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By Mom Unplugged, July 15, 2007 10:36 am

This is a book that can be read on many different levels.

You could take the tale literally and say that it is about the life-cycle of an acorn. Or you could take a more metaphysical view and say that the book teaches how we are all part of one another, all made up of the same “stuff”…we are all one with nature and each other. Maybe this is a tale of letting go of fears and realizing how far you can go. You could even say the story is a life and death metaphor.

Whatever you choose to see in this lovely book, your kids will see a beautiful, comforting story, vividly illustrated, of a single little acorn and all it becomes…even after death.

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By Mom Unplugged, July 5, 2007 11:10 am

A really neat project to get kids involved with nature (and help wildlife) is to certify your yard as a Wildlife Habitat. The National Wildlife Federation has a certification program that is fun to do with kids. So far there are over 70,000 certified backyard habitats.

You do not need a big, fancy yard to get certified. What you do need however, are four basic habitat elements: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. Click on the links to each element for examples, as well as projects for incorporating these elements into your yard.

Sit down with your kids and evaluate your yard. Decide together what you can do to make sure that the four elements are present. Create a plan and carry it out. When you are done, complete the online certification questionnaire.

If you are still lacking in any area, the website will tell you what you need to improve. If you have the basic elements, then you will get a certification number. You will also get a one-year membership to the National Wildlife Federation which includes a subscription to National Wildlife magazine. They will send you a certificate and a press-release for your local paper to help spread the word about this program. Plus, you can order ($25) a cool, weather-proof sign like mine in the photo to really let the world know about the importance of gardening for wildlife.

Here are some examples of each element from our yard:

Bird feeders are an obvious choice for FOOD. Include many different varieties of seeds (sunflower is the favorite here, but we also have millet, thistle, and cracked corn), suets, and a hummingbird feeder of sugar water. We put peanuts out for the squirrels and chipmunks too (although quite a few birds enjoy the peanuts as well). Also, diversify your feeder types. Some birds like perches, some prefer to cling, some like platform feeders like the one on the left. We also have a birdseed block on the ground for ground feeders.

Other, less obvious FOOD sources are native plants, bushes with berries, and flowers that produce dried seed heads such as these Purple Coneflowers:

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a pond or other natural water source on your property, birdbaths are essential for providing WATER. This is one of our three bird baths. One of them is heated so water is available in the winter also. Even the squirrels drink out of them! This photo also shows a FOOD source: the Cosmos flowers around the birdbath produce nice seeds.

This birdbath is near a tree so drinking birds have an easy escape if necessary. Our birdseed block is in the foreground.

Examples of COVER in our yard:

PLACES TO RAISE YOUNG can be man made such as nest boxes or bird houses, or natural: trees, shrubs, dead trees. Even a woodpile, like our messy one above, provides great nesting opportunities for chipmunks and other small rodents.

We are fortunate enough to have this lightning damaged, partially dead tree (a “snag“) behind the house which, as you can see from the photo below, has become a bird condo! In fact there is a very noisy family of Lewis’ Woodpeckers currently nesting in one of those holes.

We hung some roosting pockets under the eaves (near a window so we could watch the action), but there have been no interested birds so far.

Here are some book suggestions to help you too. The Backyard Naturalistis a wonderful book and has helped me a lot, but you will only find it used.

This one is a great guide to native plant species in my region. Obviously, if you don’t have a high elevation western garden it won’t do for you. But check your library, bookstore, or Amazon for similar regional guides to get native plant ideas.

I don’t have this one, but I think I will order it. It looks like a really good one too, with lots of ideas for projects.

The National Wildlife Federation also has an online gardening bookstore that you might want to look at as well.

This post is part of The Sunday Garden Tour at A Wrung Sponge. Head over there to find more participants, or to add your own garden-related post. Happy Sunday!

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By Mom Unplugged, June 21, 2007 6:59 am

I am always on the look-out for good books of activities that I don’t have time to do with my kids. One day…when the baby is a little older…not that I am wishing her precious babyhood away! But, I digress.

