As we have had a cold past week or two, I've been aware of the exhausting cost of being active outside. The children (and adults) have to muster much more energy simply to get out the door each day! As much as is possible, I've encouraged children to put on their own (several) coats and snow suits, socks, mittens and hats by themselves. They have to work hard to zip their coats, sometimes around their puffy, layered bellies. Taking off boots each day is also quite a feat--bending a padded, short body over to try and pull a tight boot off of their own cold feet. They are able to do it, though often they are more able when no adult is watching. On our hikes, it's harder for children to walk in all their boots and layers, but this is all wonderful strength building activity. All of these winter struggles help to build their strength and confidence. Inside, even with crafts, I try to let children experiment with holding their scissors, or getting paint on their hands and washing it off themselves.
We have made a few natural crafts this past week, which we are enjoying outside. Before our chilly days and ice storm, the children used rubber spatulas to spread peanut butter onto pine cones and then roll them in birdseed. It's been fun to watch them nibble at it from the window. We also made "wreaths" outside by filling baking pans with little nature finds like pine cones and leaves, then filling them with water and letting them freeze overnight. It was neat to see the shapes the ice formed. Most recently, the children painted pine cones. It provided an interesting surface to paint and required that they used both hands in order to be able to turn the pine cone and paint it on all sides.
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