Next time you head outdoors, challenge yourself to find those you’ve missed. (Maybe skip the bear though…)
Spring is such a fast season and if we don’t slow down and take some time to experience it, we wind up missing out on so much. When we’re mindful of the natural world around us, it’s magic reveals itself. Happy Spring!
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Spring rain may not need our help but all those extra toilet paper rolls do! Here’s a project that went right down the tubes…
Tape ’em together and get your dance on.
Gather Your Supplies:
Cardboard Tubes (Toilet paper, Paper Towel, Wrapping Paper, etc.)
Paper
Scissors
Tape
Tinfoil
Broom Handle or Dowel
1/4 Cup Dried Rice or Beans
Funnel
Things to decorate – Paint, Markers, Washi Tape, Feathers, Yarn, etc.
Grab a tube and tear a sheet of aluminum foil slightly longer than the length of the tube. (If using toilet paper tubes the short length will not produce too much sound, but you could tape multiples together!)
Gently fold the foil sheet into a flattened tube shape.
Grab a broom handle or dowel and wrap the foil around it to form a spiral.
Next we traced the end open end of our roll on a piece of paper. Around the small circle we drew a slightly larger circle. Repeat this so you have one for each side of your tube.
Then we cut the larger circles and cut slits all around from the outer edge to the inner circle. This helps the cover lie flat.
Next we taped the paper to the end of our cardboard roll, wrapping the flaps as we taped around the tube. I used a thin band of duct tape to secure the paper at the end.
Now slide your foil into the length of your tube and add your 1/4 cup dry rice or beans (a funnel helps!)
With your other paper circle and tape, seal and secure the open end. Now decorate!
We used washi tape, feathers, yarn and pipe cleaners to decorate, but use whatever you have and get creative!
A sit spot is simply a place in nature that you visit regularly. It can help you expand your senses and cultivate awareness while observing the world around you.
You can choose to do this outside if you wish, but with so many stuck inside, I wanted to explain this alternative option.
With practice, sit spotting can:
Increase critical thinking & focus.
Develop higher level senses.
Enhance sensitivity to nature.
Improve creativity & inspiration.
Promote mental & physical relaxation and mindfulness practice.
1. Create a comfortable seating area near a window.
2. Print out the FREE
3. Take a moment to talk about the different senses and how we experience them.
(i.e. Touch = feeling the breeze or sun on your body / hot & cold sensations)
4. Set a 2 to 5 minute timer for them to explore the 1st sense.
5. Set a 1 to 2 minute timer for them to draw or describe what they experienced.
6. Move on to the next sense and so on.
7. Encourage them to try to explore their senses in different ways:
Hear with eyes shut, with one hand over an ear, with hands cupped behind or in front.
Smell with one nostril shut, then the other.
See with binoculars.
8. Over the week, move the sit spot to different locations around the house.
What’s different? What’s the same?
Do you have a favorite sit spot? Have you ever sit spotted indoors or outside?
Let us know in the comments below.
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In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, put an Irish spin on a color matching activity! We’ve combined an easy arts & craft project with a fun scavenger hunt.
1. Print out the
(You can draw your own or you use colored construction paper to create links.)
2. Color each segment a shade of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) and color in
the pot of gold.
(Having the kids color each individual rainbow section extends the length of the activity, WIN.)
3. Cut out each of the colored strips or have your child cut them. Cut out the pot of gold.
4. Starting with RED, challenge your child(ren) to find something RED OUTDOORS.
If more than one kid is competing, they cannot claim the same item, they must look around for something different of the same color.
5. Once they’ve found a corresponding item, they can put the link together (use tape or a glue stick) and move on to the next color. Thread the link through the first and secure.
6. Keep searching until all your links and their corresponding color items are found and hung together.
7. The first person to finish their Rainbow Link first wins!
8. Attach the Pot of Gold with a small strip of paper taped/glued to the last link. Hang the Rainbow with some string!
Reward the winning lassie or lad with an Irish treat!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Let’s face it. This is tough on everyone. And it’s gonna be a rough couple weeks for families thrown out of their typical routines and cooped up at home.
Under these new circumstances, we may have no other choice but to spend most – if not all – of our time indoors. Yikes.
So what can we do? My gut reaction might have been to stock up on wine and white knuckle it ’til the end of the month…But then I remembered that lonnnng list of projects I had recently written out for Spring…*facepalm*
Here it was, my opportunity to do them all! No excuses, nothing but a wide open empty void just waiting to be filled.. (terrifying isn’t it?)
So let’s do this together shall we?
What is the Indoor Nature Connection March Mini-Course?
If we can help our children feel a connection with nature through education, excitement, and experiences, they’ll be more willing to get outside and enjoy it more often.
You may not know exactly where to begin but that’s where I can help. I’ve put together a mini-course that offers 7 fun and easy activities to bring the outdoors in and help make this “Great Pause” a little easier on us all.
Who Can Participate?
N. E. ONE.Anyone.
I know you’ve got time to kill. I know you’ve got kids tugging on your pant leg ready to tell you they’re bored AGAIN (and it’s only 9 AM). These projects are not complicated, I promise you. They don’t require a lot of set-up time and are adaptable for all ages. You will have the materials (or adequate substitutes) around your house. None of these projects require oodles of time or specialized talents.
The aim here is to get everyone engaged while maximizing simplicity and minimizing stress.
How It Works:
For the next 7 days you will receive an email detailing that day’s nature connection.
Each one is fun and easy and designed to do completely indoors with simple materials you probably have around the house.
The most important part of this is that we can bring the calming and restorative properties of the outdoors in – in to our lives, and into our routines.
Of course we encourage you and your family to get outside into nature as much as you can. If you have the luxury of a backyard or the ability to get into an open space from time to time, that’s a bonus! But we understand that for many, the current circumstances place restrictions on so many of us during this time.
At the end of the 7 day March Mini-Course you will:
Fill some time with a fun & enriching activity (go ahead and pat yourself on the back)
Spark curiosity & excitement about the outdoors.
Spend some QT with your kids.
Find a use for all those empty toilet paper tubes.
Trade some screen time for “green time.”
Are you in?
Enter your email below to sign up for our 7-Day March Mini Course.
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