Celebrate Spring With Your Kids
Have Family Fun Teaching Kids to Enjoy Each New Sign of Spring
Being attuned to nature can bring joy to your family. Spring is the perfect time for family activities that cultivate a love of learning & nature, & good family times.
Spring offers countless opportunities to cultivate observation skills. The activity described here can help children (and adults) hone their skills, while creating fun family time and reinforcing kids' natural joy over the coming of spring.
Teaching kids to observe the world around them nurtures an important life skill which can prepare them for exciting endeavors. Scientists; writers; artists; inventors; and those wise, self-aware people we sometimes have the privilege of meeting are all experts at observation in one form or another.
Signs of Spring Scavenger Hunt
This activity is a modified scavenger hunt. Each family member is given a little notebook. As you go about your daily life, kids and parents search for signs of spring, either as a group or on their own. Families can do this while driving the kids to school, by listening out the window before going to bed at night, or by looking in the neighborhood or yard.
Each person keeps a list of the signs they find. Smaller children can draw pictures. You can make this a theme for a period of weeks or a month as you go about your daily life.
When possible, take note of the date each sign of spring was found. These dates can later be plotted on a calendar and used the following year to anticipate spring. Before long, you will notice your kids getting excited and joyful when they see the first crocus blooming, or when they hear the call of the red-winged blackbird.
Find the Signs of Spring, Even in Unexpected Places
Signs of spring are different depending on where you live. Here are some examples:
- On what day do you suddenly notice the birds singing in the morning?
- Where in your yard did the sun rise and set all winter? Where is it rising and setting now?
- What birds migrate into and away from your area in spring? Do you know what they look and sound like? If you don't know their names or songs, look them up in a Peterson's Field Guide, or find and listen to their songs on the internet.
- Which are the first bulbs or flowers to bloom in your yard or neighborhood? When do the leaf buds appear on the trees? What are the names of the trees and flowers? Look them up or ask an expert from a local nature organization or botanical society.
- Set up different types of bird houses in your yard. Which birds begin making nests first?
- Do the windows get washed in spring, and the closets cleaned out? (People are part of nature too, so things they do also count as signs of spring.) Can you spot people out riding their bikes and walking in the park?
- Do you live near ponds? You may have spring peepers, or other night singers that you can hear as you drive past the wetlands at night.
- What does the night air smell like, now that spring is here?
Celebrate and be Joyful
As you are adding to your lists, praise each child for their efforts to find signs of spring. Celebrate each person's findings by taking a nature walk, purchasing a pair of binoculars to watch the birds at the feeder, writing or reading a poem about spring, baking a cake, having a party or an outdoor prayer service. Have a meal outside in the yard or park, even if it is not really warm enough. Or just do what the neighborhood kids did...
...they had formed a circle and were jumping up and down, laughing and smiling, and waving their hands in the air. In the center of their circle was a clump of just-bloomed, yellow daffodils. The kids were shouting, "Woo hoo, spring is here! Spring has sprung!"
Go on...kick off your shoes and do the happy dance! Your kids will get a big kick out of seeing you in such a joyous state. Bet ya' anything you'll enjoy it too!
