DInsects: The Animals That Rule the World
When it comes to learning about nature, one type of critter that young naturalists will not have trouble finding are insects. Insects are the most numerous of all life forms on earth. Which is why it's especially important that your child get to know them!
Decoding Birds
To the budding naturalist, paying attention to the daily behaviors of birds is one of their first and most vital lessons— and an excellent investment of time. Decoding some of a bird's everyday behaviors will help your child see the outdoors in a new and exciting way.
Nature Journaling for the Mini Naturalist
Nature journaling is hailed by many nature educators as an ideal way to help the outdoors come to life for your child, sometimes for the first time. Learn why and how to start here!
Nature Beneath the Surface: Sampling Soil
One of the richest habitats on Earth is right under our noses (and feet!). Five to 10 tons of animal life can live in an acre of soil. Help your child explore this hidden world of critters with our new soil sampling activity!
Learning about what lives in the soil is a great way for a child to engage with and learn about nature.
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The Importance of Being a Butterfly
Beloved by children and adults alike, butterflies make our world come to life. But they also play a crucial role in a healthy ecosystem. Making it not only fun but also vital that our children get to know them.
The Best Tree ID Apps
Like many of you, we've used some of the most popular nature ID apps from time to time, with mixed results So we decided to write a piece about our results after putting a few tree ID apps to the test. Can an app really give an accurate ID or are old-fashioned field guides and knowledge better? Learn what we discovered in our latest post!.
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6 Magnificent Reasons for Kids to Appreciate Trees
Make a Tree Smile (or Snarl)
Become a Tree Friend
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Lavishing our Attention on Leaves: Leaf ID Journaling
Help your child discover the fascinating role and world of leaves by encouraging them to start a leaf identification journal. This is a great way for your child to take notice of leaves, identify trees in your area, or place you visit, make scientific observations about a leaf’s environment and condition.
How to Determine the Age of a Tree
There are so many reasons to appreciate trees and many ways to show appreciation including befriending one, photographing them, decorating them with a mask, to taking a forest bath. Here, we introduce a simple way to learn more about a tree by discovering its age without (gasp) cutting it down to count the tree rings.
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Ways to Celebrate Earth Day with Kids
Earth Day is always an excellent time to help kids focus on nature and the importance of a healthy relationship with the Earth. This year's theme "Restore Our Earth" is an important one, considering the state of our planet. While the global pandemic has made gathering in large groups for community park clean-ups or school garden pollinator plantings unlikely in your area, there are many meaningful ways to celebrate Earth Day with your child. Here are a few.
Being Mindful in Nature
One way to help children cope with the stress of their lives is actually a gift they can use throughout life—mindfulness. And one of the best places to practice mindfulness: in nature.
Let’s Go on Spring Bloom Hunt!
Plus, be sure to download and print our Spring Blossoms Scavenger Hunt so your child can keep track of the many different types of blooms they see this season!
Head out on a Hanami and Stop & Smell the Flowers
All We Need is Love (for Bees)
Why Your Yard Needs More Caterpillars
Your Child, Nature Poet
Is a Nature-Based School Right for Your Child
Not all nature-based schools are the same. The degree of nature your child may be getting in a nature-based school varies based on the school and its approach.
To help you decide if a nature-based school is a good fit for your family, get to know the facts on the state of nature-based schools.
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Our Favorite Family Winter Activities
If yours is an outdoor family, you know that when the temperature drops, the fun really starts. Winter is the serious nature lover's season for getting outside. Tis the season for enjoying family winter activities together.
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12 Myths About Kids and the Outdoors
Guide to the Growing World of Nature-Based Learning
The nature-based or outdoor learning movement is growing. But not all outdoor education is the same. Our guide helps you know the difference between a nature preschool, forest school, forest kindergarten, outdoor school, outdoor program, green school, place-based school, or nature school so you can make the best decision for your child.
How to Go Owling
Winter is actually an excellent time to head out owling, or looking for owls. Our latest post rounds up the what, where, why and how to finding these spectacular creatures with your family!
