Tips – Page 4 – Kids Discover Nature

13 Cool Things to Do with Snow

by Jodi Valenta

Mid-winter presents challenges when you are a parent with the goal of spending time with your kids outside everyday. Luckily, with all the snow also comes a host of new opportunities for fun. It is easy to find creative ways to play even with piles of snow in your yard — they can become an awesome new snow slide.

Following is a list of some creative ways to have fun in the snow. They are perfect activities for when kids are rammy and need a way to blow of steam and rid them of the the indoor itchies (as I like to call them).

1. Making snow angels is always a big hit!
2. Dig tunnels into the snow and build a snow city.
3. Create a personal snow mountain and play “man/woman on the mountain.”
4. Similarly, use the snow mountain to make a slide or “ski” run.
5. Dig holes in the snow and observe the blue light and look for the snow fairies that created it.
6. Create a snow fort by piling snowballs to form a wall.
7. Get out the buckets and shovels from summer and play with the snow as if it is sand.
8. Build a snowman, of course!
9. It doesn’t just have to be snowmen, how about snow creatures like a dog or deer?
10. Play snow tug-of-war — the losing team will crash into a soft pile of snow!
11. Build an igloo or snow den and decorate it with leaves and branches.
12. Jump from snow covered rocks or even the edge of a terrace or deck into soft piles of snow. (Safety note: check to make sure there isn’t a hard surface or sharp edge under the snow into which children are jumping).
13. Make giant snowballs. Hold a contest for characteristics such as the largest, smallest, roundest and bumpiest.

What are your family’s favorites things to do with snow?

Outdoor Activities for Kids

Birthday Parties With A Natural Twist!

by MCC

There are many options and venues available for celebrating children’s birthdays. To celebrate these special milestones parents are always searching for new and fun ideas for gathering friends, singing “Happy Birthday,” and eating birthday cake. Often the choices are indoor venues like the local kiddie gym, a movie, or bowling. It’s easy to end up debating ideas for weeks. There’s mini golf, a party at a toy store, a dance class for friends and more.

Rather than those option, you might consider doing something outside. Check out where there are local nature centers, zoos, and farms that welcome birthday parties. Local Audubon Nature Centers offers programs for children throughout the spring. You might be surprised by your child’s enthusiasm if you offer the opportunity to take friends to the nature center to look for frogs, salamanders and bugs in a vernal pool. Your child many jump at the chance to be outside getting dirty and touching bugs and slimy things for her birthday. Being outside exploring gives childen a great deal of pleasure.

You may even find that the parents of your child’s friends will join right in and dig through the leaves and catch critters in their own nets right along with them. This is certainly more fun than standing around watching kids run around.

Here are photos of some of the neat critters that can be found while investigating venral pools (credit: the Vernal Pool Association):

Wood frog

Isopod

Finger clam

Don’t be surprised when the party come to and end if your chil gives you a big hug and tells you that it was one of the best parties they have ever had. When I did this for my daughter she said ‘Mommy, I love you so much! Thanks for planning the best party ever for me.” It’s a really great feeling when that happens.

When planning you child’s birthday party, I encourage you to consider alternatives to the norm. Research your local area to find opportunites for outdoor celebrating. You might be surprised by what you find. Not only will it be fun, but it will be memorable for everyone and a great learning experience for the kids.

Critter Corner

Best Webcams for Spring Wildlife Viewing

by Editorial Staff

Webcams open up the amazing world of animals right before your eyes and provide a fantastic opportunity for observation and study. It’s especially cool in the spring when eggs are hatching and families are being raised. You and your children can enjoy watching Webcams positioned all around the country. They provide a great source of entertainment.

Here are the best webcam sites from around the United States and elsewhere. You can check out and bookmark the ones you like.

*Note: depending on the season and activity of the animal, many of the webcams are seasonal and the feed may not be live. Also, because animals are unpredictable, you may not see the wildlife you hope to see. Check back. You may also need special plugins to view the feeds.

Wildlife Forever’s Web site – links to some of the best of the Web
Your state fish and wildlife agency often has webcams set up. Check the agency website. Alaska Department of Fish and Game is a great example.
National Audubon Society has, you guessed, bird cams and gray seal cam.
National Park Service offers live webcams at many parks. This one of Bald Eagles is at the Channel Islands.
The National Wildlife Refuge System offers feeds, but many are offline.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers many feeds. Use “cam” in the search box and the Web site will display and a long list of what is available.
Explore.org offers an enormous collection of webcams. You can watch Giant Panda’s in China, Polar Bears in Canada, Hippos in Africa, Honey Bees in Germany, and Sharks in the United kingdom. It’s really awesome.

