Nature Play!

Last week we had a wonderful time enjoying the awesome weather that we were Blessed with!!! As soon as  I picked up the last child from school, we headed to the park with a pre packed picnic snack! It was pretty windy and still semi chilly (winter coats), but it was nice enough after a Northern Illinois winter!!

We started by getting our Nature Goodies out of our bag (Collection box for treasures, specimen jar, magnifying glass, tweezers) and sat on a blanket (I always keep an old comforter in my trunk) to snack and read:

 We're Going on a Nature Hunt

After that we headed out and everyone was able to examine what they wished, collect what they thought would look great on our nature table. 

When they were through with that, I opened up our travel case of play scarves and grabbed their walking sticks and we made some kites, tents, flags, blankets, bridges...etc. I'm a huge fan of Waldorf Learning and love their play silks! I don't follow Waldorf, just enjoy many of their pieces. Whenever I go to tag sales, garage sales, thrift stores, I pick up scarves that are under .50 and keep them in this small vintage travel case. The kids ALWAYS have a blast with them and get so creative!! We have about 15 scarves and always collecting more. It's amazing to see what kids can come up with! They have been aprons, dresses, baby carriers, party decorations, curtains and so much more.

I recently found these diving rings in the 1.00 spot at TARGET and knew that they were PERFECT for the scarf box! They work when there are no sticks available and have been known to hold multiple thin scarves as a ribbon train and used alone for an impromptu ring toss game in the park when they put sticks in the ground! A child's imagination is endless!!

What is something that you never thought your kids would play with so much? Share in the comments please!!

~Michelle!~