30 Free Spring Ideas and Activities for Caregivers of Children

Photo by Robin LaRoy, A Little Acorn Learning Mama

1. Take out old make-up or face paints and paint each other's faces.
2. Play a game of tic-tac-toe together.
3. Color a picture of a butterfly.
4. Have a dance party in your living room.
5. Make a homemade drum out of empty containers.
6. Go on a wildflower hunt outside.
7. Have a picnic with your children in your backyard.
8. Take a dog for a walk.
9. Take your children outside before dinner and play catch.
10. Look for shapes in the clouds today.
11. Be more mindful of how much water you use today.
12. Empty out one drawer that needs decluttering together.
13. Stack and balance rocks you find outside.
14. Paint plain flowerpots and turn them into something beautiful.
15. Play a game of marbles together.
16. Make a flower out of beeswax modeling material.
17. Try meditating for 15 minutes today.
18. Let the children go outside and roll down hills!
19. Watch the sunset together.
20. Pick flowers outside and press them in a big book.
21. Create a better recycling system or inspire someone else.
22. Go to a local park for the day.
23. Go outside and sketch a part of nature in full detail.
24. Let the sun hit your face today. Pause and let it warm you.
25. Have the children set the table for meals today.
26. Lay with your child at bedtime for 15 minutes and let them do the talking.
27. Wash your floors together.
28. Organize a game of kick the can with neighborhood kids.
29. Set up a special date with each one of your children alone.
30. Review any negative feelings you've had this past month. Why?

Go for a Listening Walk to Celebrate Earth Day!

Today in the Little Acorn Learning Caregiver's Calendar, the daily activity is to take your children on a Listening Walk. What a nice activity to do with children of all ages the day before Earth Day!

What is a Listening Walk?

There are many fun ways to do this.

You can make a list of things that your children may hear and have them check it off like a scavenger hunt

What did you hear?

• Birds
• Wind blowing
• Cars
• A dog barking
• Water dripping
• Children playing

You can give your child a pad and colored pencils or crayons, go for a silent walk while listening and ask them to sit quietly at the end and draw the things they hear around them.

At the end of your walk, have the children sit in one place as still as can be and close their eyes. Tell them to try their hardest to not make a movement or a sound and only breathe calmly and listen to what is around them. These little lessons in meditation and mindfulness will be very helpful to them as they grow up.

Here are some sweet books you can read with the children before you go for your walk:

Full Worm Moon Today - Build a Wormery with Your Children!

Today we welcome the Full Worm Moon. Go outside with your children tonight and look for the beautiful moon together!

It is hard to imagine the ground softening any time soon here in Connecticut. Today my girls are enjoying a snow day!  

 After seeing my youngest daughter's artwork today, I guess I'm not the only one dreaming of SPRING!  

But, while I am really getting tired of the cold weather here, I do love making a warm fire and having everyone home with a clear schedule and nothing to do but play and go sledding with friends.

For those of you in warmer climates, I have shared a FREE tutorial on how to make your own wormery with your children in our new Little Acorn Learning Group Discussion Page on Facebook. 

Just request to join and I will let you in the group.  Please no promoting of your businesses or products.  This group is a support place for our  members and followers.  I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to share it with your Facebook friends!

From the Farmer's Almanac "At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. In some regions, this is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins."

Autumn Equinox Coloring Page and Planning Sheet

Here is a special little freebie to help you celebrate the Autumn Equinox with your children!  Thank you to Ancient Amber, author of many sweet little books that you can Check Out Here for this special gift to our Little Acorn Families.  Enjoy these by right clicking the images and saving 'as' to your computer.  We would LOVE to see your child's finished coloring pages.  Be sure to email us photos at info (at) littleacornlearning.com so we can share it with our audience. xoxo

Flower Pot Compost

Flower Pot Compost

Composting is a cost-effective and safe way to fertilize your home garden and also helps to reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills.   

The absolute best way to teach children about the importance of sustainable living and protecting our environment is by modeling the behavior ourselves.  This fun and educational activity will give children an opportunity to compost just like grown-ups do but on a smaller scale.  Children love to get their hands dirty and will be so excited to have their very own special flower thriving in nutrient rich-soil that they help to create themselves. 

Materials

·         organic potting soil

·         compostable food scraps (no meat or dairy)

·         large flower pot

·         flower to plant

·         shovel/large spoon

·         garbage bag

·         large pot lid or heavy item

To begin, have children fill their flower pot ¼ of the way full with organic soil. 

After a family meal together, add compostable food scraps until your pot is filled to the halfway point.  

Cover the food scraps with a light layer of your organic soil. 

Cover the flower pot with a garbage bag and tie tight.  Add a heavy lid on top and place your pot outdoors in direct sunlight.

