My daughters were in a cranky mood today. They kept arguing with each other, and had no interest in doing anything educational. Therefore I asked them if they wanted to go outside and explore with me. They grabbed their binoculars and headed out the door. We came across bugs, birds, squirrels, and mushrooms.

When we came back inside I simply asked them to recall a few things they saw outside. They chose to name off birds, butterflies, and mushrooms. I wrote a list on a dry erase board as they named off what they knew about each. Mushrooms pop up in our front and backyard, whenever they pop up I go over that nothing is to be eaten that we find outside because it can be poisonous. My youngest is at the age in which she needs constant reminders not to put anything in her mouth and that not everything can be eaten. She’s at the point where she understands she shouldn’t eat random things although reminders are important because she is curious about everything. For additional learning you could have kids draw and write about what they see outside. As I stated earlier my daughters weren’t in the learning mood today therefore I kept it simple and wrote the list myself.

At night once my youngest (age 2) went to bed my oldest and I made chalk drawings inspired by nature. She had collected material during our outdoor exploration earlier in the day. We used chalk, and colored construction paper for our art projects. My oldest tends to get upset being told what to do and how to do it. At the age of 6 she isn’t old enough to do whatever she wants whenever she wants therefore I use art as a way for her to feel in control. Sometimes I’ll give her a simple suggestion and she’ll expand from there. Such as I said lets make nature inspired art later today would you like to gather supplies? In which she accepted and grabbed what she wanted. From there she decided what she wanted to draw and how to go about it.

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