11 Earth Day Ideas To Do With Your Child

Posted on April 21, 2023 by danielleridgway

Happy Earth Day friends!

Although we believe Earth Day should be every day, here’s a few ways you can show your love for our earth with your child. There’s a mix of no cost, no prep ideas with more prep and some cost ideas. But they’re all ways to show some love to Mother Earth.

Plant a tree.
Make a bird feeder. Birds are important pollinators, and they can also help to control pests. Making bird feeders can be really easy too! We’ve DIY’d a few bird feeders the last few years. Every time it’s so fun to make with Mila. Check them out here: Rainbow Heart Bird Feeder, Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder, Birdhouse Motel.
Go on a nature walk. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, my little absolutely loves getting outside and exploring. Going on a nature walk and having her find different things while walking is always a hit! You can have littles do a Nature Scavenger Hunt or look for something specific depending on their interests. Either way, getting outside is always a great idea.
Help to clean up a local park or beach. This is a great way to teach kids about the importance of keeping our environment clean. I swear Mila constantly asks if we can pick up the trash on the side of the road every time we’re in the car. Maybe one day, but we just focus on our walking paths for now.
Learn about recycling. There are so many fun ways to teach kids about recycling. This water activity let Mila see the impact of what our trash does to our oceans.
Make a bug hotel. Get a cardboard box, paint it, fill it with leaves/twigs/flowers/rocks, and set outside. Bugs will love the space and you can learn about them while they’re exploring their new hotel.
Make a compost bin. Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of food waste that goes to landfills. We have not started one at our house yet, but it is a huge goal of mine to finally do it. One day soon and I’ll make sure I share with you guys too.
Start a garden. Growing your own food is a great way to teach kids about where their food comes from and how to eat healthy. We absolutely love making a garden every year. Some years we start off with seeds and others we get starts. Either way, it’s a great way to celebrate Earth Day!
Make seed bombs.
Paint a pot. We have a lot of plants in our house, but seemingly never enough pots. A fun way to either get a plant for your home or replant a new one is for your little to paint a pot. When Mila does this, she knows she’s in charge of watering and checking in on that plant. It helps teach her responsibility and broaden her love for our Earth.
Don’t use paper or plastic plates. This is a huge one! We normally don’t use paper plates or any cutlery that you can throw away. It helps reduce waste and we get to buy really cute plates too.

I’d like to end this post by saying, it’s okay if you don’t do any of these things. Being a parent/guardian is hard work and you’re doing your absolute best!

Here are some other Earth Day projects if you’re feeling inspired:

Toddler Activity: Stormy Clouds Experiment

Posted on April 7, 2021 by danielleridgway

Rain rain, go away, come back another day! Or if you insist on staying, it’s a perfect time to introduce the water cycle to toddlers.

Mila LOVE experimenting. I try to tailor to her learning style as much as I can. She would prefer doing an experiment every day, but that’s not always possible. Thankfully, teaching her about rain and the water cycle gives us an amazing opportunity to get dirty and make what she calls Stormy Clouds.

This experiment is fun for both toddlers and adults. It not only talks about the rain cycle, but you can incorporate color recognition, the Scientific Method, and motor skills too; so much learning packed in one rainy day activity.

Here’s what you’ll need to make stormy clouds:

Food coloring
Shaving cream
Jars – one big one for the cloud and little ones for food coloring
Dropper or small spoons
Water
Little Raindrop Book

I’m going to first start off by saying this activity can get messy. Whenever there is food coloring, it somehow gets everywhere. I’d recommend placing a plate, mat, or some sort of paper under your big jar. Of course, food coloring will clean up, but it’s nice to just take some precautions.

Once you get an area where you’ll experiment set up, fill a big clear jar with water. The jar I used had a lip on it. I filled it up to the bottom of the lip so it gave me some room to put the shaving cream.

Next, mix your food coloring with water in little jars and bowls. Your child will be either scooping the colored water with a spoon or using a pipette. I used very small Tupperware containers for this step. For the water/food color combination, I used 8-10 drops of food coloring and eyeballed the water. I wasn’t too scientific about the measurements!

Then, add shaving cream to look like a cloud on top of the BIG jar of water. I did this step after the food coloring because Mila would not have had enough patience to wait for all of the colors.

After you’re set with the cloud, have your toddlers start spooning or dripping the dyed water over the could.

It takes a little bit for the water to penetrate through the cloud, but once it does, it’ll look like rain drops are coming out of it. Mila enjoyed using purple the best since it was easier to see. Although, it was fun to do a huge mix of colors.

