Outdoor Play Spaces

The early stages of this year's mud pit development

I'm always looking for activities that will capture the interest of my girls and allow them to explore and investigate nature at the same time. This is our second year designing a mud play area into the yard, and without a doubt it will be a permanent fixture for years to come. As you can see, the garden area is fairly spread out, or maybe it just feels that way because I have a three year old?

The girls' play space is in the center of our garden area.

As this photo demonstrates, she is enthusiastic, energetic and totally in the throes of three :)

Welcome to my mud kitchen!

Throughout the summer, the girls never seem to get tired of the mud play. We include buckets, shovels, sand toys and any random things that catch their interest such as pine ones and rocks. They make mud pies, fancy restaurant meals, develop games, and capture insects and toads. It entertains them after they lose interest in weeding and picking vegetables, exercises their imaginative muscles and gets them in touch (literally) with nature. Win, win, win!!

Interested in other excellent outdoor play spaces? This is an excellent resource for outdoor play ideas. I love this link on the importance and challenge of undirected outdoor play. What have you been doing outside lately? I'd love to hear your successes!

Strawberries three ways

With strawberry season upon us, we are eating these sweet treats every which way. Yesterday we made strawberry syrup for"snowcones" and today the leftover syrup became strawberry lemonade and strawberry orange popsicles!

To make strawberry syrup, combine equal parts water and sugar (we used organic cane sugar) and add a cup of berries to the mix add your syrup comes to a boil. Mash the berries with a potato masher, and if desired strain out the pulp...we left it in there. Cool and pour over crushed ice.

To make strawberry lemonade, mix 1/3 cup syrup with 1/3 lemon juice and about two cups water (adjust amounts depending on how sweet or tart you like it).

We added a splash of lemonade to or popsicle molds and topped with orange juice to make some healthier popsicle treats. The girls love them, and it's nearly all fruit and juice.

So far we aren't getting enough berries for a pie, but I'm hoping we will soon!

Happy Summer Break!

Wishing you many lazy and lovely days with your family in the next few months. I am so happy that I decided to make the move to teaching - I love working with the kids and the extra time with family is such a blessing!