it – we had climbed our very own mountain!