Celebrate Spring With Your Kids

Have Family Fun Teaching Kids to Enjoy Each New Sign of Spring

© Lisa C. DeLuca

Celebrate Spring!, Morguefile.com

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:

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!


The copyright of the article Celebrate Spring With Your Kids in Kids Outdoor Activities is owned by Lisa C. DeLuca. Permission to republish Celebrate Spring With Your Kids must be granted by the author in writing.


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