Nature Bracelets

Earlier this week, I interviewed the author of Fed Up with Frenzy, a book dedicated to helping families slow down and reconnect. The book is a how-to guide for slowing down and creating more distraction-free time with your kids.

I was especially excited by the chapter called Slow Nature and thought it would be fun to have The Explorers try one of the activities to share with you here. (I left the choosing of the activity to The Big Explorer.)

Nature Bracelets
All you need to get started is a piece of tape (masking paint, painter’s tape or duct tape work well). The wider the tape, the easier it is to attach items.

This one's The Little Explorer's masterpiece

• Cut a piece of tape that’s long enough to go around your child’s wrist.
• Place the tape sticky side out around your child’s wrist.
• Go for a walk and stick small items in nature to the tape. Some ideas are leaves, flower petals, twigs and seeds.
• Our one rule when picking items for our bracelets was that they had to be things already on the ground.

The Explorers preferred to use their scooters for this one and I tagged along on foot. Every once in a while The Big Explorer would stop to pick something up to add to his bracelet; The Little Explorer requested that I choose things for his.

A stick, a rock - even an ant - on The Big Explorer's nature bracelet

This was a fun, quick activity that was definitely in order. We’ve had one wallop of a busy week and it was nice to take just a few minutes out of our evening to get outside and reconnect with each other.

Fed Up with Frenzy has lots more ideas for things to do outside. And if you’re partial to walks, I’ve got several creative ways to turn a neighborhood walk into a nature adventure. The point isn’t necessarily what you do once you get out the door; it’s simply that you carve out some time to do something.