Exploring and Painting in Nature

You know those families that show up for the art or science fair with amazing projects that you know the child probably didn't do himself? Or the blog posts that you Ooohhh and ahhhhh over when you see the perfectly painted pine cones, rocks, and shells. Yeaaaa, well you probably won't see that here. What you'll see here is exploring art, nature, and letting the child take the lead. Call it Free Range learning, Reggio Emilia, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, or any other educational philosophy that believes in incorporating nature into your learning, but here at Natural Beach Living we call it our life.    

By setting out an invitation to explore, you are allowing the child to interpret the items in their own way through undirected play.  

In your everyday life start collecting your children's findings. Whether it's shells from a day at the beach, or rocks, and sticks from a nature walk, you'll have them easily accessible for incorporating them into their play.

Some of our favorite watercolors are (affiliate links for your convenience) Sax Liquid Watercolorsand Sargent Art . They have beautiful vibrant colors and wash off easily. I'm all for washable products with kids.

For our natural art invitations I usually mix 1 Tablespoon of watercolor paint with approximately 1/3 cup of water. I do this for each color.  

Similar to a Reggio Emilia School, our activities don't start and end by the clock. They flow with the wonder and curiosity for a longing to explore more.

If you strive to bring nature and a sense of calming into your learning, I think you would really enjoy these posts.
Reggio Inspired Nature Table  
and
Nature Through a Toddlers Eyes

Thanks so much for joining us.
Visit Sew Pretty For You on Facebook and if you would like to purchase an apron visit  Elves and Angels or her Etsy Store. You will find these absolutely wonderful aprons and dresses plus much more. Make sure you send a message if you don't see what you are looking for.  Julianna custom makes everything and has great customer service.   

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Easy and Fun Activities for Teaching Colors

I absolutely love this stage of learning, where everything is new and exciting. In fact, today I am going to share with you easy and fun ways to teach color. Toddlers are naturally attracted to colorful (especially shiny) things, so why not use that excitement to teach them. Learning colors is an abstract concept for young children and can take a lot of time and patience. Some children may pick it up quick and others might take a year or more to fully understand the difference in colors and be able to name them. The best thing is to apply color learning and activities in your everyday life.  

O and I should give you a heads up. This might be a little long, but it is filled with lots of colorful ideas. 

Our Super Easy Color Wheel!!!

This is one of Bells favorite activities. 

You can make this color wheel by:

 tracing a large circle onto a piece of cardboard (I used a large bowl that I had as my guide)

cut 6 pieces of different colored felt into triangles (try to make them close to the same size)

Spray the cardboard circle with spray adhesive than tack down each triangle piece

Viola!!   

As for the colored items used to match the colored triangles, I just collected them from around the house. As you can see here, I tried to get some shape learning in too. 

Here is the color wheel in action. For the younger children they can pick up objects using their hands, for the older children you might want to try tongs or a scooper. This helps with working  their fine motor skills.  

Our All time favorite blocks are the Guidecraft Rainbow Blocks. The kids will play with them for hours. I love how you can place the blocks one in front of another and make a different color. It's awesome!!! Color mixing with out any mess. They also are incredibly beautiful when the sun is shining through them. They light up the whole room with colors.

I love to just watch the children explore these blocks on their own. It's such a lovely sight. 

 Another quick and easy DIY activity. 

I purchased this 6 cup muffin tin at the dollar store. 

Cut circles out of construction paper, and used craft pom poms in the same colors. 

Interested in teaching this activity:

I started by showing Bells how to take one ball at a time out of the bowl, look at it, then look for the matching color spot. Checking each spot for the correct color. I did this with all of the pom poms so she could get the feeling of how to do this activity. Then it was her turn. You can start out with 1-3 balls in each color and work your way up. 

Easy, peasy, inexpensive activity to put together.

You can also work math into your learning by making patterns. Genius!!!

How about some fun games with color cards...

1. Pick a color card and go on a scavenger hunt for things in your house.

2. Play hop to the color. Place the cards around the floor, or in a circle and have your child hop to that color as you call it out. 

3. Sing songs or make up silly rhymes about each color. Hold the color card up for your child and sing/rhyme. You'll have them laughing and playing, all the while they are remembering those colors. 

These color cards came from Confessions of a Homeschooler, I printed them out and laminated them for durability.

It is great if you can have a few fun, educational items to use. We absolutely love our peg boards, and not only is Bells learning her colors, we are working on language development, and fine motor skills.

Calming bottles can be such a joy in any room. They brighten up a space and the children love looking at them. At the same time you can use teaching moments to talk about the colors. O and you might want to make sure the tops are hot glued on (wink, wink)

Looking for other great themes and activities for learning colors? 

Click on the links below. 

A week of Red and Pink, click here for the link.

Orange Toddler activities in October

Orange Scented Natural Play Dough

Color Treasure Baskets

Working with Color Mixing, Science, and More

Some other fun ways to stretch your color learning everyday is use colorful food and snacks. Think about an all red snack tray, or an all green breakfast. Dress your child in the color of the day outfit. Make it fun, and your little one will be a color pro in no time.

If you are interested in some of the fun things we use in our house. I added them here to make it easy for you. These are affiliate links which means you are helping my family out in our homeschooling journey. A great big thank you in advance :) 

I would LOVE for you to visit me on Facebook, and follow on Pinterest. You can see thousands of other great ideas and we can have fun sharing.

Visit Natural Beach Living's profile on Pinterest.

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Watermelon Fizzy Sensory Science Play

When I think of summer, I think of the warm sun, the beach, children playing outside, picnics, and of course eating lots of watermelon. I also think it's a time that I need to come up with some extra activities to keep the kids having fun, and learning. On this particular day I had scooped out the middle of the watermelon for a fruit salad, and I knew there was something cool we could do with the rest of it. 

What I came up with was easy and super fun. 

All you need is 2 ingredients.

 Baking soda (I used a 1 lb. box), and Vinegar (as much as you want)

Feel free to add a couple drops of watercolors or food coloring for extra excitement. 

Sit back and let the kids explore, and enjoy some fizzy watermelon science sensory play. 

Summer should be filled with enjoyment.
Make it easy for yourself, yet thrilling for the children.
I hope you enjoyed our watermelon play and get the chance to try it out for yourself.
The children will love the squishy, bubbling fun!!!

Check out some of our other great Sensory play ideas

Orange Scented Natural Play Dough

Under the Sea Jello Sensory Play

or how about an

  Arctic Adventure with Frozen Foam Dough

You can also follow my Sensory Board on Pinterest. It is full of sensory play goodness. 

Follow Natural Beach Living's board Sensory play on Pinterest.

This post is part of our 12 Months of Sensory Play

Interested in seeing what my fellow bloggers are doing for their fizzy fun?!?! 

Lemon Lime Adventure~Look! We're Learning!~Glittering Muffins~Still Playing School~ Little Bins for Little Hands~Natural Beach Living~The Eyes of a Boy~Powerful Mothering~ Wildflower Ramblings~I Heart Crafty Things~Delightful Learning~Life of Jennifer Dawn

Feel free to link up any of your sensory play, and click around to see other great ideas.  

   

An InLinkz Link-up