What’s your name and where do you come from?
I am Claire and I’m one of the founders of totbag – I am from Liverpool and still live here with my husband and 3 children. Amelia 7, Sebastian 4 and Alana 18 months. The other 2 totbag girls both live in Cheshire and have 7 children between them of varying ages!
Tell us a bit about your business. How did you come up with the idea / what is it and where can people find you?
With technology increasingly present in all areas of children’s lives, we set out to design an alternative, screen-free activity that would get kids back to nature, spark their imagination, encourage creativity and enhance family time.
Combining our individual skills and professional experience in art, education and working with families and young children, we have created fun and educational go-anywhere bags that encourage hands-on learning. totbag is created by teachers with a love of the outdoors.
Each totbag/totbox contains a totbag-branded bag, carefully chosen outdoor activities suitable for children aged 3+ and a nature journal bursting with useful information, instructions on how to complete the activities and exciting additional fun and games. All materials are environmentally friendly.
You can purchase a one-off totbag or subscribe on a monthly basis to our totbox, with your first month free, meaning there is an option for different budgets.
You can find us at www.totbag.co.uk @totbaguk
Describe your business in 3 words!
Fun outdoor crafty
What’s your go to activity that keeps your little ones happy
Visiting our local park and feeding the ducks frozen peas!
We all love a bit of pintrest and online inspo. What accounts, bloggers, websites would you recommend the OKS community check out?
Parentfolk FamilyGoLive
#mamamassive #lifewiththebuxtons #careeringintomotherhood
What’s on the kitchen disco play-list in your house?
This has been taken over by my 7 year old daughter so now includes mainly Little Mix, Anne Marie (I really have no clue who this is????!!) and The Greatest Showman album constantly on repeat! I must admit this one I don’t mind so much and have been known to belt out ‘This is me’ both with my daughter and sometimes a sneaky one when she is in school!
Where are your favorite places for a knees up without the nippers?
Local places where you dont have to travel far, can sit and have a lovely glass of prosecco and most importantly chat without being interrupted every 2 minutes – these are my priorities these days
What was the first album / single you bought and what format did you buy it on?
Now 8 on cassette!
What would be your band T-shirt of choice?
Take That all the way – I may have tried to squeeze into the one from my teenage years from time to time but would never venture out in it and subject the world to that!
Top tips for encouraging creativity in children?
Obviously our totbags/totboxes provide a great opportunity for children to get creative and provides a more structured activity but the main thing I feel is getting them outdoors and back to basics exploring nature. I dont know one child who doesnt enjoy being outside, exploring and getting a bit mucky. Children have a sense of freedom when they are outside and if you can spark enthusiasm about the living world it really captures their imaginations.
My daughters favourite thing to do when we’re out and about is a bug hunt which is so easy to create and gets the children really hands on searching under stones,leaves, bushes and encourages them to handle the insects.
Apart from OKS (obviously) what would you recommend for family fun in the North West?
We are National Trust members and love visiting Speke Hall and Tatton Park – so much for the kids to explore and mine never tire of going back to the same place because theres always something new they manage to discover
Family raves are also a fun experience for both grown ups and children – holding the hand of your tiny one and dancing with glosticks to old club classics that you used to dance to with a WKD in hand is a fun experience.
Plus we love Just So Festival which is featured in some of these pics #teamfox
Finally, what can out OKS community expect from you at Haunted Hinterlands?
We will be providing fun Halloween crafts and showing you what tobag is all about
Tickets for Haunted Hinterlands can be found at http://www.ourkids.social
ourkidssocial.blog 