Let the changing weather inspire new activities.
Depending on where you live, there may still be snow on the ground and bare trees overhead. But trust me—spring is all around you. The natural world is waking up, and the changing weather provides exciting opportunities for outside activities.
One spring morning, as we walked the dog before school, my kids discovered that our local creek was overflowing with rushing water, thanks to the previous evening’s rain. They ran to pick up fallen twigs and yelled gleefully, “Pooh Sticks!” This game, played by Winnie the Pooh in A. A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, involves racing sticks in a stream, and I played it with my parents as a little girl. Thanks to their grandparents, my boys learned the game too.
That magical April day was Pooh Stick heaven. We had one race after another, each of us dropping our stick of choice on the count of three from one side of the bridge and racing over to the other side to see whose stick would come through first. At the end of each race, the boys would shout, “Let’s play again!” Each time, we’d try a different size stick or wood chip to see which produced the most success. We all were having so much fun; the simplicity and joy of the moment was inspiring.
That night, when I asked each of the boys for three great things that had happened that day, the first for each of them was Pooh Sticks. So the next time it is raining, head for a nearby creek and have some Pooh Stick fun. Even if you’re by yourself, you can pick up two sticks and give it a go.
CreativelyFit.com founder Whitney Ferré recommends exercising our right brains for more creativity with a mandala or circular pattern made from any objects you find outside. Start your design from the center and spiral out with whatever pattern and objects interest you: leaves, pebbles, flowers—anything! If you find you love creating mandalas, you and your kids can also draw them over and over on the go by having a KleenSlate dry erase paddle at the ready in your bag (www.KleenSlate.com).
April is prime planting season: the temperatures are finally milder and it’s exciting to be outside, digging in the soil with your kids. If you have a yard, start a perennial garden. If you have a balcony, a stoop, a kid-safe rooftop, or even a sunny windowsill, go ahead and buy some plants with the kids and make a lovely container garden. Containers are great for growing vegetables and herbs too. Sprinkle lettuce seeds (e.g., mesclun mix) on top of soil in a container, cover with a half inch of soil, water daily in the sun, and in two to three weeks you’ll have salad for your dinner! If you start herb seeds inside on a sunny windowsill, in a month you’ll have seedlings for a Mother’s Day gift!
Check your shelves and closets and even the garage for toys and clothing that the kids have outgrown. You can get rid of these items with a fun outdoor yard or stoop sale, and the kids can help by making price tags and greeting neighbors who stop by, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. They may even want to make a lemonade stand! Anything that doesn’t sell can be donated to a charitable organization.
After your kids finish their juice boxes, find a puddle and float them like boats. Make up a story about their adventures. Once the children are done playing, they can write or draw a story about their adventure and tell you about it. What a great way to encourage their creativity!
Set up your art studio outside and be inspired by nature; you don’t even need paint. Food coloring and water makes watercolors. Freeze leftover paint in cups for another day. This great idea is from my friend Eli in Los Angeles, California. She always has homemade watercolors on hand for her three-year old, who loves to go out on their apartment balcony and paint the sunset.
Select a patch of ground, for example, that’s four by six feet. Remove the grass and weeds and mix the soil to loosen it. Take your kids to the garden center and select six plants together. If you go after dinner there will be fewer customers, which means more help from the salespeople. Tell them whether your new garden bed is in full sun, partial sun, or shade, and ask for the most fail-proof, longest-blooming perennials. I like catmint (nepeta) and salvia—butterfly-attracting, deer-resistant staples for full and partial sun in a spring and summer garden. Buy two bags of compost and two bags of mulch. Back home, let your children help you mix the compost into your soil. When the plants are in, place mulch in between the plants on top of the soil and water daily for a week; then cut back to every other day, then every three days, etc., until you are watering once a week (or more, during dry spells).
Want to know more? My Bloom Calendar shows you pictures of my favorite perennials, the conditions they require, and how long each blooms (www.rebeccaplants.com).
Use one bouncy ball to play four square, then bocce ball, then bowling. For four square, draw in chalk a grid of four squares; players stand in a square and bounce the ball to each other. For bocce ball, use an object as a target and see who can roll the ball the closest to it. For bowling, set out tall plastic cups or recycled water bottles and try to knock them over.
