Category Archives: Fun Activities

Choosing What Type of Pet to Get

TL; DR: My recommended pet for first timers is a betta fish. But whatever family pet you’re thinking about getting, some key things to take into consideration are:

start-up costs for the animal and its needs (shelter, food, etc.)
daily effort needed (e.g. feeding, walking) and weekly/monthly effort (changing litter box, cleaning cages / tanks, purchasing food, etc.)
vacation issues – if you go away for a weekend or a week, what needs will the pet have?
lifespan cost and effort: how long will the pet live? how much effort / cost does it take to keep the animal fed? what health care costs might you face?
annoyance factor: does the pet create lots of noise or unpleasant odors or does it make messes that must be cleaned? Is it nocturnal? what about allergies?
reward: what joys can be found in owning this pet?
making the decision that’s best for your family

Background

I know a lot of people start by thinking about the rewards of pet ownership – they imagine how fun it will be to play with their puppy, or snuggle their kitten, or watch the hamster roll around in its ball. Those are all joyful experiences, but owning a pet is also a lot of work and responsibility and there are plenty of non-joyful aspects.

When I was a kid, I volunteered at a local animal shelter. I saw so many good animals relinquished – some of which went on to other homes but many that were euthanized. Sometimes pets were relinquished because their owner’s life circumstances changed in unexpected ways and they weren’t able to continue to care for the animal, but more often they decided they just didn’t want to.

I believe quite strongly that when you take a pet into your life, you are committing to that animal’s health and well-being for its natural lifespan, so it’s important to think carefully before taking on that commitment.

Who Makes the Decision?

If your child is asking for a pet, remember it’s really going to be the parent who ends up being mostly responsible for the pet. Tweens and teens may be more responsible than younger children, but will still need lots of support. So, the adult has final say. If there are multiple adults in the household, they need to talk it through and be sure they are in agreement about the pet and about who will be responsible for which aspects of pet ownership.

So, if my child asks for a pet, I first need to decide whether I’m willing to consider it at all. If I am, then I make my children do all the needed research. If they want a pet, I go through the topics covered in this article with them, and I tell them they have to know the answer to those questions before I will consider the pet, and we have to have a care plan for the pet before bringing it home.

Start-Up Costs

Part of the research is learning about ALL the things you’ll need for the animal. We tend to only think of a few of the supplies at first, then they start adding up. Consider:

cost of the animal itself (note: where possible, please consider adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue facility rather than buying a new pet from a store or a breeder. There are many great animals who need a new home! Adoption is also often cheaper than purchasing.)
where they’ll live / sleep: an aquarium? hutch? bird cage? dog crate? pillows to sleep on? What other things are needed to make that the appropriate habitat for them: a light? a heat lamp? a pump? a heater? places to hide?
what are their toileting needs? will you need poop bags? litter box? do you need bedding (e.g. cedar shavings in a rodent cage)
what feeding supplies do you need? food dish? water bottle?
what toys and accessories will you buy to enhance the fun of pet ownership? chew toys? costumes? hamster ball?
any needed medical care: vaccinations? spay / neuter?
for dogs and cats, there might also be licensing fees, pet deposits at an apartment, and so on

Effort – Regular Care and Maintenance

What will you need to do every day to care for your pet? What else will need to happen on a regular basis (like once a week, or once a month)?

Feeding: how much time, effort and clean-up does feeding entail?
Obtaining food: how often will you need to go to the store to buy food – can you get food at any grocery store or do you have to go to a specialty pet store?
Toileting / Hygeine: letting a dog out or taking it for a walk several times a day? changing a litter box? cleaning shavings? cleaning a tank? What supplies will you need and what are the on-going costs?
Cleaning up after your pet: if you have a pet that roams the house, even if they are housebroken, there may be times you need to clean up feces or urine. They may also chew shoes, scratch up furniture and so on. Birds are known for scattering feathers, poop, seeds and more around their cages.

