We made this a Family Home Evening activity. One night a week, we try to get together as a family and have a short spiritual thought, activity, treats, and time to talk about our week and where our family is going. It's family time! A few weeks ago, we decided to think of the many natural creations we have been given during this time and make some plans for our summer fun!
We used a few resources, such as our 2015 Michiana Summer Guide, various kids getting outside book, Tania's post, and specifically a new book for us called Go Wild!, as we wanted to to incorporate some adventure and skills we haven't tried just yet. We especially are looking forward to making bowls out of wood and embers. We'll need to blow for a long time!
We started with a big piece of paper we reclaimed from a shipping box and a bunch of markers.
Some kids drew pictures to illustrate what they wanted to do, others helped research or write. We spent time on our WHY first, sharing things like family together time, getting outdoors, exercise, etc. Then we started writing down our lists. At first we just started brainstorming and then we started making different categories. Tania had a few different ideas for this--we did parks/places, sunny days, water, conservation, giving, and learning.
We skipped the step to decorate our bucket as I use these for all kinds of things and wanted to use it for other purposes later. I let the kids write on most of the clothespins, as they were very engaged and motivated. They became more into it as they wrote more activities. We color coded our activities choosing a color for each type of activity.
In just a few weeks, we have already had plenty of summer fun from our list! We went to the Indiana Dunes with friends (Silver Beach this time--so much to explore!).
We pulled garlic mustard (an invasive species) when we visited a cool nature inspired park in Beaverton, Ohio.
We experimented with fire and made s'mores! I'm sure this will be repeated many times.
We visited Allan Kauffman Park in Goshen, one of our favorite nature play areas nearby.
And we picked up ice cream at The Chief while playing in the trees.
It has been a great experience. I feel like these are all things we would be doing anyway. However, there is more buy in from many of the kids. We pulled it out this evening to look at our week and what activities we might do this week. We are using it to document what we have done as we look at the clips we put in the bucket as we finish them. We plan on printing one to two pictures for each activity and writing a card to remember our excursions, putting them in a Project Life book to remember our Family Nature Bucket List Summer! This could be extended year round or recycled. I know many of these are favorite activities for our family. It reminds us of our traditions and encourages us to get outside as a family, spending time in nature together!
It's currently strawberry picking time, so we will tackle that clip tomorrow. It's an activity we enjoy. Find our strawberry pursuits and tips here. Imagine that--with 4 growing boys, many of our excursions involve food! I was surprised how much they want to forage for food, pick berries, and cook over fires! We will be eating well as we go through the summer! We look forward to more Family Nature Bucket List items! Thanks, Tania!
