We have had another fantastic year of Wheely Wonders family days (with hardly a drop of rain) at Applefield in Sidlesham! Once a month on a Sunday, from April to November the farm has been filled with families all enjoying meeting old friends and making new ones. In total this year we’ve welcomed 65 children!
Here’s an update of everything we have done since the last newsletter…
In July 11 children came and enjoyed Woodland Wonders Forest School activities with Richard and Sam in the morning. At Lizzie’s Craft Club, we created our own drums, shakers and other instruments using old cocoa tins, decorating them with coloured paper, pens and stickers. A very special event was drumming with Adam Gellibrand – it was so special to see all the children being able to participate and overcome worries about the noise level. The day rounded up with a tug of war initiated by the children and feeding the lambs their bottles!
In August we welcomed 15 children (which included 6 new members) to Applefield.
Everyone loved meeting the animals – the donkeys got excited about apples, the goats were hungry for branches; and Bedroom Slippers and Rosie the chickens had lots of cuddles too! At Forest School with Jen and Sam, children got creative with woodcrafts and especially enjoyed bug hunting and relaxing in the hammock and on the swing. Over at the fire circle, families enjoyed fire lighting and the all-important toasted marshmallows before lunch.
Lizzie’s Craft Club was so busy with children and parents using pipe cleaners to create flowers, plants and other amazing inventions in mini terracotta pots. Suncatchers were popular too! We finished the afternoon with lots of fun with Chris North’s magic show, circus skills, big bubbles, stomp rockets and parachute games.
Unfortunately due to very strong winds we had to cancel September’s Wheely Wonders, but at the end of the month, 15 Childhood Studies students from the University of Chichester visited Applefield for the final day of Induction Week for the first years and were accompanied by others who wanted to come back! They were given the full Wheely Wonders experience, splitting into groups for fire and cooking with Jen, wood whittling with Louis and crafts and music with Lizzie and Chris, as well as meeting all the animals! We hope that some of the students will return as volunteers at Wheely Wonders next year.
October was our Wheely Wonders spooky themed day when among the 17 children, a 3 week old baby came with her brothers!
Woodland Wonders activities included making webs with sticks and wool and conker spiders with pipe cleaner legs! Some children also sawed wood to make medals - Charlie created dumbbells with sticks and apples!
Bug hunting, fire lighting and toasting marshmallows were all lots of fun too!
At Lizzie’s Craft Club in the glasshouse, we “dressed up” superhero shapes with Halloween costumes using glittery paper and foam with lots of spooky stickers.
Other decorations and pictures were made too.
Back outside in the sunshine, Chris had brought a wide range of activities and we ended the day having lots of fun with parachute games and Lizzie’s Spooky Dip box with exciting prizes for everyone!
We had a beautiful dry day for our final Wheely Wonders of the year on Sunday 3rd November, which was also the fullest with 18 children – only 6 had been before!
Everyone had a great time with the farm animals then headed to the woodland with Jen and Sam where there was lots of whittling and sawing to make sailing boats. Fire lighting skills were tested too! Once again, the glasshouse was busy for Craft Club with everyone decorating card stars and circles as firework decorations, as well as some children doing scratch art masks. Biscuit was so happy to watch the children and even got to model one of the decorations!
We ended the year with Chris’ magic show and all children got the opportunity to be assistants while the adults were a supportive audience!
We have loved meeting so many new families this year; it has been incredible to see children growing in height and confidence as well as new friendships being made. It’s wonderful watching the children’s faces when they try new activities and achieve things they hadn’t done before! Photos from every month can be found on the Wellspring West Sussex Facebook page.
A massive THANK YOU to the The National Lottery (Awards4All) for supporting us this year – we have hung our bunting and waved flags in appreciation! We are so grateful to everyone who has volunteered with us and helped make every event run smoothly.
We are already looking forward to next year and making new memories with you all! Please get in touch if you would like to be added to the Wheely Wonders mailing list!
Here are some of the lovely comments we have had from parents and children this year:
Wonderful place, we always find other families in the same situation as we are. The farm is a safe place, we feel comfortable there, we can be ourselves and leave if the need arises. We love to spend time observing the farm animals, feeding and petting them. The forest school and fire at the end are precious moments and we always come home with great memories. We enjoy arts and crafts after our picnic. Circus and magic show always makes the end of our adventure special. I cannot thank you the organisers enough and I strongly recommend this event.
Eric had a wonderful time, very relaxed atmosphere and perfect range of activities for him.
My son absolutely loves coming. He loves being outside and in an environment that is inclusive and means he can just be himself with no judgment. He struggles with self-regulation and these sessions help Ostyn so much. Can’t wait for the next one!
It’s such a relaxing and fun day out with kind, supportive and wonderful people in lovely surroundings. Samuel had a brilliant time and it was lovely to see him doing lots of different activities outside in the fresh air. He especially loves the animals and helping Chris North with his magic show was a huge highlight for him today. We really appreciate these days and it feels like a stress-free break for me too! Thank you so much.
Samuel says: “Its so awesome - really good, so fun as well and there’s lots to do. Everyone there is really nice and everyone should try it out.”
An amazing family doing an amazing thing for other amazing families!
As a parent of a child with additional needs it can be hard to do activities where you can relax, to let the child play without thinking about how their behaviour affects others, without feeling the judgement of others or constantly having to explain why they do what they do. Spending the day at Wheely Wonders was amazing because there is an air of acceptance, of inclusion.
We got to watch Joey play without worrying what other parents were thinking and to be a part of something with him. To see him play without worrying other children who just ‘got him’. To see him free spirited without the normal anxiety he carries. His siblings could also enjoy play without Joey feeling he has to take over and control things. Joey said he loved it and wants to go again.
Brilliant. No pressure for kids to do anything/everything. Suitable for all to be included. Engaging. Everyone is so understanding and pitched for all to access. Very chilled/laid-back. Good for parents’ sanity as well as kids’ fun.
It’s fun, I like the people who run it. It’s very interactive and I like playing around and making friends.
Cherry loved it especially the bubble man at the end!
We loved it! We made musical instruments and played the drums. We played tug of war and enjoyed all the animals and had a picnic with everybody.
Lizzie Baily MBE 2025
