Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Bees & Community



do bees live in a city? he asks
yes, i guess they kinda do.
like the city daddy goes to?
yes, actually JUST like the city daddy goes to....


we start the morning off with a honey smoothie with yogurt & fruit.


emmett chooses pineapple & mango because bees like yellow.



we play a game where we go out and look for bees in our garden. 
for every bee he finds, he gets a wood chip.  
he then trades in the chips in for something special....


(i lead him over to the catmint because that is popular bee hangout)


though he tries to swipe more, emmett finds 5 bees.
he trades his chips in for "sun chips" a.k.a the health food version of m&m's.
i had to hide the bag so he wouldn't see where they came from...
(we ended up playing this game twice!)


emmett wants to color bees "with happy faces"


we framed emmett's drawings above our nature table.  
(he calls it the gallery)


typically on Sundays, we do things (or at least try to)...and that is bake and go into the "community".
luckily, we live in a place where we can walk lots of places ~ bookstore, health food store and emmett's favorite - the bakery
we got a flower cookie in honor of our theme :)


we made a honey cake ~ ~


this is a good cake for kids because it has lots of strong spices to smell...cloves, cinnamon & nutmeg.  
the house smelled strong and homey. 


when i picked out honey cake to bake, i hadn't realized it was a traditional cake in lots of cultures....poland, greece and a popular one on rosh hashanah.  
so we got out our globe to check out some of these far away places.....

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A Buggy Birthday Bash!

My little guy turned 3 this past week! We had a nature/bug theme birthday party for him....

The first thing I wanted to create were the favors!
We had about 7 kids coming.
I had been saving and collecting jars for a while and couldn't think of a better thing to to use them for...catching fireflies!

Using some of Meade's art work, I cut out big #3's. Luckily, I stumbled upon an old gift bag I received it had ladybugs all over it.
I cut out 3 lady bugs for each jar. Using the best stuff ever created...Mod Podge, I glued everything on. Last, we took a hammer and nail and poked holes in the lids so our buggy friends could breath.


Next, I wanted to make a shirt for his special day.
Using a plain t-shirt, embroidery floss and a sheet of felt.


Last year, I was inspired by Soule Mama to make a felt birthday crown.
Since I had my embroidery floss and felt out, I sewed on a third star...to mark this momentous occasion.



The day of the party we went to the tackle shop and purchased some worms.
We were fortunate to have a planter box filled with soil to put them in.
If you don't, a child size pool would work or even a clear spot in the garden.


The kids had fun digging for worms.
We encouraged them to go home and put them in their garden or compost pile. After a quick rinse the jars would be ready for collecting fireflies that night!



Another fun activity... a scavenger hunt for plastic bugs.


Simple brown lunch bags are great for collecting little treasures!


We had a rock painting station....
I decided to go with washable paint so the kids didn't ruin their clothes. After the paint dried, the parents went over the rocks with Mod Podge.



 It sealed in the paint to prevent it from washing off in the rain.


Lemonade disguised as bug juice....



Bug cookies for favors...( I wish I could take credit for the baked goods)

And at last...


Dirt and worm cake!


 signs of a good party....

 

Monday, June 20, 2011

ABC's

practicing our abc's is a daily activity for us.
(some might call it an bit of an obsession on my son's part)

so we decided to get outside and be a little more creative with what you can do with those 26 letters...



we hiked our favorite nature trail and walked the streets of our town in search of the most perfect rocks.




i painted each rock with a little white paint to highlight the letters.






i set this guy up with his own painting station,
equipped with finger paint, rocks, twigs and leaves.



we played a little hide & seek with the rocks around the yard...




he had fun collecting them and putting them in his wheelbarrow. 



a fun project that is a work in progress...
we are hoping to find something outside in nature to represent each letter of the alphabet!



a really easy backyard activity is painting with water ~~



we can seriously find any place to write the alphabet...
even while we stomp in puddles!