With the weather here in the UK finally starting to turn into warm, we all turn our attention to the outside and whether you have a garden or not, being outdoors offers a great opportunity for curious minds to explore.
With garden space, taking a small patch of earth for you and your child to start growing things can open up the curious side of their creative brain. Planting seeds and nurturing them adds to the awe and wonder of seeing things develop and grow. Being able to eat what you grow adds another dimension to their understanding of food and where it comes from.
No garden? No worries! Herbs can be grown on windowsills from seed, cress can be sown in an egg! Beansprouts grow in dark cupboards… There are still opportunities for growing plants inside and then outside, head for overgrown spaces where minibeasts lurk or rivers for birdlife. If you have a balcony, birds can be encouraged with food and you can set up a bird hide inside!
In fact, every idea in my FREE “Creativity in the Garden Planner” can be done anywhere!
Daisies...
can be found (and picked) in gardens and parks. Take them home to decorate the house, make daisy chains (quite a lot of skill involved in this! 😅) or press them between two sheets of kitchen paper, then two old bits of card. Hold together with a large elastic band (the type the postman always drops!) and put under some heavy books for a week or more.
When dried they can be used to make cards or bookmarks to treasure 🌼 With bookmarks, laminate or use good old sticky-backed plastic to keep them looking good for years to come (not usually a fan of plastic, but when making something that will keep, these are the best ways… if you know of anything else, please tell me!)
Making a nature journal
can be sustainable though, so collect old wrapping paper, old envelopes, the back of old letters, anything that can be re-used for drawing on, really. Make a cover from a cereal box turned inside out and hole-punch to tie together either journal style (open horizontally) or notepad style (open vertically).
Decorate a plain plant pot
with collage or with paint. If terracotta, use a watered down PVA glue (10 parts water to 1 part glue) to seal the clay before painting and then again after to seal the paint. If you seal the inside of the pot, there is less chance that water will seep through and crack your hard work! I have used different paints on pots, but sealing should help with using kid-friendly paint. Acrylics work very well, but don’t wash out of clothing like poster paints do! You can decorate plastic pots with paint or even with marker pens! Try designs of gold and silver on a black pot.
There are other ideas to get you started in my FREE “Creativity in the Garden Planner”, which also gives you a few spaces (and an additional blank sheet) to add ideas yourself or follow into other months! You can plan in days when you want to get out in the garden or park and do the activities. It’s a great starting point if you don’t know what to do.
Let me know how you get on!
Debbie x
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