Every few days, add a small amount of water to your pot and stir well.  Cover tightly again and keep in sunlight. 

After a few weeks, the food will turn into soil!  Have the children place a special flower or plant inside the pot to care for and enjoy! 

Eileen Straiton is a work-at-home mother to four daughters. She writes and publishes Waldorf inspired ebooks and facilitates ecourses for parents, teachers and caregivers at Little Acorn Learning.  For many years, Eileen applied her love of nature-based learning in her work as owner and lead teacher at Little Acorn Playgarden in Brookfield, Connecticut. Visit her blog, Eileen’s Place, for more great ideas and activities.

 

  

Make Snow Ice Cream!

Here is a fun activity to do with your little Valentines today.

I have been wanting to do this activity for years.  I always forget to try it and then yesterday a Facebook friend of mine posted that she was doing it with her children and I followed suit.  With all of this snow, we have to keep things exciting around here!

Luckily, my children already know I'm a little crazy so when I told them we were making Ice Cream out of fresh snow they just rolled their eyes at me as usual. 

It is very simple to make:

Gather 5-6 cups of snow in a big bowl and keep it outdoors until you are ready.  Obviously make sure the snow is very clean.  We have so much snow that we just dug off 4-5 inches and used clean snow from the middle.  

In a separate bowl, mix 1-2 tablespoons of pure vanilla, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1-2 cups of milk.  Stir the mixture together and then slowly add it to your snow bowl and mix it up until it gets the consistency of ice cream.  Go slow with the milk so you can add more if you need it.

Boom, that's it!  You have Vanilla Snow Ice Cream!

We added fresh fruit, white chocolate chips and sprinkles too.

Enjoy!

Make a Discovery Ant House

Summer is right around the corner and Rhythm of the Home has just released their beautiful Summer Edition to inspire us!  We are so proud to have our Discovery Ant House featured this season.  

Our children absolutely LOVED this activity and learned so much from the experience.  We hope you enjoy it too and if you decide to make one, please link back to us here so we can see how it came out!

Enjoy!

May Day Crowns and Circle Time

May Day Crowns

Although I prefer to use all natural materials and real flowers, I wanted to be sure the children could take these special crowns home to keep for playtime.  

In this case I used artificial flowers with a wire backing, ribbon and colored bells.  

To make these easy crowns simply measure them around the child's head and make a knot in the back leaving ribbon hanging in length. 

Then, adhere the flowers onto the crown.  In our case, we simply twisted the wire backing around the ribbon but if you do not have this type of flower just glue or sew the flowers on.  

Next each child helped to string the bells onto the back ribbon hanging and we secured by tying a knot at the end.  

Maypole Song

(If you do not have a Maypole you can simply hold hands in a circle and move around while singing.)

Round the Maypole we are going,

On a holiday,

Round the Maypole we are going,

This is what we say,

All the colors we are learning,

In the rainbow gay,

So, back and forth we all are dancing,

In the merry May.  

May Day Circle

(this circle can be shared the entire first week of May)

Each child receives a color to be their "name" for this game:  Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red and so on.  The children join hands in a circle (their may day crowns or ribbons can be their special color as a reminder if you plan ahead).  The teacher is Mother Rainbow.  

Mother Rainbow says:

"I count my children before I go.  Learn the colors of my rainbow."

She taps one child on the head and calls them by "name":

"*Violet* won't you play this game today?  Pick a friend and run away."

The chosen child (in this case Violet) must go up to another child and name her color and say:

"I choose *Blue* to come with me.  Off we go beneath the tree."

(this verse can be changed but if you have a nice tree the children can sit beneath it and prepare for snack or a lesson as they wait.)

Continue on until all children have left the circle.  If the number of children does not work out, Mother Rainbow can pair up with the last child and say the last verse instead of a child.  

If you are looking for even more ideas this week, don't miss our one day sale which ends tomorrow:

50% Off our Late Spring Festivals E-Book which includes amazing ideas for May Day and Mother's Day as well as other late spring festival celebrations. 

Happy May Day to You!

Simple Butterfly Mobile

Today the children and I made a pretty spring Butterfly Mobile utilizing some leftover wool roving I had.  These little butterflies are so simple to  make and even little ones can help wrap the wool around.  

Supplies Needed:

Wool roving in various colors

Light colored thread

Two branches (ours were cut from our blooming forsythia in our yard)

Tutorial:

To begin, lay colored roving out in strips. 

To make one butterfly, tie the two ends of a strip together into a knot, being sure to leave the ends long enough to be your "antennas".

