Having fun with nature

This week we had a great week at school. I am making progress with getting ourselves into a routine, and am still awaiting approval for a move into a new school district so the kids can attend homeschool classes two days a week in the West Des Moines school district. They are the only district that offers classes exclusively for homeschoolers. BUT, we did join a homeschool group, and jumped on the purchases of a ton of shows, orchestra, and ballets, all at the Des Moines Civic center. They offer a series called The Applesauce Series, and it is for schools, and homeschoolers, and the tickets are $1 each. How can you beat that? I bought tickets from now until next May, and we have a line up of really fun Friday field trips, and we will get to experience a little class and culture.  Sounds good to me!  Yesterday, we made our first trip into Downtown Des Moines, and I managed to NOT get lost, or end up on a 1 way street going the wrong way. 

Yay me.

We toured the State Historical Museum, and it was full of great stuff (way bigger than I thought it would be), and most of it coinciding with what we are learning in History. Pretty cool. And, it was free. So we will definetely be going back. We also joined an art class, that was only $5 through the homeschool group, and we are going to sign the kids up for a homeschool PE/Music/Art class at the local YMCA. The Y is really big out here, and I am very impressed by what they offer. They have year round indoor swimming, classes for the little tykes, of course a gym, and free childcare for mama (should I ever decide that I want to actually excercise) and classes for the kids. Plus, the location close to us offers this cool homeschool class. So I am pretty excited. And it is all done on a sliding scale, and no one is going to pay much more than $50 for the WHOLE FAMILY. And that includes free childcare. Score!

That brings us to today.

It was a beautiful day, and we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. We have been here 3 weeks, and haven't seen anything that would be considered "severe", and yet, I already recognize that a sunny day, with a temp of 52 degrees, warrants going outside and running around.

We also decided that we needed to do a craft.

That's the nice thing about having girls. Sometimes, a craft just strikes you.

Must. Craft. Now.

And Noah doesn't have a lot of options yet, so he is kind of obligated to go along with our whims.

I didn't feel like loading them all up to head out to a store, so we decided that we would take a nature walk, and use what we had in our craft bins.

If you are a mama of littles, I highly recommend stocking up on craft supplies. A little here, a little there. Spools of ribbon, feathers, googly eyes, colored cotton balls, raffia, string, glitter, fabric, felt, pipe cleaners (a lot of this can be found in the dollar bins at target, or at the Dollar tree). If you see something on sale at Micheals, or Hobby Lobby, pick it up. Throw it in your art bin, because I guaruntee, you will use it at some point.  There is nothing better than letting your little's "go nuts" in the art bin, creating things and using their fun little imaginations.

In California, we often went on nature walks, especially in the fall, trying to find fallen leaves. Because we lived by the beach, there was not a ton to choose from, though many areas in Southern California do have big beautiful trees.  We have seen a ton of leaves here, but we decided to go with the pine cone instead.

Since we live in a pinterest era, coming up with a cute craft will never be hard again. In fact, there is so much to choose from, that you an often leave, feeling depressed and dissapointed in yourself for not turning your mason jars into beautiful vases, in time for dinner by 5pm. If only I hadn't run out of burlap. Dang it.

Or, maybe that's just me.

Today, we decided to go pinterest free, and just create. I love watching the kids run with an idea.

We started off with a nature walk.

 We got distracted with some leaves.

 

We took a walk around the campus, and found some great pinecones, but we also found quite a bit in our own backyard.

 We gathered them up.

 

And headed in. It was funny, because the kids felt hot outside. They were sweating by the time we came in. It was 54 degrees.

If you want to let the kids go nuts with a craft, it is sometimes a good idea to pull out certain items you want them to use. Katelyn and I had already discussed what we thought would be cute, so I had an idea of what to pull out. Of course, there are the days when I let them just rummage through all 5 huge bins of craft supplies. But today wasn't that day.

Start with supplies.

 Prepare all your pieces and parts, and try to explain to the kids where they will go. Sometimes, kids have their own ideas about that. And that's ok too.  (No, No, you are doing it all wrong. The eyes go at the top. You know. Where eyes go. Not by the feet. Oh, well. Now Thanksgiving is ruined.) Is that just me too?

 Let the mama do the hot gluing. Unless you want your 7 year old to start screaming, peeling at herself and saying she is on fire. That has never happened to me, by the way.

 Then, presto. Cute little turkeys. All unique, and colored with funny feathers because those were the only colors of felt I had. But they were made with love, and they cost $0 to make.

Happy crafting, mamas.