Tide Pool Sensory Play
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know I’m all about sensory play. We created a little tide pool from a discarded bird bath top (you could use any kind of container), play sand, pebbles, shells and mini sea creatures from the dollar store. Add water and let them play in their mini tide pool.
Ocean Layers Felt Board
My biggest boy and I made this scene out of felt scraps and it ended up being such a great tool to learn about which species live in each layer of the ocean. So fun!
Growing Overnight Crystals
My kids could not get enough of crystals at CC day and begged to do more, so we followed this lesson and they turned out amazing!
To go a little more in-depth, I set out all of our instruments with some labels and had my big boy try and group them into types of instruments: percussion, strings, brass and woodwinds.
If you’re looking for a good book that introduces little ones to the orchestra, we LOVE this First Book About the Orchestra and can’t recommend it enough!
This week was field trip week with Exploring Nature With Children, so we went to a local trail to search for tracks and wildlife signs. Luckily, everything in Colorado this time of year is super muddy – perfect for spotting animal tracks. We recorded what we saw in our nature journals and even played around with making tracks in Kinetic Sand.
Resources
You can probably find most of these at your local library, but we try to add our favorites to the shelf, because ALWAYS more books!
Tell me what you’re doing with your kids this week!
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
First, gather 5 clear cups or jars and line them up next to one another. Make sure you put down parchment or kraft paper underneath if your surface stains easily, since you will be working with food coloring.
Next, fill them up 3/4 of the way with lukewarm water.
To the first cup, add 2 drops of yellow food coloring. This will be the Sunlit (Epipelagic) Zone.
To the next cup, add 1 drop of blue food coloring, for the Twilight (Mesopelagic) Zone.
To the third cup, add 2 drops of blue food coloring, for the Midnight (Bathypelagic) Zone.
To the fourth cup, add 3 drops of blue food coloring; this is the Abyssal (Abyssopelagic) Zone.
We added a fifth category: Trench. Add 4 drops of blue and 1 drop of red; it should look nearly black.
Now, have your kiddos place one ice cube in the second cup, three in the third cup, five in the fourth cup, and a handful in the last cup. This represents the ocean temperature as you go deeper, and it’s really fun to feel how the temperature changes as you move from cup to cup! You can also discuss how the pressure changes as you go deeper into the ocean’s layers.
We also printed out labels for each zone.
To add another element of learning, we got out our mini ocean animals and the boys dropped each animal into the ocean zone in which they live. We had to reference our books for some of them – it was a great learning opportunity!
Let me know if you try this activity, and how it went!
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
Ocean floor sand and water sensory play
My high-sensory-needs little one especially enjoyed this one! We used a simple storage container, Kinetic sand (this stuff is amazing!!!), some seashells and mini ocean animals to set the scene. I asked my bigger boy to try and create a continental shelf, abyssal plain, mid-ocean ridge and trench by molding the sand different ways.
Mound builders and pizza dough
I gave the boys a chunk of pizza dough and we tried to replicate the structures of the early mound-building civilizations. Afterwards, we stuffed our mounds with cheese and pepperoni and ate them! #calzonesforlife
Picture Books
This week, our picture books focused on Black History Month and President’s Day.
*Make sure you read through these first before reading to your children, if they are very young. There were some heavy topics in these, so I’d encourage you make sure they are age appropriate first.
**You can probably find most of these at your local library, but we try to add our favorites to the shelf, because ALWAYS more books!
We follow the Exploring Nature with Children nature study curriculum and this week is field trip week! Our nature study day is Friday, so I’ve got nothing to show yet. 😉
But we will be taking a little trip up to Table Mountain, about 20 minutes away, to do some exploring of animal tracks, birds and plants. We will bring along our nature journals to record what we see, and of course bring back some “treasures” for our nature box.
Tell me what fun activities you are doing with your tribe this week!
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
Before you think I’ve got this whole thing figured out, let me just paint a picture for you.
About a year ago, we set out with a friend on one of our very first nature walks at a local trail.
“It’ll be fun!” we said.
Three minutes into our walk, my littlest one (who was two at the time) started clinging to my leg and asking for “uppie.”
“Uppie, mommy. Uppie! I want uppie! UPPIEEEEEEE!”
I didn’t have a hiking pack, my back was sore and I was not about to carry my two year old the entire time, so I said no. He cried and fussed for the remainder of the walk. The rest of the kids were hungry and thirsty. It was so windy, it was hard for the little ones to stand up straight.
