Setting Up Shop on a Budget: Recommended Thrift Store Finds

 

I am all about being thrifty here when it comes to setting up my playroom and I felt similarly when I had a formal classroom to set up as well. I shared my list of recommended dollar store finds yesterday and there are still some things that I suck it up and pay full price for when I can (or stick on a wish list for special occasions). That being said, many things can be purchased secondhand at a thrift store, garage or estate sale and now on websites like Facebook Marketplace or community groups like Curbside Pickup. 

I especially like shopping secondhand shops. It's a sense of adventure walking into a place where you have no idea what you'll find on any given day! It's also a great way to keep useful things from ending up in our landfills while saving money at the same time. I also think it teaches children a great lesson in reducing, reusing, recycling and re-purposing when they join in on the adventure. It is also helpful when they can come at it from the other end and donate clothing and toys that they are no longer using. Many thrift stores support agencies, families and people with a variety of needs and this can be something to look into when you are choosing where to shop.

So here is my list of recommended thrift store finds to keep your eyes peeled for. It is by no means a complete list and I am always randomly thinking of and discovering new ideas when it comes to using secondhand items in a playroom or classroom...

Whereas I do not recommend skimping on toys for the most part at a dollar store or otherwise due to poor quality and short shelf life, I do recommend making use of secondhand shops for gently used toys, especially vintage ones! I have found very valuable cabbage patch dolls for a few bucks at a thrift store just around the corner from my home, and while I'm in it for the nostalgia more than the monetary value, scouting out thrift stores for toys from when I was growing up is a fun activity for my kids as well. They love seeing and playing with the toys their mommy and tatty played with as little kids!

I've also found more recently manufactured toys like Legos, magnetiles/magniformers, Melissa & Doug sets, various manipulatives and building toys, blocks, toy food and dishes, barbie dolls, baby dolls, new/like new puppets and stuffed animals, character toys/figurines, Playmobile sets, and many other popular toys for kids of all ages and stages sitting in like new or even brand new condition on thrift store shelves. Active play equipment like tunnels, parachutes, tents and sporting equipment can also be purchased secondhand.

I have found that the quality of Legos new and used is no different, especially when it comes to supporting a huge imagination with an equally huge stash of blocks to build with. Lego, Duplo, Mega Blocks and similar items can definitely be purchased secondhand. And when it comes to things like Barbie or the up-charge in a big box store for a Disney character my kid may or may not like in a few years (or months), I'd rather go secondhand here, too. When it comes to plastic toys, even larger ones like kitchen sets, shopping carts, riding toys with a short shelf life before they are outgrown, etc, thrift stores are great! It keeps that plastic from the landfill for at least a little longer. Our old kitchen set just moved on to its third (at least) home. 

I like to bring my kids along with me once in a while (though admittedly not every time I go). I let them each pick out one thing (and set a budget). You must be fully prepared to "steer" them in the "right" direction and also for the aftermath of when they choose something you don't prefer (like a noisy toy and lights up and still has batteries!). But sometimes, they will find a total treasure (like when I thought S found a piece of junk that was really an expensive programmable robot building set). I do make sure that my kids are gentle and careful in the store and look with their eyes before asking to use their hands. If a thrift store is particularly crowded and stocked to the brim with breakable antiques, this may not be the one to bring your kids to. The one I usually take my kids to has a separate space with toys and very friendly staff.

S has been enamored with maps since learning about
and coloring in the map of the United States. He was
thrilled with this world atlas and especially when
we discovered a huge poster inside with a map of the
United States, which now hangs proudly in the kids' room!

Books are a great thing to purchase secondhand. If you can find them online that way, great! The thrift store is another great way to go. I have collected some great children's books, gardening books, cook books, coffee table books, art books and more for very cheap.
Also be on the lookout for children's books that may be out of print or vintage children's books with particularly lovely illustrations. Even books that have damage to them or less preferable story lines but beautiful pictures can be used to create paper dolls and story telling props by cutting out and laminating pictures. I would have a very hard time cutting up a book that is in good condition, but ones that are in poor condition and old magazines are sold very cheaply or even given away at secondhand shops and libraries and these can be great for collage. We have found amazing atlases, books about science and nature, animals, travel and places around the world--these are all great finds for curious minds. I especially treasure ones with photographs. Non-fiction books like this can also be used in dramatic play settings to encourage a print rich environment. Art books and books about artists can accompany an atelier or art shelf. Cookbooks can be a great addition to a kitchen set. Classics are classics are classics. Thrift stores are a fabulous place to round out your Beatrix Potter collection, your Little House series and any of your other favorite novels.

Clothing is often something most people think of when they go thrift store shopping and we have found some good things that way, too, for actual use or dress up--but here are some of the less obvious finds I keep my eyes peeled for:

Art supplies like embroidery hoops, sewing notions, yarn, oil or chalk pastels and other artist quality materials, knitting needles, crochet hooks, rubber stamps and even easels can be found at thrift stores. I don't use a sewing machine and cannot vouch for it, but I know others have found them secondhand. Fabric remnants and even clothing/linens to use for the purpose of re-purposing are great when purchased secondhand.

Speaking of linens-- I do not generally go for sheets, blankets or towels secondhand but I do go for cloth napkins secondhand. We have pretty much gone paperless when it comes to napkins here (aside from the occasional party or celebration). I keep a basket of mismatched cloth napkins and about once a year, I toss any that are badly stained or falling apart and replace with some "new" secondhand napkins. I also keep my eyes open for lovely vintage linens, doilies, aprons, tablecloths, etc. They don't make 'em like they used to--especially handmade items. 

