The Outdoor Childhood

The Forager

An autumn nature kit for children aged five and up

£45 · plus £3.65 UK postage

The first fifty kits. Shipping from early September.

Ages 5+, with adult supervision · Hand-illustrated, made in small batches · Recyclable packaging

Order · shipping from early September

More than one child? We're happy to add a second notebook, pencil or any other tool so siblings don't have to share. Just email us at hello@theoutdoorchildhood.co.uk before you order and we'll sort it.

Read our full safety & care guidance

The Forager is our autumn kit: a box of carefully chosen tools and materials to take outdoors, and an invitation to slow down and notice what's already there. No screens. No batteries. No instructions you have to follow. At its heart is a forager's notebook, hand-illustrated throughout with twelve autumn things to find, pages for pressing and recording, and a poem.

Inside the kit

  • A hand-illustrated forager's notebook (A5, printed in Leeds)
  • A ×10 magnifier, for looking closely
  • A palm drill, jute twine and a hand-cut wood slice, for drilling and threading
  • 350g of stone-coloured air-dry clay, for pressing and shaping
  • Six pressed leaves and twelve glassine wallets, for collecting and pressing
  • Four activity cards - tree faces, trail signs, a bow, and threading
  • A Lyra Ferby pencil, a tote bag to carry it all, and an essay for the grown-ups

Where everything comes from

We choose suppliers on fit, not price. The notebook is printed by a small press in Leeds. The clay comes from a family firm in Stoke-on-Trent, making clay in the Potteries since 1932. The twine is spun by a Scottish maker working with natural jute since 1922. The leaves are pressed, and the wood cut, by hand at our kitchen table.

Who makes it

The Outdoor Childhood is made by Nicky, a secondary English teacher and illustrator, and her partner Rachel, a primary teacher, training as a Forest School leader - two teachers and parents who wanted, for their own children and others', the kind of outdoor childhood that stays with you. Every illustration is Nicky's own.

A child sitting in the garden, looking at the forager's illustrated notebook
“Can I actually keep all of this forever?”
- a customer's son, age 6

Suitable for ages 5+, with adult supervision. The kit contains a palm drill - a real tool with no exposed blade, used alongside an adult. Full safety guidance is included in the kit and on our Safety & Care page.

Less screen. More sky.