By Janet Gallant
As a Grammy with a cabin in the woods, coming up with fun things to do isn’t always easy. But also being involved with Cub Scouts has helped me come up with a few fun and age-appropriate things.
For younger kids…
1. Make a bird feeder: Gather a few pinecones and tie a string on the top of each cone. Cover the cones with peanut butter. Place wild bird seed in a small lunch bag, place the peanut-buttered cone in the bag and shake the bag to cover the cone with seeds. Hang from the tree branches for the birds and squirrels to enjoy. We’ve even had elk and deer eat our cones.
2. Go on a nature hike and gather some natural materials such as leaves, cones, moss, grass, bark, etc. Using paper plates or paper lunch bags, glue these items on a lunch bag to make a hand puppet, or decorate a paper plate with them.
3. Lay on the ground and watch the sky. See how many shapes you can find in the clouds.
4. Close your eyes and tell what you can smell, feel and hear. Can you smell weather? Can you hear weather? Etc.
5. Gather medium-sized rocks and let the kids paint them for pet rocks, door stops, etc. We spray-painted them white, then had the children paint them with water colors as gifts for Daddy for Father’s Day.
For older kids…
6. Make a water scope using a small peanut butter jar and two tin cans (such as soup cans). First, remove the top and bottom ends of the tin cans and cover any sharp edges with 1000 mile tape (duct tape). Tape the cans together end-to-end, then tape the cans to bottom of the jar, creating a long scope. Go to a shallow place in the river, put the jar in the water and see what kind of parasites and water bugs you can find. You can also scoop water out of the lake or river with a bucket and look in the bucket with your water scope.
7. Go on a hike and see how many trees, birds and plants you can identify. Teach the kids what each of these are in your neighborhood. Look for ant hills and watch the ants work.
8. Play shadow tag: Chase each other around stepping on shadows until everyone has been caught.
For more than 40 years, Janet Gallant has never lacked for something to do with her daughter, niece and nephews while camping or staying at the family cabin. Now she is “Grammy” to Couper, age 5, and Chase, 2.