 When it comes to setting up my outdoor spaces, I like secondhand finds like this toy grill for a mud kitchen and a variety of metal and tin cooking accessories to go with it. Dramatic play about cooking--whether it is indoors or outside, is so much more fun with "real" objects. I have stocked my kids' kitchen set here with "real" tea sets, dishes, bowls, pots and pans, candle sticks, cloth napkins and tablecloths, silverware, utensils, and even some "toy" dishes and accessories purchased secondhand. When introducing fragile items to children for play (like porcelain tea sets and dishes), I love the thrift store as a go-to option. If an item is broken, as will inevitably happen at one time or another, you have not lost a family heirloom and you can also find some good "transitional" objects like silver/metal tea sets and such.

 Items found in kitchen wares and home goods at the thrift store can be used inside, outside, for storage, for display, for set up and for dramatic play and even sensory play. I am ever on the lookout for

• wooden salad bowl sets
• unique tin, metal, copper and silver dishes, pots, pans and utensils
• beautiful tea sets and accessories
• pretty silverware in small sizes
• mortars and pestles 
• trays
• tin boxes
• costume jewelry
• old/vintage suitcases for dramatic play and dress up storage
• scarves for dressing up dolls and people
• other clothes for unique dress up items--I am cautious with hats/head-wear and I like to launder and/or ziplock bag or dryer treat anything made from cloth (including stuffed animals/puppets) before use
• real instruments from around the world
• interesting art and artifacts from other countries and cultures
• old phones, computer keyboards, typewriters, and similar electronics, etc. for dramatic play and even for tinkering/taking apart
• small bowls, tiny baskets, interesting jars and containers for art, sensory play, etc.
• wooden utensils in a variety of sizes for sensory play
• cookie cutters for playdough, clay and paint printing

 And when it comes to storing and setting this stuff up...

THRIFT STORE BASKETS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND! Baskets can be expensive and I love their look and versatility. Indoors they last for quite a while. Outdoors, they last for a few years before returning to the earth. I love finding baskets secondhand. You can usually tell by the feel of it how well a basket is made. They are also great for transporting materials and giving gifts.


I also like purchasing interesting tote bags and large purses or duffel bags secondhand. They are so useful for shopping, storing, transporting things and even using as gift wrap (even better if the gift is also secondhand or made by hand)! Now with so many grocery chains and cities doing away with single use plastics, reusable bags are a must for every shopper and what's a more economical and environmentally friendly way to acquire those than secondhand?

Furniture for storage and play is another great thing to purchase secondhand. I created our current kitchen play set from a $10 piece of re-furbished furniture, and aside from the hassle of getting it into and out of my van, it has been beyond worth every penny. You can find secondhand classroom furniture at thrift stores every so often as well--think book shelves, high quality wooden kitchen sets, doll furniture, desks/small tables and chairs, child sized rocking chairs, easels, train tables, etc. You might also think a bit outside the box and look in the "grown up" furniture section for items that can be used in a different setting or re-furbished for use in a playroom or classroom.

Be on the lookout for quality tools, gardening supplies, unique artwork/decor, vases and the like. Sometimes you might even fall in love with a beautiful frame even if you aren't in love with the current artwork inside. You can use it to frame your own art or to hang/display children's art. We keep a strictly kosher home, so buying dishes and cookware secondhand is not something we'd do for our kitchen. For play, it is a great option and for those who can use it in their actual kitchens, thrift stores are a great place to shop for high quality items like cast iron and the like.

Many thrift stores are connected to places of worship or agencies affiliated with schools and childcare. I have found amazing teaching resources secondhand and classroom items ranging from furniture (as mentioned earlier) to math manipulatives, resource books, games, globes, maps and more. 

It is ever so tempting these days to shop with one click of the finger and have your purchase show up two days later. It is also expensive and it is also not always the ideal way to care for our environment and resources. When I can, I love to make use of secondhand options and thrift store shopping is a great way to do this right in your own community. Now if only I were that good at actually getting my own donations from the trunk of the car to the thrift shop...

Happy, Thrifty Playing!

Mad Science Monday: Volcano Fizzy Science

If the idea of something 'sploding on a Monday morning gets you all warm and fizzy, then this Mad Science Monday post is for you! Whether you are at home with your kids, in a classroom setting or looking for a great take-along for your next outdoor adventure, baking soda and vinegar never disappoint. In fact, last Monday, we took our show on the road at my nature-based play group and held a pop-up laboratory for children of all ages at a local park and sprayground. When it comes to teaching children about science, I often tell parents and educators that you don't need to really teach at all; children are inherently scientific in the way they wonder, discover, observe and explore. Allowing space and time for this to occur naturally is just the fuel that is needed to ignite a lifelong love of learning and to develop the skills necessary for critical thinking.




That being said, a directed experiment or even a set up to explore materials (like those found in nature, or chemical reactions between baking soda and vinegar) can be a great way to bring a little science into your child's life. After a couple of hours of fizzy fun at the park, many children went home slightly colorful from food coloring and begging for more. S was especially interested in making a volcano after seeing a version of this experiment depicted in a Starwars activity book we checked out of the library and after visiting an exhibit on Pompeii at our local science museum with his Poppa last month. Both boys dug right into our blob of potter's clay to build our volcanic mountain. You can also use playdough or even build your mountain from paper mache. It would be really cool to build your mountain outdoors using mud or sand. Since clay was what we had on hand today, it's what we used. The boys smoothed the sides, and pressed a large dent deeper and deeper into the center. I helped pinch up the edges until we were happy with the shape of our mountain. I poured a bit of baking soda into the bottom.

