Tuesday afternoon was a rough one. We’re still trying to find our groove with preschool and Emil’s nap time and when oh when do I get to sit down? I was feeling more than frustrated with the state of affairs over here… poor Emil has caught Oliver’s cold and wants nothing more than to take a nice long nap, but my two big boys are wound tighter than a rubber band and need desperately to get outside and RUN, and until they can do so, they keep waking up the baby. I was one-more-naughty-little-boy-thing away from throwing dishes against the wall when Andrew thankfully walked through the door and took over. Seems like we will be having days like these…
But before it got to that crazy place, we did something really fun and simple: we had a fall-inspired nature hunt in our neighborhood. First, I wrote out a list of interesting nature finds that I knew were around our neighborhood, plus some that I wasn’t so sure we would find, and a couple open-ended items (like something orange and two mystery treasures— that could be anything, right?). Then, we grabbed a basket and our “looking eyes” (as opposed to???) and went a-searchin.’
The cluster of mushrooms was easy– just in our front yard! But this easy find encouraged the boys and got them off to a good start. Milo started running ahead to find the next item…
… and nearly ran right past some yellow leaves!
And this activity really helped this old mama think outside the box– as I was searching for something orange (thinking leaves or flowers), Milo had to point twice before I saw it: he had found construction paint that was orange. Right under our feet!
Oliver was the master acorn-collector.
… before he started screaming to the skies… um. This should have been my first clue that the rest of the day was going to be a challenge.
And we found every item on the list! It was a lot of fun and naturally led us to the playground in beautiful weather. Next time I think I will leave more clues instead of a list of items… I loved watching their little minds work and figure out each riddle!
Well it looks like great fun, even if they are little rascals! Hope you all settle into an easy routine soon 🙂
We’ve always loved doing alphabet scavenger hunts on hikes. One time I even brought a camera and we took pictures of the things we found and made an alphabet book out of it. We of course allowed adjectives to help us…like “Jumping bug” for J, etc. And to cheat for Q, we made a crown and put it on my head for Queen 🙂 Fun to see what they come up with. I may have to try the fall scavenger hunt as a change of pace!
Giselle, what a great idea! I need all the help I can get trying to encourage letter recognition for a certain little boy (who also yells at me to STOP! whenever I try to sing the alphabet song). I may have to give that alphabet book a try…
Ok, this is the cutest idea! It makes me a little sad my boy is too young to appreciate this kind of fall happiness, but you can bet next year this little scavenger hunt will be on our to do list. Darling little munchkins you have!
You are so full of cool ideas to keep kids busy. We will definitely be doing this soon.