It was basically a disaster.
I say all this to say – our nature walks are not perfect and wonderful every time. Some days, there’s a lot of fussing. Some days there are self-inflicted injuries every five minutes. Some days mom forgets to pack snacks and water and sunscreen.
You win some, you lose some.
That being said, here’s what I’ve learned over the past year to increase the likelihood of having a successful nature walk with little ones, and make sweet memories.
Set Expectations
This is probably the most important thing you can do to set you and your kids up for success. Tell them what the general plan is, what they are likely to encounter and what you expect from them – BEFORE you even get out of the car.
Are there hazards off the trail? Make sure they understand to stay on the trail at all times. Is it going to be muddy? Tell them beforehand whether they’re aloud to play in it or if they need to keep out. Is there going to be water? Can they play in it? How far can they wander from you? Are we going with friends who are a little slower-paced? When is lunch or snack time going to happen? Are we going to be observing a particular tree species, bird, reptile, etc.?
I find if children know the boundaries ahead of time things go more smoothly and there is much more freedom to play and explore.
Be “Just Prepared Enough”
I’m so helpful, aren’t I? 😉
Here’s my problem with adventuring with little ones – they need a lot of stuff but don’t want to carry any of it. So my job is to figure out the essentials and leave the rest.
For our family, essentials include food – either snacks or a light lunch – (because hungry kids are grumpy kids), water (we often share a big water bottle), sun hats or winter hats/gloves, small buckets for them to carry for collecting “treasures,” (I got tired of stuffing my pockets with acorns, rocks, etc.), a portable magnifying glass and our nature study supplies if we are going to study our curriculum on the trail.
One backpack for mama and that’s it.
When J Bear was really small, I brought my hiking carrier, which had a little pouch for other items. That way when he was tired of walking, I could stick him in the pack and still have my hands free. The hiking carrier was SO much easier than trying to navigate a stroller, or carry him on my hip.
Don’t Try to Set a “Destination”
Take some time right now to go ahead and lower your expectations. Lower. Lower…. keep going. 😉
Maybe it’s just my kids, but walking a quarter of a mile can take an hour.
Stop to pick up a rock. Stop to splash in a mud puddle. Sit down and draw in the dirt for a bit. Lean over the bridge and throw leaves in the river for 47 minutes.
For little ones, nature walks are about experiencing nature. Seeing all of the little bits and pieces. Hearing the sounds. Smelling all the smells. Watching the bubbles in the creek. Chasing the ants around with a stick. They want to fully immerse themselves in every. little. thing.
I think they might be on to something…
So try and choose a spot that has room for them to roam and explore without needing to actually “arrive” somewhere. There will be a season for accomplishing things, like hiking to the summit, but don’t hold high expectations when they are little.
To them, the little things ARE the destination. You may spend two hours on a trail and not really get anywhere. Embrace it. Learn from their curiosity and wonder.
Don’t Force Learning, But Make Space For It
We started following a wonderful nature study curriculum (Exploring Nature With Children), which is pretty easy to incorporate into our Friday nature outings. I’ll usually bring a printout of the lesson (it’s typically a page or two), our little nature journals , a few colored pencils and another resource when appropriate – like a field guide or our bird identification guide, something like that.
Sometimes we’ll see something along our journey that sparks interest and leads into the nature study for the day. I’ll read the lesson while they are exploring and maybe later we’ll find a spot to draw in our journals about what we’ve found. (Nature journaling post coming soon!)
Just having these things handy allows us to seize the learning opportunity when it arrives. Sometimes, it never arrives. Sometimes we are all too busy splashing in the river and building a dam to do a lesson on bees. And that’s okay. At least for us, following the spark of interest, rather than trying to force learning when they are engaged in something else, sets us up for a much better experience.
Try to Loosen Up a Bit
I’m preaching to the choir here.
I tend to cringe when my kids slosh through the mud, spread sap in their hair, pick up spiders, etc. etc. (Ahem, boys.)
Recovering helicopter parent, here.
I try to let them explore as much as possible without saying things like, “be careful!” or “don’t climb on that!” or “don’t touch that!”
It’s really hard to walk that tension between keeping them safe and letting them be wild and free. I mean, how can you really, fully enjoy playing in nature when your mom is firing off warnings every five minutes? I know I wouldn’t enjoy it.
