Greening Sam and Avery

embrace the rain

It has been SO dry for SO long in WI that when the rain shower started you would have thought there was candy falling from the sky my kids were so excited. We celebrated the rain!

The camera didn't come with us because it was actually raining pretty hard on and off. But I did want to share a few of the things that we did on our walk yesterday. 

Of course we looked for, found and jumped in lots of puddles! But the girls also discovered that along the curb there are "little rivers" and they had a blast following the rivers to see where the water would go. (With slightly older kids this could lead to great conversations about how water flows down, what else might be flowing in that drain and where the water in the drain ulitmately goes.)  We walked down to our neighborhood creek to see how much bigger it was with all the rain and to throw things in the water. Unlike normal you could actually see some current in the little stream so the girls had a lot of fun throwing things in on one side of the bridge and then watching them float out the tunnel on the other side. Great floating v. sinking lessons! (Speaking of that, I have been meaning to link up this great post from my sister with an awesome float or sink experiment that they did, oh and check out the SUPER adorable photos she got of my kiddos last week. Just love have a professional photographer in the family!)

Next time it rains at your house be sure to encourage your kids to enjoy the rain, love the rain and even go out and have fun in the rain!!

outdoor play link up - our week of outdoor play

This week I tried really hard to have something new for the girls to try during our outdoor play time each day. 

Here are the fun ideas that we tried out (and the great bloggers that shared the ideas!) -

I made our first colored ice cube fun this week. And got the idea to make some ice boats from Mama Mia's Heart 2 Heart. 

The big blue one really worked out well.

The little ones that I tried, not so much!

And eventually we just needed to see what the water would look like when they all melted together so the girls grabbed a white metal bowl from our mud kitchen. 

If you make ice boats I would suggest making LOTS and not getting them all out at the same time. When these melted quickly in the 96 degree heat my girls instantly wanted more and I had not planned for backups! 

 

We also set up a "walk the plank"! I got this idea from Adventures at Home with Mum and her pirate themed party. Her set up is way more extensive than mine but the girls really loved having this new feature in our backyard water play. 

Both girls did lots of balancing, jumping off and Sam even discovered that she could swim underneath the plank! 

Here is the way I set it up. 

This Week's Feature!

This week my favorite outdoor play idea combines art, outdoor play and a creative way to avoid buying expensive wrapping paper. Check out FootPrint Wrapping Paper by Mulitple Mumy. 

Isn't that adorable and SO clever? Love this! Thanks for sharing!!

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

 

 

let's go catch something

Gotta love a post nap child that looks at you and says "mom, let's go catch something!". What else can a mom say but "OKAY!".  I was then instructed that "we will need nets, some buckets and our sucky things." HA! I knew right away she meant their new bug suckers. 

So off we headed down the street to our nearby prairie area and our local stream. 

Just two sisters on a walk looking for bugs!

We caught a few little water bugs and nobody fell in so the trip was a success. 

BUT the biggest lesson that we learned is that The Bug Sucker is not a good tool to use to catch bugs out of water. Before I could even suggest to Sam to not try to get the bug out of our bucket with the bug sucker she was already making yucky noises and telling me she shallowed something! HA!!  She put half the tube down in the bucket and of course when she went to suck up the bug got a mouth full of water. So funny. But she learned a lesson today and now we know to only bring those "suckers" when we are cathing land bugs! 

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

theme week - ponds - pretend pond play

Today we decided to play pretend pond. 

We grabbed a blue blanket and laid it on the floor. Then I told the girls they had to search the house for anything and everything that they think would live in the pond. 

They found lily pads, frogs, a turtle, a crocodile (okay, not a WI pond but it does live in water somewhere!), ducks, snake, lizard (not sure about this one but they refused to let me take it out of the pond. It is a bath toy for us so I think that may have been Avery's confusion) and lots of fish. 

Then I gave the girl's their fishing pole and let them go to town!

Pause for a personal complaint...do you think my daughter needs a haircut? Why am I SO lazy when it comes to haircuts for my kids?!

Okay, back on track. 

This activity was super fun because the girls went through their rooms, their farm sets, puppets, stuffed animals and everything else. They discussed where things lived and what they could add to the pond. It was a great activity for both girls to work together on. And of course they begged me to leave it up so they could play in the pond tomorrow too!

Now how can I build a forest in my living room...

theme week - pond crafting

We kept working on our pond craft today. Sam decided that the pond needed some plants next.

First we had to look at our pond books to see what the plants that live in ponds look like. We saw grasses, small leaves (duck weed), other tall plants and fallen logs.