Dog Walkers, Day Care and Vacation

How many hours can your pet be left alone? How will that work around your daily schedule of work, school, and children’s activities? Will you need a dog walker? Doggy day care?

How many days can they be left alone? What care will they need while you’re away on a vacation? How easy will it be to find someone to provide that care? How much will it cost?

Some people take their pets along on vacations – if you plan to do so, how will that limit your options for where you can stay and what you can do on your trip?

Lifespan Cost and Effort

In choosing a pet, it’s essential to be aware of their expected lifespan, so you can decide whether you want to commit to the cost and effort for that full time period.

In addition to the effort and costs above, what are some other things to consider? If you’re getting a dog, will there need to be a lot of upfront effort in obedience training? With any pet, as they get older, health issues may cause complications (e.g. incontinent cats, arthritic dogs who can no longer climb stairs.)

Consider vet costs, and how you’ll handle them. I will be honest with you that as much as I’m committed to caring for a pet as well as I can for its lifespan, when our betta fish was ailing, I was researching what I could do – articles talked about taking him to a vet. Buying a new betta costs $15 – I don’t know what a vet visit costs, but I chose instead to provide hospice care at home – keeping him as comfortable as I could for his final days.

For my dogs, of course I took them to the vet and provided all needed basic medical care. But had they developed a complex condition that would have taken thousands of dollars to treat, I would not have done so. If I had that money to spend on pet well-being, it would make more sense to me to donate to a local animal shelter or spay-neuter program which would benefit many more animals.

Your ethical stance on this may be different than mine, but you should think about what it is before you have a pet and before you face decisions about their medical care.

Annoyance Factor

Pets can have behaviors that are normal and natural for them but can be troublesome for humans. Before purchasing / adopting a pet, do some searching online to learn more or ask people you know who own that animal.

Some examples:

dogs bark – some breeds bark a lot more than others
cats jump on kitchen counters; cats mark – spraying urine on vertical surfaces
birds chirp and squawk – often early in the morning
rodents smell bad
although geckos are silent, the crickets that they eat chirp a lot (especially the big ones)
many popular pets (e.g. hamsters, mice, hedgehogs) are nocturnal animals which means they may be asleep all the hours that your child is awake, and may be squeaking, scratching and disruptive at night
fish tanks can get very overgrown with algae if you’re not careful.

There are options for mitigating each of these annoyances, but they are part of pet ownership to consider.

Another issue: are there pet allergies in the household? Allergies to cats and rodents are pretty common, and dog allergies are not unusual (though some dogs are hypo-allergenic.) If you’re not sure if there are allergies, try spending time with an animal before committing – for example, if you’re considering a rodent, perhaps you could offer to pet-sit a rodent for someone who is going on vacation – having it in your home for a week would help you know what you’re getting into.

Reward?

What are the best parts of owning any particular type of pet? Again, search online to learn more and ask people you know who own that type of pet.

Think about what reward you most want and what pet most fulfills that. Some examples:

something pretty / interesting / relaxing to look at in exchange for a fairly low level of care? Fish. Some reptiles. Some birds.
something more active but that is mostly confined to its cage? rodents, some reptiles
a manageable way for your child to practice responsibility? Fish, reptiles, some rodents.
something to cuddle? Some cats, most dogs, some rabbits.
something to get you out in the world and engaging with others? Dogs.

If you’re considering a cat, realize that they can have very different temperaments – some are social, some shy, some playful, some grumpy, some cuddly, some avoidant.

If you’re considering a dog, please realize that different breeds have very different traits – if you want a guard dog, or a dog that plays fetch, or a dog that lies to quietly snuggle, do your research to figure out what breeds match that. Don’t just pick based on appearances.

What’s Best for Your Family?

You can evaluate all the info above and take into account your own goals, limitations, and priorities and make the best decision for your family. I can share just a few examples from my experience.