I stumbled upon this one at Amazon and I really like it! It is Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children by Carol Petrash. Here is a quote from the back cover: “This book is “filled with hands-on nature crafts and seasonal activities to enhance environmental awareness. The activities are carefully written and beautifully illustrated. Children play with the elements of earth, air, and water. They develop a respect for nature, for the earth and for all living creatures. they experience the awe and wonder of the world around them.”

While this may be quite an ambitious description of the book, I can tell you from a Mom’s (rather than a publisher’s) perspective, that it is a really cool book. Will it instantly turn my children into little green protectors of Mother Earth? Maybe not. But I do firmly believe that the more children learn about nature, the more respect they will have for it. Teaching children early on to appreciate the beauty of life and nature can only help the planet in the long run.

One of the things I really like about this book, and what sets it apart from other similar books that I have seen, is that the chapters are organized by season. Plus, each season has subsections: The Whole Earth Home and Classroom, Bringing Nature In: The Season’s Garden, Bringing Nature In: Seasonal Crafts, and Supplying the Missing Links. This makes it easy to find projects that are seasonally appropriate.

The “Supplying the Missing Links” idea is another feature which sets this book apart from other “nature crafts” books. The introduction describes this as providing “activities that will allow the children to connect a product which they often use and usually purchase in a store with the source and process from which it comes. The aim is that they will then have a subtle understanding of their strong connections with and dependence on the Earth and an experience of making things for themselves.”

I love this concept! My children are always asking me where things come from, and these projects can actually teach them a little bit about some of it. One of the more ambitious projects in this category is: “From Wheat to Bread” (no, Mom doesn’t go to Safeway for a bag of flour, the kids thresh and grind wheat themselves, then bake their homemade flour into bread).

Wow! I thought I was being “crunchy-frontier-mom” when I, on very rare occasion, bake bread from scratch without my machine. Now the bar is raised! If we do this experiment (not that wheat on the stalk will be easy to come by where I live - especially for a non A-lister like me), will the kids expect me to make my own flour every time I feel domestic enough to make bread? Hmm…could be a dangerous precedent to set, but cool idea nonetheless!

There is a similar project with Indian Corn (we can probably get that here): string necklaces of corn kernels, grind the corn and make corn bread, use the husks to make corn husk dolls, then grate the cobs to make a corn cob powder for play cooking. How about learning about wool, apples, pumpkins, and butter?

If you don’t have the time or ambition to make your own flour, then you will be happy to find other, more manageable projects here too. Some examples: FALL - leaf banners, leaf crowns, nature’s people, lanterns. WINTER - pine cone bird feeders, tissue paper transparencies, finger knitting, yarn dolls. SPRING - wind wands, pinwheels, kites, dish gardens, pressed flower cards. SUMMER - shooting star streamer balls, walnut boats, butterfly crowns, parachute people, paper birds.

I really love this book. Anyone who wants to unplug their children and tune them into nature needs this book. I know that any Waldorf or homeschooling family would love it too. Please check it out, I think you will be pleased!

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By Mom Unplugged, June 13, 2007 10:42 am

This board book is not your ordinary inventory of baby cows, pigs, and ducks. As a resident of the Southwestern US, I could not resist buying this for my 17 month-old, and she loves it!

This book contains adorable photos of the following babies: prairie dog, bighorn sheep, roadrunner, skunk, red-tailed hawk, javelina, mountain lion, coyote, bobcat, and quail.

It is a sturdy board book format. Each two-page spread has a photo and a simple sentence about the animal (for example: “A baby javelina has a snout.”).

What a welcome change from all the baby farm animal books out there!

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By Mom Unplugged, May 16, 2007 2:04 pm

I have just started straightening out my garden, so this seems an appropriate book to feature today.

This is a simple book about the “life-cycle” of a vegetable garden. We follow a family and their garden through the seasons beginning with their eager springtime anticipation of the last frost, and ending with fall canning and the wait for next year’s garden. There is a certain comfort in this book as we follow the rhythm of the seasons, knowing that next year all will be the same.

The illustrations appear to be in colored pencil and are a nice complement to the simple happenings in the garden.