Creative Family Fun

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Nature Activities for Kids

I Love Dirt: Zoom In and Get Up Close

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After hearing so many good things about I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature by Jennifer Ward, I knew I had to track down a copy.The book promises 52 activities to help you and your kids discover the wonders of nature.

The activities are divided by season and are simple and effective. I found several ideas for the girls and I to do and was very interested in the winter section since that’s the time of year I avoid being outside as much as possible. I need all the help I can get when it comes to outdoor play in wintertime!

We took a cue from chapter 29, Zoom In, and took our magnifying glass outside. We headed to our sunflowers to take a look around.

I encouraged Lizzie to look all around to see if she discovered anything. I had also given her a small notebook and crayons so she could draw some of the different things she found.

She had a lot of fun looking at everything up close and was quite excited when she discovered a group of tiny ants crawling up the stalk.It was wonderful to see her excitement since she’s always been terrified of insects!

Whenever she found something that really interested her, she sat down and tried her hand at drawing it. She was quite the little explorer and moved on to other areas of our yard once she was finished with the sunflowers.

If you need a push outside or just some new ideas for studying nature, pick up a copy of I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature. It’s a wonderful book of ideas.

Rock Collecting & A Rock Journal

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The girls and I went on a rock collecting adventure a couple of days ago. It was on our summer bucket list, so it was definitely something I was preparing to do. After running various ideas through my head about where to take them, I ended up with the most simple idea of all… walking through our own neighborhood. We had a lot of fun wandering around and enjoying each others company.

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We turned our trip into an art project. I made each of the girls an art journal and we took those along and a bag of crayons. I taught Lizzie to do rock rubbings and she was soon a girl on a mission, running around, finding rocks, then doing a rubbing.If you want to make your own rock journals, you can print out the cover here. It prints out on 8.5 x11 inch paper and then you fold in half for the front and back. I found it works best on card stock, but any paper would work, so don’t let that stop you! Then add as many interior pages as you want, I used two pieces of paper per journal, which was 4 pages. I didn’t want too many pages to make it overwhelming for my girls.

To hold the pages together I used embroidery thread. I used one continuous thread, sewing through the top, then through the bottom. I left the ends on the outside of the journal, so I could tie them together. (You could also staple!)

So head out and look for rocks! Use the journal to record observations, practice drawing rocks or make rubbings like we did. Turn your trip into a scavenger hunt and search for specific colors, sizes or shapes of rocks. Bring some home and create with them. Here are a few fun projects I’ve seen lately.

Make alphabet rocks like these from Momtastic.
How about some cute ladybug rocks? Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas shows you how.
Education.com shows you how to make a painted rock mosaic.

Go out, hunt rocks and have fun!