SUMMER school holidays are great for the kids, but it can be quite a challenging time for some parents, as they attempt to keep the youngsters interested and prevent them from becoming bored and getting into mischief.

For many years now Wyre Forest District Council has organised an extensive programme of events, activities and clubs for the young to get involved in over the summer.

There is quite a spectrum of things to do, ranging from arts and sports to museum activities and, of course, the Rangers' environmental education programme.

This is the 14th summer of activities that I have been involved with in Wyre Forest and you might imagine that I would be getting a little tired of it by now. However, nothing is further from the truth.

Last week I led my first event of the year for a group of children from Wribbenhall, the Horsefair and the Walshes estates.

The aim of the day was to get the young people really up close and personal to the natural world, to touch, feel, smell and wonder but, most of all, enjoy being in a wild environment.

The event was called the "Adventure Trail" and it ran in Habberley Valley, starting with a bizarre ritual - the children had to find, and paint themselves with, the juice from bilberries.

Now looking more like American Native Indian braves than Wyre Forest kids, they set off on a quest to find the valley's most magnificent trees.

Had I just walked the children up to these trees and shown them, more than likely they would have looked for a second or so then lost interest.

So in order to find these trees, they had to embark on what for some may have been one of the biggest adventures of their lives.

The route involved running and jumping over fallen logs and dried-up streams, crawling on their tummies under tree roots and sliding on slippery clay under thickets of tree branches to suddenly arrive under the raised canopy of some truly magnificent mature trees.

The look of wonder and awe on the children's faces was such a contrast to how it might have been if they had just walked there, making it well worth the extra effort.

The trees were then further brought to life with stories to help fuel the children's imaginations.

During the next few weeks I will be involved in leading children on a variety of adventures as varied as exploring sand dunes and beaches to learning how to survive as a cave man in the "wilds" of Kidderminster.

Sounds like fun to me.