Nature Schooling

Invite Them to Create Their Own Play-Dough Habitats

I love a good invitation to play! I lay out a certain set of materials, perhaps make a few suggestions through simply arranging parts...

Simple Artistic Ways to Use Rocks in Everyday Play

Engaging children and tapping into their innate creative natures can be as simple as starting a rock collection. What child has not been...

Child Driven Creative Play with Nature Inspired Tinker Trays

When I first heard of "Tinker Trays" a couple years back I wasn't sure I what to think. Initially the idea of all of those loose parts...

Winter Solstice Ice Art

If you are following along on our Facebook page, you will have noticed that we have a Sun Calendar in progress right now. Every day is a...

Butterfly House

Butterflies have always drawn me in. I still cherish a book a picked up at my college book store on the journey of the Monarch butterfly....

Raising Little Naturalists

In the book “How to Raise a Wild Child”, the author, Dr. Scott Sampson, tell us that children today can recognize 1,000 corporate logos...

Excitement in the Garden

This is a picture of my son, picking his first "salad" from the modest garden we planted out back. Can you just feel the excitement...

Natural Cycles

vintage scientific plate. Out in the woods yesterday, the kids and I had some great teaching moments. With winter slowly receding, signs...

Nature-Based Learning: Crystals

No matter what age you are...crystals are pretty cool. My four year old has been enamored by them for some time now. Crackable geodes...

D.I.Y. Backyard Bird Feeders

We are working on turning our backyard into a bird sanctuary...one bird feeder at a time. Okay, so I use the word "sanctuary" loosely as...

Homemade Clouds

It is winter in Ohio and we are all too familiar with the gray wash that has become the sky. Many days we look out the window to see...

Advent Sun Calendar: Day 19, "Shadow Land"

As we prepare for the upcoming winter solstice I thought it would be appropriate to focus how darkness and light balance each other...

Advent Sun Calendar: Day 14, "Winter Sun Catchers"

I'm excited to share our winter sun catchers with you! Aren't they pretty? I'm actually quite enamored by them and love even more how...

Advent Sun Calendar: Day 12, "Beautiful Bark"

Usually December files by in a rush of stress and too many things on the "to-do" list. But oh no, not this time. Over here we are...

Advent Sun Calendar: Day 10 "Winter Light"

Doesn't this picture say it all? Being outside fills this girl with such joy! Today the whole family set out on a winter walk through...