Image: sxc.hu

States,

 Encourage youngsters to go outdoors if there are safe areas around your home.  If not, see about taking them to a park , a nearby hiking area or national forest.

 Take walks around the neighborhood.  See how everything around you is changing with the seasons.  This also is an activity to engage in other seasons; compare and contrast what you find in each.

 Take weather observations from your home and keep a chart.  Research different types of weather, how clouds form, what causes the weather you’re experiencing, and even find some weather experiments to do.

 See if there is a nature center within easy distance from your home.  Plan a visit there and make it a half or full day’s outing, complete with picnic lunch.

 Do you have hiking trails near you?  Perhaps you live in the country and have places to hike right on your own property or the neighborhood.  We live on the edge of town, and the area around our home is wooded with trails over abandoned, overgrown  roads. These provide perfect places to hike and explore.

 Build a fort or shelter in your yard or on your property.  We live on 3 wooded acres.  The grandchildren have, for years, built forts or hiding places there, by themselves and with their friends.

 Children often enjoy camping out in the yard, or even on a porch, when the weather is welcoming.  My grandson pitched a tent on the deck last year.  He often used it as his get-away during the day, as well as sleeping there at night.

 What spring and summer activities do you engage in with the youngsters in your life?

Post from: Blisstree

Spring and Summer Parenting

What are you doing in the natural world around you this week?

*Working in the family garden…planting vegetables and flowers?

*Reading books about animals?

*Learning how to care for your pets?

*Exploring around your yard?   What have you found there?

*Taking a hike this weekend?  Or camping out?

*Catching fireflies?  Watching them light up a jar?  Then letting them loose.

*Watching ants scurrying along carrying food to their hill home?

*Lying on your back in the grass and looking at the clouds form all different shapes?

*Noticing the different shades of green on the leaves and bushes?

*Learning about thunderstorms?

Then searching through your books to learn more about these topics?

(Amazon image; click on cover for details)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

Post from: Blisstree

10 Activities for Nature Week at One Book Two Book

 Blooming in June was the focus of the b5 Lifestyles Channel theme day, hosted by Linette Gerlach’s Mother Earth’s Garden blog. With everyone mentioning blooming, flowers, cooking, or expanding your talents, the blogs have a great deal to offer for broadening your horizons this summer.

One Book Two Book, provided Have Fun With a Nature Station by co-blogger Karen Weideman. My other Lifestyles blog, Quilting and Patchwork participated with Bloom Where You Are in Your Quilting World.

What ideas do you have for June in bloom with your youngsters? 

*Planting flowers

*Planting a vegetable garden

*Drying and pressing flowers for craft work

*Learning the names of birds and their songs in your yard

*Taking a nature walk in a nearby park, around your neighborhood, or on a hiking trail.

Share your ideas with us!

(Amazon image; click for details)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
 

Post from: Blisstree

One Book Two Book Included in the Lifestyles Channel “Bloom in June”