It was time for our eruption to begin! I set out some safety goggles and Y chose to wear his lab coat as well. S discovered he has a unique talent for getting baking soda and vinegar into his eyes last week, so safety goggles are not a bad idea here! We found these at our dollar tree in the hardware/auto care aisle. I filled a couple of empty condiment bottles with vinegar dyed orange with food coloring. I also filled a small container and added a couple of pipettes. The boys got busy with the squeeze bottles first, watching it bubble higher and higher in the volcano until our lava ran right over top!

I can tell you, I've done this experiment many times in my life and it's still fun and exciting! Baking soda and vinegar are inexpensive, easy to obtain and I often call it "self-cleaning" science--it does have a tendency to bubble over, but it likely won't damage your surfaces or clothing. We used a clear plastic file bin to contain the science residue and you can also opt to take this outdoors if the thought of an indoor explosion seems over the top.

 Happy Playing!

This experiment is great for a rainy day. It's a sure to impress an audience if you need an activity for a playgroup, classroom or birthday party. It's budget friendly and pretty fail proof. And the best part? You can do fizzy science again and again and again and it's still fun every time! S and Y have both already requested more fizzy science experiments next Monday--so we'll be back with more! Until then...

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Space Station Dramatic Play

There's no place like outer space! I think S and Y could both count backwards from 10 to 1 and blast off before they ever learned to count forwards. Stars, planets, astronauts and space ships are a beloved theme for kids of all ages. We've just finished off a major heat wave here and I am glad to see it go. Today's temps are 30 degrees cooler than yesterday's high and it's been steadily raining on my dehydrated garden all day. But knowing that today was going to be a soggy day and yet another in a row of days we couldn't be outside for long, I wanted to have something fun to occupy everyone.
We've still been having fun here in our Build-a-Car Auto Shop and I'm not quite ready to tear it down and do a complete revamp. And with the materials and tools we already had set out, a little tweaking to the type of transportation in mind and a few additions, turning our living room into a NASA Space Station Dramatic Play Center was the perfect next step in our Sprout Scouts play adventures. We've explored space themed activities here before and we even attended a Rocket Day event at one of our local library branches earlier in the summer. Dramatic play is a favorite way to engage in learning about nearly any topic in our house and when it comes to getting that set up and organized, I love the Space Theme Dramatic Play set by Pocket of Preschool.

Outer space is a theme that is as vast and expansive as, well, outer space! You could get really into setting up a play area and learning activities with this theme or you could keep it simple and engage the help of your young astronauts in training, as I did. I did spend a bit of time in the evening yesterday gathering my printed materials, making some jet packs from recycled water jugs, duct tape and ribbon, preparing our control panel and setting out some large paper and art supplies to make a Space Station sign for Morning Work.

The boys began the day by adding stickers, rocket ships and coloring a sign for the front of our Space Station. Next, it was time to set up our space shuttle. We used our puppet theater and a couple of chairs. You could also make the front of your space station with a tri-fold presentation board and old car seats as Pocket of Preschool did in her classroom. I really love the idea of involving the boys in setting up our dramatic play adventures as much as possible. For one thing, I need the help! It also gives them ownership of their play and learning experience while engaging their focus a lot better than when I set everything up in advance.





Setting up very little this time was partially intentional and partially because I didn't exactly have everything prepared when I decided to do this at the last minute yesterday. And what I learned yet again today is just how OK that is! Even in a classroom setting, it is OK to gradually implement a new play theme and to take a little help from your little friends.

Y and S both helped make some telescopes for viewing and observing different planets out of recycled cardboard tubes, duct tape and washi tape. Incidentally, Y's telescope also functions as a trumpet...


Both boys love the jet packs. I don't always make or have enough of our props and materials for each child to have his/her own, but in this case I am glad I saved 4 empty water jugs so we'd have one for S and Y. And since they are made predominantly from recycled materials and the rest from supplies we already had, this was a very budget friendly play theme to set up. I also recycled the cardboard backing from a large easel pad to make our control panel. I covered it in tinfoil and glued on images from the printed set. Alternatively you could also use stickers and create your own buttons and images from printed pictures, construction paper, draw with permanent marker or even glue on recycled bottle caps.

S asked for help to read the names of planets and every time we choose a destination, he "presses" that "button" first. Then both boys count back from 10 and blast off! Next they disembark from their space shuttle, put on their jet packs (with a little help as needed) and go exploring! We make up different things we see on each planet before getting back into the ship and heading back toward Earth.

Donning his jet pack...

S is moving around in a "bouncy" way because there is no gravity here on the moon!

Ready for takeoff!

Instead of having everything out and ready to go where our playroom was a means to an end, this is simply the beginning! We have a lot of exploring to do. S has already asked to make some astronaut costumes. We've decided we want to make some planets and decorations for our space station to make it look more like the solar system. Both S and Y want to know more about the planets and space, so we headed to the library to gather some books. Stay tuned for more play activities that are simply out of this world, and until then...

Happy Playing!

Get Outside And...Roll! With Ramps, Tunnels & Balls

Scrap wood meets cardboard tubes meets ping pong balls in this fun and simple to set up outdoor activity and it's truly a match made in heaven (or at least a match made in the recycling bin)! Building and constructing larger scale marble runs outdoors is a great way to encourage STEM related skills in kids (and adults) of all ages using simple to attain and inexpensive loose parts.

We used a collection of recycled hard cardboard tubes a friend gifted us, some scraps of wood and broken down boxes and a basket of ping pong balls from inside. I told the boys they could also use whatever they wanted from outside and they both got busy right away.

