The Usborne Outdoor Book by Alice James, Emily Bone and Briony May Smith (Usborne Publishing)

Here's a book that could have been MADE for us. As regular blog visitors will know, most weekends see us loading up a picnic, getting our walking boots on and heading for the great outdoors. As the sunshine shyly peeks through the crowds, we can't wait to get out there and explore.

"The Usborne Outdoor Book" collects together some truly fantastic ideas to inspire your little ones to explore the 'big outside' around them. Even if you live in the middle of a bustling city, there are wild spaces that you can find, and parks to explore where you'll be able to put some of the brilliant activities in this book to the test.

Each section will give you awesome things to make, help you identify plant and animal species and even give you some games to play while out in the countryside or exploring your park. The book is packed with fantastic factual nuggets and fascinating nature subjects. Like I said at the top of the review, it's practically made for us.

Usborne are encouraging you to keep your own checklist of things that you've done during your trips so check out their inspiring list on the Usborne website

We've still got a couple to tick off (haven't yet made a bees nest, and it's been too cloudy lately for stargazing) but we're well on our way to completing our challenge. See how you get on!

"The Usborne Outdoor Book" is out now from Usborne Publishing