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The Importance of Being Alone— in Nature
Why kids need the time and space to be alone in nature and how to give it to them.
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A Study in Snowflakes
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Why Your Child Needs to Play in Nature
Nature can calm a child, bring out their creativity, lift their mood. Nature play helps them develop more social skills, be more balanced and more fit. But in today’s society in which viruses are at the forefront of our minds, do you know what else nature play can do? Boost a child’s immune system.
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How to Be a Winter Detective
A less active landscape means more effort is needed to find clues from nature. Just like a detective uses all of their senses to gather clues, good sensory detection is also a skill that any naturalist needs. So put on your nature detective hat as we head outside & explore winter's natural landscape together!
12 Ways to Bring Nature to Your Family This Year
The new year is an ideal time to take stock of how we are living our lives, evaluate our intentions and our actions. It's also the perfect time to give your family a nature makeover. Here are 12 ways to make 2021 your most nature-filled year yet!
Have Yourself a Nature Filled Holiday
If your family’s holiday traditions could use a little less materialism and a little more inspiration from nature, try out these alternatives to celebrating the season—and nature.
Holiday Gift Ideas for Kids Inspired by Nature
There are no smartphones, video games or other devices on this list. Sharing our favorite gift ideas for kids who love the nature and the outdoors, or whose parents hope to inspire them to love the outdoors and nature.
Nature-Inspired Gifts for Educators
Whether your child's teacher is an off the beaten path hiker or considers glamping too rugged, an end of year gift that helps them bring nature to students is a win for everyone.
Here are a few last-minute nature-inspired ideas to help get more nature in your child's school day.
7 Ways Winter Play Helps Your Child
Winter play can offer your child a bunch of benefits that summer play can’t compare to. As long as you are smart about winter play by watching the weather conditions carefully and dressing your child properly, your child can have a blast in the cold.
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Winter Nature Mini-Guide
Our new Winter Nature Mini-Guide is a great way to start your child on their naturalist training. Includes fascinating facts on the specialized adaptions of #winter #wildlife and nature as well as activity sheets for hands-on learning! FREE, fun download!
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How to Dress Your Kid for Winter Play
The difference between a day of fun in the winter and a day of whining is all in the outdoor gear. And though winter clothing shopping can seem overwhelming, we created this guide to help you make the right choices.
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Our ULTIMATE Nature Book List
These nature books for adults and kids alike will hopefully educate, inspire and share excellent ideas for getting more nature into your child's life. The carefully-chosen books for kids included in the list focus on the beauty and wonder of nature and can help young children develop an understanding and appreciation of the natural world.
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We’re Going on a Mushroom Hunt
To help your child discover the phenomenal world of fungi, head out on a mushroom hunt together. You don’t even have to forage or harvest the fungi. You can simply discover this hidden world together, make close observations and capture the magnificent mushroom with sketches and photography.
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There’s Something About Fungi
Once your child begins to learn about the fascinating world of fungi, they will be hooked. Amazingly diverse, seamlessly adapted and continually surprising us as we learn more about them there's just something about fungi.
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Build a Better Bat House
Bats are struggling with survival because many of their natural roosting places are being damaged and destroyed. This makes it harder for them to find food to eat, raise pups, and survive. One way that your family can give bats a little edge back is by providing a bat house or houses on your property.
5 Item or Less Nature Crafts
Exploring nature through art and crafts is an excellent way for a child to develop an appreciation for the natural world—and have fun while doing it! Here are our favorite 10 nature craft projects using 5 items or less.
The Best Toy You Can’t Buy
Imagine a toy that comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Is not wasteful and does not pose a threat to the planet. Versatile. Plentiful. An endless source of creative play. Loved by children and dogs alike.
A toy marketer’s dream except for one detail: it’s free. So free that it does actually grow on trees. We’re talking about the stick of course.
