We recently ran a competition over at Webtogs with walking-books.com to give away some of their walking packs. Whilst we were running the competition, I got chatting to Mike who runs the business about his Making Tracks series. The series are walking packs designed for children to take the lead with straightforward instructions and child-friendly maps. When he found out that I had 2 kids he promised me he would send me one of the packs to take with us next time we were up in the Peak District. They duly arrived at the beginning of the year, but we forgot to take them with us until we went back up the other week.
Each of the packs has 10 walks which have been designed for kids to read and lead. They are small and nicely illustrated, pointing out all the kinds of natural, historical and grim facts about places as you head along. We had Ifor (4 1/2 for those of you who need to know) leading and reading for the walk. Ifor picked a short walk starting from Winster which we had never walked from before, so we set off to the village with his brother Ellis (2 years old), Ma, Pa, Grandma and Grandad.
Ifor only started reading this year, but the walks were simple and he found it easy to follow the instructions. Each point on the walk was clearly described and songs were soon being sung of the “two arches with the postbox nearby”. Ducking in between houses we soon left Winster behind, heading across fields. The maps are not to scale, but they stayed true to the navigation principle of checking off features as you walk. Stiles, walls, overhead cables, rocky outcrops were all spotted and ticked off by Ifor as he led us on.
Each of the packs comes with a booklet giving an overview on the walks, what sort of gear you might need to take and the countryside code. Perhaps it’s because I have walked for so long and the rules are part of my life, but I had totally forgotten about the code and how important it is to pass it on. Ifor was duly briefed and he made sure we shut every single gate behind us.
The walks are all short (up to 4 miles) and so after a couple of hours we came to the end of a very pleasurable walk. If there was anything I would like to improve it would be to include a backup OS map for the adults. We failed to find the start, parking at the wrong car park before realising which one we had to go to! I had also brought one of the plastic walk holders from another of the walking packs, these are missing from the Making Tracks series and I think it would be nice to include one.
Overall though these were a fantastic addition to our walking experience with Ifor much more involved, learning skills and chomping at the bit.
PLUS STUFF
- Maps are great fun and beautifully drawn, instructions are clear and simple.
- Pacing and length are right.
- Reading & Navigation skills get practiced.
- The kids want to walk and leading is a great confidence booster.
- The history bits are ace.
MINUSES
- Be good to have an OS map section to cross reference with.
- Add the card holders from the other packs, would help make the kids feel like real live leaders 🙂
DISCLOSURE – Mike from walking books.com ran a competition with us over at Webtogs & sent me the pack for free to review. The review is my own thoughts on the Making Tracks series.
I loved your report of Ifor’s walk G. He told me about it at the weekend, and how he’d enjoyed it. As you said, he’s grown so much in the last few months.
It’s taken me ages to get to reading this. The series sounds good for little explorers. I will keep them at the back of my mind for future. Actually, I might get a set now and teach my wife how to read a map 🙂
Cheers for stopping by Davy, hadn’t thought that they would also be good for new navigators of all ages!
It makes all the work that goes into producing this series worthwhile when I see a family enjoying using one of my books. Really pleased you and your family had a good day Gareth. And if I can help DavyWA please get in touch.