I have just the activity to provide your child, regardless of age, with a relaxed sense of wonder–and of course it’s in nature!

Take your child outside and quietly explore a tree near your home. Trees are amazing plants that our planet and people rely on in many ways. Trees are also relied on by LOTS of wildlife, from tiny insects to scampering mammals (think squirrels!)

Perhaps you may designate your tree as a “thinking place” or a “quiet place.” Invite your child to chill at the tree’s base. Place a blanket or towel down for comfort, and maybe even grab a book or two. The idea is to have quiet time with your tree.

Explore your tree. There are many ways to do this!

• Count and track the number of species you see living on and around your tree. Start at the tree’s roots and work your way up its trunk, observing very closely in the bark, branches and leaves.
• Sit below your tree and just listen to it. How many sounds can you hear? Do boughs squeak? Do leaves rustle? Are birds present?
• Photograph or sketch your tree through the seasons. Hang your prints in a photo essay that shows the passing of time.
• Lay beneath your tree. Note the silhouettes of leaf and sky.
• Imagine your tree through history. How old might it be? Did other children play around it in past generations?
• Encourage your child’s imagination to drift, as she enjoys her quiet time with a tree of her very own.

Check out all of Jennifer Ward’s outdoor activity ideas:

• Week One: Let’s Go Outside!
• Week Two: A “”Bugly”" Scavenger Hunt
• Week Three: Get Out and Grow Some Bubbles!
• Week Four: Bird Nest Discovery
• Week Five: Handy Plants

Happy trails out in nature!

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

Summertime is an excellent time to take your little sprouts out and about for a seed search. Seeds have amazing ways of traveling, from floating through the air (think dandelions) to stowing away on a squirrel’s tail. It’s important for some seeds to travel away from the plants that they came from in order to find a spot of soil all their own.

Gather some stow-away seeds yourself!

• Get an old, itchy sock (the kind no one likes to wear or that’s missing a mate) or a knit winter glove. Have your child place her hand inside the sock or glove. Then, take a walk together outdoors.
• Seek out grassy areas or flower patches that are past the blooming stage. Have your child gently run her hand over and through the grass and across the flower tops. Experiment with a variety of vegetation. Soon, you’ll have tagalong visitors (seeds!) clinging to the knitwear.
• Take the sock or glove home and place some soil inside of it. Or “plant” it in a flower pot with soil, placing the glove just a quarter inch from the soil’s surface or so. Place it near a sunny window and water it. Then wait to see what grows!

See you next week!

Check out all of Jennifer Ward’s outdoor activity ideas:

• Week One: Let’s Go Outside!
• Week Two: A “Bugly” Scavenger Hunt
• Week Three: Get Out and Grow Some Bubbles!
• Week Four: Bird Nest Discovery

Happy trails out in nature!

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

Since spring, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to spy on birds nesting in and around my yard. There was the dove couple that made an unsuccessful attempt at a loose stick nest on a narrow ledge above my back door. And recently, the pair of Northern cardinals that successfully created their nest in my curly willow. She’s now incubating her eggs.

I love thinking about bird nests. Birds are AMAZING architects. They build the largest variety of homes of any wild animal species. Some nests are cup-shaped, some are woven, some are baskets, some are domes. Some rest, some hang, some adhere to the sides of walls and under eaves with mud and spit.

Just how do birds build such incredible nests? After all, they don’t have hands. No nimble fingers. No thumbs. Yet birds have the capability to build a secure, sturdy nest that can weather the weather, stand the test of time and support fragile eggs, often at great heights. Think about it!

Here are some fun bird nest activities you might engage in with your child year-round, and regardless of your child’s age.

Go On A Bird Nest Hunt

In the spring and summer, you might locate a nest based on bird chatter coming from a specific source (think hungry chicks!) Note: When you do observe an active nest, do so quietly. Be respectful of a nesting bird’s privacy.

In fall and winter, bird nests are easier to spy among bare branches.