The girls are both very excited to start adding all the animals that live in a pond. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to pull that off!

More pretend play and pond visits later this week.

theme week - ponds - pond class at school

This is the second year that I have taken a pond to Sam's school. I visit our nearby pond early in the morning and then bring a pool filled with LOTS of critters to the school yard for all the kids to explore at some point during the day. 

This year we started the program out by talking about what lives in a pond and listing off all the big creatures that we see at ponds. Then we read the book "Pond Circle" by Betsy Franco. This story is great because it starts with the small things, algae, nymphs and beetles. And then moves up the food chain to the bigger animals that live near and often visit ponds. I love this story as a way to learn about the little critters in a pond because you can really highlight how the story starts with the little things. That without the little critters there would be no story, there would be no food for the bigger things that we like to watch. 

The kids got the chance today to see up close dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, tadpoles, a leech, three different kinds of snails, waterboatmen and a predacious diving beetle. They learned all about each one of these critters and some of the things they do (who they eat, who might eat them, how they move, how they protect themselves, etc.) in the pond. 

It was an awesome pond day! Sorry no pictures to share, it is hard for me to teach and play photographer at the same time. 

theme week - ponds

I found out today that Sam is having a pond week at school so I thought it would be great to extend that learning at home and give her a pond themed week at home as well. 

My brain is bursting with ideas for our week :

• week long craft project to create a LARGE pond with lots of different types of objects and materials
• pond clean up
• kayaking on a pond
• books about ponds
• pond animals
• fishing trip

So, first thing tomorrow we will head to the library to find some good pond books. I thought I would share the list of books that I am hoping to find. Just in case any of you are hitting up the library first thing tomorrow too and would want to read along with us. 

Here is out list (the first two we have read before and I can already strongly recommend, the rest will be new to us and will let you know if I recommend them later in the week):

• In the Small, Small Pond by Denis Fleming
• Pond Circle by Betsy Franco
• Science in Seconds at the Beach by Jean Potter
• Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond by Mary Quattlebaum and Laura Bryant
• A Freshwater Pond by Adam Hibbert
• Song of the Waterboatman and other pond poems by Joyce Sidman and Beckie Prange
• It's A Frog's Life by Steve Parker, Robert Morton, et al.
• Box Turtle at Long Pond by William George and Lindsay George
• Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell

Be sure to stop back by often this week to see how our theme week is going! AND help us out with more ideas for fun and learning by entering the pond themed Link up! It starts today and will run for only a week so be sure to get your link up and share any posts you have that relate to freshwater ponds!

bring on the boots

Between taking Sam to school, doing laundry, packing the car and mulitple other tasks Avery and I stole a few minutes to go find some puddles in our boots! 

Our yard did not have the big puddles that it normally does after a storm (woohoo for rain barrels and new landscaping! shhh don't tell the girls that I am preventing their puddles!) BUT that did not stop Avery from hunting for them. 

And possibly the best part of having rain barrels is being able to indulge your daughter when she says "mommy can you make me a river?".  

With not much watering happening in the garden yet I knew we wouldn't run out of water in the rain barrels before the next rain storm. So why not make a river?!  

I mean really, what could be more fun then having your own little river to walk in? 

Our rain barrel makes play in the mud kitchen, water table, creating rivers, puddles and allowing the girls to water whatever they want whenever they want totally possible and for this going green momma comletely guilt free! I love that. 

Have you stomped in a puddle with your little one lately? Why not make your own puddle just for stomping? Get a rain barrel and you can make one whenever you want. 

Just wanted to check in to see if others were keeping up with the 2012 goal of playing outside everyday. We haven't missed a day yet and I am working really hard to make sure our backyard is ready for LOTS of continuous outdoor play this summer. I can't wait to get all my projects done and be able to share with you lots of ideas for backyard outdoor play to fill your summer days! Let me know how your everyday outdoor play is going. 

spring clean up

It was pretty nice this afternoon so we headed to the park. 

I brought some trash bags in our wagon thinking that since the melt has finished there might be some trash left behind that would need to be picked up. 

We filled two big bags, like this one, full of trash!

After the pond and park were all cleaned up we had some time left to play!

Love this park because big trucks and sand toys get left behind for the whole neighborhood to play with!

The puddles at the playground were awesome and still filled with some ice and slush. The girls thought this was very fun.

And then we found one little spot that hadn't melted yet but had a little stream of melt water running through it. 

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow, the puddles and just all around the park! 

It was great outdoor play! Have you checked out the outdoor play party this week? It is filled with really fabulous ideas.