We’re an outdoorsy family. We enjoy hiking and walking as a family. And spend lots of time in our backyard jumping on the trampoline,playing basketball and exploring the woods that are a part of our property. We simply love nature. Especially in the Fall. Seeing the leaves change color, going to the pumpkin patch and picking apples straight from the tree – can’t get much better than that.
But because we do a lot of things outdoors and having a 7 year-old boy… I know dirt and stains. It just comes with the territory. Well as part of the Growing Tree Toys Blog Network I received Shout products (Shout Advanced Ultra Gel, Shout Color-Catcher, and Shout Trigger Laundry Stain Remover)and a card set of “52 Activities in Nature”. Growing Tree Toys is a great resource for learning toys!
I love the Shout gel stain stick and use it often. Because if I’m completely honest, my son isn’t the only one who’s a stain magnet. I like to work in the garden and well… I’m a messy cook. So I’m always getting stains on my clothes. It’s part of my life. But Shout does make my life easier. Okay, I really want to talk about one of their newer products – Shout Color-Catcher. This is such a wonderful product! So many times I have too small of a load of whites and darks, and I don’t like wasting water. With the Shout Color-Catcher you can wash your whites and darks together… much more efficient, too.
Shout is encouraging everyone to play in their Shout Go Play initiative! You can check it out on their Facebook page. You can enter the $200 sweepstakes while you’re there!
Shout knows play is so much more than fun and games. Studies show that unstructured play helps kids build fundamental skills like problem solving, coping, and conflict resolution. In other words: play is how kids become happy, healthy adults. Fall has arrived with crisp, cool air and new reasons to go out and play. So, let your kids take that rewarding jump into a pile of leaves. Take at trip to the park and watch their imaginations run free. The one thing you won’t do is worry about their clothes; play should get messy and Shout can help.
Now to the fun part – The “52 Nature Activities” cards. They’re the size of a deck of cards with 52 great ideas to do with your kids outdoors. Here are the four nature cards we’ve done so far:
Rub a Leaf – is perfect in the Fall when the leaves are falling. Just collect a few and lay them underneath a piece of paper, then lightly shade the paper over the leaf with a colored pencil over and over again. A ghostlike outline will appear through the paper. Cody enjoyed doing this and really thought it was cool that I had done this same thing when I was a child.
Nature Notes – using things you find in nature, like grass, flowers, leaves, twigs, etc., have your kids make a picture and gluing them onto note cards. My son got to explore our backyard for material to use and use his creativity to make works of art out of nature.
Bark Rubbing – this is another activity that I remember doing as a child. All you need is sheets of paper and crayons. Lay a sheet of paper over the bark of a tree and rub a crayon over it. You can try it over different types of trees to see the different patterns. This activity was my son’s favorite so far.
Nature by Memory – we laid a blanket down on the ground and looked around us for a couple of minutes. Then we closed our eyes and said from memory all the things we could remember, with as much detail as we could. And, my son has a much better memory than I do.
As a nature enthusiast and mom I highly recommend the “52 Nature Activities”. But you really don’t need to be a big outdoor person to enjoy these activities. They’re a great way for you and your kids to enjoy nature, learn and spend time together.
Just so you know: I was sent the Shout products and the "52 Nature Activities" card set to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
When I was a kid, we used to jump on trampolines. They were SO much fun.