Quite quickly, S discovered that our sidewalk is on a downward slope to the parking lot. He skillfully found things to use (with a little help with heavier lifting) to blockade the sidewalk...

Y loved throwing and rolling the balls down and even built some smaller scale ball runs. S worked on a larger scale, including a maze like setup that almost turned our walkway into a pinball machine!

The photos truly don't do justice to this activity, although I did get some video footage. It was so beloved by both boys that S spent most of the morning outside even while Y took a nap building, launching and building some more. They both had fun doing this again inside later on and with such a simple to set up activity at our fingertips, it's likely one we will repeat again and expand upon.

What else might you include? Water? Other materials? Different surfaces? The options are as vast as the imagination and as much as it's tempting to quickly join in and demonstrate, I learned a lot by watching what the kids were doing!

So this spring and summer, grab your recyclables and some ping pong balls and get ready to roll!

We'll be back soon and until then...

Happy Playing!

Make Your Own Stick-bound Nature Journal

 Every budding naturalist needs a nature journal! Opportunities for writing, drawing, documenting and collecting small, flat treasures from the great outdoors are a huge part of our nature adventures. There are many options on the market when it comes to stocking your Nature on the Go Kits with a notebook or journal. You can use a regular, run of the mill notebook or journal--even better if you can recycle one that's been partially used over the school year. You can buy waterproof notebooks especially constructed for outdoor use. You can carry a sketch book or pad. But what better way to bring a bit of nature on the go than to create your own stick-bound nature journal?

There are a few ways to do this project and while it is a great one for kids, some adult assistance may be necessary with younger ones. We've done this activity in a couple of styles here; a smaller sized nature notebook with the binding on the side (as pictured to the left) and a full page size version with the binding at the top (as pictured below). Here's how you can make both versions at home (or at the park, as we did on our nature based playgroup's first meetup of the season).

How To Construct Your Own Stick-bound Nature Journal

You will need:

• a stick: this is a great task to put your little ones up to--finding the perfect stick! It needs to be an appropriate size for your paper and not too thick or brittle. It needs to be just right and little ones have an inherent talent for finding and collecting these!
• cover paper: For your cover, I recommend a sturdier paper, either construction paper, watercolor paper or card stock. If you are making the smaller version, you'll need only one sheet. If you are making the full sized version, you'll need two.
• filler paper: I love to use recycled/scrap paper as filler. Mix it up between lined and unlined, graph paper, sketch paper, colored paper, recycled artwork and plain ol' white paper if you like. You can choose how many sheets to include. I like my journals to be about 10 pages long, so if you're making a folded version, you'll need 5 filler sheets and 10 filler sheets for the larger one.
• rubber band: long enough to stretch the width of your binding without snapping and breaking, I prefer thinner bands as they are easier to work with
• a hole punch
• art supplies for decorating your cover: If you are creating a cover from scratch, decide what medium you'd like to use. For our larger nature journals, I set the boys up outside with watercolor paper and watercolors at their portable easels. I recycled some old artwork of mine to create my cover and recycled artwork can be a great cover source! For our group activity at the park, I brought along oil pastels and anything goes--whatever floats your boat!

Instructions:

Version 1:

For the smaller version of the stick bound journal, I folded the cover and filler papers in half, width wise. I positioned my hole punch about an inch and half or two down from the top and up from the bottom. If you like to be really exact, you can use a double hole puncher. I don't have one and didn't care! For me, the easiest way to ensure the holes would line up on the filler pages was to slip them inside the hole-punched cover and match up the hole puncher to the existing hole before pressing it through. Lastly, pinch one end of your rubber band and thread it through the top hole, so a small loop comes through to the front. Slip one end of your stick through the loop and lay it flat on a tabletop. Pull the other end of your rubber band (on the backside) through the other hole in a little loop and stretch the loop over the other end of your stick. This will affix your stick in place. You may need to wiggle it a bit to adjust the length evenly, but it should be secure at this point and create the binding of your journal. Voila! 

Version 2:

For the full sized page version, you'll follow much of the same instructions as with the half size journal. However, rather than folding your pages, you'll leave them flat. Take your cover page and punch a hole about an inch and half or two inches inward from the left and from the right top side. Position your back cover below it, with the part you want showing, out. Using the existing hole on the front cover as a guide, punch through the back cover. Set that aside for now. Take about half of the filler sheets (my hole puncher can go through about 5 sheets of regular weight paper at a time, but you may need to adjust this if you are using thicker paper or more sheets than 10). Position the front cover over the top, centering your filler sheets as you'd like (especially if your cover sheet happens to be a bit wider around the edges than letter size). Punch through, using the existing holes on the front cover as your guide. Set those aside and repeat this step with your remaining filler paper. Once everything is hole punched, line up your paper and holes, and loop one end of your rubber band through from the back to the front of one hole. Slip one end of your stick in place and from the back, stretch and pull the other end of the rubber band in a loop through the back of the other hole, to the front and over the stick to affix it in place. Adjust your stick as necessary and you're done! 

The last thing to do is decide how, when and where you'll use your nature journals! Stock your Nature on the Go Kits. Pack a set in your car. Set them out on your art or writing center. Perhaps they will be child led and directed. Perhaps you'll provide prompts or use them for a particular project or purpose. You might even decide to gift these to someone special who also loves nature and art! The options are limitless and when you make it yourself, especially from recycled and natural materials, you're saving green both in your wallet and in the environment. 

Happy Trails and Happy Playing!

