Nature or Field Bags

As we begin to spend more and more time in the garden, the boys have begun to explore the nature around them again. It is so neat to see how new everything is to them again every year even after just a few months away from the garden. I decided that for their Easter baskets I want to get them things that would encourage them to explore nature so I am getting field guides, binoculars and compasses.

I also have been meaning to make them nature bags or field bags for their nature journals and other things we seem to drag back and forth to the garden. So I asked them to pick a fabric and I was going to make them some with the chosen fabric, but I was concerned that just cotton fabric would not stand the test of time. I remembered I have a stack of pants from my oldest and I can't pass them down to the littlest because the right leg of every pair is ripped out. I have been looking for a project to use these on and I found one.


The first pair of khakis I found had some cool pockets and the bottom of the pant legs had some really nice stitching that I wanted to be at the opening of the bag to give it a nice finished look. This bag was for my oldest. He picked out some fabric that looked like a turtle shell. His camera fits perfectly in the old pants pockets. I really like how this one ended up. I want it for myself... LOL I now need to make myself one, I have my eye on a pair of DH pants that would be perfect. DH better watch out. ;)


The second pair of pant I picked were these old carpenters pants that had this red hammer holder. I love how jeans look with red. My youngest had picked out some outer space fabric that matched very nicely.

This bag I did slightly differently than the first. I had planned on making a smaller bag because of how little my guy is, but the bag still ended up being just as big as the other - if not a bit bigger. I may have to modify it a bit so it fits him better.

I added reflector buckles to both because I knew the boys would think it was cool. I also added extra fabric loops for hanging water-bottles off of or anything else they might want to do. Extra pocket in back for holding pencils.

I gave them the bags tonight because I wanted to get some pictures and they were a hit! Such a hit that I could not get my pictures taken. I will have to take some when the newness wears off. LOL

The boys played with these all night, filling them with all kinds of stuff and exploring the wilds of Africa (in our living room). Both boys hung their bags next to their beds with strict orders to all grown ups "not to touch them". They also requested that we go to the garden really soon. ;)

The plan is to put together different nature bag collections so that we can just grab the collection we want take our nature journals and go exploring. I think this year will be a blast at the garden, hiking, and just exploring nature.

March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives. Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create? Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.


• Maman A Droit shares her easy pattern for a felt monkey finger puppet with you!


• The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.


• Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.


• Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."


• Maman A Droit shares her pattern for a felt bunny finger puppet-a perfect Easter basket filler!


• Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.


• Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.


• Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.


• Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.


• Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.


• Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Childrenwoodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.


• Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.

For the Birds

As we prepare our seeds for the garden. The boys and I were talking about what we wanted to grow this year. Brussels sprouts, watermelon and swiss chard are on the list of must haves.

We also talked about ways to bring beneficial bugs and birds to the garden. My oldest was very interested in selecting flowers and plants that would attract certain birds to the garden. We began to talk about other ways we could attract birds with.

Bird feeders and bird house were among the top of the list, so I had an old bird feeder the boys painted. I just need to find a sealant that will keep the paint from chipping and getting into the bird food. We also got a bird house kit from the toy store. It was the perfect project for papa and the boys to do together. It turned out real well and the boys had a great time making it. Now we just need to find the perfect place for this to go. March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives. Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create? Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.


• Maman A Droit shares her easy pattern for a felt monkey finger puppet with you!


• The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.


• Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.


• Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."


• Maman A Droit shares her pattern for a felt bunny finger puppet-a perfect Easter basket filler!


• Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.


• Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.


• Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.


• Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.


• Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.


• Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Childrenwoodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.


• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.


• Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.

“Calming your Beast” basket

Learning the inner beast inside of you takes a long time. I am (ummm) getting up there in age and I am still learning about my inner beast. Image how it is for a little one. All these new emotions are shoving their way up, and they have to figure out a way to understand what is going on and how to handle it. Having a spirited child who feels emotions pretty intensely in the house, means we have high highs and low lows. The happiness, excitement, etc are pretty easy to handle. It is the anger, frustration and sadness that can be tough. So we have been on a mission to teach the kids different ways how our bodies/minds react to different emotions. For example when we are angry what does your body do? Maybe you get tense, maybe you grit your teeth, maybe you hold your breath, maybe your heart races.

A lot of these conversations happen when we are all calm. But how do you help your child when they are in mad or angry. I don’t know about you but my guys don’t really want to talk at that time, they just want to be mad. But I want to help them remember the things we talk about when they are calm so I made a “Calming your Beast” basket. When the kids get upset I offer them love and support but if they need time I set the basket next to them.

The basket contains bubbles, play dough, bubble wrap, stickers, bead work, markers, paper, and cards. Each thing has a purpose. Bubbles are for blowing and calming your breaths. Play dough and bubble wrap are for relaxing tense angry hands. Stickers and bead work are for calming the mind with some challenging peaceful work. The cards can also do this or maybe they could be a counting exercise. Markers and paper can be for drawing/writing what we are feeling, or maybe for ripping up into little pieces just because it feels good. :)

I also like to stick a lavender scented rice pack in there too. The lavender is for its calming effects, and rice pack for mediation or just playing with. I usually take a big smell of it before I pass the basket on because it is easy for me to get wrapped up in their emotions too… ;) It is up to them if they use the basket or not but at least I feel like I am helping them learn some ways to calm their beast.



March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives.

Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create?

Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.
• Maman A Droit shares her easy pattern for a felt monkey finger puppet with you!
• The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.
• Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.
• Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."
• Maman A Droit shares her pattern for a felt bunny finger puppet-a perfect Easter basket filler!
• Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.
• Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.
• Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.
• Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.
• Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.
• Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Childrenwoodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.
• Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.

Superheroes!

February was a busy month, with work, vacations, sickies, and snow days! So my family and I did not get our family carnival submission done in time for the cut off. We did still do it though. It was just a work in progress. February theme was superheroes, which is perfect for or family because the boys are superhero crazy. All month long we talked about, read about and played with all things superheroes.

One of the boys favorite books was Captain Underpants. If you have never read one of the books it is about these two boys who are always up to no good. They are the creators of a comic book “Captain Underpants” that they sell to their friend. So my 5 year old thought it would be cool to make his own comic book.

My son is really into his camera and is always snapping pictures, so I wanted this project to teach him a different technique for using his camera. He set all his superheroes in different positions and then took a lot of pictures. He told me the words he wanted the comic to say and I typed it up. We applied a style to the photos to make them look like they were drawn and added them to the frames. We had a great time doing it and DS is already coming up with how the story continues… This may become our continuing Saturday naptime project. Here is the final product, enjoy.