I am new to posting on this blog so Paul suggested I tell you a little about myself.
I have lived in Surrey Heath for around 11 years and provide childcare for families in the local area. Due to the nature of my work, I am on the constant hunt for places to visit with young children. So my contributions to this site are likely to be quite child focused – such as local playgrounds, local family events, places which children may like to visit. Suggestions for places to visit are much appreciated.
My first blog post will be about my visit to Lightwater Country Park.
Tuesday morning was rather wet, perfect day for a young child to feed the ducks and geese at Lightwater Country Park.
Lightwater Country Park is located at the end of The Avenue and has several car parks or is a short walk from a couple of bus stops (Arriva routes 34 and 35).
The park is a mixture of heathland, woodland and lowland bog making it the ideal place to see a variety of wildlife. There are several walking routes, though with pre-school aged children I prefer just letting them decide which direction they want to walk, remembering to stick to the paths as the heathland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
There are a couple of ponds, the main one where you can feed the ducks is by the entrance to the park opposite the children’s playground. While it was wet when we visited, boots were not necessary though I would expect they would be advisable in Winter.
The children’s playground has a variety of play equipment for toddlers to twelve year olds and around the sides there are animal picture signs. These signs show things such as the footprints made by a fox, how a duck lands on water. The 2 year old I nanny loved looking at these pictures and making me read the words.
There are various picnic spots around the park, one area we found near to the Visitor Centre (this is used for events) had picnic tables and was a short distance from the toilets. Far too wet for us to picnic in the park on this visit, though the nearby trees did provide us with some cover from the rain – toddlers don’t mind the rain though!
Lightwater Country Park is a great place to visit, be it for an hour to feed the ducks and collect some pine cones, or for longer periods such as going for walk and having a picnic.
