Nature Swap

Another SWAP!!!  This one is quick and easy and...you have to go outside...and...it's really something you HAVE to have the kids to do for you 'cause adults don't have the same eye that kids do.  They're still hooked into Heaven and being older...we just don't see the way they do...so grab your kids, niece/nephew, your husband that acts like a kid just doesn't count! :)

This is a Nature Table Swap.  It's due in my grubby little paws August 8th.  I'm looking for 20 people all together.  If you would like to join  click the link! Mondorfment Swaps 4 Nature Table Swap.  All you need to do is find 20 plus one* items....they can be bird nests, eggs that have cracked open, snake skin, cicada skins (oh!  Do I have cicada stories!!!), amazing pieces of wood, neat looking seeds, shells, insects you've found that have passed....please make sure they're actually dead & 'preserved' in something like resin (see Hobby Lobby) 'cause I will have to beat someone if a scorpion is let loose or shiver! ANTS!  I HATE ants...more than roaches :) ...

But this is to get you and your family outside...seeking nature.  This swap is for SUMMER....but be on the lookout for Fall...and perhaps Winter...I've been collecting bird nests because at least once every two weeks the kids bring me a nest.  We had 9 of them but the lid blew off and the cats found they made a lovely bed & they were smashed...so we're down to the 1 we've kept on our nature table.

What's a Nature Table you say?!  Oh...a nature table is a great place to bring things inside for dreary days, hot searing days or simply lazy cold winter days.  We do ours sorda by the season but I've seen where others have theirs year round.  Our is mainly seasonal things but there will also always be the bird nest or the shells or the cool rocks or the little stick that Sunshine picked up for her first contribution to the nature table.

I don't have pictures of our nature table as right now...it's not out.  I know!  I'm a horrible parent!!!  But, I'm still organizing everything & can't find a spot for it just yet.  But, it's only an Ikea table with a magnifying glass and all kinds of neat things.  Before I packed stuff up it had the birds nest....dried bamboo with roots and all ( I forgot to water my lucky bamboo...too bad the lucky didn't extend to the bamboo!)...some sparkly rocks with pyrite in them...shells (Sunshine's into hearing the ocean :) )...some grasses and seeds and a cicada skin from the infestation we had a few years back...there's also a baby bird egg it's so tiny I don't know what could have fit in it.  It's white & it looks like it'd be smaller than an inch around?  Some flowers, some peanut shells at one point....I never understood them but the kids found them interesting...

Here's some links to check out nature tables. 

http://ourmothersdaughters.blogspot.com/2010/07/nature-table-ideas.html

http://www.thegreenparent.co.uk/forums/viewthread/5956/

http://justplainlivin.wordpress.com/category/nature-table-ideas/

http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/nature-table.html (love this setup!)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=1022452

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=1239975

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nature%20table&w=all

Some people create scenes I just have the stuff there to be checked out but some of the stuff does find it's way into the kids play.  Rhea and Sunshine love using their gnome people to explore the materials.  Sunshine's getting really interesting with her doll play.  She's starting to use dolls like they're people and she's not there...you know like playing Barbies when you were a kid? ( Ben's better at this than I am because I wasn't a girly girl...Barbies were GIJoe's hostage..drove my mother nuts...)

*wondering about the plus one?  I'd like to start having all my swaps have one extra spot.  The extra spot will be auctioned off and the money will go to a favorite charity.

See you there!!!

Honey