Exploring Nature with Children: Secrets of Clouds
Much like kids, clouds never stay still. They’re in a state of perpetual motion and transformation, changing from one form to another. Helping your child explore this form of nature is a great way to help them focus on the natural world, make connections within it and feel connected to it themselves.
Loose Parts Creatures & Dioramas
Help your child get in the habit of noticing nature's gifts by heading out on a loose parts gathering session. Then, take it all inside, and let them work their magic as they create fantasy creatures and, even a diorama for the creatures to live in..
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Urban Naturalist Bootcamp
There is a world hiding in plain sight in our cities. Help your child discover it with our "Urban Naturalist Bootcamp." Includes tips to identify habitats, species and develop sensory skills. Plus, free activity sheets to take along!
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Tips for a Phenomenal Family Fall Hike
Crisp air. A palette of gorgeous colors surrounding you. And busy critters, giving us our last glimpses until spring. Fall is an ideal time to head outdoors with your kids. What better way to experience nature in this season than a hike in this season of stunning visual change.
It's our Fall Nature Activity Mini Guide!
We're celebrating our favorite season with a free download of our first mini-guide to fall nature activities for kids! We've included a few of our favorite fall activities to help your child settle into the season and become just a little more of a natural history expert along the way.
The Beauty of Ephemeral Nature Art
As beautiful as a wall montage of your child's landscapes, bird portraits and flower close-ups can be, an accessible, expressive, beautiful and completely non-messy form of art to do with your child is ephemeral art.
Make a Moss Terrarium
If you and your child are ready to explore the magical world of moss, creating a moss terrarium is an excellent project for learning and exploring together.
Green space is good for our kids. We know it instinctively as parents. But what of the other soothing color we see #outdoors? What about blue space? Learn if blue space is just as good for our kids, or if we're better off staying green.
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Outdoor Daddy: Blogs We Just Have to Share
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Why Kids Need to be Learning Outside
Fashion a Fairy House
What could be more enchanting than a fairyhouse tucked away in the corner of a garden? Or in the nook of a tree? They’re adorable. They’re magical. And creating them is a creative way for a child to spend (endless) time outdoors. Why & how to start building one with your child, NEW in our Activity Finder!
How Much Time in Nature Does a Kid Really Need?
How to Make a Journey Stick
Listening to the Sounds of Silence
Going on a Bug Hunt
Homeschooling? It’s Time for a Field Trip!
Nature + Social Distancing. Perfect Together
Living through a global pandemic that restricts our social interactions and even requires quarantining is no fun for any of us, especially kids. Under this new and evolving condition, many parents are wondering how to keep their kids healthy and happy during this time. We have an elegant solution for them: nature (yes, you probably knew that ahead of time).
Nature-Approved Screentime
Nothing beats the great outdoors. But if your family is having some indoor time, don’t dismay. Your kids can still get a nature fix of sorts. These excellent resources can help kids learn about the natural world.
Top FREE Nature-Based Learning Curriculums for Schools and Homeschools
We scoured the web, looking at some of our favorite wildlife and nature-based organization to come up with this list for you of nature-based learning curriculum for schools and homeschools! From citizen-science projects, outdoor explorations, activities, lesson plans, toolkits, you'll find many creative resources to help jumpstart nature-based education for your kids or students.
Becoming a Micronature-ist
Micronature is simply digestible nature, or nature in small enough doses to take in and to study. By observing micronature, your child can actually try to notice every detail of a natural area as it's small enough to explore and analyze. Micronature is an excellent way for your child to “claim” a little piece of the outdoors, get to know it intimately through observation and repeat visits.
Tips for Hosting ScreenFree, Outdoor Playdates
When they’re brimming with screens, playdates can’t help kids polish their social skills. And they certainly can’t help kids reap the rewards of outdoor playtime. Here are a few strategies you can try to keep screens out of playdates—and get the kids outside.
Why Your Child Should Try Nature Photography
To help you figure out the proper daily dose of nature for your child, we dug into the most recent and widely-circulated studies to come up with this roundup of the recommendations for "just right" nature time each day.