With just a little bit of creativity and a little persuasion, a walk can turn into a treasure hunt. A child can't walk far without stopping to pick up a treasure of nature!
Bring along a basket or bag and collect some of the amazing nature treasures you find as you mosey along. You may find a feather, a pine cone, an interesting rock, a shell or a funky twig. I promise you that the walk will not be an aerobic one, because you'll be stopping much too often. But it will warm your heart in another way as you see all the treasures you would have missed if walking only for exercise.
Cross Pieces for the Mobile
As you go, be sure to pick up a few sticks or other objects to use for the cross piece(s) of the mobile. When you get home, lay the treasures out and take a minute to just observe them. Aren't they cool?
What's a Mobile? How Does it Balance?
If your children don't know what a mobile is, take a moment to explain it to them. This is a great opportunity to explore the idea of balance. Pick out the treasures you'd like to hang on your nature mobile. Which of your objects are heavier or lighter? How can you make them balance? Here's your chance to experiment.
How to Make Your Mobile
Choose a stick or other item to use as the main cross piece. Tie a string to the middle of the stick and hang or hold the mobile up by this string to check the balance as you go.
Hanging Up Your Nature Treasures
Begin to tie objects to the stick. Move them around and keep adding objects one by one to get the mobile to balance. With a younger child, you can keep this simple and use just one stick as a cross piece.
If you want to get more complicated, you can cross two sticks and tie them in an X, then tie objects to all four ends. Or you could hang another stick under the first, tie more objects to it and keep working to make it balance.
Enjoy Your Mobile
Find a great place to hang your mobile where it can catch a breeze and twirl. You'll enjoy your walk for many, many days!
Shelly Carlson is an artist, previously home-educating mother of three and now proud grandma (Nana) of six. She loves sharing hands-on crafts for children of all ages at welcometonanas.com.
This story first appeared in The Green Parent magazine.