Dogs

For the first 50+ years of my life, I owned at least one dog. I don’t at the moment. Because my past three dogs have each lived 15 – 17 years. That’s a lot of joy and love, and the dogs were a huge part of our family life and memories. But that was also a lot of dog walking, paying for boarding when vacationing, scooping poop, paying vet bills, not being out of the house for more than 8 or so hours at a time, and so on. It’s more than I’m willling to take on right now.

On the other hand, I know someone who has a dog who is a sweet but needy, anxious little dog who needs a lot from her. He worships the ground she walks on and is very sad when she’s away at work or elsewhere. She likes having him to care for because having to stay calm and reassuring for the dog helps to distract her from her own worries.

Rodents (and snakes)

When I was a young kid, we got 2 pet gerbils. One was sweet and cuddly. The other was mean and bit. To my memory, they were pretty good pets overall, until my brother’s friend took the mean one out of his cage and the gerbil bit him and the kid dropped it. I think it was a few days before we were able to find the gerbil in the pantry and get it back into the cage. (This is why you should have the rule of “you can only take the animal out of the cage when there is adult supervision.”)

In college, my room-mate had a corn snake, which was an easy room-mate. Quiet, non-obtrusive, easy to watch or easy to ignore. It only needed fed once a week – it ate pinkie mice. (Brand new baby mice, so young they didn’t have fur yet.) My room-mate wanted to save herself a trip to the store, so one week she bought two pinkies. The snake ate one, and was too full to eat the other. So the mouse just lived in the snake cage for a week… and it turns out that snakes are so stupid that once a mouse has been there for a while, they stop noticing it. So, I ended up taking pity on the terrified mouse and getting it out of the snake cage and getting a mouse cage and suddenly I had a pet mouse.

I had him for about six months. He was a little loud and stinky for an ideal dorm pet, and did need weekly cage cleanings. But it was manageable.

Reptiles

When my daughter was in middle school, she wanted a leopard gecko. (The gecko she got is shown in the picture above, where she’s shedding her outgrown skin.)

My daughter did all the research, took on all the responsibility and so on. The only thing I had to do was drive to the petstore every ten days to buy crickets. In general, the gecko was a very easy pet who provided some entertainment when you wanted it but didn’t care if were busy and paid no attention other than daily feedings.

I swear my daughter told me that the lifespan of a gecko was 3 to 7 years, and that’s what I thought I agreed to. She swears she told me 10 – 15. In the end, her gecko lived to 10. That means that when my daughter went off to college 1000 miles away, guess who took over care of the gecko? And what else did that mean? It means in the end, I drove to the petstore every 10 days for 10 years straight.

Fish

My daughter also had a betta fish for a few years. My youngest has had two betta fish – each lived for about 2.5 years. In that time, the effort was feeding it twice a day and cleaning the tank once a month. And going to the pet store for supplies a handful of times over those 5 years. For my son (who has ADHD), it was a manageable level of responsibility, and the family had the relaxing vibe of a fish and a snail hanging out in their aquarium on the counter.

What’s Best?

Were the dogs a more rewarding pet than the fish? Yes, of course, by far. But, at different times in the life of your family, you may make different tradeoffs between reward and effort. There’s no one right answer, but making an informed choice is important.

Learning More

Whatever pet you’re considering, it’s easy to do lots of online research to answer all the questions I’ve offered here. Do look at multiple sources, and be aware of their biases. (For example, a pet store that wants to sell you a pet and supplies may have a motivation to convince you that pet ownership is easy-peasy.)

Good luck on your journey to pet ownership!

Here’s my guide to owning a betta fish.

A Pacific NW Nature Song

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This movement song is set to the tune of Aram Sam Sam*. It’s a great way to remember some of the most common plants that we see on our preschool nature hikes in the Pacific Northwest.

Lyrics

A Douglas Fir, A Douglas Fir.
A tiny little mushroom and a Douglas Fir.

Salal, and Sword Ferns.
A tiny little mushroom and a Douglas Fir.

A Red Cedar, A Red Cedar.
Some Oregon Grape and a Red Cedar.

