Explore and Create
Art projects and crafts are a wonderful way to extend your outdoor experiences at home. Many of these projects also incorporate foraged materials, which encourages close looking on your next neighborhood walk!
Making Nature Mobiles: Our Kind of Bat Mobile
From modern art museums to nurseries, people of all ages love mobiles. Nature mobiles offer a creative way to showcase items brought back from your latest nature walk, and they make for some pretty fun DIY seasonal decor ideas too! Check out my new Halloween favorite, the Bat Mobile, here!
STEAM Spider Crafts for Preschool
Invite children to play with art and nature with these simple project ideas inspired by our favorite creepy crawlers. Plus nature walk and story book extensions, of course!
Paper Airplane Birds: Using Art and Science to Understand How Birds Fly
Do you have a budding birder like us? JJ has been obsessed with Peregrine Falcons lately, and he asked to make one at home. We decided to blend an art project with a little STEAM experiment in which we learned about the four different wing shapes through paper airplanes. And then we added the feathers and googly eyes! Click here to see how you can make your very own paper airplane birds, and to check out some cool videos about birds in flight!
Camping Crafts for Kids: DIY Lanterns (aka Night Lights!)
Before going on a trip, we like to do some projects to get the boys excited about where we’re going. This DIY Lantern Project is simple, uses recycled materials, and best of all, doubles as a nightlight for the kiddos.
Meet Goldo: JJ’s Foil Art Souvenir
After visiting Hakone Gardens, JJ really wanted something to remind him of his favorite fish in the koi pond. We decided to make our own, using tin foil and permanent markers to bring some shine to this souvenir.
Painted Walking Sticks
In our recent interview about rattlesnake safety with Genie Moore, walking sticks kept emerging as useful advice for careful stepping. John has long been in the habit of picking up a good walking stick on a hike, but given this renewed perspective, I thought it might...