I hope you enjoy watching the wonder and awe of nature with your kids!

Nature Activities for Kids

Top 10 Earth Day Activities for Children

by Jodi Valenta

Happy Earth Day!
In our house, Earth Day is big! I was a child of the ’70s when the first one started, and my parents always made a point of teaching me that I needed to help care for the earth. As a result, I am environmentally conscious and I strive to teach my family how to be earth-friendly. Each Earth Day, we pay special homage to our Mother Earth by doing an earth-friendly activity. We have done many over the years, so I thought it would be helpful if I passed them on to you.

Top 10 Earth Day activities for children:

1) Plant a tree.
2) Go far a walk. Take a reusable bag with you and pick up garbage you see along the way.
3) Take your bottles, cans cardboard, etc. to the recycling center. Allow your children to keep the money you receive from returning any deposits.
4) Spend some time at your local nature center learning about native critters, plants, and trees. Better yet, volunteer to help plant a flower bed, clean up trash, or fill bird feeders.
5) Plant a vegetable garden. There are few things more earth-friendly than growing your own food, especially if you go organic!
6) Organize a play date in the outdoors. Work together to clean up an area of a local park.
7) Go to a natural food store and buy items to make an organic lunch, then go on a picnic.
8) Ask your kids to help you start composting. They can help dig up worms to add and add kitchen scraps each day.
9) Go for a bike ride instead of a drive in the car.
10) Pledge to spend more time outdoors with your kids!

Have a great day! And read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to your kids tonight. 🙂

Outdoor Activities for Kids

Your kids didn’t go outside today? What’s your excuse?

by MCC

Another winter day has passed. Did your kids spend it hanging around in the house after school watching television or sitting in front of the computer? I have heard the excuses from my kids — “it’s cold, it’s yucky out, I don’t feel like it” and one of my all time favorites….”it’s boring!” Why is it so hard to get kids outside these days? Sometimes I get tired of pushing them out the door and feel like giving in and letting them hang around inside. And it’s true, winter weather makes it hard to go outside to play. It’s so much easier to be outside when the sun warms your face and you don’t have to bundle up.

Really, when it comes down to it though, why is getting kids outside such a challenge? Sometimes I find it strange that I even write a blog about the topic. Shouldn’t it just come naturally? When I was growing up, it was just what my friends and I did. When we arrived home from school, we went outside. Our mothers and fathers didn’t have concerns about us being overweight due to lack of exercise, not getting enough vitamin D, having our intelligence suffer from too much television and time on computers. When did it become so difficult that there is a need for numerous web sites devoted to the topic of enjoying nature and the outdoors?

I know the adult excuses — we’re too busy, there’s too much homework, not enough time in the day, it’s dark too early, etc., etc. etc. Are parents so busy that we can’t spare 20-30 minutes to take our kids outside or make them out go out (if they are old enough) while we get things done around the house even though we know it is so beneficial to them?

Let’s all make it a goal for 2019 to spend more time in nature. It can be done relatively easy if done with baby steps. Here are some good examples:

1. Encourage children walk to school or the bus stop three days per week. Or, reverse it and make it for the walk home. There is an international effort to promote this cause: iwalktoschool.org.
2. Ask your kids to help you take out the garbage or recyclables out to the currb and stop along the way to look at the night sky or make footprints in the snow.
3. Purchase a birdfeeder and start feeding the birds. Have them help you fill it with seed periodically. The National Audubon Society can help you learn how.
4. Go to a book store and look for interesting books to learn about nature. Your children might enjoy a wildlife or bird identification book, activity books or gardening books. Then use the books to do an activity a couple of times per week.
5. Go outside and locate a place to plant a flower or vegetable garden once Spring arrives. Over the next month or two you and your children can decide what you want grow and how you will plant your garden.

Once you accomplish your goal, you can increase your outdoor time little by little. Allow your kids to use their imagination to help figure out what they can do outside. Eventually, going outside will become easier, part of your daily ritual and everyone will have fun!

I invite you to post ideas on simple things you do to encourage your children to spend time outside. You ideas will help all of us reach our goal. Thank you!

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13 Cool Things to Do with Snow

Birthday Parties With A Natural Twist!

Best Webcams for Spring Wildlife Viewing

Top 10 Earth Day Activities for Children

Your kids didn’t go outside today? What’s your excuse?

Take the 30-Day Outdoor Challenge