Greening Sam and Avery

outdoor play link - fishing at the pond

Continuing the pond theme week with a trip to a different pond to do some fishing!

And then we caught our first fish!

After the excitement of our first fish we needed a break from fishing. So we went exploring around the pond. 

Have you ever stood that close to a muscrat before? It kind of made me nervous that Avery got so close but the muscrat did not seem to care!

Then back to fishing...

Woohoo! We caught a second fish. [Again please ignore the fact that my child desperately needs a haircut!] Avery did not want to touch the fishing pole but she did help me throw back the second fish. 

So, I have to admit that we showed up to fish with a bucket of worms that we dug out of our yard and a pole with one small hook on it. I was not very prepared as far as fishing goes. Luckily a very nice woman was next to me and she gave us a bobber, a different hook and several minnows to try. She also let the girls look at the dozens of fish she was catching (in the time we caught one she probably caught 10!). Next time we go fishing we will stop by the bait shop and grab some options. 

We ended the adventure with a great picnic, some more exploring and a little time to play at the playground. 

I can't wait to take them fishing again!

 

This Week's Feature:

Have a little one that is interested in the sky? Check out this great educational and creative idea from Growing a Jeweled Rose - Painting The Sky. Her little one really had a blast with this activity and I think my kiddos would too. Thanks so much Growing a Jeweled Rose for sharing this one with us!

Now on to the Party! 

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

outdoor play link - guide to keeping kids happy at a garage sale

I am no expert since over the last two days we have had plenty of tears, falls and at times crabby kids. BUT myself and several other moms have certainly learned some valuable lessons about how to keep littles ones happy while at the same time trying to make money by selling your stuff at a garage sale. 

So I am passing along our wisdom!

1. Keep them outside because it wears them out and leads to excellent naps! While a movie or tv shows might keep them happy for a while indoors it will also not use up much energy. And you won't have eyes on them while you are outside at the garage sale. Outdoor play is your best option!
2. Bubbles. Don't stress over the spills. Give each child their own bottle. Have back up bottles in case someone drops or spills immediately. Challenge them to see who can blow the biggest bubble, get their bubble to float the longest, blow a bubble while running, blow a bubble while spinning, etc. 
3. Sidewalk chalk. Tell the kids you need their help to attract customers. Have them draw bright colorful pictures along the sidewalk and driveway. Games like hopscotch, drawing the whole alphabet or tic-tac-toe can also be great ideas. 
4. Yard games. If your garage sale is mostly in the garage and driveway then hopefully you have some grassy area for the kids to play games like ladderball, washers, horseshoes, etc. Plastic kid versions of these games are commonly available at many stores for smaller kids too. 
5. Lemonade Stand/Bake Sale. Let your kids take part in the selling of stuff and have them make a little money of their own. They can decorate a cash box, decorate the sign, learn how to run the stand and then be the seller at the stand taking care of customers. 
6. Let them play with the toys that you are selling. Some people might disagree with this but old toys that your kids don't play with anymore may have new appeal when they are brought outside and suddenly up for grabs by other people. But be sure to tell them that even though they are playing with them right now they will still go home to somebody else's house today! 

We wanted to put up a sprinkler as well and I think water play could be a great way to keep them entertained but it was not warm enough for us to do that today. And it could be a pain if you don't have enough distance between the water and the merchandise. 

For some other great outdoor play ideas and some very cute poetry about outdoor play be sure to check out "A Stick is an Excellent Thing; Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play" by Marilyn Singer!

 

Now on to the party!

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

 

 

postponing a post

I am engrossed in garage sale madness today/tonight so my apologies but a post will not be going up for the outdoor play party for a few days! It is actually kind of nice to be SO unplugged. 

BUT if you want to join the party you should stop by

The Golden Gleam

Mama Pea Pod

Learning For Life

Enjoy!

outdoor play link up - nature discoveries

If you want your little ones to have an appreciation for the outdoors simply make some nature discoveries. In your own backyard just start looking around for the little things that are amazing. Creating a child that has a love of nature, the backyard kind of nature to the big beautiful mountains kind of nature, starts with showing them the nature that they walk past everyday. 

So head out and try a few of these...

look inside a nest, 

 lift up a rock, 

find a treasure, 

watch a bird catch a worm, (the birds were much closer to us, and we got to see one pull up a worm, but then they quickly flew away as we grew close)

create a natural restuarant, 

catch something in a creek, 

float something on a quick current, 

or simply dig a hole to bury something!