So take a deep breath. Try to really, fully consider what the consequences might be. If they fall and get a scrape? Not the end of the world. Most kids tend to be more careful and aware of danger when they are playing outside, in natural surroundings. Try to let go and let them be little.
Lastly, Just Do It.
There are a lot of really important things us homeschooling mamas have to fit into the school week. It’s easy to push things like nature walks and nature study to the bottom of the list because they are so NOT measurable.
I totally get it.
(Sort of. I have a kindergartner and a preschooler so our actual “school” time is pretty short.)
But can I just say this? When our kids are little, what do they really need? I’m talking three, four, five, even six years old.
Do they really need to be spending hours on math worksheets? Do they really need to have perfect handwriting? Spell all the words?
I know all of us mamas have differing opinions on this – but here’s mine.
One of the major reasons we are homeschooling is so that our boys can have more TIME. We are fiercely protective of their childhood. We want homeschooling to give them more time to run and play outside, climb trees, collect bugs, play in the dirt – all of the things that they were designed, as children, to do.
Yes, they need to learn how to read and write and count. But these little years – they will never get them back. Childhood is fleeting.
So, for us that means playing outside is a priority, right up there with math and reading. It is an essential part of their development. Even if we didn’t finish the lesson plan for the week; even if the house is a pit; even if the weather isn’t great or we’re all feeling a little grumpy…
We try to make it happen.
For the most part, we make nature day a non-negotiable. It’s an appointment on our weekly calendar. If we don’t make it a priority, it’s too easy to let it go.
Do you make it a habit to regularly explore nature with your kids? What have you found helpful?
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
Hello again, friends. Last year I first read about the concept of Morning Time over on Farmhouse Schoolhouse and I immediately fell in love. Visions soon filled my head of what our very own Morning Time would look like:
*Everyone in their chairs, gathered peacefully around the table.*
*Delicious muffins and fresh fruit set out in pretty little dishes.*
*A candle flickering peacefully next to a vase of flowers picked from the yard.*
*A feast of beautiful poetry, thought-provoking literature, encouraging scriptures. Hymns. Composer study. Artist study. Shakespeare.*
Any other mamas of littles laughing their heads off right now?
Fast forward to this year and I realized pretty early on that I seriously had to readjust my expectations for what our homeschool day actually looks like. I have 5-year-old and 3-year-old boys. They are capable of focusing and sitting still for about 10 minutes, on a good day. Even then, there is a fair amount of drink spilling and fart noises happening.
I don’t want my kids to look back on their childhood and remember Mom trying to force them full of information and ideas. That is not our vision, nor does it kindle a passion for learning.
A few days ago, I read during my before-the-kids-wake-up-and-the-house-is-quiet time a little verse in Sarah Mackenzie’s Teaching From Rest (an AMAZING book and if you haven’t read it stop what you’re doing and read it right now):
Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land.
So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of Eternity.
Even if I can just pour out one drop of goodness, beauty, or truth into their hearts each morning, even if it’s just one poem or one song or one prayer – those little drops add up. That one thing matters. Those little moments add up into years.
How very encouraging to my mama heart.
Once I accepted our reality and let go of my vision for Morning Time, I scaled way, way back and chose just a couple of simple, quick items. So here’s what Morning Time looks like in our house right now:
We gather for breakfast. Usually, we have oatmeal, except for about one day a week when I make something really fancy, like muffins. I find that breakfast time is when the kiddos are most engaged – and it’s harder to make dragon noises with food in your mouth.
I put a classical music station on Pandora. Sometime’s I’ll point out – “oh! this is Bach,” but most of the time it just plays in the background.
First, we read a poem or two from our all-time favorite book of poetry for kids, A Child’s Book of Poems, by Gyo Fujikawa. (Side note: I never pegged myself as a poetry person. It never made sense to me. This book is filled with the most wonderfully engaging and rhythmic poems and rhymes – many by famous poets – and stunning illustrations. The boys are in love with this book and it has changed me forever!)
Some days I will find the same or a similar piece of poetry on The Daily Poem podcast, and we will listen to that. They are usually only about 5 minutes long. This usually doesn’t happen regularly, though.
Finally, we go around the table and pray – we each thank God for one thing and ask him for one thing. Prayer can be a tricky concept, especially for littles. (Okay, adults too.) My biggest boy said to me once that he didn’t want to pray because there were no instructions on how to do it, which is why we use this little format. It helps to give him a jumping off point. It’s been incredible to see their little requests often get answered throughout the rest of the day – such a trust-building thing.
