A Tree Which Gives and Gives

When kids play outdoors, they learn of things which they otherwise would not. A couple of months ago, the kids came across a pine tree which had something lumpy on it. It turned out to be some dried up sap. We broke it off and took it home. From various angles, it looked like different things. Occasionally a bird, then a bear and sometime later even a face!

Kulshan Creek Youth Program - Walking through Schriebers Meadow, Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest 

by 

Forest Service

At home we spoke of the various ways pine trees could be used - melting sap and mixing with charcoal gave a high quality glue, the oils from the pine needles could be used in aromatherapy, the branches as building material, roots could be used as cordage, nuts were a good source of food, the plant itself offered shelter to innumerable creatures and when dried up the pine needles and wood make good kindling. Every part of a pine tree is useful.

Kids learn to climb small pine trees using the branches as steps. They learn to test a branch before climbing. The climbing familiarizes them with the roughness of the bark and the texture of the needles. The climbing improves there sensory awareness. Try and play simple games to keep the kids moving.

Playing outside is the best way for kids to understand how we are a part of nature. It's sensory rich. and very rewarding. Understanding this will hopefully contribute to a safe future for our forests. Here's hoping the pine trees don't go down the road of the giving tree.

8 Fun Activities for This Summer

Summers inevitably bring back memories of long lazy days filled with laughter and play. As parents, we need to encourage our kids to go out and play to create such memories. In fact we should go out and play with them. This helps them put aside their dragon games or animes they are reading on their devices. Playing on devices is okay, but the summer vacation is meant for outdoor play and projects.

Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/p-1434698/?no_redirect

Here are 8 activities for you to pick from for this summer:

1. Water Games with a Bucket of Water
It's amazing what a bucket of water and some imagination can provide. Entertainment for a long time. Kids could be encouraged to lob stones into the bucket, from a distance. Alternatively, they could see how many stones can be put into the water, They could try this with various sizes of stones. Kids could also be encouraged to float things on water. Natural things like stones, leaves and flowers or actual store bought toys. Talk about things which float and those that don't.

2. Try some Gardening
Kids try these things at school, but the home environment is a great place to encourage growing plants or seedlings. After kids plant seeds get them keep track of the number of days seeds takes to sprout. If the seeds are good and the beds are not trampled on, then they might go on to harvest some produce.

3. Swing in the Open
If you have the space in the yard, tie the kids an outdoors swing at home. They can spend hours doing nothing but twirling around. You'll notice them using the rope in a variety of ways. This is because kids can get real inventive with a rope!

4. Climb trees
If you are lucky enough to have trees around, start them to do some tree climbing. They'll need your help, and adults need to be watchful when they negotiate tricky bits. Low branches can be useful in climbing.

5. Traditional Outdoor Games
These are inevitably old world games which have morphed over time, but have remained great favorites of kids. Some of these can be played indoors, but they are more memorable when played outside. Some of the games are are hopscotch, shadow tag, hide-and-seek etc.

6. Try some outdoor painting
Put up some paper on the side of the garage. Use a squirt gun or a big piece of cotton or anything that can absorb to start the artwork. Splash on color and paint up a storm.

7. Design simple play equipment
Got some rope, spare tires, energy and time? If the kids are still young, make some outdoor equipment for them. Use help that kids offer, appropriate to their age.

8. Try some Leaf Beating
This is a simple activity to set up outside and requires very little preparation. It can e tried out on both paper and cloth. All you need is a hammer, some leaves and flowers, and some paper or white cloth. Place the leaf on paper.cloth. Cover it with a piece of tissue and hammer the areas with a leaf underneath, Peel the tissue to see beautiful designs!

With kids around in the summer, parents need to get creative and innovate with things that are easily available. This can make for some exciting activities with wonderful bonding, all the while making memories which will last a child a lifetime!

2 Made-At-Home-Gifts for Father's Day

Father's Day is around the corner in June. It's always a good time to try making some home made gifts instead of the traditional tie. Which father wouldn't appreciate a gift, however shabby, made by their own kid? Kids like to make things, and the messier it is the better!

Image from here

Here are two ideas we have shortlisted:

1. A Terrarium

The word might sound big and complicated but it's just a few plants in a nice looking container. If you are not into gardening, get the kids to make a fake one. Here are a few ideas for faux terrariums. This will help kids explore their creativity and they can also explore soil and plants which will increase their Vitamin Nature quotient. Father's will love this unusual gift and its very low maintenance. 

2. Collage 

This requires some stealth. Collect pictures of the father from childhood. Get photocopies of the images. Then get the kids to arrange them on card paper (size of their choice). Once they are satisfied, stick them on. On Father's Day, surprise him with memories from his entire life!

