Young children love using scissors and it’s so important to give them lots of opportunities to sharpen their scissor skill set on items other than paper. What could be easier than offering your children the chance to practice their cutting skills on yard scraps or items found on a nature walk?
You need:
- Scissors
- Nature items (leaves, weeds, twigs, etc)
- Optional: bins for organizing
Using bins to organize your cut and uncut natural items is helpful but not necessary.
Sometimes children cut just to cut and other times children might be interested in creating artwork with their cut items. We often use a tree stump as our art canvas or a piece of cardboard or storage bin top. If it’s windy, adding tape can be helpful.
Adding a smiley face to your child’s thumbnail and offering the prompt to “keep your smiley face up!” can be helpful to young children as they learn to master scissor skills. Thumbs up for this fun, easy, and free activity!
Head outside and find a climbing tree to create a tree obstacle course! Find different ways to climb through the tree – Japanese Maples and Bush Honeysuckle work well for young children – and consider adding a rope for more challenges. You can switch up speed, height, and distance for more or less challenge depending on your child’s age, comfort and skill level.
So, I wanted to share a recipe my kids and I loved making together. When we cook together, I always jot down in the margins some of their comments. I’ll share a few.
Chocolate-Banana Shake
One of the things I love about this cookbook is that in addition to the recipe in words, there’s a version in images, so everyone can figure out what comes next.
Everyone loves board games and it’s a lot of fun to create your very own. All you need is:
Audubon Nature Preschool 