Treasure Hunt

Summer wouldn’t be complete for any kid without some kind of a treasure hunt. While visiting their Grandma Linda’s house this summer my kids had the treasure hunt of a lifetime! It involved battling evil giants, walking through tunnels of darkness and finding the remnants of an ancient king. Sound too hard to create? Think again. Linda shared her treasure hunt planning skills with me and now I’ll share them here at Nature For Kids! Let’s start with the map.

How To Make A Treasure Map:   (that’s rad and looks pretty darn real)

Find a brown paper bag. Open it up into a rectangular shape. Tear the edges a little, then get it wet and crumple it up into a ball. Straighten the paper out and rub it lightly with a wet tea bag, a sponge with watered down brown paint or instant coffee. These first few steps will help it look OLD. Let it dry completely. Now *draw the map on it with permanent marker or fabric pens so it won’t run during the next step. After the map is drawn, very lightly rub the map with paper towels and a little dab of cooking or olive oil.  The oil makes it more durable and sort of transparent.  Blot the map between two fresh paper towels to get any excess oil out.  All done! 

*When drawing out the map consider replacing ordinary names with more mystical ones.

•  Garden - Forbidden Garden
• Pasture - Valley of the Beasts
• Shed - Den of Darkness
• Lilac Bush - Witches Weeds

Before the treasure hunt began Linda gave everyone a bag to collect items along the way, a water bottle to stay hydrated and a sword to protect them from evil creatures. (see evil creatures below)

Evil Nanny Goats in the Valley of the Beasts! 

Linda involved all the grandkids. One of the oldest, Brick, played the part of the giant. At 6′3″ he played the part nicely! 

 

She also made a tunnel of darkness by putting tarp and blankets over the top of the clothesline. 

This treasure hunt will be remembered for years to come I’m sure! Now it’s your turn to create one. Morph this one to fit your location. Draw a map of the area. Change the names around a bit and make up a story line. Write out an instruction book and have the kids do certain things along the way (like collect items, fight monsters, etc.) The real treasure is the experience in my opinion! Send in your treasure hunt experience with some pictures. We’d love to hear about it here at Nature For Kids.
adventure, outdoors, treasure map, summer fun, kids, activities for children, activities for kids, treasure hunt

Biking With Toddlers

If you want to know what the hottest things on wheels are, just head to my friends’ garage in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Andy and Adrea, parents of Elijah, Olivia and little Astoria (Story), have the dream bike setup for biking with toddlers.  

We stopped by for a visit over the 4th of July weekend and were in awe when we saw all the fun toys in their garage. There was an array of long boards, snowboards, bikes, bike seats, bike trailers, rafts, motorized scooters and more!

The thing that stood out the most to us was the bike setup they have for their young kids, a front mount toddler bike seat and a trailer bicycle. Our kids took a test spin with their dad. Needless to say they have some ideas for their next letter to Santa Claus.

Currently we have a bike seat for our toddler like this.

It sits right above the rear wheel. It has worked well but unfortunately my kids have to look at my behind the entire time we’re riding. Also I feel like the seat tips with each turn throwing me off balance a bit and leaving the bike back heavy. I’d really like to give the front mounted seats a try.

I’m sure the child appreciates the ride more when up front because it’s more interactive for them. All the weight is centered in the middle making turns and bumps easier to handle too. If you’d like to learn more about front mounted child bike seats read these two reviews done by the Gear Junkie.

The trailer bikes are a great way to get new riders use to balance and pedaling without having to worry about turning. My three-year-old couldn’t stop talking about his experience on the trailer bike. It’s the perfect size for those kids too big for an enclosed bike trailer but too small to ride their own bike.

Andrea and Andy took part in Jackson Hole’s Pole, Pedal, Paddle competition. They entered the family division and took their kids along with them! Take a look!

Now if this doesn’t inspire you Nature For Kids readers I don’t know what else will!

Check out these other wild setups that allow biking with toddlers, a tandem and a quad!

*Buying Tip

Be sure you buy an attachment (trailer or seat) that will fit your bike. Some bike trailers can’t mount to bikes with disc brakes. And some seats can’t fit on bikes with large center tubes, the ones between the handlebars and front forks. So be sure you keep your bike in mind when buying attachments and always keep your receipt!

Don’t forget about the flower child contest going on here at Nature For Kids. Send in your best photograph of your flower child to shawna@natureforkids.net. Contest ends July 31st.
outdoors, adventure, biking, bike seat, kids, outdoor equipment

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!
outdoors, campfire, camping

Adventure Time For Mom

Adventure time for who? Ohhh… MOM! Right!