Both these gifts need some help from the other parent or any other adult. Once complete, keep it hidden away and surprise Dad on June 18th. Have a blast!

Don't Stir and Talk

Children need out attention. Not the attention we can give them as we stir a pot on the stove, but our full attention. A child must know that the parent is listening. Has her full attention. They must not feel like you don't pay them any attention.

Family Games by Matthew Hurst

Parenting requires many skills and they are not taught in parenting school. We learn as we go. Some we remember from our parents. Occasionally we see other parents practicing a habit that we happily adopt as our own. Quality time is important. Here are three things we can do with our kids to increase the bonding:

1. Play with them
Pull out a board game, get comfortable and roll the dice. Kids don't want to play that? Move to their turf and play a video game with them. If there's nothing in common that you like at the beginning, pick a pet game and adopt a pet. Feed it and play with it. Soon you'll come up with other games that you can all play on. Don't forget the old saying - a family that plays together, stays together.

2. Spend Time in Nature 
Leave your digital devices behind. Just go for a walk. If you have a long weekend, sped time at a national park. Can't leave home? Just sit out together and look at a tree. Get an indoor plant. Get the kids to climb a tree and swing from a branch. Kids like to collect rocks and twigs. Even as they do this, it's a good opportunity to explore the world around us - how things grow, the environmental impact of what we do, nature's mysteries, cycle of life and interdependence of various life forms on Earth. This also helps children understand how important it is to live cooperatively within a family and outside.

3. Give them Space
Teach them well and as they grow step back to watch them negotiate the world around them. We help them walk, bu once they walk we step back and let them walk on their own, all the while making sure that they don't go into areas they are not prepared for. It's the exact same in other facets of their life. As parents we prepare them to live their life, we cannot live their life for them. They might make mistake and we might be tempted to stop them by bringing up their past failures, but we have to grow in our parenting and step back. Sometimes you have to be the wall between other well meaning people who want to stop them, and your child.

Always remember, don't talk as you stir. Stop the stirring. Attend to the child. Listen to them. The stirring can wait. Just don't forget to switch off the stove!

Crafting a Gift This Christmas

Hand crafting a gift makes it more personal. When kids make them, there are added dimensions. They enjoy the making and the people who get them, treasure them. If this craft can double up as a toy, everyone around enjoys it all the more.

YIPL Origame Craft 2010 by Zhao !

Paper Toys

As parents we have bought our kids origami kits at some time or the other. We have also made them paper dogs from Jumpstart crafts, paper boats and gliders innumerable times. It's magical to see a flat piece of paper turn into something magnificent and 3d with just a few folds and cuts. With kids at home, a lot of paper is used up and this needs to be recycled at some point. Paper Crafts are certainly a good way to repurpose used paper. 

2d to 3d and more!

Flexagons are puzzles. A piece of paper turns into a toy which can be folded and refolded to display various designs. How cool is that! When made of card stock it lasts longer, but paper is good too. Kids can color it, and it's very interesting to see how they turn up once the folding is completed. As kids understand how the design are affected by the folding, they slowly master it and execute some wonderful coloring plans! 

Some History

Arthur Stone, a mathematician is credited with creating one of the first flexagons. Once while he was working at Princeton he had a problem fitting American sized paper into his British binder. He cut off the ends of paper and began folding them, eventually creating a flexagon. Soon there was a Princeton Flexagon Committee. Some years later Martin Gardner, the recreational mathematician introduced flexagons to the general public.

Make your Own Flexagon

You will need a printed template, coloring pens, glue, a pair of scissors and some patience. Cut it along the outlines. Color it smartly by following instructions on the sheet. Then fold and crease. Carefully glue ends as suggested. Your flexagon is ready for play!

As kids make more than one, they get better at planning the coloring and the designs they want to make for their flexagon gift. Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017!

A new type of tour

After I wrote about sensory enrichment from nature, I was reading articles on virtual worlds trying to understand their impact on young minds. In this article, the author quotes a friend who says, 'It's harder to be futuristic than ever before'. Video games started out creating worlds which were alien and unfamiliar to us. It has come full circle with video games now tying to be as real as possible.

Digital Kids by Erin Kotecki West

Pros 
Kids too sick to travel use immersive VR to visit places they can't normally go to. It's a great way to learn about things you would not normally do or understand eras you have not been in. Many of the educational games are set in virtual worlds. There's Neopets a virtual pet game where kids who cannot have real pets adopt and nurture pets. This is a boon for people who have a space crunch or for people who do not have the time for pets. Avatars are a great way to get under the skin of characters. Games like Minecraft are even used extensively in schools.