Big Leaf Maple. Blackberries.
Some Oregon Grape and a Red Cedar

Movements

For Douglas Fir, raise your hands high above you to help children remember that Dougs have very tall trunks and branches up high.
For “a tiny little mushroom” – if they’re standing up, they can squat down and cover their head with their hands. If they’re sitting, they use two fingers to show something that’s really tiny
Salal – touch your thumbs together and touch your index fingers together to make a salal leaf shape.
Sword Fern – pretend to wield a sword
For Red Cedar, spread your arms out to your sides, with the palms down low to show the low branches of a red cedar.
For Oregon grape, use your fingers to draw a serrated leaf shape.
Big Leaf Maple, hold one hand up with the fingers spread to indicate the 5 points on a maple leaf.
Blackberries – pretend to eat berries!

Here’s sheet music for A-Ram-Sam-Sam which includes chords F and C (for guitar or uke); or here’s music in the key of G.

Visual Aids

I made a set of 8 picture sheets to go with teaching the song, to show them what each plant looks like and how to recognize it.

douglas-fir-song-illustrations Download

A Picture Book

I made a free printable book you could read about these plants.

douglas fir songbook Download

I also brought samples of each plant into the classroom for children to get familiar with before we go on a class hike.

If you want to learn more about plants that are native to the Pac NW, here’s a plant guide. Learn more about how to teach kids about nature in general and native plants particularly. And learn more about the benefits of nature for kids.

Source

The furthest I can trace this idea back is that my local library, KCLS, published a video in 2015 that credits “Story Time Idea Machine blog (2010) by Cherie Rainwater.” I found it on Jbrary. I added salal to the song, and added the full second verse.

Alternate Verses

Verses for a visit to a tidepool:

A hermit crab, A hermit crab, [scuttle hands]
a tiny little barnacle [stick hand to shoulder], anemone [wiggle fingers].
Some starfish [spread hands to make stars] and jellyfish. [pulse arms like swimming tentacles]
A tiny little barnacle, anemone.

A geoduck, a geoduck, [one arm makes shell, the other makes the “foot”]
some slimy green kelp [wipe kelp off arms] and a sea urchin. [spiky fingers]
A moon snail [draw spiral], a happy clam. [make clam shell with hands]
Some slimy green kelp and a sea urchin.

More ocean verses

An orca whale (move one arm in a leaping motion) An orca whale (other arm)
Little sea scallops (both hand open and shut like shells)
And an orca whale (leaping motion)
Sea otter (sung while pounding fists on chest) Sea otter,
little sea scallops, and an orca whale. [Jbrary credits to Anna Swanson]

Birds of the Northwest – rough draft

A bald eagle, a bald eagle. a tiny hummingbird and a bald eagle.
Barn swallows, a stellar jay. A robin and a crow and a gull in the bay.

A barn swallow, a barn swallow, a great blue heron and a barn swallow.
A mallard duck, a chickadee. A dark eyed junco is what I see.

Tune

* Aram Sam Sam is commonly sung in preschools and storytimes. It is said to be originally a song in Arabic from Morocco. What does it mean? Aram sam sam is just nonsense sounds. A rafiq is a friend or companion, and gulli gulli means tell me tell me.

Easy Play Anywhere Games

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It’s super helpful to have ideas for simple games that can be played anytime / anywhere, so when you’re stuck in a line or a waiting room, you’ve got a way to entertain kids.

Most of these work best for children age 5 and up. A few, like I Spy and Scavenger Hunt, are good for younger kids – I’ve marked those with an asterisk.

Talking / Listening Games

These games can be played anywhere, with no materials. (They even work great over the phone or on Zoom.) They can work with two people or with a group. No need to move around to play, so they’re good for restaurants, car trips, etc.

Progressive Stories. One person starts a story: “Once upon a time, a polka-dotted elephant…” then the next person continues “… boarded a spaceship headed for… “

Packing the Suitcase. One person starts with something like “My aunt was going on a trip to Japan and she packed her toothbrush…” and the second person says “My aunt… packed her toothbrush and a four leaf clover.” The third person repeats what has come before and adds a new item. Keep going till someone makes a mistake.

