Leaf Rub

Nature For Kids says…get outside today and go for a hike to collect some fall leaves! Then get ready to do a leaf rub.

What you need to make your leaf rub:

• Paper
• Color Crayons (orange, red, yellow, brown)
• Leaves

#1 Take the leaves and place them under the paper, vein side up.

#2 Removing the crayons paper and laying it on it’s side rub the crayon over the top of the paper where the leaves are.

You can also do this with foil rather than paper and make a leaf indention rather than a colored picture.

There you have it! A beautiful leaf rub to display during the changing season. While doing this activity talk with your kids about why leaves change color in the fall . It’s a great way to encourage Nature For Kids.

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Pumpkins

With Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall upon us pumpkins are a popular item for baking and decorating.

If you didn’t plant a garden this year I’m sure you and your kids are looking for some pumpkins to pick elsewhere. In the Berry Picking story posted this summer at Nature For Kids  Rebecca Renfroe shared a great website with everyone, pickyourown.org. At pickyourown.org you can find pumpkin patches near you.  It also includes a list of holiday corn mazes!

So take your kids outside to hunt for pumpkins and breathe in that fall air!

Today at Nature For Kids I also wanted to share with you my favorite pumpkin carving and pumpkin recipe. Take a look…

I love Sunset Magazine. It’s full of gardening, cooking and decorating ideas that are just my style. I collect pictures and articles that inspire me. One of the pictures I collected was of this pumpkin owl carving. Have a hoot doing this one!

Now for my favorite pumpkin recipe…

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Cranberries

(now that’s a mouthful)

Mmmmm Yummo! My kids love helping bake in the kitchen, especially if it involves frosting!

Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

15 oz. prepared pumpkin

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. In a mixing bowl combine all other ingredients. After it’s mixed well add the dry ingredients slowly. Spoon into muffin cups 3/4 full. I use a mini muffin pan lined with paper cups for easy cleanup. My kids like the smaller cupcakes more and they’re great for parties. Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes (plus or minus). They’re done when you touch the center of the cupcake and it springs back.   

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

4 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1tsp vanilla

1 lb or 4 cups powdered sugar

Mix ingredients slowly then add evaporated milk until it’s a fluffy consistency. Place inside a decorating bag with a star tip. Start on the outer edge of the cupcake and spiral inward.

Candied Cranberry Recipe 

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cranberries

Prick each cranberry twice with a needle. Boil the sugar in water until it spins a thread. Put in the cranberries and cook them gently until syrup jellies. Remove berries one at a time and place on wax paper. Let stand until dry. Dip the berries in granulated sugar. Different from the picture above, I only place one berry on each mini cupcake.

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How To Color A Campfire

Want to put a spin on your campfire traditions? Nature For Kids has an idea…try adding some color! Your kids will love it!

You can buy packets of a variety of chemicals called Mystical Fire. You simply sprinkle it over the campfire.  Go here to buy Mystical Fire. It’s about $57 for 50 packets.

If you’re not thrilled about spending that much, head over to About.com . There are specific instructions there on how to color a campfire by using pinecones and simple store-bought supplies. They tell you how to get colors anywhere from green to violet!

Here’s a short video that’s a great example of how different elements can change the color of fire.

This is a great activity for kids. Have a great time! Oh and I would recommend not cooking any food over the campfire when doing this…you never know what could be going in there!
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Blowing Bubbles

Nature For Kids has another kids’ activity to share….blowing bubbles! 

Halloween items have hit the stores already and one of my favorite things to do is walk up and down the aisles looking at all the fun decorations and costumes with my kids. While browsing I found a bag of tiny bubble containers that have a little wand to match. I thought it was a great idea for handing out to trick-or-treaters. Some might think it’s a trick, not giving candy, but I think it would be a treat!

We love blowing bubbles at our house. It’s a great way to spend time outside in nature. I can remember blowing bubbles off our deck for hours, looking over pastures and fields, when I was little.  Even now when I see my kids laugh and chase the bubbles floating in the breeze it makes me smile. It’s very therapeutic.

If you’re not up for buying bubbles try making them. Here’s a great recipe I came across at I Never Grew Up

Best Bubble Solution

1 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Light Karo syrup or 2 Tablespoons Glycerin
4 Tablespoons Dishwashing liquid

Mix together and have fun!

Blowing bubbles…It’s a universal delight!

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Nature Box Activity

Last week here at Nature For Kids we talked about a great nature craft for kids…a nature box.

Here is a quick photo journal of how my kids and I made our nature box.

We found an old fishing tackle box in our garage that wasn’t being used.

I laid out all the magazines I could find and let them cut away with the stipulation that it had to be something they could find outside that wasn’t manmade.

I took the pictures they cut out and made a collage, gluing them onto the box with a simple glue stick.

The kids painted mod podge over the pictures giving it a nice finished look that will also help it last a long time.

The kids went and gathered their collection of nature stuff that has been kept in random places all over our house. They divided the squares up, saying whose was whose and put the items inside. As you can see we still have plenty of room.

Items in our nature box: pressed leaves, shells from the river, dried juniper seeds (ghost beads), feathers and coal.

If you don’t want to do this craft for kids while the weather is still nice enough to play outside save it to use as a rainy day activity. We surely have more rainy days to come in the future.

This nature box activity can be done in several different ways. Just use your imagination. As you can see our nature box is much different than the one I spoke about earlier on the post “Nature Box“.

Have fun with this and please, please, please email your nature box pictures to Nature For Kids by emailing me at shawna@natureforkids.net! I’d love to see how different everyone’s turn out to be!


