As a life long New Englander I have grown accustomed to the dreary and cold Winter season. I made a sport of not so quietly pining and longing for the warmth of Spring. I would remain cozy and bundled up in my home for days without stepping a foot into the bone chilling Vermont cold. Sometimes my job put a damper on those plans but it was fun while it lasted.
I am now a happy mother of a two year old son and one year old daughter and they don’t like to be cooped up indoors listening to my caterwauling about the frigid weather. Spring in the Northeast is beautiful but the weather is unpredictable. Temperatures vary wildly and it can be difficult to spend time outside with young children if mercury dips.
I made a New Year’s resolution to spend more time outdoors with my kids. In order to keep my promise I’ve had to find some creative ways to keep my kids entertained outside during the chillier days.
I am not by nature an outdoorsy person but as a natural parent I make an effort to use our time outdoors as a teaching tool. My children are very young so the theme of our time outdoors is usually observation and child led learning.
My oldest son loves to collect pine cones and watch squirrels. He invents stories about the squirrels he sees and imagines the creative things they are doing with their acorns. I guide him with conversation and we discuss everything we encounter. I enjoy watching him process new information and it takes my mind off the sometimes not so pleasant weather. My one year follows along repeating the new words she has learned. She loves pointing to trees and tossing pine cones at her brother.
We recently made a bird feeder using peanut butter, shortening, pine cones, bird seed, and string. My kids loved setting up their supplies on a picnic table and making a mess with the pine cones and peanut butter. After we finished we picked the perfect bush outside our kitchen window for the bird feeder. My son enjoys standing on his stool and looking out our window each morning to watch the birds eat their breakfast. It is a wonderful way to start the day and we are learning how to identify different bird species together.
Forcing myself to spend more time outdoors for my children’s sake has been an eye opening experience. Almost everything seems easier after the kids and I have spent some time in the sunshine. We have fun learning and exploring together and the kids are exhausted by bed time. I enjoy the challenge of finding creative ways to keep the kids entertained outdoors and look forward to many more days spent exploring nature with my children this Spring.
Being from the Midwest we have the same type of weather! My middle child loves pinecones too, though he doesn’t want to make anything out of them, just collect em! LOL!
We recently gathered all the necessary supplies to make recycled bird feeders out of plastic water and juice bottles. We are using tree branches instead of wooden spoons for where the birds sit to eat the bird seed. We went and bought birdseed for our native birds and the kids get to hang them on our trees. We tried using recycled toilet paper rolls, rolled in lard/peanut butter with bird seed but our birds didn’t like it!
Thanks for sharing!!
[...] love Green Child Magazine. It is an incredible resource. Grab some coffee and click on over because I am featured today. I am talking about spending time outdoors with the kids and making pine cone bird [...]
I love the idea of the pinecone. I also need to spend more time outdoors with my little ones. This is a great reminder, thanks!
The things we do for our kids! (Also…love your photos.)
[...] Pine cone bird feeders are a huge hit around here. The kids have fun gathering the cones during walks, enjoy getting messy putting the bird feeders together, and Preston loves watching the birds (or greedy squirrels) eat from them. It’s an inexpensive way to spend time outdoors with the kids and teach them a little bit about nature. My kids’ major takeaway is that squirrels are tools. It’s a good lesson, they really can be and it’s best they learn young. [...]