5 Ways To Have Fun With Dandelions

Spring weather is finally here for us and the girls have been having fun with the plethora of dandelions they are finding in our yard and around the neighborhood.

I'm certain this list could easily turn into a 100 but for today we'd like to share 5 of the ways we've been having fun with dandelions.


1. Make Wishes- Really, how much does this scream childhood! Kids love to pick wispy dandelions and blow wishes. They love it even more if you do it with them. We had fun asking how many wishes they each made and how many seeds do they think they blew away.

2. Make a bouquet- Often it's the simple things that are the most fun! My girls had a blast walking around the yard and creating their own dandelion bouquets. After they create their bouquets it's a nice touch to add them to vases and use the as centerpiece for a meal time.

3. Observe them with a magnify glass- This is a great way to discuss science words like magnify, comparing and contrasting, and observing. You can also discuss parts of the flower like seed, petals, and stem. 

4. Make An Observational Drawing- I set up an "invitation to draw" for the girls using a clipboard, paper, and oil pastels (with the dandelion colors). I encouraged them to look at the dandelions to make their drawings. Again, another opportunity to discuss the various colors and parts of a dandelion.

5. Paint With Them- I love finding ways to connect nature with art! The girls loved using the dandelions in lieu of paintbrushes to create a mural.

My 4 year old used it to make dandelion prints. 

My 3 year old enjoyed using it as a brush and making stokes and circles with it. 

There you have it! Five of the many ways to have fun with dandelions! 

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Everyday is Earth Day- Magnify glass and nature

Here's the second post in a series I will be doing to celebrate Earth Day with young children.

Check out the first one here featuring a nature walk and nature book: Everyday is Earth Day

The girls received these magnify glasses in their Easter baskets. I took them outside and we talked about all the parts of nature and our earth we could see up close through the magnify glass.



We walked around the yard and Mallory very quickly got excited about discovering nature through the glass. She was thrilled to see the objects/insects get bigger as we discussed all the details she could now see.

It became very clear how simple activities like this are so much about helping children discover the beauty around them literally in their own backyard/neighborhood.



After awhile she was enthusiastically running around coming up with her own list of items she wanted to find. "I want to find a ladybug.", "Let's look at this flower.", "Oh mommy, I found an ant."

Even my 2 year old loved exploring through the magnify glass!



Along with the magnify glass I also brought along some clip boards, papers and pencils. This is a great way to bring print outside. I thought Mallory might want to draw one of her items she discovered with the magnify glass but she chose to draw a tree instead. Picking up on her lead, I told her that was a great idea.

She made an observational drawing of her chosen tree and also wanted to do some plants as well. She's 3 year olds so this was purely about the process not the product. I encouraged her to look at the tree and we talked about the different parts of a tree.





Simple but fun way to explore our earth together!

Stay tuned for more activities in the next week to celebrate Earth Day. In the meantime please also check out Mommylabs.com Earth Day celebration blog hop for some wonderful ideas!!

Everyday is Earth Day

This is a series I will be doing to feature ways you can celebrate our Earth with young children.

We started simple with a nature walk in our own backyard. I am lucky we have a fairly "naturey" (I know that's not a real word but humor me please!) yard but you can easily do this activity at a local park, gardens, forest preserve etc. Before the walk we talked about all the parts of our earth that we can find in our backyard.

We walked around the yard exploring and my 3 year old collected the nature items she discovered.





I explained we were going to make her very own nature book using the items she collected.



These little books are great for so many projects. I purchased them in a bundle at Discount School Supply

Using popsicle sticks she glued on each item to a page and then we labeled it. (A great way to include text with meaning.)





And Voila! We have our nature book!

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