Creating an Outdoor Classroom Part 2: Working With a Small Budget and Small Space

Welcome to the second part of my three part series on Creating an Outdoor Classroom! (In case you missed it, here's Part 1.) The prospect of extending your learning space outdoors--whether at a school or home--can be daunting at first, especially if you're working with a particularly small space and within a small budget. A couple of years ago a friend of mine remarked at how you could look at my photos of our outdoor space and you'd be surprised to see in person how small it actually is. We live in a townhouse style apartment complex. We have access to a small front and backyard space, both of which are public and shared with neighbors on either side. I feel so fortunate to have any outdoor space at all and I've honestly never felt inhibited by its size. I might be more overwhelmed if it were bigger! Small children don't need to have large spaces to be able to play, learn and explore. In fact, more size-appropriate spaces can sometimes be beneficial and less intimidating. Additionally, while our outdoor space has evolved over the years, when I first began our journey toward extending our family play and learning outdoors, we were on a real shoestring budget. Encouraging a reverence for nature and ecology should also include a sense of respect for your wallet and sustainability. So today, I'm inviting you to join me in implementing some practical tips to save on space and money as you venture toward setting up or revamping your outdoor classroom...

Money $aving Tips

Let's address foremost some ways to spare your budget as you venture forward:

• Start off small: You may be really excited to implement a lot of the ideas I shared in our first post as well as others of your own or that you've seen in other websites or books. There is a whole world out there to explore and indeed a whole lot of ways to explore it, but you do not need to have everything ready and set up to do so from the get go. Beyond that, introducing an altogether new learning environment with a ton of stuff all at once will likely be overstimulating and ineffective. Decide on two or three things you'd like to start with. Perhaps create a list of immediate, short term and long term goals for items you'd like to include and implement. Set a reasonable budget for purchases and stick to it. Here are some things to consider:

• What are your immediate necessities? Adequate outerwear/protection from the elements might be a number one item on this list. Making sure that everyone is comfortable and safe outdoors can go a long way in getting you all out there and keeping everyone satisfied once you get there.
• Shelf Life: Our first year of having an outdoor play space, I had a few plastic gardening toys, shovels, pails and sand toys, a plastic bin with a lid for sand/sensory play, sidewalk chalk, some bubble tubes and zip ties to hang them from our railing and some larger digging tools and hula hoops purchased from the dollar store or big box store. These lasted one summer season. It was what I could afford that year and they served their purpose, but we had to start pretty much from scratch next season. As I began thinking more in the long term of what would last and survive the elements, I gradually began to incorporate real gardening tools, make our own bubbles and store it in a jug with a spigot, and implement toys and accessories made from stronger materials than cheap plastic. We have a bit of both and sometimes acquiring the more quality items has involved waiting for and seeking sales, putting things on birthday wish-lists or hitting up secondhand shops and consignment sales. I am not rigid here, but it's helpful to consider shelf life as you build and extend your outdoor space.
  
• Recycle, Reduce, Reuse: What a beautiful and pertinent lesson to extend outdoors as you set up and use your outdoor classroom! One of my most popular nature-based playgroup activities last year was a recycled robot art invitation. I showed up at the park with bags of our recyclables, a smattering of arts and crafts materials from home and let the kids (and adults) have at it. The artwork was amazing, but do you know what was even more amazing? When I observed some kids taking a collection of recycled plastic cups and containers to the water table to play. There was a collection of leftover party cups that reflected the sunlight so beautifully as the children played and filled and poured. Recycled cherry tomato containers became a fought over commodity as water was filled from one end and sprinkled out of holes in the bottom. In a disposable world such as ours, single use plastics are a constant concern and battle. At least when we can't avoid purchasing them and using them, we can give them a second (or third) run...
  
• Hit up your own recycling bin: cleaned, empty containers make great outdoor toys for sand, mud and water play. They can also be used to make bird feeders, garden art, watering cans, bubble blowers, rain gauges, storage containers and so much more. Even the plastic pots many starter plants come in can be recycled and reused in play by your young botanists.
  
• Hit up commercial recycling bins: I am not the most outgoing dumpster diver in my neighborhood, but I have connections who are! Local stores have a lot of waste and one person's trash is another one's treasure. If this is your strong suit, ask away! If not, delegate the job to someone else. One of our very favorite "toys" here is a set of hard cardboard tubes a good friend rescued from Costco and donated to the boys (as well as her own preschool). And don't stop at just the standard "garbage" either. Florists and nurseries sometimes dispose of less than perfect flowers and plants--these are still perfect for use in a mud kitchen, science center or nature table!
• Hit up your friends and family for items they may be getting rid of or hoarding in their attics and basements. This can be especially useful in acquiring accessories for a mud kitchen or baskets for storage.
• It's already there! One of the very best things about setting up a classroom outdoors is that everything you need is essentially already there and in abundance. Nature is full of loose parts for play and exploration. Even if you don't have a lot of access to rocks, pine cones, seeds, acorns, chestnuts, leaves, sticks, branches and so forth on your property, these are items that can be scavenged on your next nature walk. Do be mindful not to harm anything living and not to take anything from a preserved land space or private property. But there's no need to buy math manipulatives when you can count acorns. And a sturdy stick makes a perfect tool for mixing up a mud cake or using as a magic wand. Fallen branches can become a beautiful set of tree blocks and larger cross sections of tree trunks make a wonderful stool or garden table. Even paint can be made from natural materials like mud or various flowers and produce; brushes can be made from leaves, sticks and flowers...
• Saving Green--Both In Your Wallet and The Environment: Purchasing or acquiring items secondhand is good for your budget and for the environment. Thrift stores and consignment shops are great places to acquire gently used gardening tools, outerwear, toys and outdoor materials, art supplies, learning materials, nature based books and field guides, baskets, storage containers, picnic blankets and more. And don't forget library sales when building onto your nature based library. We found some incredible field guides, children's books and gardening books at our botanical garden library for sale last year super cheap! Even old gardening magazines can be rescued from someone's recycling bin (or cheaply purchased to support your local library) and used for crafts and play. 
• Put it Out There! If you're in the market to collect and acquire something for your outdoor classroom, it can help to put it out there. Let your friends, family and neighbors know that you're looking to collect old dishes for your mud kitchen or recycled containers for planting. Let a friend with a compost pile know if you need compost for your garden (speaking of which, anyone need garden compost??). If you are teaching or working for a center or agency, let parents and families know what you're after and create a wish list. You'd be surprised what may come of it! My favorite gift ever of all time to this day is still a large tree stump donated by a family. (I honestly miss my stump; I left it behind when I stopped teaching for the next teacher to use...) 

