Cloud-Watching A Winner With Kiwi Kids

Media Release Top Ten List / Fact Sheet Att’d

Cloud-Watching A Winner With Kiwi Kids
Persil Top Ten Before UR 10 list revealed

What activities do New Zealand parents believe it is important for their children to experience? What things do Kiwi children really want to do? Almost 30,000 online and mail-in votes were received in just one month in response to the Persil Top Ten Before UR 10 poll. The results reveal a definitive list of the top ten activities every child should experience before turning the ripe old age of ten years old, according to New Zealanders.

The Persil Top Ten Before UR 10 are simple, inexpensive and accessible activities that will help New Zealand adults reminisce about childhood fun , and ensure their youngsters enjoy the outdoors with that same pure childlike spirit.

Cloud-watching tops the list, epitomising the laid back, take-time-to-relax Kiwi lifestyle. Originally, the poll consisted of 20 activities and invited voters to submit their own. “Lie on your back outside in the grass and find shapes and pictures in the clouds”, submitted by a visitor to the www.persiltopten.co.nz website, was voted – convincingly – into the number one spot, receiving over 1000 more votes than the second-place activity. Camping out in the backyard was the front runner for most of the polling period, and finished in second place, followed by “build a secret hut” in third.

Campaign spokesperson and mother of three, Lana Coc-Kroft, says, “The list really fits with my experience with my three active kids. Often what they want most is our time and attention. They want us to get down on the ground and play with them. But they also want to do things for themselves – like catch a fish or sleep out in the backyard. They feel good when they have things they can call their own, like a little square of the yard where they can plant a few seeds and watch them grow.”

The Top Ten Before UR 10 is a list of activities that every New Zealand family can tick off together – it’s all about children being children, and families making memories together.

Says Ian Grant, of Parents Inc., “The Persil Top Ten activities can also be considered valuable experiential play. They allow children to use their imagination, build and create, interact with nature, have fun and learn at the same time. With this list, Persil is encouraging parents to ensure their children have time to just be kids ... to get their hands dirty and learn about the world around them. Dirt is good and, as we all know, it washes off.”

New Zealand provides families with heaps of access to nature and opportunity to get outside and run free, so it is no wonder that all of the top ten are outdoor activities. At number four, “catch a fish” is truly something every Kiwi child can do, fishing from the local wharf using bait catchers baited with bits of bread or oatmeal.

Rain in this sub-tropical climate is a fact of life and it makes for lush surroundings. New Zealanders see no need to run for shelter every time it rains. Accordingly, number five on the list says every child should know what it feels like to play outside in the rain laughing and shrieking, splashing in puddles and getting thoroughly soaked.

Building sandcastles, ringing in at number six, can be as simple as tipping over a bucket of sand and decorating with shells, or as grand as taking part in a sandcastle building contest. Learning to swim, suggested by many poll respondents and voted to number seven on the list, has more serious undertones. According to Water Safety New Zealand, drowning is the third highest cause of accidental death in this country. Swimming is great exercise and a real part of being a New Zealander. Every child should learn to swim.

Getting dirty is a side effect of many of these activities; certainly for the final three. Whoosh down a mud slide, at number eight, is a Kiwi classic. Of course this is an easy one to accomplish ... all you need is a hill, some dirt and some water.

Add some tools and seeds or seedlings and you’ve got the makings of number nine on the list: “grow your own garden”. Number ten, “make mud pies”, follows the take-dirt-add-water theme and conjures up images of children smiling ear to ear while sitting in mud, covered in mud, proudly holding up pies they made from mud and decorated with rocks and sticks and leaves. Yum!

A colourful Persil Top Ten Before UR 10 checklist poster is available for download at www.persiltopten.co.nz and the website features tips and how to’s, events organised or sponsored by Persil to provide opportunities for families to experience top ten activities, as well as photo challenges and contests.

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