These free printable scavenger hunts are a great tool for encouraging children to immerse themselves in nature and look a little closer at the world around them with deep appreciation. This sort of play magically manages to nurture physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social growth in children. And they’re fun for adults as well! Our typical day involves a fair amount of time outside and while most of that time is devoted to simple free play, from time to time we’ll take one of our more structured activities or art projects outdoors. My days are currently spent with two two year olds and so I wasn’t sure what the response…
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Animal Movement Cards
It’s presently winter and while we still try to get outside each day to run off some energy and breathe in the fresh air, some days are too windy or wet or frigid. And yet, energy abounds in toddlers. These cards are useful when children are in need of redirection. When their energy started to lead to movement that was too much for indoors, we would sometimes use these cards to satisfy the desire for movement. Depending on the age and imagination of your child, simply naming an animal might be sufficient to spark some pretend play. But for a one and two year old, the visual of the animal…
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Nurturing a Whole Child in Physical Growth
“Children, more than ever, need opportunities to be in their bodies in the world—jumping rope, bicycling, stream hopping, and fort building. It’s this engagement between limbs of the body and bones of the earth where true balance and centeredness emerge.“ —David Sobel Throughout history, humanity has seemed to wrestle a great deal with our physicality. Some have tried to deny it altogether. Some have deemed it “less than” the other aspects of our humanity. Some have given perhaps too much power to the physical self and its preferences. There’s certainly a delicate balance to living in appropriate relationship with our physical selves. But it’s an undeniable aspect of being human…
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A Journey in Nurturing a Whole Child
This series of thoughts on whole childhood began as a real time documentation of our learning process and reflections through our first year with Graham. I felt so overwhelmed from the beginning that I would fail him unintentionally by my simple lack of knowledge in how to nurture his proper development. I knew that I wanted to nurture the whole of him, equipping him with resources early on for connecting with his emotions and creativity and spirituality. I knew that I wanted to instill a love of learning and a heart of compassion. I knew that I wanted him to have an appreciation for nature and the physical world, as…
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Color Play with Plastic Bottles
We’ve been on a color kick lately. And since I cleaned out the refrigerator in the garage today and found a collection of plastic bottles in need of recycling, I felt inspired to transform them into a set of colorful, rainbow bowling pins. I thought it would be a free, fun, new to us learning through play activity, where I could casually narrate our play and name the colors as we made them and knocked them down, etc. But things don’t always go as we plan. Graham very much enjoyed the process of making them and the magic of color theory basics. He enjoyed setting them up, however when I…