As much as I love taking my kids outside and watching them experience the world around them, sometimes I feel the need for my own personal adventure experience that is tailored to my abilities, not my kids.

A couple friends and I got together for “Adventure Time For Mom” and decided to kayak down a fun section of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. We gratefully turned our kids over to grandmothers, babysitters and dads before we headed to the put-in area. It was strange being able to just jump in the truck without having to first pack diaper bags and buckle our kids in car seats. During the entire trip all I had to worry about was me. Weird!

We had enough boats for all of us thanks to kayak junkies Jinger and Yvonne. There were five of us, three of whom were pregnant (2, 5, and 7 months along). So here’s evidence that adventure doesn’t have to stop when you have kids, or even when you’re pregnant with them. Thanks for the motivation girls! 

As we got the gear ready two guided fly-fishing boats launched off on their adventure. Once we got going we quickly passed them and didn’t see them again for the remainder of the two hours on the water…in which I soaked up just as much as the sun as much as I could. It felt sooooo good!

We went over some fun rapids, beached the boats for a quick swim to cool off and weaved in and out of islands with only a few tip overs.  It was a much-needed rejuvenation. Whenever I allow “Adventure Time For Mom” I always come back a healthier, happier, energetic mama! So I encourage all moms, and dads for that matter, to take the time to go play without your kids on occasion.

I came across this women’s adventure based business while looking through my favorite catalog Athleta. The business is called Women’s Quest. They specialize in adventure retreats for women! I’m so going on one of these someday. They do bike tours in Italy, yoga and hiking retreats in Vermont, skiing and cooking classes in Colorado and a wide variety of other adventures. To get you ready for your next adventure check out REI Women’s Shop

Overall I think it’s important to take care of your kids by exposing them to adventure and nature but how can you take care of them if you don’t take care of yourself first? Have you allowed adventure time for mom lately? What do you do to rejuvenate yourself? Let Nature For Kids know by leaving a comment.

outdoors, adventure, mom, kayak, parenting

Where Food Comes From

Day in and day out my kids come to the dinner table and are fortunate enough to have full plates and eventually tummies. At times I get frustrated that they aren’t more grateful. They seem to think the food will just appear, just as the sun rises. I constantly find myself urging them to eat all their food, similar to Ralphie’s little brother from A Christmas Story… “Show me how the piggies eat”

I don’t believe kids can actually appreciate what they have, whether it be a motorized scooter or a chicken taco, unless they gain knowledge about it, or even work for it. I decided to give my kids a hands-on experience with the food they eat and share it with Nature For Kids.

We recently took a trip to Idaho and on our way passed bold green fields of potatoes, sugar beets, corn, wheat and alfalfa. My kids had the opportunity to learn where food comes from and how exactly it grows. Their grandpa is a farmer of over 500 acres in south-central Idaho!

When they dug up the potato plants their eyes widened as they counted the golf ball sized potatoes, each plant having 12 or more.

Their grandpa explained that the potato plant grows from seed potato. It’s a very healthy potato cut in half and placed in the ground and then covered with dirt. He then pointed out the rows and rows of sprinkler pipe that keep the fields irrigated.

In the Fall I hope we can make another trip to show them the harvest process. They will surely be surprised to see how their golf ball sized potatoes have grown to become truckloads of large spuds filling huge potato cellars to the ceiling. 

Later that same day, the kids helped plant corn in grandpa and grandma’s garden. Ideally I’d like them to be there to water and weed the corn and then a couple months later taste the fruits of their labor right off the cob.

Fortunately we’ve planted strawberries and a cherry tree at our house that they take care of willingly. Mostly because each time they water and weed there’s always a red juicy sweet treat to reward them!

For a family dinner, before we left Idaho, we cooked up loads and loads of french-fries from potatoes grown the previous year. The kids seemed pretty impressed with the results. Hopefully our dinner table conversation won’t be plagued with lecturing and persuasion any longer. Yeah right! I think their experience of learning where food comes from will help take the edge off though.

Everyone Needs To Read This!

I came across this interesting quote by way of Farm Aid, “Young farmers are becoming a rare breed: only six percent of American farmers are younger than 35, while the majority of today’s farmers are between the ages of 45 and 65.* Introducing children to farming and gardening at a young age may inspire a new generation of family farmers that will strengthen American agriculture and protect your food choices.” *United States Department of Agriculture, 2002.

