Recycling Fun: Castle

 

    Perhaps one of the only "good" things about our consumer society is the never ending supply of crafting materials.  We have a big box in our bedroom full of open play crafting supplies, anytime that Chloe wants to do a craft she can have at it with what ever she wants.
      I realized recently that without a certain knowledge base a child may not know what to do with a material.  I know I talk a lot about letting kids explore and discover ideas for themselves, but this doesn't mean that guidance needs to be thrown out the window all together.
     So today Chloe and I collected all the boxes. toilet paper, and paper towel rolls from our craft box and set out to make a castle.  I made a pretty big deal about it being a castle, if she had chosen to go another way with it I would have followed but adults can do what they want to do sometimes to!  When Chloe does a craft I try to sit down and do it with her, this creates a nice hodgepodge of adult/kid work for our home.  Sometimes I am really proud of the toddler activity I completed!
     It was a lot of fun to see where Chloe would glue the tubes, but I really wanted those castle towers so I started to glue those on and she just starts to do the same thing!  She came up with the idea of making the castle look like stairs and she started an entire make believe scenario.  It makes me so happy to see the fruits of my labor come out in her beautiful little imagination.

What crafts or activities do you like to do with your recycled materials?  I can always use some more ideas!

Until next time on a Natural Parents Tool Box

UPDATE: Chloe has decided to collect all of the boxes and things she sees and wants to make a rocket ship!  She has been grabbing things and telling me what part of the rocket they will be for!

Nature Activity: Welcome Spring with baby birds

     Spring has FINALLY arrived!  This is my favorite time of the year.  I love to watch the green start to push threw all of the brown and when the flowers start to bloom my heart flutters like those butterflys we are going to see flying by.  But I think that my number one favorite part of spring is all of the baby animals!  I love to watch my backyard birds pair off and raise a family together.  Although it is easier for me to sit and watch the birds than it is for my little girl.  So the question of the day is:

How do we encourage an interest in birds?

I am pretty excited about this lesson plan because it is so easy to do.  As regular readers know, I love my books so I have picked a few as a prelude for this activity.

I bet some of you read this book in your childhood.  Its a little old school but still pretty fun.  This book got the Chloe seal of approval, I think we read it 5 times in one day!  I really like this book because they fit examples of what some birds use in their nests seamlessly into the story.

This small children's field guide contains wonderful full colored pictures.  Your child may have no interest in the facts it provides, but they will love being able to find the name of the birds.  Chloe will ask me questions about the birds we see and this book offers child friendly facts!

This was my favorite book out of all of the books that we read.  It shows a lot of different birds with a lot of different nests.  Along with a nice rhyming story there are some facts about the birds and their nests in small text that are really very interesting. 

This books age range is a bit wider than the previous.  There is only about a sentence per page so it can hold our younger listeners attention.  This book has some colors, numbers, and lots of imagination.

Nest Collector 

So the activity today is super easy and lots of fun.  You can jump in and explore with your child or set back and see what they come up with.  You don't need to have any materials because well finding them in nature is the fun part.

Today we are going to make a bird nest supermarket.  Try to look around and see what birds are in your area.  What do they use to make their nests?  Send your child out to collect a bunch of different nest making materials.  Find a sheltered place to put them so that the birds can safely rummage threw your stock.  If possible have it in a place where your child can observe.  Go back everyday and see what the birds have taken, if you feel the urge you can re stock your store.  (I am sure there are some business lessons in here).

If your child has a nature journal this can be a prime time to use it.  Chloe sat by her supermarket and a bird flew down several times to take something from the pile to his nest.  She was so excited that he came so close and that her market was working.

Let me know how it goes and if you have any more good books for me to read or a lesson plan for me to try!

Until next time on a Natural Parents Toolbox 

Nature Gift: Age 8+ "Field Trips"

     Are you trying to inspire the love of nature in a kid that you know?  This book is a great gift for the science and fact lover in your family.  It offers a great starter guide to exploring the natural world.  With sections on bug hunting, animal tracking, bird watching, and shore walking it is sure to catch the interest of any curious mind.

     While giving just the book is a good gift if you want it to be great consider adding some of the following (the book explains the uses of all of these items):

Bug Hunting Equipment:

                         Aquarium net

                         Magnifier 

                         Small Jars

                         Cardboard jewelry box

                         Tweezers

                         Flash Light

Animal Tracking:

                         Sketch Book

                          Pencils

                         Small Measuring Tape

Bird Watching:

                           Binoculars

     

       If you just want to get the bare essentials I suggest the Magnifier, sketch book, and binoculars.

A lot of kids are not sure what to do with nature so giving them a guide such as this can send them off into a great adventure!