If you’re looking for a way to help your kids get outside and get off the couch, spend some quality time with them by incorporating your garden into their playtime. Here are five fun gardening craft projects that are easy and beneficial to your outdoor area.
Feed The Birds
Birds are great for keeping insects away, eating pesky mosquitoes, and they are fun for kids to watch and learn about. Making a homemade bird feeder is a snap. You can cover a pinecone in peanut butter and roll the sticky cone in birdseed, attach some yarn, and hang up in your garden for winter birds. Kids will love getting their hands messy, and the birds will love their treat. Make sure to hang your new birdfeeder by a window so the kids can watch the birds enjoy their snack.
Collect Strings And Things
Watching birds build a nest, lay eggs, and hatch baby birds is a great learning experience for kids. You can encourage birds to nest in your yard by collecting bits of string, ribbon, fabric, and even hair from your hairbrushes, and placing the materials in a mesh produce bag outside. Kids can help gather the nesting materials and will have fun stuffing them into the mesh bag, making sure to leave bits and pieces sticking out of the holes so that birds can easily pluck them out for nests. Hang the bag from a tree limb and keep an eye out for new birds’ nests in your yard. Kids will love spotting the ribbon or yarn peeking out from a nest in their backyard.
Painting Rocks
If you have kids who love to do artsy projects, then this is a great craft for them. Go on a nature walk and find flat, smooth stones. Spread out the newspapers and let them paint away. They can create stones to use as plant markers, garden decorations, or even a rock mosaic. They can also paint rocks to look like fruit or vegetables to deter birds from pecking at your harvest. Once the rocks dry, you can place them around your garden or backyard. You kids will have their own special contribution to the garden.
Make A Watering Can
Kids love to help out, especially in the garden, but sometimes regular-sized gardening tools are just too big for them. You and your kids can make a kid-sized watering can out of a milk jug. All you have to do is use an ice pick and poke holes in the plastic lid, fill it about halfway with water, and let your little one join you in watering the plants. It gives your child a chance to help out, and you get to reuse a milk jug and keep it out of the recycle bin. You can teach your kids to help out, recycle, and all about the watering needs of your plants with one project.