Two Truths and a Lie – Each person tells two true things about themselves and one lie. Others have to guess the lie.

Would you Rather? Ask any question using the format “would you rather ______ or _______” and the other(s) choose their preference, and why.

Fortunately / Unfortunately. One person starts a story with something as simple as “One day I decided to go for a picnic in the park.” Then the next person says “Fortunately [fill in the blank]” then someone else jumps in with “Unfortunately [fill in the blank]” and keep on going… on and on…

Never Have I Ever: One person says “never have I ever _______” and describes something. If you’ve never done it either, you leave your fingers down. If you HAVE done it, raise a finger and keep holding it up. The next person says “never have I ever”. At the end of the game who ever has the most fingers up “wins.”

Play 20 questions. “Is it an animal, vegetable, or mineral?” (Learn more.)

Geography. Someone names a place (city, country, whatever category you decide on). The next person needs to name another place that STARTS with the letter that one ENDED with. So, for example, CaliforniA, ArkansaS, South CarolinA. Can also do animals or other categories following the same rules.

*I’m thinking of an animal that starts with the letter A. You say that… someone guesses it, then it’s their turn to say “I’m thinking of an animal that starts with the letter R, or whatever. Instead of animals, you could do Star Wars characters, Pokemon, or whatever. [For younger children, simplify this by describing things: “I’m thinking of an animal that’s small and brown… we’ve seen one in our backyard… it has long ears…”]

Categories. On NPR’s Sunday puzzle, he sometimes has a puzzle like “If I give you the 5 letter word Piano, can you give me five women’s names that start with the letters in PIANO?” (e.g. Paula, Inez, Amy, Nadia, Olivia). We pick any five letter word, and do categories like “Cities in Washington” or “Models of Car” or “Animals” or whatever.

And if all that was too cerebral, try: Rock Paper Scissors and Thumb Wrestling.

*I Spy. One person finds something they can see around them, says “I spy with my little eye….” The other person searches for it. When they find it, it’s their turn. For toddlers, this is simple “I spy something red” or “I spy a dog.” For older kids, it’s more sophisticated “I spy something starting with the letter L” or “I spy something that was made before 1980.”

Paper and Pencil Games

These just require something to write on. Paper, white board, the Zoom white board, etc.

Tic-Tac-Toe. Draw out a grid – you and opponent take turns drawing in X and O.

Hang Man. You come up with a word, draw out the hangman. Participants guess letters.

*Doodle Game. One person makes a random scribble, then the other person needs to use that scribble as the foundation for a drawing – creating some artwork that somehow includes that scribble. For young children, they always do the scribble, the grown-up always completes the drawing.

Dots and Squares. Draw several columns of dots. Person 1 draws a line between two dots, then person 2, then person 1 again… whenever they complete all four sides of a box, they write their initial in the box.

Draw on Your Head. The child places the paper on top of their head. Then you give a clue, like flower, bird, house, etc. They draw a picture on top of their head without looking, and then share it.

Find details on these and more pen and paper games here: https://www.thelondonmother.net/easy-pen-and-paper-games/

Moving Around Games

*Play Simon Says. Or Red Light, Green Light. Or any of the MANY variations on Tag.

*Scavenger Hunt Fetch. Ask child(ren) to find certain objects – they run and find it and bring it back.

*Charades. Give a clue to one person – they act it out – others guess. For younger children, you act things out, they guess.

On the Move Games

These are for when you’re walking or moving in a car or on a bus or train…

License Plate Game. How many states or provinces can you spot license plates from over the course of a trip. If you print a map of the states, your child can color each in as they find the license plate, which will reinforce geography knowledge for them.

Find the Alphabet on Signs. Find a sign with the letter A on it. Then another sign with the letter B. And so on. (Or do the same with numbers.)

