Learn About Nature with your Kids

Make a Nature Question Box

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This is a fun and easy project to do with your kids. Find a container with a lid, such as an oatmeal box, ice cream box, Tupperware container, etc., so long as it has a lid. Cut out Nature pictures from newspapers and magazines, and paste them onto the surface of the box. You can buy decoupage paste at any art supply store, but it's easier and cheaper to make your own. Just thin some good old fashioned white glue with water (about half and half). It'll do the trick! Use a paintbrush to cover the pictures. Let the glue dry, then repeat. Build up as many coats of glue as your child's attention span will tolerate (but at least three). Next, cut a hole in the lid of the box big enough to slide folded up pieces of paper through.

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As questions about Nature come up (as they always do when children are present), write them down and put them in the box. Once a week or so - or whenever there are enough questions in the box for everyone to pick one - have a drawing. Everybody gets to pick one question from the box. Each person gets one week to look up the answer to their question.

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Make answering the questions a family event. Everybody gets five minutes in the spotlight to share the information they have discovered in their researches.

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For example, here is a sample of the questions in our family Nature question box right now:

• Do boy and girl Blue Jays look the same?
• How do cats purr?
• How do ants help farmers?
• What is dirt made out of?

You get the idea. With children in the house, these kinds of questions come up all the time, and this is a fun way to involve the whole family in answering them. Give it a try!

It's Spring! Turn Off The Screen!

Now that spring is here, no excuses - time to get the kids outside! This from the "Green Hour" website:

Most adults of a certain age have childhood memories of carefree days spent playing outdoors -- climbing, digging, collecting, building, and exploring the natural world around them, at their own pace, in their own way.

Those children of a generation ago are the parents of today, and you might expect such outdoor play to be part of their families' lifestyle. But today's overscheduled kids are increasingly "plugged in" to electronic devices and media and unplugged from the fundamental and formative experience of nature in their own neighborhood. Their senses -- including, most sadly, their sense of wonder -- are bombarded, overwhelmed, and ultimately diminished.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen. Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts.

Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:

• Play more creatively



• Have lower stress levels



• Have more active imaginations



• Become fitter and leaner



• Develop stronger immune systems



• Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD



• Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.

In future posts to this page, I will share a bunch of great nature activities, crafts, etc. that I have done with my own kids over the years. The first one is:

Nature Collage

This is a good project to incorporate with a hike, a trip to the park, or even a walk around your backyard. Gather leaves, flowers, feathers, pieces of dried grass, etc. When you get home, arrange the things you found in different ways until you make a picture you like. Paste your picture down on a piece of cardboard or posterboard, piece by piece with little dabs of paste or glue. Parents - have a glue gun ready to help out the kids with items that don't paste easily, like acorns or rocks. If you use bulky items like these, it will be a little tougher to frame, so you might have to fiddle with the frame to make it work. Or leave your artwork unframed. The main point is to get your kids outdoors, and have some fun in the sun!

For more information about the World Wildlife Federation's "Green Hour" campaign, visit http://www.greenhour.org/.

Make a Bug Jar

My previous post gave suggestions for saving the squirrels, now my outcry is "Save the bugs!" You must think I'm a mad woman on a campaign to save the most annoying creatures on the planet... But they ALL matter, and they deserve to live out their lives, annoying or not. And they serve a greater purpose.

Insects perform a vast number of important functions in our ecosystem. They aerate the soil. They control other insects and plant pests. They also decompose dead materials, thereby reintroducing nutrients into the soil. All insects fertilize the soil with the nutrients from their droppings.

I know there's a lot of "ick factor" when you find a bug in your house, but did you know that renownend entomologist Edward O. Wilson, in his book The Diversity of Life, says, "If they were all to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months."

So, make a bug jar! Catch and release! You owe it to the planet, and to the future of all life on earth! This is an easy project, and kids love the whole bug relocation program.

Make a Bug Jar

Step 1: Find a jar with a lid. Poke a few holes in the top.