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Nature Box

You know kids…they naturally want to stack things, jump off things and collect things! Here at Nature For Kids we’re going to talk about the later of the “things”.

My son has a special box he keeps his collections in. We started out with a tiny tin box but had to upgrade to a larger shoebox size. I constantly have to remind him to weed out the less important things that find their way in there. If he could he’d have a whole room dedicated to his collection. But since our house is only 1600 sq ft. I think you’ll agree that his collection must be secluded to one specific area.

After a summer of exploring outside we have quite the collection of sticks, rocks and shells.  Green Hour , one of my favorite outdoor web sites, gave a great idea for what to do with a collection of outdoor items…a Nature Box.  

I went to Google image search and typed in “nature box”. These pictures caught my eye…

Tami at Joyful Noise made this appealing nature box with her kids. It’s an old jewelry box. They decoupaged nature pictures on the top and then filled it with all sorts of nature goodies, including an impressive collection of egg rocks.

I’m so excited about this idea that my kids and I will be doing ourselves really soon. I’ll post some pictures here at Nature For Kids once our nature box is finished!

Some other ideas I came across include a nature table. Just lay it out for all to see. A secret outdoor stashing place is fun too. Just put your items under a tree or in a secluded spot.

How do you display or keep your nature collection? Share your thoughts here at Nature For Kids.  
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Gift Pots

Are you trying to think of a unique gift for someone? Look no further! Consider giving a gift pot.

It’s a personal and long lasting gift that grandparents, friends, teachers or anyone else would appreciate.

Items You Need:

Terra cotta pot, potting soil, plants, acrylic paints, paintbrushes, craft spray

Take the pot and lay it out on newspaper. You or your kids personalize the pot with paint. (For our grandma we did handprints of each grandchild and then put their names under it.) After the paint has dried completely spray with an acrylic craft spray to keep the paint from running if it gets wet. Now just follow the instructions for container gardening. And there you have your gift pot!

Do you have any unique gift ideas like a gift pot that encompass nature and creativity? Nature For Kids would love to hear about them. Just email me at shawna@natureforkids.net. 
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Castle Creations

Question: Hmmm…what do we do outside today?

Criteria:         Easy           Fun          Cheap

Answer: Castle Creations!

• Go to the dollar store and buy a container of little men (cowboys, Indians, knights or soldiers)
• Grab a bucket and some spoons
• Find an area with lots of sand or dirt that has access to water

These kids created their castle creations in a sandbox with kiddy pools close by. By the time they were done the pool and the sandbox looked the same…muddy! 

If you look closely at this picture you can see that the evil warrior got catapulted into the side of the castle because he attempted to overthrow the King.

VICTORY! The good knights recovered their Queens castle! Shortly after the mud monsters demolished the entire kingdom…

There are plenty of other fun things to do in the dirt. Check out these other correlating posts here at Nature For Kids…Dirt Boarding and Digging Station. Send pictures of your castle creations to shawna@natureforkids.net and we’ll post them here.
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Fire Starter

No I’m sorry, despite what the title says, this is not a post about rekindling your relationship with your significant other. This post is about how to make fire starters for a campfire.

One of my pet peeves is having my kids standing around the fire pit monitoring my fire starting abilities. After about five minutes of me scrounging, layering and situating I hear the little voices saying, “how come it’s not starting”, “Dad’s always starts the first time”, “You’re not very good at this huh Mom”. Then their dad comes in chuckling, moves a couple sticks around, blows a little at the bottom of the sticks and viola’ we have a heater of a fire! It’s so infuriating!

So I thought it would be good for me to share my new found secret here at Nature For Kids, which I got from my mom-in-law, Linda. A fire starter is something you simply put at the base of your fire and light. It stays lit longer allowing the wood and kindling to catch fire completely. 

Here’s how you make them…

You Will Need: Egg carton, utility scissors, birthday candles or wicks, large soup can, *paraffin wax, newspaper, large pot of water

*don’t be intimidated. You usually can get paraffin wax from your local Wal-mart. Any craft store should have it too. It’s useful in making inexpensive emergency candles also.

Begin heating pot of water on the stove on high heat. Take the egg carton and cut into individual pods, as seen in the picture. Set the pods out on newspaper. Have birthday candles or precut 2.5-inch wicks nearby. Place a brick of the wax inside a large soup can. Put the can inside the pot of hot water. (it will work like a double boiler system) Be sure it’s not too hot. You want to melt the wax slowly. Once the wax is melted pour into egg pods, careful not to overflow. Place a birthday candle or wick in center of wax. Let cool.

And there you have it. Just put your newly made fire starter at the base of your fire pit and watch that baby burn. This is a foolproof way to never be the brunt end of your children’s fire jokes!

Here are some other great fire starter options.

Don’t forget about the Nature For Kids logo sticker give away that’s going on. Just send in a picture of your flower child and be entered in the drawing!
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Pop Bottle Terrarium

I did this activity a couple weeks ago with the scouts I work with in our area. It was so fun that when I got home my kids wanted to do it. I thought I’d share it here at Nature For Kids.

A pop bottle terrarium is like a small garden that you never have to water. The water cycles through the soil, plant and air. The plant soaks up the water where it is then released through its leaves. It then condenses, forming droplets on the pop bottle wall. Then it drips back down into the soil and is reused by the plant.

What a great opportunity to teach your kids about the water cycle!

Here is a short video I made with my kids to show you how to make your own pop bottle terrarium.

After making our pop bottle terrariums we took a two week trip to visit grandparents. The first thing my son did when we arrived home was check on the progress his plants had made inside the terrarium. He was so excited to see that several little stems with healthy leaves awaited him.