Once you’ve found a nest or two or three, take note of their shape. Is each one the same? What materials were used to build each nest? Are they the same size? Discuss this with your child.

Consider the location of the nests you find. Are some higher than others? Are some easier to spot than others?

The Challenge:

Try to test your own bird’s nest-making skills.

Collect items in nature (such as grasses, leaves, twigs, fiber and mud) that a bird might use to build a home. Challenge your child to try building a bird’s nest with these materials. Try to create one yourself!

Even though we can use our hands, do birds have us beat in the department of nest building?

Happy trails out in nature!

• Week One: Let’s Go Outside!
• Week Two: A “Bugly” Scavenger Hunt
• Week Three: Get Out and Grow Some Bubbles!

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

With school out, summertime may find tween-age kids with extra time on their hands. This is the perfect opportunity to get them outdoors for some creative play.

Sound tricky? Well, it’s not at all when you mix your child’s free time with a little bit of fresh air, a little bit of soap and a little bit of water. I’m talking bubble making. But not just any old bubbles. Giant, GINORMOUS bubbles. Your child will have a blast experimenting with this soapy, cohesive solution as it mixes with air and wind. Combine this activity with an outdoor picnic and you have a certain recipe for fun.

Materials

Soap Solution

• A bucket
• 2 to 4 tablespoons of glycerin, which you can purchase from most drugstores
• 4 to 8 tablespoons of liquid dish soap
• Enough water to make a consistency that’s soapy, but not too thin or thick

The Bubble Maker

• 6 to 8 feet of medium weight cotton string
• Two wooden dowels, 1/4 inch in diameter and 2 to 3 feet long each

Knot one end of the string to the end of one dowel rod. Measure about two to three feet from the knotted stick and knot it around the end of the second stick, so the string connects the two sticks together. Knot the remaining section of string back to the first stick, creating one giant loop. (See picture below)

Making a Bubble

Submerse the loop of string into the bucket of solution, holding the sticks at the end where the string isn’t attached.

Raise the string out of the solution, step back and slowly separate the stick ends, creating a window with the string. Move your string through the air and watch as the solution catches the breeze, expands and grows into an amazing, “”ginormous”" bubble.

Tips for the Best Bubbles

• Create your bubbles in a shady place, if possible.
• Create your bubbles in the morning or evening, when the sun is less intense.
• Experiment with blowing bubbles after a rainfall. The moisture in the air will seemingly make the bubbles last forever.
• Experiment with popping bubbles. Use a wet finger. Use a dry finger. Which popped it more easily?

Until next week!

Note: Be sure not to spill the soap solution on the ground, as large amounts can harm plants and wildlife.

Happy trails out in nature!

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

Taking time to observe nature feeds my muse and inspires the stories I write for children. Since my post last week, I was thrilled to discover a pair of Northern cardinals building a nest in my wee garden in the city. What a treat to watch them in action! In my same tiny outdoor space, I observed a dragonfly perch still as stone, and then take flight with striking speed and skilled precision during its hunt. Observing wildlife in action is such a great way to relieve stress and evoke a sense of wonder, for kids and adults alike.

That said, this week I want to share another activity from Let’s Go Outside! that pertains to observing all that’s buzzing about with the warm summer weather:

“The Bugliest Scavenger Hunt Ever!”

Bugs are everywhere in nature, regardless of whether you’re a city dweller or a country dweller. I encourage you to take a walk with your kids and see just what you can find as you embark on a Bugly Scavenger Hunt.

The Materials

As with all the activities in my parenting books, materials needed are primarily sensory. (I like to keep things simple!) For this activity, you might take a pad of paper and a pen to keep track of the different types of bugs you find on your journey. It’s important to be a savvy seeker for this particular scavenger hunt, which is designed for you and your child to seek out insects and bugs and observe them closely, carefully and quietly, without disturbing them.

Scavenge Away!