 

Feature of the Week!

I just couldn't pick. There were two mommas that rocked my world this week with their awesome play and inspiring ideas. Growing Play: One Step Further had an awesome competition going on at her house...who can stay outside the longest! Genius!!

  

And Frog, Goose and Bear had the most amazing camping trip! I would love to be a kid in this family. Who wouldn't love to have a sculpter in the family that can just whip up some great works of art on a camping trip? 

Go and check out these great posts if you haven't seen them already! Thanks ladies for linking up. You are going to have some outdoor loving kids that will turn into outdoor loving grown-ups! 

 

Now on to the party!

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

 

 

outdoor play link up - babies need outside time too

My girls are past the baby phase but I know quite a few women that have just had little ones or will be having little ones sometime very soon. So I wanted to share some of our outdoor play time from back when Avery was a baby. There can be more to getting your little ones outside than just walks in the stroller or times on the trail in the carrier. Try out something new and creative!

Encouraging crawling in the grass. If you little one does not like the feel of grass you can use some of their favorite indoor toys to encourage them to explore the texture of grass. Avery loved crawling around collecting her toys! 

Give them a new perspective! Avery loved being placed on her back in random spots around the yard to look at the leaves, play with the branches and just have a new perspective. 

How do you get your baby outside for playtime?

The Feature of the Week!

My favorite this week comes from Train Up a Child. I usually think of myself as a mom that is not afraid of messes. We have a mud kitchen, lots of places to dig in the mud, we play with playdough a lot and do painting projects. I try to embrace their creative messes. But this mom puts me to shame! Check out the awesome product her kids created when they were allowed to get REALLY messy with their body paint slip and slide!

On to the Party!

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

 

 

outdoor play link up - garden work, i mean play!

Our outdoor time this week has been all about getting the gardens ready! I am a HUGE believer in having my kids help me out in the garden and getting them involved in all stages of keeping our gardens healthy and looking nice.

So this week we re-worked some of our erosion prevention trench. 

Which invovled lots of digging, moving rock and placing rocks! Great fun for a four year old and two year old.

Then we created our brand new strawberry patch!

We had to rake bake the landscaping mulch, pull up the weed prevention sheet and then level out the area. We put in some new stones to create a little walkway and then placed the landscape logs to make it look nice! We still have to add stakes and a rabbit fence but that will happen after we get the plants in the ground next week.

We also had to do a little work in our veggie garden.

We had to work the soil a bit, add some of our homemade compost to the soil and then we actually planted two different kinds of onions already! Again the fence still needs to be added to this garden as well (rabbits and the neighbors dogs would eat all of our produce if we didn't put up fences!) but that can wait till the plants are up a bit more.

Sorry there are no in progress pictures of the girls helping me work but we were pretty muddy this week and that is not conducive to having the camera out there with us!

It is awesome how the chores that I see as work instantly becomes play when my kids are involved! Yes, they make the projects a bit more messy but WAY more fun!

This Week's Feature!

Love this idea from Train Up a Child and I can't wait to try it out this summer. Building with Ice Cubes

And you have to go over to the original post and check out what tool her kiddos used to experiment with ice melting!!  This mom kind of rocks my world! 

On to the Party!

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

 

outdoor play link up - keep them outside

With warm weather here it is time to be outside. All day. Just outside, no matter what we are doing, just being outside makes it a good day. 

So we eat outside. 

We go barefoot outside. Together!

And we make discoveries outside. 

Can you see the little beetles?

No matter what we are doing we just stay outside! Until it is nap time or bed time we stay outside. 

And this outdoor play party is giving me lots of new ideas to fill our outdoor time! Thanks for all the great ideas. Keep them coming!!!

This Week's Feature!

I would love for my girls to play at the place in these photos! You have to read this post and see the amazing playspaces that are captured here. The Best Playground in Perth by Child's Play Music. This is  a new blog for me and I am so glad they linked up. 

On to the Party!

A few guidelines for the party...

- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. 

- By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. 

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1

 

outdoor play link up - zoo play

Whenever we come to St. Louis my girls love to go to the "big" zoo! So even though St.Louis was surrounded on all sides by severe storms we headed out with cousins and friends today under clearish skys. With rainjackets and boots in tow just in case!

Some of the highlights from today...

Avery just loved the river otters.

And we saw babies!!  We loved how the baby elephant walked right underneath the big mama!