That’s it. We clean up our breakfast plates and move on to chores.
The reality is, some days Morning Time is just one poem and then we’re off cleaning up a giant glass of spilled milk. Or someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed (ahem) and Morning Time doesn’t go peacefully at all. And that’s okay. Little drops, they add up.
I’m sure our Morning Time routine will change with the years – in fact, I have a whole list of ideas I want to include in the future. But for now, this works for us. Morning Time helps us start our day by feasting on the good and beautiful, and for that I am grateful.
“Teaching our children to love which is lovely will go a long way toward shaping our students’ affections and orienting them toward the good, the true, and the beautiful.” -Sarah Mackenzie
What does your morning routine look like with little ones? Do you have any additional resources or recommendations?
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
I have a little scientist. He’s only 5 years old and 4 feet tall, but don’t even try to tell him he’s not a real live scientist. Since I took physics for fun in college (I was an advertising major), I can only guess where he gets it from.
Ever since January arrived, we’ve basically been wearing snow pants. I guess the last few winters in Colorado have spoiled us because we’re all like… WHY isn’t the snow melting?!?! (Me, not the boys so much.)
Which brings us to snow science.
Here are some simple science lessons and activities that the boys were wildly excited about, and ended in building snow forts. Win-win.
Snow Science Experiments
What’s In Snow?
I got the idea for this from our town’s newspaper and it’s pretty cool. (And super easy.) If your kids eat snow ALL THE TIME like mine, be prepared to be grossed out. Sorry.
Grab three clear cups or jars, fill one halfway with water, one halfway with snow and one with ice cubes.
Put them on your counter side by side and note the time. See how long it takes for the ice and snow to melt.
Questions to Spark Discussion:
What does the ice look like while it’s melting? How about the snow?
Which one melted faster? Why?
How do the melted ice/snow levels compare to each other? Which one is higher and why do you think that is?
Now, take the jar of melted snow and look closely. You should see lots of little particles. We couldn’t identify them but read that they are most likely bits of dirt, grass, and even ash and animal waste. See, I told you – gross. (Upside – one of my children has not tried to eat snow since this experiment.)
If your kiddos are interested, they can get out their science journals and take notes and draw pictures.
Examining Snow Crystals
Did you know that what we typically think of as a “snowflake” – 5 sides, looks like a star – is actually a snow crystal? A snowflake is a cluster of snow crystals all joined together.
See, I bet you just learned something.
(Note: This one has to be done while it’s actually snowing.)
First, get a piece of black construction paper and put it outside for a bit to get cold. While you’re at it, grab a magnifying glass and put it outside with your paper.
Now spend the next 40 minutes getting your children bundled up in their 37 layers. I’ll wait.
Go outside and hold the black paper up toward the sky to catch some snow. You should get a mix of snowflakes (the larger clumps) and individual snow crystals which have broken off from their groups.
Have your kids examine the snow crystals (not the clumps) with the magnifying glass. What shapes do you see? Are there some with broken sides? Do all of them have 5 sides or do some have more? Are they all different? And so on.
When you’re done, go play in the snow since you’re all bundled up anyway!
My kids took the magnifying glasses and observed other interesting things around the yard – icycles, blocks of ice, tracks in the snow, etc. I *may* have watched from inside the comfort of my warm home.
Make Snow
Shout out to all my FL and AZ people! I’ve lived in both places and I might be a teeny bit jealous of you right now. 😉
If you live in an area where you don’t get actual snow – make some! I like this fake snow recipe because it’s easy and doesn’t stick to your hands.
Pour a 2 lb. box of baking soda into a large plastic container. Add one can of shaving cream, a little at a time, mixing it into the baking soda as you go.
Keep mixing with your hands until it is the consistency of snow. It’ll feel soft and cool to the touch.
Alternatively, you could make crushed ice by blending ice cubes a little at a time in a blender. This will look a lot like snow but will melt quickly if your kids want to play with it.
Snow Science Resources
I’m not big on buying/filling our house with all the things, but there were a couple of resources we used that really made the lessons come to life.
The Story of Snow, by Mark Cassino is fascinating and beautiful. I usually prefer to get books from the library but, in my opinion, this one is good enough to add to our collection. I think it would be fun to paint the different types of snowflakes and label them as an art activity.
