Spring Scavenger Hunt for Little Ones

Longwood Gardens

Despite the lingering cold, signs of spring are popping up all over. Taking your little ones outside to look for changes in their yard or the nearby woods is one way to clear the cobwebs of winter away plus start a lifelong interest in nature studies.

Purple Crocus

Some signs are easy, like finding robins. Or, daffodils and crocuses.

Witch Hazel at Longwood Gardens

Others are more subtle like green buds on trees.

Bird watching in a tree house at Longwood Gardens

Sometimes you need to listen for the signs – the birds chirping as the sun comes up.

Scavenger Hunt List 

If you and your kids are not sure what to look for, this scavenger hunt is a great way to start. Take pictures as your kids find signs of springs and put together a book to help you find them again next year.

Spring Scavenger Hunt

• a seed
• something scented
• a new bird
• a yellow flower
• a purple flower
• a pink flower
• a bud on a tree
• a blade of grass
• the sound of Canada Geese
• turtles sunning on log

Resources for learning about nature 

• Birding by Ear 
• Handbook of Nature Study Blog and book, Handbook of Nature Study 
• My Family’s Favorite Nature Walks 
• Using Natural Materials for Art

Barb is a mom of 5 kids who spends her day keeping track of socks, stuffed animals, library books, and a 4 year old when she isn’t writing about all the frugality, gardening, cooking, and reading she manages to fit in between the chaotic moments. She can be found at A Life in Balance, Frugal Local Kitchen, or on Twitter with daily doses of life in 140 characters or less.

Crafting with Little Kids: "Marbled" paper eggs

Here is a painting technique with golf balls that can be used for all sorts of themed projects. For this project we used egg shapes cut out of construction paper to decorate for Easter and spring, but plain paper, or any shape will work as well. My son first painted with golf balls at preschool and enjoyed it so much we decided to try it at home. We are not golfers, so I purchased plastic golf balls at a sporting goods store, but all you really need is two or three golf balls, so if you know a golfer, borrow some! Supplies:

• 3 golf balls
• washable paint (we used crayola kid paint)
• paint brushes
• paper eggs: use this template or draw your own on construction paper
• 3 or four sheets of construction paper in spring colors for the eggs
• scissors
• small box or lid from a copy paper box (shoebox would work too)

Directions:

1. Using a template of an egg, trace it several times onto a sheet of construction paper. I held three different colors of paper together and cut the egg shapes out so I only had to trace on one sheet.
2. Place a paper egg shape, or more if they fit, into the box. Have your child dab some small blobs of paint onto each paper egg in random spots. Two or three dots is good to start. (We found that too much paint was a mess, but too little didn’t work either. Experiment to see what works best for you. Squeezeable paint tubes probably work great for this, but we didn’t have that on hand.)



3. Add two or three golf balls to the box and show your child how to tilt the box in different directions to make the balls roll around. As the roll around they will pick up some of the paint and create a marble or textured effect on the paper. Roll them around until your child is satisfied with how the paint looks. We added different colors of paint to see how they combined. The more the balls roll around the more marbled the paint will be.



4. Let painted eggs dry and decorate with them. We plan to decorate a bulletin board with them, but they would also make cute cards to give to grandparents or friends.

Note: The golf balls should wash up clean and can be saved for future use or returned to your golfer if they were borrowed. I saved the box we used so that we can re-use it for the next time we use this painting technique.

Happy Spring!

You can find more kids’ craft ideas and preschool adventures on Diane’s blog Knitting Zeal!

Frugal Finds Friday: Spring Gardening

Spring has arrived. The earth is thawing and bright crocuses and daffodils hold their heads high as homeowners begin to look around their yards, assessing the winter damage and preparing for the warmer seasons.

When I asked around for early gardening tips, I was inundated with so many wonderful replies that I am breaking my article into several segments. Here are a couple of initial tips I found useful:

“Keep your eyes open when you’re working in your garden early in the spring for plants making their way up on their own. These plants are called ‘volunteer plants’ that are coming up from seed. Simply save them, mark them or pot them up and move to a safe place to get a bit bigger before planting them in a permanent spot.” – By Kena Hudson of SuperCoolCoupons.com

“Start growing from seed. Annuals, marigolds, zinnias, vegetables are a good choice. (Lettuce can be grown in four to six weeks to get it in small plant form.) Seed packets are often $1 or less.” Lance Walheim of Bayer Advanced.

For more tips, head over HERE to keep reading the rest of this article at DIYFrugal.com.

Mark the First Day of Spring with FREE Italian Ice!

For the past 17 years, Rita’s has been giving away a free, regular size Italian Ice to each and every guest to mark the first day of spring!

March 20th is a sweet date for Italian Ice lovers, as each year, hundreds of thousands of guests visit Rita’s in search of the first taste of spring.

Be sure to mark your calendars to celebrate the first day of spring with Rita’s on Saturday, March 20, 2010! This is surely a tasty tradition that you won’t want to miss!