I'm not so big on fundraising personally, but it is a great way to support a program you're building. And when you grow and harvest a garden, you have on hand some very useful forms of currency. Consider a seed swap or "farmers' market" with your garden harvest to build up funds for future years. And swapping in general is a great way to share the wealth when you have it. Got lots of tomato plants? Swap them with a friend who has a lot of pepper seedlings! Have an abundant herb garden? Clip some sprigs and set them in a recycled can of water to share with a friend or sell/swap. Generosity begets more generosity and the garden is truly a place of abundance.

• Use What You Have on Hand: You don't need to buy separate art and writing supplies, learning materials and toys when setting up your outdoor classroom. You'll find much of what you have and use indoors can be brought outdoors for use as well. Before you even make a list of things you want to purchase, check up with what you already have inside. In our final post, we'll talk more about making items transportable both for ease of travel and storage/space. But there's no reason an outdoor construction site needs a separate collection of toy cars and trucks or that a dinosaur jungle needs all new toy dinosaurs. Most things can be washed and used again indoors. Think outside the box a bit...or rather, just think outside--you don't even need the box!

Space Saving Tips

I will go into depth in my final post on how to create and manage an outdoor classroom on no designated space (say you are a traveling show like my playgroup), but what if you do have an outdoor space but just not much of it? No room? No problem!

• Keep It Simple and Short in Stature: Small people don't need large spaces. You also don't need large objects in spaces for small people. Smaller people sit in smaller chairs, stand at smaller tables, use smaller tools... Catch my drift? Child sized equipment makes sense here. And it doesn't need to be fancy and elaborate. Our mud kitchen is a small water table my older son got for his 2nd birthday and a secondhand toy barbecue I found for $5 at the thrift store. Our only outdoor "furniture" is a rescued tree stump. 
• Consider All of Your "Surfaces:" When it comes to set up and storage outdoors, we think about the ground space, but consider all of your options. In our space we hang paper for art work with magnetic clips on our front or back doors, which happen to be magnetic. We store some things at ground level in baskets, but other things we store on plant hooks or shower curtain rings from our porch railing.

• Swap and Rotate: Just like we swap and rotate toys and materials inside our homes and classrooms, so, too, can we do this outdoors (and I'd venture to say it's a good thing)! Perhaps you have some favorites that are always out and available, but some items are changed and/or rotated with the seasons, with particular themes or as interest strikes. The mud kitchen is always a favorite space, but once in a while it might become a mad scientist's laboratory or an outdoor dinosaur washing station or a potting shed... Small world play might include a set of construction toys and trucks and then be swapped out for toy dinosaurs or a collection of small fairies and dollhouse furniture. Change is good! 
  
• Portability: Again, this is a topic I will go more into depth on later, but having items that are portable and easily stored and taken indoors can be helpful. I love our "I Wonder" station as it is merely a plant hook from which a basket, bag or sign can be hung from indoors. Our portable tabletop easels were $5 on a sale at a craft supply store last summer. They are just perfect for setting up outdoors or inside. Since we don't have room outdoors for lawn furniture, collapsible camping chairs are great. Setting up a nature-on-the-go kit and accessible storage near outdoor exits from inside can be really helpful in keeping organized and prepared to use your outdoor classroom.
• Space versus Stuff: When it comes to outdoor learning, the space is more valuable than the stuff in it. Repeat after me: What I have is enough, what I have is enough, what I have is enough. This one is so challenging for me. I have ideas. A lot of ideas. Enough ideas. I don't need all of the stuff that are in my ideas and I don't need it all at once. I have two kids. They can share and take turns. Even if I had more kids, they can share and take turns. Not everyone needs their own item at the same time. Certain things, yes, they do--everyone has their own rain boots and rain coats. Everyone has their own water clothes for sprinkler play. But we don't need sets of tools and toys for everyone. Each of my boys has only two hands and two feet. What we have is enough.
• Filling in the Gaps: With small or shared spaces comes particular challenges. One of our greatest challenges in our space is not having a water hookup outside. I'd love to have access to a sprinkler and garden hose and we don't. We haul water in watering cans from inside and to fill in the gap, I bought a plastic jug with a spigot we fill and haul for water access. This year I'm coming up with a way to MacGyver it into a rain barrel so we can collect from nature's abundance and make use of it in our garden. We can't practically have a three bin compost setup but we can have a kitchen compost pail and a small enclosed rotating composter outside. We can't directly sow a huge garden in our space and have an area for the boys to play and trample, so we container garden and are budgeting in a raised bed table this year. Filling in the gaps when you're short on space means not having everything you might want all at once, but there are creative (and budget/environmentally friendly ways) to incorporate the things that feel most important. Decide for yourself what those elements are and how you might implement them. When in doubt, there are great ideas online and I am always happy to have my brain picked as well.

