As parents, we can sometimes feel pressured into keeping our children busy and entertained during the long summer days. But summer is the perfect time to slow down and enjoy the natural beauty of our area. Nature crafts are a fun way to get outdoors, and spend time with your child. For all of these crafts you will need leaves and flowers.
Nature Tree
With your child, pick leaves, flowers, and grasses. Then, draw a tree on a piece of paper. You can use construction paper or cardstock. Drawing a tree doesn’t have to be perfect, but this is a great way for you to help your child’s hands draw a tree if they are still learning. Then, glue the items they found in the back yard to their tree. This is a fun and easy craft and it can help you clean up your backyard.
Tic-Tac-Toe with Rocks
Ever go on a nature walk and find a lot of flat rocks? They are perfect for using in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Collect some rocks and paint them with X’s and O’s. You can also paint the rocks with a lot of fun colors! Then, teach your child the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe. Have fun!
Leaf Luminaries and Bracelets
When going on a nature walk or camping, you and your child might find some beautiful leaves of all different shapes and sizes. Use these to make a leaf luminary. All you need is contact paper, scissors, and a flameless candle, if you want to let the light go through your luminary. Cut a piece of contact paper large enough so that it would go around something like a plastic milk jug. This is just for the size, so you know you have enough room to put the leaves and flowers you found on your luminaries. Then, peel the contact paper back and place the leaves on the sticky side of the contact paper. Make sure you do not overlap the leaves. Then, wrap it around so the flameless candle can fit inside of it. The contact paper will stick to itself.
Depending on the size of your child’s wrist, you can do these same steps to make a bracelet for your child. Pick out the flowers and leaves and cut a smaller portion out of contact paper. They can then have a bracelet full of flowers too.
Crowns
To make a paper crown, take a paper bag and cut down the side on the fold all the way down to the bottle of the bag and cut the bottom of the bag out. Then measure the circumference of your child’s head with the bag and cut to the appropriate length. On the top of the crown, cut a zig zag pattern to give the crown more of a “regal” appearance. Tear off a piece of duct tape that’s the same length as the crown and lay it sticky side up. Attach the leaves, flowers, and anything else your child wants on their crown to the sticky side of the duct tape. Then attach the duct tape to the crown.
