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Glass Flowers Could Solve My Problems

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I love gardening.  I love growing things.  I love to be outside working in the dirt. But, alas, for the last 11  years of my life I have lived in the middle of the desert.  Not only does that mean that anything that you plant to survive probably has some type of sticky substance or needles on it but also that the soil is hard, dry and just not very workable.  Did I mention that it’s so hot that flowers don’t survive?

Today I was waking up with my cup of coffee and Google reader and came up on this post by Atlantic Art Glass.  They spoke of their garden/yard a little differently, as being overgrown but seeing their beautiful glass flowers I thought, well, I might just have to settle for glass beauty around me instead of the real blooming, flowering garden variety.

It could be worse.  I could have a huge lawn to mow.

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Spring Outdoor Activities for Kids

spring outdoor activities for kids

I hope if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere that it’s getting warm enough where you live to add in some outdoor activities with the kids. It’s easy to do a lot of learning outside when the weather is nice; my daughter has a fond memory of doing long division in sidewalk chalk at her school. But if you need some more specific ideas, here are some fun and educational spring outdoor activities for kids to do at home or at school.

Gather some glass bottles, rocks and other natural materials to make a garden xylophone with these instructions from The Moments at Home. This looks so fun, and you can use this idea to make musical instruments with other objects you find around the home/classroom/playground too. 

This post from Child’s Play ABC has a lot of great outdoor learning ideas for kids, but the one I wanted to highlight is going on a rainbow scavenger hunt. Kids can collect things of different colors and see if they can make a rainbow (or just sort things by color). Check out more ideas for scavenger hunts.

Another good activity to do with things you collect from outdoors is making natural paint brushes. Get the instructions from Messy Little Monster, and of course you can test them out by painting outside, too.

Speaking of art, have you ever made paint from dandelions? (I dyed yarn with dandelions once, and it was a lot of fun.) Learn how from Little Cooks Reading Books, and then you can use your natural paintbrushes along with natural paint!

You can also paint with mud, like in this post from There’s Just One Mommy. Or make an outdoor, garden themed sensory bin with real dirt like this one from Mess for Less.

Or kids can gather materials to help them build their own nests as they learn about how birds and other animals build nests. The Crazy Outdoor Mama has a printable and post that will help.

What activities do you love to do with kids when it’s nice outside?