I hope that this has been helpful as

you venture forward in your own outdoor classroom this season. We will be back once more exploring ways to take this all on the go with you, whether you have no designated outdoor space at all or just want to make your nature based learning more portable. Until then...

Happy Playing!

Get Outside And... Blow Billions of Bubbles!

Bubbles are so much fun! My first word as a baby was "bubbles." S has always loved them. Y had a long period of babyhood when he couldn't actually see bubbles and I often wondered why he just didn't seem that into them. Well sure enough, a few months after he got glasses and we were in playgroup at bubble time, he saw bubbles for the first time. I almost cried watching him giggle and squeal as he tried to catch, eat and pop bubbles floating all around him.

We go through a lot of bubble solution here. Last summer, I kept a jug with a spigot full and ready on our front steps so the boys could fill a dish and blow bubbles whenever we were outside playing. I've even been known to zip-tie those colorful plastic tubes of bubbles right onto our railing outside! But bubbles and the plastic wands and accessories used with them have a pretty limited shelf life and usually only last us through the spring/summer season before needing to be replaced. It's super easy to make your own bubbles, though and even your own bubble blowers and wands! You probably even have most of what you need in your cupboard and recycling bin...

We made our bubble solution with:

• 4 cups warm water
• 1 cup dish soap
• 2 TBSP glycerin

We store it in a glass jar and any container with a tightly sealing lid will work. To use, you can pour the desired amount into a shallow bin, pan or dish, or even just dip your wand right into the jar.

The boys even made their own bubble wands using pipe cleaners and beads. I didn't quite get a picture of those, but they (with some help from me) twisted the pipe cleaner to form a larger circle at the top, strung on some beads and twisted a smaller circle at the bottom. This seals the beads in and creates a double ended bubble wand. Simply dip your wand and blow! The pipe cleaners do get rather wet and soapy and don't work as well once they get to that point of total saturation. Alternatively you could use floral wire and that would probably work a bit better--but we had fun nonetheless.

I also helped the boys to assemble some simple cup and straw bubble blowers that overflow giant bubbles from the top and recycled bottle bubble blowers that shoot out long bubble snakes from the bottom:

The plastic cup & straw bubble blowers are easily assembled by poking a hole toward the bottom (about an inch and half to two inches up) of a disposable plastic cup. (An adult should do this part.) Stick a straw inside and tilt it to the bottom of the cup. Fill with a bit of bubble solution and blow! It's kind of like when you blow bubbles in your chocolate milk only without the getting in trouble part. I would, however, support and supervise little ones not to drink from the straw by mistake. S got this message easily. Y had to learn the hard way, poor little guy. He helped blow big bubble sculptures off the top of the cup after that!

To assemble some recycled bottle bubble blowers, cut the bottom off an empty plastic bottle. (An adult should do this part.) Use a washcloth and rubber band to cover the open end. Dip the towel end into your bubble solution and blow through the top of the bottle. Now check out the bottom as a long bubbly snake grows and grows from the towel! You can try this one in the bathtub as well, just getting the washcloth soapy before you affix it to the plastic bottle.

The bubble blowing led to a lot of bubbly play! The boys loved scooping up piles of bubbles from the bottom of the bottle or top of the cup and flinging, blowing and chasing them around. Even our garden turtle enjoyed a little bubble bath...

Making our own bubble solution and blowers saved us a lot of shlepping, time and money. 

And speaking of saving time... if a couple of little boys happened to play in some soapy bubbly mud and mulch after all that, it counts as a bath as well, right? 

I am, of course, asking for a friend...a very close friend...

Happy Playing!

Fostering a Sense of Sustainability in our Children: A Tribute to Tu b'Shevat

I can remember a babysitting job I took in my early college days for a family living next door to my college campus. They were a lovely young family in a small suburban home with a comparatively huge edible garden in their yard. They had a preschool aged son and twin one year old boys at the time. They ate a vegan diet, cloth diapered, primarily cycled for transportation and I truly felt at ease in their home. Until the first massive spill occurred. I asked the preschool aged child where the paper towels were. He did not even know what paper  towels were. After some time describing the mysterious product of a towel you use only once and then throw away, he directed me to a drawer of rags for cleaning. Who knew?

Fast forward a few more years, and you could find a slightly older quite idealistic version of me perusing the aisles of locally owned co-ops, thrift stores and farmer's markets on my very limited budget and toting my most recent library checkout, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car and Found Love in 366 Days by Vanessa Farquharson in a reusable canvas bag. I was going to take the plunge. I was going to live a sustainable lifestyle on a barely sustainable college student budget. I was going to compost in a coffee can. I was going to go paperless. I was going to go green. I was going to have the sinus infection of a lifetime and only some makeshift snot rags from an old bed sheet on hand. And a washer and dryer that required quarters to operate. In another building. Around the block. Not my most sustainable sustainability plan ever...

You know you might be a bit crunchy when you ask
for a compost pail for Mother's Day...

I caved. I bought a box of tissues. Not even recycled, unbleached tissues. I bought Puffs Plus with Lotion. A nose in need deserves Puffs indeed. And I accepted that my version of living a sustainable life needed, like all other areas of my life, to be balanced. This meant that at different points in my life, I focused on different ways of living with less waste. Sometimes that meant shopping secondhand or using cloth napkins or bringing my own bags to the supermarket. Sometimes that meant purging nearly all my worldly possessions to thrift stores, emergency service agencies and individuals in need and moving cross country with only 15 boxes, 3 carry-ons and bicycle I had used as my sole method of transportation for the last 9 years. But not all of this was because I love the trees. Much of it was because I was a college student on a fixed budget living on her own 3000 miles away from any family who needed to get around and didn't drive. I also didn't always live with "less." My affinity toward thrift store shopping and many other creative interests led me to acquire quite a lot and the act of purging nearly all of it was actually quite challenging and cathartic at the same time.