*Find Colors. Spot something red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple…

*Scavenger Hunt. Prepare (or find online) a list of items to try to spot as you travel. Or you can create Bingo boards. For younger children, just tell them one idea at a time to search for – can you find an animal?

Punch Buggy. If you see a Volkswagen Beetle and call Punch Buggy, you get to punch someone. P’diddle, P’daddle. After dark, if you see a car with one missing headlight, you say p-diddle, and if you see a car with no headlights, you say p-daddle. You get to kiss someone.

Encore. Name a word – other people try to sing songs including that word.

While You Were Sleeping. When someone wakes up from a nap, make up a crazy story of “what they missed”.

There are more fun ideas for road trip games here: https://www.erieinsurance.com/blog/road-trip-games-to-play

Connecting to Nature from Home

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TL; DR: There are so many physical and mental health benefits of spending time outdoors and connecting with nature. But parents may face barriers to getting outside. Perceived barriers could be: the parents’ lack of knowledge / experience with nature, minimal access to wild lands, and health/disability issues which limit ability to explore outdoors. This post will highlight super simple ways to connect more to nature by just looking out your window more, by bringing a little of nature into your home, by spending time in your own yard or in any outdoor space, or by using webcams and educational videos to learn more about nature.

Looking out the window:

Studies of hospital patients have shown decreased need for pain medications and shorter post-operative stays for those who can see nature outside the hospital window. Here are some things you can do without even going out:

Weather Checks: Notice what the weather is, even if you’re not going out. Teach about weather. In my lesson plan about Weather Science, you’ll find ideas about teaching weather vocabulary, drawing the weather, creating weather charts, observing and identifying clouds.
Notice seasonal changes: The view outside your window is always changing. Maybe the flowers are blooming, or the leaves are changing colors. With your child, take a picture from the same view once every week, and then compare them side by side to notice what has changed.
Gaze at clouds – what shapes do you see?
Keep a tally: Decide what you’ll count: birds? people passing by? dogs? cars? Whatever it is, looking outdoors and counting means lots of time looking outdoors!
Tell stories: when a car passes by, imagine who is in it, and what they might be doing.

Bringing Nature In

Try any of these easy activities:

Dissect vegetables and fruits. When you’re prepping food, try “dissecting” it with your child – carefully cutting it apart and examining the parts. You can use books or the internet to learn more about plant parts. Save your seeds – apple seeds, cherry pits, or whatever.
Sprout seeds Use seeds you saved, or dry beans. Fold a paper towel, wet it, put it in a ziplock baggie. Add a seed. Seal the baggie and tape it to a window with the seed facing in where you can see it. Wait a few days.
Once you’ve sprouted your seeds, if you have access to dirt or potting soil, you can plant them. You can use any container you have. For example, if you have a margarine or yogurt tub, poke a couple holes in the bottom for drainage, set it on its lid before putting it in the window. Or you could make a terrarium from a 2 liter bottle.
Propagate a succulent plant. If you have a succulent, you can gently twist off a leaf or two, let it dry for a day or two, set the leaf on top of some soil. Every day or two, spritz some water on the soil to keep it moist. After a few weeks (this is a slow process!) they will have roots. Then plant those roots in the soil. Water these new plants once a week, and they will grow. It can take months for that leaf to become a little plant – this is a slow process, but I love my little baby succulents!
Plant potatoes in a container. (Just do a search for that, and you’ll find all the details!) Grow sweet potato vines. Grow celery from the base of a bunch of celery, or lettuce from the core.
If you have celery, cabbage, or white flowers, you can teach about the science of wicking by putting them in colored water, and over 24 hours or so, they’ll pull the color up into them.
Vegetable prints. You can cut the base off a stalk of celery, or the base off of a bell pepper, or slice mushrooms in half, then use those to print paint in fun designs. Lots of plastic water bottles and plastic soda bottles have a sort of flower shape on the bottom that if you dip it in paint you can print flower gardens. (see pictures)
Consider a pet. But please don’t buy any pet without serious research… I firmly believe that if I bring an animal into my home, I’m making a commitment to caring for that pet for its natural lifetime. A manageable starting place for a family with young children is a betta fish, perhaps with a nerite snail to manage the algae.