ACTIVITIES -These are some really fun and educational food activities that you can do with your kids.

Where Food Comes From:

Here’s a fun idea I got from Kids and Cooking. After grocery shopping take your food and lay it out on the table. Have your kids read each label on the food products to find out where they came from. Then go to a world map and find the location of where your food came from. It’s a fun way to educate kids.

Fake vs. Real:

I came across this activity at USA Today. Ask your kids what they think cave men ate. Their response will probably be something like nuts, berries or meat. Explain to them that these types of foods are “real foods”. Then point out some “fake foods” or foods that cave men didn’t have like fruit snacks, cheetos, or jello.

 *picture from USA Today

They’ll probably catch on pretty quick. Explaining that real foods have more nutritional value than fake ones can help your kids make better food choices. You take this activity further by having them keep a journal of what they’ve eaten in the past three days and then circlce the foods that are “fake”. This can help your kids and you as a parent realize where you’re getting your nutrition!

Pick Your Own:

Picking your own veggies or fruit is fun and rewarding. Check out the blueberry picking post submitted by Becca Renfroe of Northwest Arkansas. Have your kids decide what they want to pick and then go to pickyourown.org to find a farm near you.

Plant Your Own:

Planting a garden would always be ideal but if you’re lacking the space for a full-on garden consider follwoing these step by step instructions for container gardening. Making your own pop bottle terrarium is also a space saver. Planting chives inside it is a great way to add flavor to your kids’ day and your baked potato!

Besides teaching kids where food comes from, do you have any other ideas on how to get them to appreciate healthy food more? Leave a comment here at Nature For Kids.

gardening, farming, food, plants, healthy kids

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.

Fourth Of July

This is a great country to live in, especially when it comes to the outdoors! Nature wise, within the borders of this country we have everything from tropical forests, deserts and frozen tundra. And we have a right to explore these all freely.

I’d like to give a shout out to all the service men and woman who have willingly worked to protect our freedom and land. It allows me to pursure my passions and raise my children in a world of endless possibilities!

not everything is perfect but it’s a blessing to live here. I’m grateful I have the opportunity to encourage Nature For Kids and I hope you all have a happy Fourth Of JULY!!!!!!

Old Glory music fading out….

Muddy Buddies

It’s time for another trail snack recipe! Today we have Muddy Buddies!

No, not this….

This…

It seems like I never keep the muddy buddies recipe available because I always think it will be printed on the Chex cereal box but it isn’t. So I’ll make a permanent copy of the recipe here on Nature For Kids for you and me!

Muddy Buddies

Melt in a large pot:

1 Cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 Cup peanut butter

1/4 Cup Margarine

1 tsp. vanilla extract

After it is melted and smooth remove from heat and pour in 9 cups of Chex cereal (corn or rice). Put 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar inside a large plastic bag. Once the cereal concoction is mixed nicely put it inside the bag with the powdered sugar and give it a good shake.

Place a couple hanfuls in a sandwich bag and throw it in your backpack!

Flower Child

Our first rose of the season has bloomed and thankfully it will be the first of many!

Here’s my little flower child Ava. Can you smell them? So Yummy!

Send in your best flower child shot and I’ll put your name in a drawing for a free Nature For Kids logo sticker and feature the pictures on this blog! Send photos to shawna@natureforkids.net. Flower child picture submissions end July 31, 2008.

Fishing With Kids

I have to admit I’m a terrible fisherwoman. I made several brave attempts at flyfishing and even went to the extent of learning to tie my own flies but after multiple dissapointments and gear malfunctions I threw in the hat with only two brown trout and a mennow under my belt.

However, now that my children are getting old enough to give it a try I think I should get back into it, even if it’s using plain old worms and spinners.

Our kids got to go on a fun fishing trip with their grandpa and grandma on the Snake River in Grandpa’s river boat! What fun Nature For Kids can be! They had so much fun that they’ve convinced me to make more of an effort in this fishing business.

Since I’m not the one to be giving advice on fishing with kids I’m counting on some hefty help by way of comments from all of you out there. Here are a couple questions right off the top of my head.

What are some good fishing websites?

Where are some fool proof spots?

Are those little kid fishing poles worth it?

How do you find out what the fish are biting?

What’s your best spinner?

How much worm is too much worm?

Is that last one a valid question? Anyway, enlighten me. I need all the help I can get when it comes to fishing with kids!