My boys and I have a favorite mound of dirt that we visit often. One day, they climbed up and called to me, “Mom, you have to come see this view!” I reluctantly climbed to the top and looked. To be honest, it was pretty cool. We weren’t that high up, but we had a completely different visual perspective of our neighborhood. Climb to the top of something together: a slide, hill, or dirt mound, and notice how things look different.
We’ve all heard of using walking sticks for stability on hikes, but what about a walking stick to help you jump farther? My five-year-old loves to find suitable walking sticks on the ground and uses them as a support so he can jump farther in the grass. Try it!
As soon as kids can walk, they love to blow the fluffy tops of dandelions that have gone to seed. My younger son loves to seize the opportunity to blow the seeds from the flower and make a wish. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, he’ll present the dandelion he picked and let me make the wish. Or we have fun trying to use our combined forces to make all the seeds float away at once.
Some trees flower before the leaves appear: pear, cherry, plum, redbud, dogwood. Find some flowering trees where you live. Note your favorites. You may decide you want to have those early blossoms in your yard. But more importantly, savor the beauty of those flowering trees. Take pictures of you and your family in front of them; have picnics under them. With roughly a two- to three-week flowering span, the blooms will soon be gone. When the flower petals do fall in the wind, dance under them and enjoy a beautiful shower of petals.
Once the family is suited up in rain gear, head out to the puddles and start jumping! You can rate your jumps like they do in the Olympics! The biggest splash, of course, is “a perfect ten.” But everyone will need to try many times to perfect their individual technique. And you’ll want to splash in as many puddles as possible, since the wave effect may be different depending on how deep or long the puddle.
This great activity from garden designer and writer Starla J. King was one of my favorite episodes of my TV show, Get Out of the House. Plant seeds and watch the bean vines grow through summer, creating the perfect hiding spot and a vegetable you can harvest for meals. Pick a spot that gets at least six hours of sun a day. Find five fallen tree branches or purchase six-foot wooden stakes and twine or string. To secure the stakes for your tepee, place them three to four inches in the ground. Mix new topsoil or compost around each stake to prepare for the beans. At the top where the stakes meet, use a rubber mallet to drive each stake further into the ground, then run the twine in between and around the top of the stakes and tie it with a knot. Plant a variety of “pole” beans (versus bush) that vine, such as Kentucky Wonder. Poke three to four beans around each stake, about one inch into the soil and cover with dirt. Water once a day (kids love this). It’s fun to check on growth every day. Sprouts will appear in one to two weeks.
When we think of spring, sometimes it seems that we go from “no leaves” to “green leaves everywhere” overnight. But really the transition to a full flush of leaves is much more gradual. Find a patch of woods and look closely at the buds on each of the trees. Then step back and take a look at all the trees. Typically, there is a layer of trees in the understory (underneath the taller trees) that starts to “leaf out” first, showing an ethereal dusting of bright green between the shortest and the tallest trees. Observe the trees over several days and see if you can notice daily changes. Have the kids document this process with drawings or photographs.
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a part of my kids’ routine take place outside, like snack time. I keep a picnic blanket by the door, and often I will proactively set up the blanket with snacks and let them know it is there to avoid any opportunity for protest. Usually, the kids will happily go to wherever I set up the food and drink. Rotate the spot around the house and have them find it. Put their backpacks or books there too and homework or reading outside can follow. No yard? Take your Outdoor-To-Go Kit and head together to your favorite nearby snack spot.
In April, birds offer many clues about what is happening all around us. Act as a scientist and start to observe and record the changes happening with the birds. Are they building nests? How are the birds interacting? When do they make the most sound—morning, afternoon, or evening? Which birds do you see most often, and what do they look like? Back at home, look up more information about the birds you’ve seen, based on their colors and markings and behavior. Here is a website to get you started: www.AllAboutBirds.org.