Squeeze the loop together as you see here:

now take a smaller strip of white (or alternate) color wool roving and wrap around and around the center of your butterfly until you cannot wrap it anymore.  This will keep your butterfly together.

To make a mobile out of these little butterflies, simple crisscross the two branches together and adhere tightly with thread making a loop on top for hanging.  Next tie your butterflies onto long pieces of thread in various lengths and weights.  The tricky part now is finding your balance.  Hang your branches up first and very carefully experiment with placement of your butterfly threads until the mobile balances just right.  Tie knots to keep in place.

This beautiful mobile can be hung inside or out.  If you use real wool and natural thread the materials are safe for the environment.  Just maybe a few little birdies will come along and use your wool for their spring nests?    

If you make these little butterflies, please link back here so we can see!  For more fun and natural spring ideas for your children, visit our Celebrate Spring page over at Little Acorn Learning.  

Earth Day Moss Garden Terrarium

Here is a beautiful Earth Day activity created by my brilliant festival series co-writer Sara Wilson of Love in the Suburbs.  This wonderful project is featured in both the Little Acorn Learning April Enrichment Guide and our new Late Spring Festivals E-Book.

And don't forget to enter to win a free e-book in our Earth Day Giveaway!  Today is the last day!

Here is a simple way to celebrate the earth, and bring a little of it inside your home. This moss garden terrarium is easy and inexpensive to make. Children of any age can help with this project and may especially enjoy finding such treasures of the earth. Noticing the small things in nature can be so rewarding, and it feels good to sink our hands in the soil.

Materials

• a wide-mouthed glass container (goldfish bowl, candle holder, or jar; you may find something appropriate a thrift store)
• gathered moss (gently lift from soil or rock, bringing the soil on which it grows with you)
• about ½ to 1 cup small gravel or pebbles (look for pretty pebbles in your yard)
• about 1 cup loamy garden soil (or more if your glass container is large)
• interesting rocks, bark, twigs, or gemstones
• spray bottle with water

Optional Materials

• a small plant that requires little water (perhaps a jade plant or other succulent)
• beeswax for modeling or a small figurine
• crystals, glass gems, small twigs

Tutorial

Begin by gathering your materials. You may be able to gather most of the materials you’ll need from your yard or nature walk. (Be sure not to remove items from protected nature areas.) Take a soup spoon or small shovel and a gathering basket along on your walk. Look along creeks and in shady, moist areas.

When you find mosses, stop and consider them a moment. Moss is a delightful, soft plant. It gets it’s nutrients from the air, rather than the soil, and requires shade and only a little water. It makes a perfect plant for a terrarium that gets only indirect sunlight in your home.

Feathery soft, your green so bright,

preferring deep shade to the light,

quietly sitting, waiting, spreading,

it’s hard to tell which way you’re heading.

I will touch your velvet softness.

Moss, I love your gentle mossness.

You make a lovely velvet bed

for a Fairy Queen to rest her head,

who sleeps in afternoons for rest

and dreams of forests nightly blessed.

We creatures great and creatures small

find you the tenderest plant of all.

Thank the earth for growing such lovely mosses and gently dig up some patches. Don’t take more than you need to fill your terrarium container, and you’ll likely need to take only an inch of soil or less.

Now place your gravel or pebbles into your glass terrarium. These are at the bottom for drainage of water away from the soil. Add your garden soil to the container. It will probably cover your pebbles completely. You may wish to grade your soil so that some areas are higher than others. This will add interest to your finished terrarium.

Arrange your mosses (in patches) in your terrarium. Try to keep your clumps of moss mostly intact to make a contiguous, soft carpet. Alternatively, you could place moss in only part of your terrarium, and decorate the other areas with a plant, pretty pebbles, or glass gems.

Add your decorative rocks, bark, or crystals. I happened to find a small chuck of old concrete that had more moss growing on it, so I added it to my terrarium. What will you add? Crystals? Twigs? Polished stones? A ceramic figurine of a deer or a rabbit? A butterfly? A gnome or a Fairy Queen in repose? Perhaps you’ll change your terrarium decorations with the holidays.

Spray your moss garden with some water. Your mosses may need spraying once or twice a day to stay green and living. Avoid exposing them to direct sunlight.

I turned to our modeling beeswax to fashion a tiny gnome. I think he’ll make an excellent caregiver for my moss garden terrarium. Gnomes are kind custodians of the earth.

Be a good caregiver of your moss garden terrarium, spray it gently every day, and be careful not to saturate it with too much water. (Once again, the direct sunlight you see in this photo is too hot and bright for your moss. Be sure not to keep your terrarium in such a sunny location.)

Now add your terrarium to your nature table, your dinner table for an Earth Day celebration, or anywhere in your home that needs a small reminder of the earth’s beauty.