Red has been working hard the last few weeks, preparing for the school craft fair. We’ve made bookmarks with pressed flowers and leaves, wall hangings from sticks we found in the Foothills (which were given away before the event!) and he produced his own books. He made his own banner with a logo to hang…
Category: creativity
Art with Kids: Get Messy Outside!
My boys love to make a mess, and they love to make art. In the summer, we can easily combine these things, have fun making a giant art project outside, and then clean up with the hose after! I love when it starts to get warm again and we can plan some of these fun…
Snap It Outdoors: Lemonade Stand
Well, for a start he isn’t selling lemonade. He has fruit in those little cups. Grubby fruit he’s washed with dirty hands, spilled a couple of times on the way to the table at the front of our house, and possibly moved from cup to cup while he’s been waiting for customers. He’s also selling…
The Less-Stress Staycation
For Red’s first real spring break, I started making plans to take them on a vacation. The main reason I chose to work part-time for myself, from home, was so I could have flexibility and be with the boys if they are ill or off school. I was wary of going away, however, because they…
Snap It Outdoors: Weaving
Last weekend we went to Kidfort Fest, which is part of the Treefort Festival held in Boise every spring. There were so many great activities for the boys to get involved in, including dancing, singing, building cardboard forts and creating bottle rockets. As we arrived, we found this amazing creation, with a huge box of…
Tips to help Anxious Kids Reframe Their Day: Seeing the Green
Red can be an anxious kid. I’ve written about this before, in this post. He has an amazing imagination, but that leads to him to consider all kinds of scenarios, and his brain often takes him to the worst possibilities. If something disappointing happens at school or at the end of the day, he will…
Taking a Mental Picture: How to Help Kids Transition to an Outdoor Activity
It can be hard to get the kids off the sofa sometimes. With Smalls, his opinion changes as often as a two-year-old says the word poop (which, in our house, is about every six seconds) and so even if he screams in outrage at the suggestion we go for a hike, he’ll be excited to…
International Polar Bear Day: Kids’ Activities and the Thermostat Challenge
Did you know that February 27 is International Polar Bear Day? Check out Polar Bears International’s website for more information. Red and I have been talking recently about the actions we take as humans and the impact they have on the planet. After a long and drawn out debate, the Idaho Senate Committee voted last…
Snap It Outdoors: Outdoor Art
We visit our local nature center a lot; it’s next door to our closest park and right next to the greenbelt where we love to ride our bikes. All within a mile of our house, we’re so lucky! Despite having visited many, many times, there’s always something new to us that catches our eye. This…
Nature Walk
We finally have snow in Boise! It is glorious, and yes we have been skiing already! But for a long time, we had cold but no snow. We had an inversion for days that felt as if they dragged into weeks. For those of you who don’t know, an inversion is where the cold air…