where the earth meets the sky and the sea

Wishing you a peaceful holiday time.

We will be relaxing with family and friends but also enjoying:
continuing to remove bracken fern from the blue gum area on our farm and any other noxious weeds, watering our herbs and veges and fruit trees in the evenings, and relishing summer salads and fruits. We may even try preserving the peaches again if we get a bumper crop. (This will depend on the birds and the success of our new bird nets.)  

Bird Feeder

Eco Friendly Family Fun

We had a large collection of plastic bottles as well as the tops and found this lovely idea at pinterest.
Materials needed:
2 wooden spoons - we used old ones
Plastic bottle
Plastic twine (lasts longer outdoors)
Funnel with pipe that fits in bottle
Bird Seed

Instructions:
Visit Family Fun
NOTE: We did not do No.3 in the instructions but instead tied the plastic twine around the top of the bottle long enough to hang in the garden and replaced the lid.

Linked at Child Central Station

Taking a short break

I hope to stand at the water's edge and enjoy this earth, sky and sea.
Hope you can also explore nature and have a little break.
Back soon...

Young navajo boy photo taken 2007

LINKED AT:

earth sky sea fun

Restore your spirit where earth sky and sea meet.

"Nothing makes our family feel renewed in body, mind and spirit like a visit to the ocean"

Bonnie from earth sky sea

The Great Outdoors

"To see a world
in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wildflower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."  William Blake

Instill a love of nature and all things outdoors with the help of 52 days to explore. This site offers ideas for the natural explorer in all of us from the very young to the young at heart. Great for teachers, parents and other carers and also kids, it gives simple ideas to get moving outdoors like exploring tidepools, blowing bubbles, finding a forest, being a backyard scientist, parachute games and gardening (just remember to keep it organic in the garden).
Each idea includes theory of why the activity is developmentally important, suggestions for further reading, quotes about the great outdoors and ways to extend the activity. Happy exploring.

Earth Day for children

Please make "Earth Day" every day.
Children need to be in the natural world.



In my father's day nobody would have to say this as it was just understood that kids played outdoors for most of the day. Growing up in country Australia he and his brother tell of days running around the creek and back yard, making boats and never wanting to go inside even when they were called. Inside was for the "old people"!

When I look back, on my life, I do not remember rooms and games played inside - the things vivid in my memory are parks and walks with grandad and making daisy chains and going on family picnics and playing cricket with the grown ups.

Now there are surveys and books and research and evidenced based reasons why children need outdoors. There are forest kindergartens in Europe and many good sites about outdoor play.

Here are a few sites I enjoy:
early play outdoors - outdoor activity ideas for preschoolers by Lesley at early play.

I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here! by an outdoor learning consultant in Scotland.
The Children & Nature Network building a movement to reconnect children with nature.
Natural Teachers Network
Little eyes on nature introducing nature to young children at Montessori enviro pre-schools in New Zealand.
Let the Children Play by an early childhood teacher at a progressive preschool in Australia.
Learning for Life by Kierna in Northern Ireland - no such thing as bad weather!

Help prevent Nature Deficit Disorder - let's get outdoors and play.

Natural Playground Co Design

We all need vitamin G

Children need the natural world to develop and feel at peace.
Children who play outside regularly:
•Become fitter and leaner
•Develop stronger immune systems
•Have more active imaginations
•Have lower stress levels
•Play more creatively
•Have greater respect for themselves and others
Source: Fjortoft 2004; Burdette and Whitaker 2005

Visual catalogue of outdoor play ideas

Outdoor Activities for preschoolers at early play

Explore Outdoors page at Early Childhood

Art with Kids

I love collage and so does my daughter.  Today I discovered 111 COLLAGE DESIGN which has lovely artwork often about nature.

It reminded me of some of the simple tearing of papers and gluing and using found objects to create beautiful artworks that children and all of us can do. Look at the use of colour in ' Trees Can Grant Wishes.' - creating beauty by limiting the pallete. Thought this could be a starting point with all children from about 2 years of age when they can rip and glue - who doesn't love tearing paper and gluing?