Throughout the experiment, we talked about how clouds make the rain and then it goes down to Earth. I’m not a huge science buff, so I turned to Little Raindrop, which is a cute book that talks age appropriately about the water cycle! It has adorable pictures and tells the story about a single raindrop. Mila got this when she was one and it was too advanced for her. At almost three, it’s perfect!

Even if your child is not interested in learning about the water cycle or even into rain, the activity is fun to just make a mess and play with colors. I showed a group of adults this activity and they enjoyed it too. It really is fun watching the shaving cream turn different colors.

Next time it’s raining or anytime you want a hands on activity to do with your child, this Stormy Clouds Experiment is perfect!

If you liked or tried this activity, let me know in the comments!

Check out these rainy day activities from other moms!

Toddler Activity: Earth Day Collage

Posted on April 17, 2020 by danielleridgway

Yesterday, I planned on writing a recommendation post while Mila napped. Turned out, I must have needed one too. Her usual quick nap turned into her and I snoozing for three hours. I’m definitely not complaining about the extra sleep, but it pushed back some of my plans. Oh well.

Since Mila took her nap a little later and longer, she wanted to stay up. I figured instead of just watching a movie, we could do an Earth week inspired activity. There’s a few that I’ve saved on Pinterest, but during the lockdown, I found a subscription box that caught my attention.

The Kids Art Box is an activity box for kids of all ages. It can be modified for younger and older kids, which is perfect for siblings. March’s box, the one I have, came with four activities and a seed bomb visual recipe. The really cool thing about this box is everything you need comes in it, besides the visual recipe ingredients. This is a game changer. I have a lot of craft supplies at my house, but usually when I was to do a specific one, I have to go to the store. The Kids Art Box takes care of the trip to the store or tearing your house apart. It’s also all color coded. So, the instruction card comes with a colored dot and you can find all the supplies you need for that specific card with the same colored dot.

The mom who makes these, Melanie, does an amazing job of organizing the boxes, making sure everything’s in there, and explaining what needs to be done. Unfortunately, I didn’t snag a picture of everything wrapped up. Mila thinks everything need unwrapped immediately (thanks birthday week!). All activities are clever, creative, and conducive to learning. It’s definitely worth the price as well. The best option is $33 a month and you get everything you need. I think between having all the supplies and not having to search a while for activities, it’s so worth it. If you want to check out the boxes and want $10 off, press here.

Back to our story…

I grabbed the box and Mila had tore everything open. It wasn’t hard to figure out what went where, but she thought her way was better. When looking through everything, she kept noticing the picture of the Earth and she does this weird thing where when she sees it she tries to eat it. It’s from watching a movie, Pets 2. The next time we watch it, I’ll try to record and share; makes me laugh every time. Anyways, the activity I chose for her to do was the mixed media Earth collage.

It came with: cardboard cut in a circle, blue and green paint, a packet of buttons, a packet of gems, a glue stick, string, washi tape, glitter glue, and a paint brush. A laminated picture of the world, along with directions, supply list, and information about the craft accompanied it as well.

Mila is obsessed with the buttons and gems! She kept saying ‘cute!’ I told her we were using green and blue because that’s the color of our earth. After the eating noises stopped, she pointed to the different colors and I told her she needed to paint the earth on her circle. She did typical painting routine and I think she nailed it. I asked her why it wasn’t all blue and green and she pointed to the clouds. At least I know she was referencing the picture.

By then, it was getting late and Mila started yawning. We cleaned everything up and let her earth dry over night.

When we woke up and after we watched Frozen of course, Mila insisted on seeing her earth. The paint dried up nicely and we started right on adding other media.

She’s never really experimented with glitter glue or a glue stick, but caught on after I showed her. She loved squeezing everything out and was insistent on glueing the buttons and gems down. When it got too sticky for her, she let me help her. We played around with the different media for about thirty minutes until I thought she couldn’t add anything else.

I really loved this activity and Mila did too. We talked about why we were adding blue and green and what they represented. She kept pointing to the the blue and saying beach or pool. I can definitely see us doing something similar in the upcoming years. She enjoyed it and I think it’d be interesting to see how she progressing in her understanding too.

Our little earth doesn’t have a home yet, the glitter glue is still drying… she ended up using the whole tube. She’s all girl and loves her glitter. I’m thinking of putting all our Earth Week crafts where I usually have garland. When Mila sees her art hanging, she always points to it and shows it off when people visit. It’ll be adorable to see all of her different interpretations.

I’m seriously so happy with this art box. When we do the next activity, I’ll make sure to show everything packaged together and lined up. I really want to do a “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” activity, just trying to find something for her age. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know!