Your Backyard / Sidewalk

Getting outside helps connect you to nature, but it can also let your kid MOVE more and get out some energy. It’s also a great opportunity to let them use their “outside voice”! Don’t let the weather stop you from going out. Being outside in the rain or cold won’t make kids sick! Just have them put on appropriate clothes for the weather.

Work on a garden together. Or even on an outdoor project like building raised beds, building a brick retaining wall or a cobblestone path. “Heavy work” is great for children, and helps them burn up a lot of energy as well as gain pride from building something real.
Make a bird feeder, hang it up, and then keep a record of what kinds of birds you see. Learn about those birds online. Here is a guide to bird calls for birds commonly found in the Pacific NW.
Go on a bug hunt.
Nature crafts: gather grass, flowers and more to spell out your name, or to make bookmarks (take a piece of contact paper or clear packing tape, lay your flowers on it, then put another piece of packing tape on top to seal it. Trim the edges to a nice shape). Make a wind chime, from old keys or a plastic cup and beads.
Don’t feel like you have to entertain them or educate them continuously outside. It’s also fine to let them discover ways to self entertain. Put out toys or equipment that are fine for outdoors: jumpropes, balls, toy shovels if there’s somewhere they can dig, a container of water and scoops and funnels, sidewalk chalk, etc.

Walking in your Neighborhood

While I love going on long hikes and discovering new wilderness areas, there are also a lot of health benefits to walking anywhere – including just walking around your neighborhood every day. If you’re walking the same loop every day, it might start to feel repetitive… here’s some ways you can keep it interesting:

Notice nature’s changes: Nature provides an always-changing experience…. and we have time to stop and observe, ask questions, and learn. Have new trees blossomed? Have trees dropped leaves or seeds? Are there birds? squirrels? bugs? What did yesterday’s wind blow around?
Practice traffic rules: practice at looking both ways before you cross the street – and talk about what you’re looking for and making judgments about whether it’s safe to cross. Teach about turn signals, stop signs, watching for driveways and more.
Learn navigation: teach addresses and street names. Bring a paper map and teach how to use it. Use a mapping app on your phone and teach how to use it. For little ones, practice turning left and right on command. Draw a map of the neighborhood.
Play red light, green light.
Try “nature shopping“, where the child gathers a collection of natural items, like rocks or pinecones or leaves.
Collecting photos: on every walk, you can take photos of things you want to remember and make a little photo album of your favorite finds.
Scavenger Hunts: prepare a list of things you would expect to be able to see or hear or do on your outing. Bring stickers along and as you’re out on an adventure, any time you find one of the items on the list, your child can put a sticker on it. Then when the scavenger hunt is complete, you can have a snack when you get home as a reward. Ideas for scavenger hunts:
- Things to listen for: crows, bird calls, running water, wind in the leaves, people’s voices in the distance, dogs barking
- Things to look for: pinecones, mushrooms, ferns, moss, spider web, bugs
- Things to do: go up or down stairs, cross a crosswalk, wait for a light… if you know your neighborhood, it will be easy for you to make a list they can successfully complete
- Go on a bug scavenger hunt
- Go on a numbers scavenger hunt – how long does it take you to find all the numbers 1 – 10?
- Go on a letters scavenger hunt: can you find all the letters A – Z on your walk? Check street signs, license plates, etc.
- For more ideas, just search “backyard scavenger hunt.”
- For older kids: try Pokemon Go, geocaching or letterboxing.

Resources for Hands-On Activities

The Wild Network is dedicated to easy ideas for getting kids outdoors and connected to nature. They have lots of wild time ideas at https://thewildnetwork.com/wild-time-ideas/ and more inspiration – https://thewildnetwork.com/inspiration/

The National Wildlife Federation encourages parents to ensure that children get one “green hour” outside every day. They have lots of activity ideas at: https://www.thegreenhour.org/.

