10 Fun Backyard Activities

Welcome back to the Weekly Kids Co-op. This week I am featuring 10 Fun Backyard Activities that you kids will love linked up from last weeks Kids Co-op. Perfect for keeping the kids busy and having fun this summer. My kids can’t wait to try some of these fun ideas.

Add Some Color to Your Sidewalk ~ Easy Sented Sidewalk Paint
Dance, Run and Jump ~ Water Blob
Use Weather to Create Art ~ 5 Ways to Paint in the Rain
Create an Imaginative Small World ~ A Fairy Garden
Learn Math While Jumping Around ~ Gross Motor Addition Game
Gross Motor Games ~ Pool Noodle Play Date
Moving and Learning Letters ~ Sidewalk Chalk Phonics Games
Splash, Squish and Play ~ Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud
Create Simple Art ~ Chalk Rubbings
Playing with Discarded Items ~ 5 Ways to Play with Tires

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab a Housing A Forest button.

Come back every Thursday to see if your creative ideas were featured and link up any new ideas! (I will be using one image and a link back to your blog.)

Clothespin Catapults

Please give a warm welcome to Alex from Alex Nguyen Portraits who will be guest posting on Housing A Forest today. I am so exciting to have her sharing with us today, these little Clothespin Catapults are amazing! Alex is a fun loving mom who loves engaging her 2 boys and encouraging their curiosity. She is a highly talented photographer and her blog is full of beautiful images. Grab a cup of coffee and snuggle in, because I promise you will want spend some time there.

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Hi! I’m Alex, from Alex Nguyen Portraits, and I’m honored to be guest blogging here at Housing a Forest. I love Tammy’s blog, and all the activities she posts and researches! Science has been a passion of mine since childhood, and it is something I thoroughly enjoy sharing with my children. My boys ask me why, why, WHY constantly about things all the live-long day. It’s incredibly fun for me to figure out a way to get them to answer the “why” themselves (usually through some sort of experiment).

If your kids are anything like mine, one of their favorite games to play is Angry Birds. If you aren’t familiar with the game, birds are shot through a slingshot at pigs protected in houses. The setup sounds hokey, but the appeal is tremendous. The boys and I set up to build our own catapults with things we had around the house to see if we could create our own trajectory lobbing devices.

What You’ll Need:

piece of scrap wood
wood glue
rubber bands
craft sticks
clothes pins (I suggest wooden ones over plastic)
plastic spoons
bottle caps (I used the ones from our OJ container)

Projectile Ideas (these are all edible/safe for toddlers and preschoolers):

marshmallows
blueberries
grapes
cherries
dandelions (just the flower part)

Some questions the boys had, which we were hoping the experiment would answer:

which would go farther, heavier things or lighter things?
does a longer catapult fling the object further?
which catapult would work better, the spoon or the popsicle stick?

A top view of our two different catapult set-ups, one made with a craft stick and a bottle cap; the other made with just a spoon.

For the left catapult, we glued two clothespins together, then glued them to the board. (you could use one clothespin, but we wanted more leverage). Then, we rubber banded a spoon onto the top clothespin.
For the left catapult, we glued a bottle cap to the craft stick, then glued the stick halfway onto the clothespin.

Since my preschooler was involved, I chose to use edible things to catapult, hence the marshmallows. For older kids, I would suggest using rocks, marbles, pennies, or anything else they can think of!

They were super excited about launching the marshmallows!

Just ah, don’t leave them alone or else you’ll end up with a preschooler who’ll look like this. And an empty container of projectiles.

Overall, this was a pretty fun and successful project!

Remember our questions from earlier? The boys were surprised that the marshmallows flew the farthest, since they were the lightest. Their guess was that the grapes would go the farthest, since they were the biggest and heaviest. We talked about weight affects how objects travel, and is it easier to throw a heavy ball or a lighter ball (they both realized the lighter ball is easier to throw, much like the lighter marshmallow.)

They also correctly guessed that the spoon catapult would aim better, since it created more of an arc, and get “inside a pig’s house”. The popsicle stick catapult had more force, but didn’t go as far. I hope you enjoyed reading about our catapult science experiment, and go forth and built some of your own!