Even with their own garden, many kids want to dig over and over just for the sake of exploring. Consider setting aside a 2'x2' square area of dirt just for digging. You can keep any tools and accessories for the digging spot in a small basket or bucket by the door: hand shovel, gloves, and magnifying glass. Your child can return the basket to the same spot so they can find their tools next time.
In the rain, it’s interesting to see where the water goes. Follow it together. It may flow down a street and into a storm drain or, better yet, you may know of a nearby creek. Search upstream to find where the water starts to flow toward the creek. One rainy afternoon, my boys and I found a clear pond with lots of frogs that forked into two narrow meandering paths of water, which then flowed into a creek. We even came across a turtle enjoying the wet weather.
Puddles are great for noticing your reflection, and if you tap the water gently, you’ll see how the ripples impact the way your reflection looks. Even more interesting is noticing your reflection in tiny droplets of water dangling from tree branches and leaves. The convex shape of the droplet stretches your reflection. What else do you see while looking in the reflection of a rain drop?
Find a pond and visit it often. What do you see? Do you see tadpoles? In the spring, frogs call loudly at night, searching for their mates. Just two to three days later, tiny black specks appear in the water that miraculously grow into tadpoles in approximately six days. Over several weeks, tiny frogs will develop and make their way on to land, living in and around water.
There is something adventurous about crossing a natural bridge, whether it’s made from rocks in shallow water or a fallen log. Help one another cross by holding hands. Parents or an older sibling may want to try crossing alone first, to make sure the rocks or log are stable and not too slippery, before helping little ones across.
The third and fourth weeks in April provide lots of opportunities to think about our connection to the Earth. Planting is a great way for kids to experience firsthand how the Earth gives back to us. Have two or more projects, at least one for your family and one for your community, such as your local school. Plant a vegetable such as peas or beans or plant a tree seedling in someone’s memory or for shade on the school playground. Have the kids tell you what they have learned in school about taking care of the Earth and conserving resources.
This activity takes crossing a creek or log one step further. Invite your children to observe the natural landscape and design a path or route to explore. For example, your child might decide to climb over a log, creep under a tree, race to the third tree and back, and then touch the rock and you’re done. Then you’re ready to design more paths, and can discuss after you try them all which you like best and why.
Moist spring conditions create vibrant green moss and interesting fungi. We love noticing what is popping up along forest paths and in the yard. We like touching fuzzy moss too. The site www.Backyardnature.net has some interesting general information about moss and mushroom identification.
As the leaves fill the trees, it may not be as obvious that there are large sections or large branches that have fallen from trees. As you walk, notice fallen branches; see if your child (perhaps with your help) can find which tree a specific branch fell from by looking above for the broken tree limb.
Children love to dig up rocks. Do they all look the same? How is their texture similar? Go to a patch of dirt down the street and dig up some more rocks. How are those different? If you don’t know the topography and geological history of where you live, a series of questions on www.RockHounds.com/rockshop/rockkey can tell you what types of rocks you may be finding underground or about the boulders laying on top of the ground in your neighborhood.
One of my best memories of my husband with the kids was in a local park. The kids were out of things to do and he suddenly said, “Follow me.” It was almost a version of Simon Says where his quick decisions were designed to see if the kids were paying attention. The kids had to follow behind him and do everything he did, from running and then suddenly stopping, to circling trees three times and crawling under picnic benches, to flapping their arms. He changed his movements so many times that they never bored of it, and the sight had me in stitches.
Another routine to get out of the house that’s easy to remember is to stop by the park on your way home with the kids. Bring a snack along or pick up sandwiches beforehand for a picnic dinner. Keep a picnic blanket in your car and you’ll have everything you need for dinner, play, and homework outside until the sun goes down.
Gather sticks and make letters, words, or special messages such as “I love you.” If your kids are spelling, you can even play a version of Hangman where sticks represent the spaces for letters in a word. Fill in correctly guessed letters with sticks or use chalk instead.
Sometimes a routine path can get boring; find a nearby hill to walk up for an adventure and some exercise. The size of the hill you need depends on the size of your child. The smaller the child, the smaller the hill! Walk up, down, and around. Remember to take a bottle of water with you and maybe even a snack to eat as you chat and rest at the top.