I don't want to encourage the purchasing of a ton of gear to be able to do the activities, projects and anything else that I may do on the blog. Hopefully most of the tools that I use you will already have in your home. But there may be a few things that I suggest that could be worthwhile to seek out and get for your family.
I have an old backpack that I keep all of our tools in. The backpack with everything in it doesn't often leave the house, but it makes it easier to find the items that I want for different activities if they are all kept in one place at home; the backpack just works as a good storage method.
Here is what Sam, Avery and I have in our adventure backpack and then other tools that I think might be helpful:
kid binoculars! Sam loves these things. She uses them all the time and not just for nature related or outside activities but for all kinds of pretend play as well. I think this specific pair came home with us on accident from Grandma's house (sorry cousins Bailey and Parker if this belonged to one of you!) but you can find kid binoculars at a lot of places and outdoor sporting good stores will have the more high tech expensive ones (obviously Sam is not ready for anything other then the pink, butterfly kind!!).
This next picture shows a
critter grabber and a color wheel. Both made up terms! The critter
grabber on the right is just a good tool for picking up insects
carefully without having to touch them or fear squishing them. It also
lets you look at them more closely. A plastic spoon can serve almost the
same purpose! We found this fancy one at our local zoo! The color
wheel is a tool that can be helpful with different color related
activities, scavenger hunts or games. This one is made from paint color
samples that I got from a hardware store.
We also have a couple of
different magnifying glasses (also purchased at our local zoo, but I
think stores like Target have these or for the really good kid friendly
kind visit Acorn Naturalists store online!), a cloth bog for collecting
things, a glass jar for looking at live things, a kid-friendly plant
press (blog post about how to make this will be coming soon!), a large
net and a big piece of sturdy cardboard (we use this to put things on to
watch them move or as a flat writing surface outside.
Other must have tools for an adventure bag would be a library card (this is a definite MUST!), kid and adult identification books (these you can get from the library once you have the card!), a camera to capture all the fun adventures and then all the necessary things to make outdoor play possibly (water bottle, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.)!
