Our homeschool groups meet regularly throughout the week and Hamish and I have come to thoroughly enjoy these outings, the wonderful circle we’ve met, and both the diversity of people and places we encounter each week.
Today we visited Ratanga Park for a nature walk.
About Ratanga Park
Situated in the old Ratanga Junction Amusement Park, the newly fashioned green space is perfect for a walk, picnic or bike ride.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, coffee shops and restaurants, Ratanga Park offers breath taking scenery, rich indigenous vegetation, an assortment of bird and bug life interspersed between the walkways, waterfalls, bridges and places to play.
You can also enjoy a variety of water and land based exercises in this beautifully created public space.
You will find an assortment of dog walkers, runners and families on bikes enjoying the park at any time during the day.
Entry to the park is free and the park is dog friendly.
Whilst you will find water fountains, there is however no public bathrooms in the park.
Things to see at Ratanga Park
Some highlights to look out for when visiting Ratanga Park are :-
- Otters in the water
- Canal cruise boats
- Waterfall
- Elephants cave…a manmade cave that resembles an elephant
- Duck families
- Jungle gyms for the kids
- Giant frame to take your photo
- Sculptures that are part of the Century City art walk
- Giant tree trunk path to run along
- See the canons
Our visit
We arrived before our group, giving the boys enough time to explore and run around.
The park is safe and I’m always happy to venture through it.
Their first stop was a giant cliff where they climbed the boulders.
They came across a tiny lizard and we stopped to examine him before letting him go.
We then headed along the footpath to the big frame and took a few photos.
The boys spotted a family of duck and ran down towards the water to get a better look.
They also had great fun running along the tree trunk path.
Then it was off to see the canons, because what boy doesn’t love canons.
We continued across the bridge until we got to the waterfall and the boys got up close to watch the calming water.
By this time our group had joined us and we continued along on our nature walk. The kids stopped along the canal to see what they could see among the reeds and water plants, having found a dead dragonfly, we took time to examine it.
We had hardly dropped the dragonfly off when there were Otters in the water ahead of us. Finding them was quite tricky and it’s not advised to get to close to will otter as they do bite.
I took time to get some photos of the flowers and resident statue.
By now it was picnic time so we lay down the blanket and the adults sat for a few minutes while the kids ran off between bites to the play area. Buy not before they had enjoyed a bit of touch rugby.
The wooden play areas , there are 2, are great fun for little explorers and we let the kids play while we chatted.
Then it was off to elephant cave, which is a manmade cave designed to look like a giant elephant. Here the kids explored the small waterfall, running under it and found a dead crab in the water.
After examining and photographing the crab the kids took turns holding it before we held a proper crab funeral.
All too soon it was time to head home.
Exstention ideas for homeschooling families
Before visiting the park you could print a nature journal for the kids to record their findings.
I love this one from printable fairy
https://www.printablesfairy.com/nature-journal-for-kids/
Print a scavanger hunt and let them find the items in the park. You could print this one from
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/us2-t-168-nature-walk-scavenger-hunt-
Use the Bird Pro App to discover the birds and Plant snap or iNaturalist to discover the flowers and trees growing in the park.
For younger kids
- Leaf and tree rubbings are always fun.
- The park offers countless counting ( of flowers , ducks, etc) opportunity.
- Take a bug box, magnifying glass and note pad and observe animals in the water, or under the trees for a few minutes.
- Let children photograph what they find appealing about the park and print these into a memory album
Fun games to play
- Hide and seek
- Tag
- Touch rugby
- I spy
Things to enjoy
- Walking a dog
- Flying kites
- Riding bikes or scooters
- Exploring the boulders
- A picnic
However you choose to enjoy the park this is sure to become as much a favourite in your home as in ours.