Alex Nguyen Portraits | Pinterest

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Thanks for Posting with us Alex! My kids can’t wait to make their own catapults and they already put marshmallows on our shopping list. Don’t forget to stop on by Alex Nguyen Portraits and tell her you saw her post on Housing A Forest. We all love comments and I know Alex would love to hear from you:)

Here are a few of my favorite post from Alex Nguyen Portraits to get you started:

Sticks ~ Natures Perfect Toy

Today Is our finial day of the Play Inspired with Nature series that we are doing with Growing A Jeweled Rose. We have had a blast creating and playing with nature and I am sad to see the series come to a close. So far we created, played and were inspired by nature in the following ways:

Mud, Muds Glorious Mud ~ Mud Play Recipes

5 fun ways to paint in the rain ~ Magical Princess Puddle Play

Nature Prints ~ Nature Inspired Texture Paints.

Nature Stick Garden Sculptures ~ Nature Play Garden

Like I said we have been having a blast! Today we are introducing you to some of natures best toys! Crystal is sharing an exciting Magic Mud Recipe and we are introducing you to the Stick ~ Natures Perfect Toy.

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An Airplane, a fairy house, a sword, a magic wand, a fort, an alligator, a fishing pole, a paint brush…just a few of the things that your child sees when they pick up a stick. It may not be what you or I see, but to a kid the stick is magical Kids have amazing imaginations, that can turn everyday objects into something wonderful and magical. Sticks fall right into that category. They are readily available, come in every shape and size and my favorite part…they are free. All that combined easily makes sticks ~ natures perfect toy.

Yep that is me as a little girl determined to carry a HUGE stick!

How many times have you gone on a walk with your kids only to return with your child dragging a stick home. I promise that you are not alone. Like peanut butter and jelly, kids and sticks just go together.

While most of us are cringing inside at all the possible injuries that could result from our kids playing with sticks; the kids are being imaginative, playing, problem solving and having fun. All things we would normally be encouraging our kids to do, however when it comes to the simple stick we often have a different opinion.

Seems backwards.

So why do we cringe when our kids pick up a stick and zoom it around like an airplane, or use it to draw something fun?

I have no answers but I do know that I have heard myself more than once tell my kids to “put down the stick” or “be careful, you might poke someones eye out”. The funny thing is, I let my kids use the electric drill and hot glue gun, so why does a stick seem so dangerous? Like anything, stick can cause harm when miss used. I’m not saying remove common sense, but with supervision in wide open spaces lets encourage our kids to embrace what they already know is simply wonderful! While we are at it, surprise your kids and join in on the fun as well:)

This is us at the apple orchard playing one of the kids favorite games… Rotten Apple Baseball. What is Kaleb using for a bat? Yep, it is a stick!

I love these simple stick self portraits my kids did.

Even creating art from simple sticks is fun!

No need for blinking lights or plastic parts. All you need is a little imagination and some good old fashioned fun! How do you view stick play in your house? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Growing A Jeweled Rose has done it again! She has created another fun play recipe that you will not want to miss…Magic Mud Recipe! I can’t wait to make a batch with my kids.

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You might also enjoy the learning through movement series being shared by members of:

Gross Motor Balloon Games

Science ~ Balloon Experiments

Insect and Bug Movement Game

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Nature Stick Garden

I am having so much fun with the Play Inspired with Nature series that we are doing with Growing A Jeweled Rose. If you have missed any of our posts, let me catch you up to speed…we have been playing in the Mud; making amazing mud pies, trying our hand at painting with rain, creating magical princess mud puddles, pounding out a few Nature Prints and creating amazing nature inspired texture paints. I am telling you, we are having a blast! Today the fun continues as we are both creating and playing with gardens. Crystal is sharing the exciting Nature Play garden that they created with her kids and we created Nature Stick Garden Sculptures.

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After a fun morning playing in the back yard, the kids had collected a pile of “treasures”. They were excited to make a project with them and looked at me with expectant eyes. no pressure! I am sure it was their ploy to bring all the treasures inside, but hey why not right:)

It took me a bit to figure out what we were going to create, but when I saw the wooden beads in our drawer the light bulb clicked…Nature Sculptures. These little sculptures were so easy to create and I love that they showcase the kids treasures! Simple projects like this one are my favorite!

Materials:

I used a discarded sewing machine drawer as the base to our garden
Floral foam
Small sticks gathered from our back yard
wooden beads (provided by Craft Project Ideas)
small bits of nature ~ we used leaves, roots, feather, sticks, seeds and anything that was small and would fit into the opening of the beads
Rocks to cover the base and hide the floral foam

Go on a nature walk and collect all the little nature bits that you will need. Notice how small all the pieces are. You will need to make sure what you are collecting will fit into the end of the wooden beads.