Cons
If these immersive worlds get too real, kids might forget to look out of the window or for that matter they might never know about the world that exists outside the window. People escape to these worlds and never return in some cases. The hikikomori of Japan are examples of people addicted to the Internet. Addiction to these worlds creates people who have no real world relationships. This is the psychological abyss one must always avoid. Kids who grow up this way fail at taking up the challenge of dealing with real world problems.

Every new technology has pros and cons. It's for the parents to be good examples, so that kids enjoy staying in reality even as they enjoy playing in virtual reality. New technology should be used for the betterment of our lives, and not for hiding away in. Play in an unreal world, but make sure you are back in the real one

Sensory Enrichment from Nature

Pediatricians are prescribing a new kind of vitamin for children – vitamin N. There is a reason for this. Sensory processing difficulties are on the rise in children. The reasons could be varied, but there is one observable correlation people associated with children have been noticing – as children are getting farther and farther away from natural environments, sensory problems are increasing. For kids with sensory problems, whose roots do not lie in the neurological or physiological domain, an intense engagement with nature can have marvelous benefits.

Avery Running Through the Water by Donnie Ray Jones

Fitting In

A fact which most people seem to forget is this – humans for all their progress into the digital age are still very firmly a part of the natural world. We are but a jigsaw piece on this planet. Negotiating our way in this natural environment should be instinctive, but we seem to be losing touch with these instincts. 

In the Past

Earlier generations of children naturally spent a lot of time outdoors. While virtual pets rule the roost today, real pets were more the norm some years ago. Most economies were agriculture based. Children of all ages pitched in to help. Play involved natural materials like trees, leaves, soil, water, seeds, cloth, leather etc. Kids climbed trees, swung off branches, jumped into ponds, chased their shadows, raced up grassy slopes, built sand castles, got muddy, ran in the rain, made toys out of natural materials etc. They understood seasons, felt the changes and used their senses to negotiate their way around their world. Lives were attuned to nature. This helped build their physical abilities and contributed to their emotional well-being.

In the Present

Even as our lives are changing and we are becoming denizens of an increasingly digital world, we must help our kids stay rooted in reality thereby helping them maintain a certain elasticity in the functioning of their senses. For this sensory activities cannot be emphasized enough. Here are a few things we must ensure that our kids explore in Nature:

1.      Soil

Get kids to play with soil. Look at it, dig it, feel it, make shapes out of it, smell it (before and after rain) and build with it. Kids love the wriggly creatures which make soil their home. Ask them to observe these creature. Point out the wonderful homes they build in soil. Show them pictures of how termite build homes out of soil which are naturally air-conditioned. Ask them to spot things in different types of soil – pebbles, rocks, sand etc. Ask kids to dig. Digging makes kids understand soil – the hardness, layers and methods to soften it. The activity is good for their joints and builds hunger. Filling holes with water and getting them to flow from one to the other, will be like a model of water flows through lakes. Educational and a great sensory activity. Dirt under fingertips might bother some parents, but such activities do wonders for kids.

2.      Plant Life

Kids in school inevitably grow seedlings in class while understanding germination. Introduce them to trees which grow from tiny seeds. Open their eyes to the wonder of nature. Babies are brought up by their adults. What about the young of plants? Get kids to observe leaves, how some close and open, how some change color, how they crumble in our hands when they are dry and how some leaves tear easily while others are hard. Get kids to climb trees. You could start with low branches and small trees. Get them to balance and jump off trees. Teach them to bend their knees when they land. Swinging on branches, tying swings to branches, plaiting pliable young branches, stitching leaf cups, harvesting fruit – all these activities are simple and yet engage multiple senses.

3.      The World around Us

Even in 2016 the fact remains that we do not know everything about our brains or for that matter the world around us. Research studies in the army have shown that kids who spent time outdoors trekking and spending time in woods hunting had the best depth perception and peripheral vision. Spending time outdoors forces our sense to expand and contract to accommodate our requirement, building in an elasticity which is lost

It’s a recorded fact that animals help children overcome challenges. Dogs have been used to calm kids with sensory processing disorders. Association with dogs and other pets is always a plus for kids (does not included kids who are allergic to dog hair)

As adults, it’s our job to make sure that the younger generations are equipped to negotiate this world. For this we as parents and caretakers need to be brave in letting our young explore Nature. Kids might fall and hurt themselves, but most will get up, brush off the dirt and be off to check out the next interesting thing. The onus is on us. We have to lead them into the world that they will one day inhabit without us. As Kahlil Gibran said –

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.