Step 2: Have the kids draw or color any kind of lable, but make sure it has a label! You don't want to mistake your bug jar for a jelly jar!

Step 3: Put it someplace that is easy to get to, because when you hear "SPIDER! - get the bug jar!" you need to act fast.

Step 4: Catch the bug/spider.

Step 5: Release the critter outside!

One thing to consider, leave the actual catching of the bug/spider to the grownups. Some spiders will bite.

The really cool part of this project is that it teaches kids that just because a thing is a little scary looking or ugly to your human eyes, you don't have the right to smash it. This is a huge lesson, especially for you kids. It also gives you the opportunity to study the bug/spider "up close and personal," safely, in a container. Get hold of a good bug identification guide, and make every "catch" a learning experience.

Help Hungry Squirrels!

Here's the Problem (from USA Today)


Squirrels scrounge for acorns across USA

The small or non-existent acorn crops reported in many parts of the USA, though unexpected, reflect a natural cycle, they say, and pose no reason for concern — unless you are a squirrel.

"I've heard from people all over the country with mixed reports on the size of the crop in different areas," said Rod Simmons, a botanist with the city of Alexandria, Va., where acorns have been in short supply this winter. Simmons said it appears oak trees produced small crops or no acorns in many parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. He said he also has heard similar reports from people in parts of California, Kansas, Indiana, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Read the rest of article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-01-15-acorns_N.htm

Now, Here's Something

Everyone Can Do To Help!

Even if you live in an area that is not being effected by the acorn shortage, this is a great family project the squirrels will appreciate!

Build This Squirrel Feeder

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Chris an Conor built these twin squirrel feeders in under an hour, using scrap wood from past projects. They each received points toward their progress in the Missouri Conservation Frontiers Program for the project, so they helped themselves as well as the squirrels!

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All you need is:

15" of 2X4 board. Beat up scrap wood is fine - squirrels are not picky about appearances! You'll also need a pencil, a drill, a screwdriver, a bottle of wood glue, 3 3" screws, and a few long nails for mounting. A vice can also be very helpful for pre-drilling your holes.

Instructions:

Cut the 2X4 into two lengths, one 11", the other 4". Butt the 4" piece right up to the 11" piece as shown in the picture. Mark its location with the pencil. Your going to attach the two pieces using the screws and a little wood glue.

Using a drill bit the right size for the width of your 3" screws, drill two holes through the 11" piece inside the rectangle you just traced where the 4" piece will go. The holes should be a couple of inches apart. Then put the 4" piece into a vice, lay the predrilled 11" piece over it, and drill again so that when you put the screws in through the back of the 11" piece they will secure the 4" piece as shown in the picture. Now run a line of wood glue along the edge of the 4" piece, butt the two pieces together, then hand turn your screws until they are tight. The wood glue is not absolutely necessary, but squirrels are well known for being ROUGH on feeders. That little bit of Elmer's will go a long way toward making your feeder darned near indestructable!

Now drill a hole in the center of the 4" piece. The third 3" screw goes here, with the sharp end pointing up. This is where the corncob goes. You don't have to wait for the glue to dry before drilling the hole or putting in the screw, as the two screws already scuring the joint will hold everything together just fine.

We drilled two more holes, both in the 11" piece, one at the top of the feeder and another at the bottom, underneath the 4" piece. We used the long nails through these holes to nail the feeders securly into position, one in a 4X4 post of our wooden privacy fence, and the other to a tree stump (NOTE: Do Not nail feeders into living trees!!! You'' injure them!). Feel free to devise your own means of hanging these feeders, but be sure however you do it, they're rock solid or you're going to find them on the ground every day. Squirrels are frisky, busy and quite strong little mammals - prepare for that!

I forgot to mention, you also need... CORN! You can purchase ears of squirrel corn (also called "critter corn") just about anywhere that sells birdseed. Twist the cob straight down onto the screw sticking up from the 4" piece of wood, and you and your squirrels are good to go!

Here's another picture, for inspiration!