There is no right or wrong way to put the beads together. The kids just added what they thought looked good. I love how each of the mini bead sculptures are unique.

Once the kids assembled their beads, they slipped them on the branches. Some of them were a little wonky, but that was half the fun! We chose not to glue anything down since the kids were really enjoying switching the beads around. I love that it turned into a interactive nature sculpture!

This might be one of my favorite finds the kids made. Any guesses on what it is?

Its a root from an annual that was planted in my garden last spring. I love the texture of the roots, and the little dirt particles that are still attached!

We found lots of “helicopters” (as my kids call them) in our back yard left over from last fall.

We were having so much fun playing and creating that I forget to take pictures of the kids actually playing with it:) Ha, well I guess that means it was a hit right!

Here are a few close ups of my favorite beads that the kids made. I absolutely LOVE the addition of the feathers. We have a few Urban chickens, and the kids found a few feather to add to their treasure pile.

The kids love collecting rocks, and almost always bring one back from when we are out and about. Special rocks for a special garden!

I mentioned before, we chose not to glue anything together. The kids were having so much fun switching out what was in each bead and where the bead was hanging that it would have taken some of the magic out of the sculpture.

This would be a great addition to a nature table or an interactive area outside. We will be revisiting this again soon, maybe we will use flowers next time!

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Make sure to stop by Growing A Jeweled Rose and check out Crystals inspiring Nature Play Garden for Kids. My favorite part is that everything that you need to make her engaging garden can be purchased from the Dollar Store. Love it!

Have you seen Crystals Magic Fairy Garden that she made with her kids last summer?

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You might also enjoy the learning through movement series being shared by members of:

Gross Motor Phonics Game

I-Spy Neighborhood Walk

Musical Sight Words Game

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Nature Prints

Welcome to Day 3 of Play Inspired with Nature, a series that I am so excited to be collaborating with Growing A Jeweled Rose on. We have both been having a blast enjoying Mother Nature with our kids. So far, we played in the Mud and made amazing mud pies, painted with rain and created magical princess mud puddles. I am telling you are having a blast! Today we are exploring creative ways to use natural materials as paint. Crystal is sharing an AMAZING nature inspired texture prints and we tried our hand at creating simple Nature Prints.

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Do you remember as a kid sitting criss-cross in a the grass making dandelion prints on your arm? It brings bask lots of fun summer memories. It is too early here to find dandelions, so we decided to try our hand at making prints with other flowers, grass and anything else we could find.

We have tried making prints on paper before, which creates a beautiful print that can be used on a card or framed. However, this time we decided to switch things up and make prints on stone, tiles and bricks.

Materials needed:

Smooth rocks, stones, bricks or the sidewalk.
A rock or hammer
Plant materials like grass, leaves, flowers, pedals etc
Soft rocks or dirt
Really anything that you can find that will leave a mark:)

The kids gathered all the natural elements they could find in our back yard and set to work. They were excited to see what different natural dyes they would find in the plants that they collected.

We used rocks to smash our flower pedals and leaves, however you could use a hammer as well. The kids used a rocking motion or simply rubbed the rock back and forth which seemed to work the best for us. However, they also used the rocks like hammers as well. Just be careful of little fingers.

We found it surprising to see what made the best colors. The bright rose petals left a soft pink glow and some leaves left behind a bright green print. The plants that worked best for us had bright colors, but were not to juicy or dry. It was fun playing to see what result each of the plants would create. That is what this is all about PLAYING with nature.

The tiles that we were using we natural stone as well with a pours surface. I am not sure how well the process would work on tiles that were shiny or glazed.

The kids also used a few soft rocks to draw on the surface as well. They told me that they made their own chalk rocks! I would love to use clay at some point too. I think that would add a fun dimension to their artistic pieces. There is always next time:)

The best part about this process is that you can do it anywhere. No need to carry around paper, all you need are natural elements a few rocks and you and your kids can create art.

I love the green rock and the simple leaf stamp on the tile. It was a fun process that I am sure the kids will be doing again soon. Maybe this summer when there are more bright flowers in bloom.

Have you tried making prints with nature?

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Make sure to stop by Growing A Jeweled Rose and check out Crystals amazing Nature Inspired Texture Paints! You won’t want to miss this fun painting adventure. Her daughter created an amazing recipe that is now on our to-do list!