curtesy of FreeFoto.com
Yes, it’s me again — the reluctant crafter. If you have been reading this blog for awhile, then you know I have publicly admitted that I am not one of those wonderfully crafty mommies. I do my best — and my kids seem okay with my limited ability, in this area of Mommy-hood. However, they really do love crafts (even the really simple kind), so I often peruse crafting websites trying to find easy – and not terribly messy – things to do with the kids.
One Saturday morning, I was watching TV and there was a craft show on. It was all centered around fun things to do with the kids. The host of the show, is like the Macgyver of making toys for kids, by re-purposing just about anything (milk cartons, egg cartons, cans, butter containers, broken wooden handles, etc.). Some of the things she made — the boys would have broken faster than it took to actually make. However, she also had some annoyingly creative ideas as well. There was one thing she made that stuck with me and I just tried it the other day.
Nature Walk Craft
I am always looking for fun things to do with the kids — and ways to provide opportunities, to help them learn about the world around them. Admittedly, some days I am better at this than others. On this particular day, I was running out of things to do with the kids, they were wanting to do a craft (I couldn’t talk them into doing watercolors again) and we all really needed to get out for a walk. It was almost lunch/nap time though, so I didn’t have a lot of time to put anything together but I knew I had to think of something — and fast.
That is when this craft came to mind. It’s simple:
What you need:
- Sandwich bags
- Yarn
- A hole punch
- Construction paper
- Glue
- Take the sandwich bag and punch a hole at the top on either side
- Cut a piece of yarn and tie each end into a hole — this makes a collection bag. (The boys wore their collection bags during the walk)
- Go on a nature walk. This can be as simple as walking through your own backyard, neighborhood, local park, or taking a hike.
- Let the kids look at discover all the things they see. They will stop and examine items and put things their bags. I honestly thought the boys would stuff anything they could see in their bags, but they were pretty selective.
- After you are done with your walk — get the construction paper out. You can either let the kids glue their items on their paper, or (this is my favorite method) squeeze out a bunch of Elmer’s glue onto the paper and let the kids glue their items on. They did this while I was making lunch.
- Let Dry the picture dry.
This was such an easy thing to do, and I really had no idea how much the kids would love it. The whole time we were on our walk A. was singing “We are going on a nature walk. We’re going on a nature walk.” It was so cute. It was also, the first thing the boys told their Dad about when he got home. They had a blast, got some fresh air, good exercise, and made a craft like they wanted to.
It’s the simple things that make life so sweet. My kids have definitely taught me that! 🙂
Do you use crafts to make everyday experiences memorable? What other nature crafts can you recommend?
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