If you’re looking to go really deep, this is a fun website that delves more into snow crystals, with lots of information on how they form.
And finally, our favorite read-aloud picture books to go with our activities:
Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton. We really love this one, but all of her books are amazing.
Winter Story, by Jill Barklem. We read this almost every day in the winter. Just do yourself a favor and get the whole Brambly Hedge series right now.
What snow activities or experiments have you enjoyed this winter?
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
Last week we made baking soda and vinegar volcanoes to go along with our volcano study with Classical Conversations. And since there was much begging and pleading to do more “fizzy experiments,” I cobbled together this sensory art project (the idea is from The Pinterested Parent) as a sort of last-minute Saturday morning activity and the boys loved it!
And anytime I can turn a hands-on art activity into holiday-themed decor – I’m in.
First, we traced hearts onto watercolor paper using a cookie cutter and cut them out. Of course, you can freehand this, but I’m horrible at drawing hearts. It’s a curse, but I’ve accepted it.
I would definitely recommend using watercolor paper, since the end result is VERY wet. I can’t see regular old paper (or even cardstock) holding up well. We use this paper from Amazon and it holds up fabulously (and is the best deal out there, in my opinion).
Place all your hearts on a cookie sheet. You can cover it with aluminum foil or parchment paper like I did to make cleanup easier. Or you can live on the wild side and put ’em right on the cookie sheet.
Next, get out a muffin tin and add a couple of drops of food coloring into each section and fill them halfway with vinegar, mixing well. Sort of like coloring eggs.
Then, get out your eyedropper. Or, in my case, rummage through your medicine cabinet and find an eyedropper-like syringe. What can I say? I’m resourceful like that.
Now’s where the fun begins. Give your little people a cup or small dish with a few scoop fulls of baking soda and a spoon. They are going to carefully pour a spoon full or two of baking soda onto each heart and spread it around with the back of the spoon until the hearts are fully covered. It doesn’t matter if there are small clumps or if it’s not even – it’ll just make it more fun later. I let the boys take turns choosing their hearts and spreading the soda on.
Okay! We’re finally to the action-packed part. Using the eyedropper, squeeze out a few drops of the colored vinegar onto each heart and watch as it fills with fizzy color.
You can talk about the acid-base chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar, or just ooh and aah over it while your kids make loud volcanic eruption noises – your choice! 😉
Right after you’re finished, carefully remove the hearts from the cookie sheet and place them on a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil to dry. You can tilt them to allow some of the baking soda to drip off, but this will change how the colors look.
The actual color after they dry is lighter and more muted than it looks during the reaction. We found that rubbing off some of the dried baking soda helped the colors show a little more vibrantly.
I’m sure there are many ways you can showcase these colorful hearts, but we turned them into a mobile. (Since I turn everything into a mobile. I can’t help it.)
Go get a stick from the backyard (or, better yet, send your kiddos out to fetch one), thread a needle with some string and have the kids help you string them up.
Just don’t leave the stick in reach of your dog, who’s favorite thing just happens to be sticks. Oopsie.
Add some smaller white hearts for visual interest, hang it all up and viola! It’s your new Valentine’s Day decoration.
I wonder how many more of these hearts I can hang around the house? It’s a nice departure from the transformers and legos decorating the floors.
Did you try this with your family? Let me know how it turned out!
**I’m an affiliate of Amazon, which means every purchase from product links helps keep this website going. I only write about things I’m truly passionate about, and products I actually recommend and use for our family.**
We are just your typical homeschooling, mountain climbing, nature hiking and soon-to-be foster family. 😉 Our house is noisy, our yard is muddy and you can almost always find a lego in our washing machine. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
I never imagined being a boy mom. But now I’m getting used to wrestle parties, muddy boots and spending my days trying to keep them alive. Our boys are complete opposites in many ways – but they are both wild.
We use Classical Conversations combined with a lot of nature study, reading aloud and hands-on art projects. Our homeschool philosophy is less is more. Less curriculum, more time for doing the things that spark creativity and imagination. Less bookwork, more time in nature. Less pressure, more freedom. I am passionate about protecting my boys’ childhoods and fiercely protective of their time to play. Playing is learning.
I created this blog to come alongside others in the journey to find adventure and creativity in the everyday ordinary moments. Thanks for stopping by!