Nature Mentoring has 22 ideas for Sharing Nature with Beginners: https://nature-mentor.com/nature-connection-activities/

Virtual Nature

Lots of zoos have webcams that let you observe animals in action. Check out: https://zoocamerasaroundtheworld.com/. You’ll find the Panda Cam from Atlanta, the penguins from Woodland Park in Seattle, otters from Chattanooga, and many more. The San Diego zoo has many live cams, plus lots of videos. The National Zoo has four. The trick with live webcams is that sometimes you see nothing… At the exact moment I type this, if I try to look at the naked mole rats in DC, all I see is an enclosure with a spinach leaf and a piece of corn on the cob. So, plan on flipping between several webcams till you find one with some good action going on. Here’s a Virtual Field Trip Lesson Plan you could use to enhance your viewing.

There are also aquariums with webcams: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, and the Seattle Aquarium has a virtual field trip.

There are also lots of great nature videos on National Geographic Kids, Ranger Rick from the National Wildlife Federation, and National Geographic on Disney+.

Fun with Toddlers – Animal Theme

Crafts to Do

Make a clothespin creature: With clothespins, pipe cleaners, cardstock, googly eyes, pompoms and more, there are so many creatures you can create! (You can find sources for all these ideas on my Pinterest page at www.pinterest.com/bcparented/clothespin-creatures/)

Do animal facepaint and/or make animal costumes. Read the book Fraidyzoo by Heder. (It’s available at the King County library) It’s all about making crazy animal costumes out of materials you have around the house or can find in your recycling bin. See what animal costumes you can create!

Invitations to Play

Put out a collection of toy animals, and materials to build a habitat with or build a zoo or farm. This could be a playdough activity, or you could put items in a sensory bin with beans or rice, or could be nature play with sticks and rocks, or combined with building toys such as Duplos.

Learning Activities

Sorting. There are so many sorting activities you can do with toy animals. Put them in a pile, and ask your child to sort: farm animals from zoo animals, or mammals from non-mammals, or things that climb trees from things that swim, or sort by color or size.

Animal Sounds. Show your child pictures of animals, and teach your child animal sounds. Then ask your child “what noise does a cow make?” Praise them when they say moo. And so on. Children can often make recognizable animal sounds before they have much language, so it’s a fun way to see how much your child really understands. If you want your child to speak multiple languages, ask the question in other languages (like “Que dice la vaca?”). They will learn the answer is also moo. This helps them start making connections between meaning in the different languages.

Songs to Sing

To the tune of Wheels on the Bus: “The lions at the zoo say roar roar roar, roar roar roar, roar roar roar. The lions at the zoo say roar roar roar all day long.” Repeat with any animal sound you want.
Old McDonald. Old McDonald had a farm. E I E I O // And on that farm there was a cow. E I E I O // With a moo moo here and a moo moo there. // Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo. // Old McDonald had a farm. E I E I O
Three little monkeys. Three little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said: “No more monkeys jumping on the bed”.

Books to Read

Dear Zoo by Campbell. Fabulous lift the flap. “I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet…” See what they send!
Good Night, Gorilla by Rathmann. A charming (mostly) wordless book about a gorilla escaping its cage.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? by Carle. Great repeating rhyme and rhythm. Children love to predict what will be on the next page.
Poke a Dot: Old MacDonald’s Farm. This is a counting book. Each page has plastic dots you can “pop”. I’m normally not a fan of “gimmicky” books, but I think this one is great for learning one-to-one correspondence, an essential math skill.
Who’s Like Me? This is a lift the flap (uncover and discover) book, where one animal says something like “I’m a bunny. I am furry and breathe air. Who’s like me?”

More Animal Themed Activities

Check out my Fun with Toddlers posts on Zoo Theme and Farm Theme. Or check out my preschool STEM posts about Animal Classification, Adaptations, Habitats and more.