Adoption Under One Roof

Want to get your kids outside in the fresh autumn air, but aren’t quite sure how to coax them away from the lure of computers, video games and DVD’s? How about having a nature scavenger hunt with them? Kids love finding things, they love games, they love hunting as well as collecting so getting them involved with nature will be a breeze once you make it a mission for them to complete!

Save your egg cartons to use for the hunt, either one per child, or one per team. Then select twelve different items that your children should go out and look for, these can be specific items like a stone, or a twig, or you can get a little more creative by giving your child(ren) categories instead of specific items, like something soft, red, old, delicate, and so forth.

It would seem as though these days that there is a new high tech way to do just about everything, and that includes learning about the environment as well. Today I stumbled across an article, which was reviewing a video game meant to teach children about ecosystems and the delicate balance of nature. I looked up the website for the game’s manufacturer, Pocketwatch.com; and sure enough they had a free demo (and for the Mac no less) of their game, Wildlife tycoon, Adventure Africa.

Intrigued by the idea of a video game for kids that teaches the basics of balancing an ecosystem, and not willing of course to let all of you down by reviewing a product I had yet to try, I downloaded the demo and began to play. I will admit that for reasons unknown to me, the first two times that I tried to load the game it crashed before I could get the first level loaded, which was pretty annoying. However after shutting down some other programs that were running needlessly in the background, just in case that had anything to do with the crash, we were up and running…off on our African adventure!

Ahhh, kids these days.

 

How many times have you caught yourself saying that, or something similar as you watch your child play with the latest technology, or have overheard others sighing about how different it is to be a child now, than it was back in the good old days. It is no secret that we are in the age of technology, and that children would much rather spend the day surfing the Internet than playing in the park, however we as parents can use their love of technology and cyber space to teach them about recycling, going green, and protecting our planet in fun and interesting ways that will hold their attention much longer than a lecture will!

 Kids love to feed birds, all different kinds of birds.  It doesn’t matter if it is tossing a few slices of bread into a pond to feed the ducks at the park, or tossing some popcorn to the seagulls at the beach, kids always get a kick out of connecting with the nature around them!  This little craft will not only keep your little ones entertained while you are making it, but after the fact as well, as they watch the birds enjoy the tasty treat that has been made for them!