Explore a variety of places. Flowers are a great place to find bugs with wings. Are there any insects flying around them? Seek out obscure and hidden places, such as tree bark, the underside of leaves and down near the root of grass.

Challenge your seekers to see who can find the most bugs from the following categories and classifications. Decisions will be subjective, so children and adults alike must be able to defend their choices. : )

Categories*:

• Largest bug
• Smallest bug
• Most beautiful bug (Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!)
• Ugliest bug
• Scariest bug
• Slowest bug
• Cutest bug
• Fastest bug
• Busiest bug
• Most common bug
• Best camouflaged bug (Camouflage is when an animal blends in with its environment. Ask your child why it might be helpful for an animal to be camouflaged.)
• Most interesting bug

*For each category, be able to draw its likeness, photograph it, or describe it in detail.

Basic Bug Classification:

• Insects have three body parts and six legs
• Arachnids have eight legs.
• Roly-polies also known as wood louse, sow bugs, and potato bugs (they have a lot of names) are crustaceans and related to crabs. You’ll find them in moist places.

Finally, here are a couple of societies your child may want to check into:

• Amateur Entomologists’ Society
• Entomological Society of America

Take it Further – Entomology is the scientific study of insects. Technically, it does not include the study of earthworms, slugs or arachnids. Did you know that insects account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms living on our planet?

Here are some great places where you and your child can find fabulous collections of bugs on display:

• National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
• Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California
• American Museum of Natural History, New York City
• Montreal Insectarium, Montreal, Canada
• Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada

Happy trails out in nature!

• Week One: Let’s Go Outside!
• Week Two: A “Bugly” Scavenger Hunt

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.

Thanks to Green Hour for inviting me to guest blog on their site. I am happy to be here!

Over the next six weeks, I will be sharing super fun and easy ideas from I Love Dirt! and Let’s Go Outside! to encourage kids to get outside and explore and enjoy nature, rather than stay cooped up indoors absorbed in video games and electronic gadgets.

I especially want to focus on nature related activities for older children, which is the purpose behind Let’s Go Outside!

Older children today have numerous factors pulling them indoors and away from nature. They’re more socially active and more involved in “everything electronic” and more independent with the use of their time. But the good news is as kids get older, the range of things they are able to experience independently grows–and so do the outdoor options.

That said, here’s an activity from Let’s Go Outside! that celebrates kids and nature and the abundance of animal life that’s out as well as about enjoying the longer days and warmer temperatures of summer, called “Toad’s Castle.”

It’s fun to attract wildlife to your garden and yard, such as birds and butterflies. But have you ever considered attracting a resident toad? Toads are such great creatures to observe. With their bumpy skin and stubby body, they permeate character. But even greater than their interesting appearance is their usefulness to your garden space. Toads love to dine on harmful, pesky garden insects. And as an added bonus, they will serenade your garden by night.

Materials needed for this activity are minimal, as are ALL the activities and ideas I provide in I Love Dirt! and Let’s Go Outside! So, without further ado, here is Toad’s Castle:

The Materials

• A clay flower pot, 8″ or more in diameter
• A hammer
• A patch of soil in your garden

How to Make a Toad Castle:

1. Use the hammer to break a section of the pot’s rim away. This will be the opening the toad will use to enter the house.
2. Break another opening on the other side of the pot. This will be the toad’s escape route, if needed.
3. Bury the rim of the flower pot in a portion of your garden. Pick out a spot that is sheltered and shaded by vegetation and not too sunny, and make sure the openings you created are above the ground.
4. Place a small dish of water near your toad’s house, because all habitats for animals require food, shelter and water.

Shouldn’t be too long before your castle fit for a prince, ahem…I mean, toad, is happily occupied. Your garden will be healthier, and providing the experience to be a steward to the environment will create a healthier, happier child, too.

Thanks for stopping by Green Hour!

Jennifer Ward is the author of I Love Dirt! and numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. She lives in Illinois. Learn more about her at www.jenniferwardbooks.com.