And look at that cute little trunk!

Then we saw a little baby monkey.

And here are two new things that I learned today at the zoo.

1. Let my kids go at their own pace. At one point Avery was lagging behind the bigger kids because she just wanted to stay and watch the otters. My instinct was to pull her away and tell her to join the rest of the group. But then I stopped myself and just let her stay there as long as she wanted. It occurred to me that if the outing is truly for them, then I should let them dictate how long we stay at each exhibit. What does it matter if we run out of time and don't see the whole zoo? I am often pulling the girls away from something to get them to move on to something else and I realized today that I should slow down more often and do things at their pace!

2. Use the signs. My niece is a beginning reader. She really enjoyed trying to read the signs and share the facts with us. And then my sister starting reading them first and asking Bailey if she could find on the sign where it said something, like where the animal is from or what it eats. Then Bailey would have to read the sign and tell us that specific fact. It was a great activity!

A great day was had by all. And only a few raindrops landed on us.

This Week's Feature

I have to tell you about  a couple of great posts before I share my favorite. Did you see the post from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots? We found the book she suggested, The Gruffalo, and my girls LOVE IT!

I missed entering this giveaway but the handbooks look amazing! Great review and post over at Mommy Labs.

But my feature for this week comes from Rainy Day Mum (someone that I have featured before! Her posts are just so darn good!). The reason I am featuring this one is because she is writing about what is absolutely my most favorite activity to do in all the world; hunting for spring! I am anxiously awaiting the day when I walk outside and see all kinds of green things poking out of the ground. We have so far been burying the few things that we have found because it is just too early but when spring really comes I will be hunting for those green leaves like crazy! And I can't wait to check out the book that she recommends.

On to the Party!

So I have noticed recently that a lot of folks that are linking up are not posting the button or letting their readers know that they have linked up. I would LOVE to share so many of these great ideas on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook but the rules state that you have to share the link up if you want us to share your post! So please be sure to go back and add the party link up!! Thanks everybody.

So for this edition, here are just a few guidelines for sharing:


- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. - By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. (If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.)

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1.

 

outdoor play link up - kids on skis

We took Sam downhill skiing! At first she was very unsure and Chris almost had to carry her down the bunny hills. But eventually she figured out how to lean forward, bend her knees and stay up!

 

By the end of the night she was so tired she couldn't stand up anymore! We had a great time and are hoping to get her on the slopes again very soon.

The one big tip that I have to share from our experience is that giving them an example to watch is a HUGE help. At first on the little hills we were just having one parent take her up and ski down the hill. But when we got her on a longer hill and I was able to ski alongside her she did much better. I was able to show her what to do by example. I said things like "watch me", "see how I have my knees bent", "lean forward like me" and "keep up with me!" She loved being able to "race" me down the hill. And it really helped to keep her focused and paying attention to what she was doing with her body.

 

This Week's Feature

I found a post linked up this week that gave some great ideas and I thought it needed to be highlighted one more time! I love finding new ways to take what would normally be indoor learning outside and this post offers some great suggestions. Check out Outdoor Literacy from Growing Book by Book. And if you haven't read her book suggestion you absoltely MUST pick it up!

Now on to the link up! We are welcoming a new cohost this week. So be sure to check out The Golden Gleam and the great outdoor play they are up to over there.

How are you enjoying the outdoors this week?

outdoor play link up - toys in the melt

Backyard outside time can be a challenge when your yard looks like this.

Which is why we have been going for hikes and to the park this week.

But backyard time is convenient and necessary for little ones. So, we got the sand toys back out. The left behind clumps of hardened snow/ice were a great challenge to try and break apart. And the larger piles made for great packing snow.

We also added a new element to their backyard play. Chris used a log we found by a neighbor's curb this past Fall. He cut the log into slices. They have been done for a while but I have been saving them for when the girls's needed a little extra inspiration in the backyard.


The tree "cookies" are great for stacking, adding to snow castles, plates for pretend food, etc. The options are endless!

On to the Feature -

I picked the feature this week because it really spoke to me about the power of outdoor play. Trails, Tents and Tireless Kids used some simple activities to change the mood of their afternoon. Not only can the outdoors work wonders on your children's mood but it can also do a lot to help calm the nerves of stressed and over tired mommas! Head over and see the great outdoor play that this momma used to turn a challenging afternoon into a great end to their day!

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us! Here’s just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

• Each week we will feature an activity from the previous week. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished