"We can never have enough of Nature."

Is it weird I've been thinking of going back to school for a degree in Forestry?

Nevermind...

I've been reading this book, by Richard Louv:

It's a fascinating look at the deficit so many of our children face when it comes to Nature. I have been enjoying it immensely, and largely because it backs up so much of what my spirit has been telling me--that Nature is good for the soul--and good for so much more. 

Here are a few tidbits that Louv shares in his book, statistics from studies that have been performed across the world in a variety of ways:

*Children who are exposed to more natural play report lower levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and are often calmer in school settings. (This is spectral--the kids with the least exposure to Nature have the highest levels of stress/depression/anxiety, and even in rural settings, those with the most free range and space in Nature have the least.) 

*Children who have access to play in Nature have twice as many friends as those whose access to Natural play is restricted by traffic.

*Children who play in Nature are generally more creative, and are better problem solvers. 

*Children who have more Nature near their homes rate themselves higher in scales of self-worth.

All these things are backed up by quantitative data, and the anecdotal evidence is strong as well.

Richard Louv is the co-founder of the Children and Nature Network, and while visiting their site, I came across this:

April has been deemed Child and Nature Awareness Month. Lucky me, the weather has been cooperating and we've been enjoying nature quite a bit already! 

So, even though April is almost over, join me in celebrating what Nature can do for our kiddos. 

Here are some fun resources I have found and have been using recently with the beautiful weather:

http://kindernature.storycounty.com/default.aspx

http://www.naturerocks.org/

http://www.naturenet.com/ParentsThingsToDoOutside.htm

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749599

http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There/Activities/Observe-and-Explore.aspx

http://www.arborday.org/kids/

Don't forget, Earth Day is Thursday, April 22nd! I haven't quite decided how we'll celebrate yet, so if you have fun plans, please share! 

{Baking the day away...}

"In cold weather, it was no small amusement to bake..."


I don't know why I haven't done this before. I think I always assumed that Squirrel was too young to bake cookies with, but she had it down in seconds flat! She loved rolling out the dough, pushing in the cutters and helping to carefully place them on the pan. She especially loved the icing and sprinkles, which she devoured in great fistfuls whenever I turned my back.

We used the "Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe", and it really was a fantastic recipe. The cookies it turned out were sheer perfection. We rolled it out when it was very cold, almost solid, so that we could make thick cookies that were easy to cut and transfer.

Here's the recipe:
Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups all-purpose white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt.

1. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla.
2. When mixed, add dry ingredients and beat until even.
3. Cover and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour (or overnight).
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut shapes and place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 6 to 8 minutes. (Some of ours took a little longer--up to ten minutes depending on thickness.)


And, here's the photos!

Pushing those cookie cutters in is hard work! 

No small amusement indeed--baking was just what we needed when the Spring we thought was coming turned into an April Fool's Day blizzard!

{Nature Hunt}

"A few pieces of fat pine were a great treasure."

We actually saw the sun recently. The weather warmed up, the birds were singing, and it felt like spring was on its way in. Of course, just as we were starting to enjoy it and think the warm weather might stick around, it turned and the chill came back. In the meantime, Squirrel and I enjoyed a nature walk collecting pine cones for kicks.

She thought her pine cones were quite the treasure, as you can clearly see.

{Homemade Playdough!}

Today we took some time to make some homemade play dough. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, but now that we live in an apartment that has purple carpet (I thought black was bad...I assure you, purple is worse) and that purple carpet does not belong to us, I recognized that store bought Play-Doh was simply out of the question, even if I was feeling lazy. (Have you ever tried to remove that stuff from anything once it has dried??)


There are a couple of reasons I like the idea of homemade play dough better than the name-brand stuff:
1) Easier to clean up
2) Edible, in case my kids give it a try
3) No strange chemicals or preservatives like you'll find in the store-bought variety
4) Making it is half the FUN!
5) No wasteful/non-biodegradable plastic containers for each color of dough

So Squirrel and I made ourselves some play dough while Little Bird napped.

The recipe we used was as follows:

Home Made Play Dough
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt (we used Kosher salt because it's all I keep here, but it worked fine!)
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp oil
1 cup water
1 package Kool-Aid {we used lemon lime (green), cherry (red), lemon (yellow), blue raspberry (blue)}
***Just an FYI in case you are like the Mister, and have never bought it--cream of tartar is actually a powder, located by the spices, and not a sauce for dipping fish in!***

Make sure to look insane/slightly evil when gathering your ingredients...

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium sauce pan. Then mix the water and oil together in a measuring cup. Place dry ingredients on stove at medium heat. Add water/oil and stir continuously until a ball forms. {It really will happen. It will get lumpy first. The first attempt got me a little frustrated because it was getting lumpy and I was trying to beat the lumps out, but then like magic everything smoothed out and I had a perfect mound of play dough--cool!}

 

 Next, knead the dough until cool enough to touch/play. (Or, let your toddler pound the life out of it with two wooden spoons until cool enough to touch/play.)

One other added benefit to this version of play dough--it smells so yummy! Instead of that strange commercial smell {okay, I admit it...I actually love the smell of name-brand Play-Doh, as weird as it is, but I digress}, these play doughs actually smell like the flavor of Kool-Aid you use.

{Sniiiiff!}

 

Once you have gathered, stirred, cooked, pounded, and sniffed, it's time to play! {I only handed over about 1/3 of each ball--any leftovers will store in the fridge in an airtight container for about 3 months.}

 

  

 {Making snakes}

  

{Little Bird wakes up and wants in on the action.}

  

  

{Notice it did not always stay as nicely separated.}

 

Overall, a very fun way to spend a morning indeed!

And hey, did I mention this stuff smells good?