Life stages shift and focuses shift along with them. I got married and moved again and early on in our marriage when I was newly pregnant with S and super tired, I can remember lying in bed wistfully daydreaming of my former thrift store shopping days and sandals with socks and bicycle treks to farmers' markets with canvas totes in tow. I was so nostalgic for these days and so hormonal that my husband, not really knowing what else to do, took me to a local secondhand shop and we bought about 5 mismatched cloth napkins. He must have thought I was absolutely insane, but these napkins brought me so much joy! They were a piece of me I had left behind, seemingly inconsequential, but a piece of me, nonetheless. And I knew at that point, though not necessarily in what context, that fostering a sense of sustainability in our own growing family was something I valued.

The boys carry snacks to school or outings in reusable canvas pouches they decorated or simple sewn drawstring bags I made from scraps of a favorite fabric.

We buy most of our cloth napkins secondhand. When
they get too stained and worn out, I don't feel badly finally
sending them on their way; they've lived a full life! Once
in a great while, I'll splurge on a unique one from a gift
shop as a souvenir from a family trip. We usually each use one
a day and then it gets tossed in a wash. A far cry from the endless
number of paper napkins we used to go through here...

At that time, I had images of cloth diapering among other ideals that didn't play out. As I had already discovered, living a sustainable lifestyle also means living in balance with what is practical for your family at the time. Over the last five years, we've ditched paper napkins in favor of cloth ones. We have paper towels (and we swing for the more expensive ones because you can use less at a time). We also have an assortment of cloth towels and rags. I travel with disposable wipes and diapers but also with an old makeup bag filled with some handmade cloths and a gentle soap spray I made from diluted castile soap for wiping everything from dirty hands to peanut butter covered faces on the go. S brings his snack to school in reusable bags, carries a hand knit napkin in his lunch and reusable containers and flatware for the most part. With two kids, we do dishes a load of laundry daily anyway. But we were spending exorbitant amounts on paper and plastic products before introducing the reusable options. I wear socks with my sandals again because how else will people ever see my really cool socks? We joined a CSA and in the warmer months we get a box of locally grown produce biweekly. In the winter, we realized we weren't using it as much and reduced our subscription to every three weeks. We have a sedan and a minivan. I have a tiny compost pail under the sink for some of our waste but our trash can is about 4 times that size and we empty it daily. We don't have curbside recycling here, but we do have some bins at a local grocery store and, um, two bags full of items I have yet to take there. Nonetheless, the kids love to scrounge through it for treasures and also help to contribute to it.

I remember being quite disheartened to find out years ago when my husband was working at a reputable liberal arts college that both the recycling and garbage bins in his office were emptied each morning into the same plastic trash bag by campus staff. I don't fool myself into believing that the small things we do in our home or daily lives make such a huge and enormous difference in the grand disposable scheme of things. But I do value modeling and imparting a mentality of balanced and practical sustainability for my children.

My students were fascinated by this "magic" tree
made from recycled newspaper!

I also remember early in my teaching career how frustrated I felt when the students would mistreat materials and supplies. Caps left off markers were perhaps one of my greatest pet peeves. I even did the classic old school teacher move of "revoking their marker privileges" until they could demonstrate care and responsibility for their materials and earn the privilege of coloring with markers back! Now I cringe at this display of arrogance. Fast forward to my own children, and I still kind of initially balk when one of them breaks a toy or damages something and S will respond with "let's get another one at the store." I cringe a little when I scrape large quantities of the food they were previously starving for into the trash can. I recoil a little when the faucet is left running in the bathroom sink. Don't these kids have any reverence for our planet and our shared responsibility in caring for it? Don't they have any idea that toys cost money? Or that the mini cucumber I'm throwing away was truly a miracle that emerged from one tiny seed and a comparatively enormous amount of labor, toil and love? And the answer to those questions is no. They don't know that. They are 21 months and 4 years old and up until now, everything has just shown up here. Their toys, their dinner, their markers and even the bathroom sink. They don't see my husband in his office each day and what he does to earn the money that pays the bills. They just see him leave in the morning and come home at night. They don't see the farmers in the fields or the truck drivers delivering produce to the stores or the night shift workers stocking the shelves. We just go to Walmart and pick what we want to buy and pay for it. They don't see the water cycle and the affect it has on everything from the fish in the sea to the cucumber on their dinner plate. They just see that when the faucet is turned on, the water comes out and if you add enough soap, it makes a lot of bubbles. And bubbles are fun.

I keep a stock of lower quality washcloths (the kind you buy in a huge pack at Walmart) for wiping spills, dirty hands, dirty faces, messy art projects, household cleaning, wiping tabletops and counter tops and whatever other needs may arise. A large stack is ready in our kitchen above the laundry machines and a smaller stack is kept in a drawer where the boys can access them as needed to clean up their own spills and messes. S is able to reach to put them in the laundry area when he's done. Once they get particularly worn or stained, they get downgraded to rag status or cut and re-purposed for smaller rags/wipes. 

So years ago, after a marker cap rampage right around the time of Tu b'Shevat, I decided to use the holiday as a backdrop for teaching about sustainability and being resourceful rather than wasteful. I bought a recycling bin for my classroom and children came to school with dumbfounded parents who wanted to know why they were dumpster diving for contributions. We would have recycled art days here and there throughout the year when it was time to empty the recycling. (I can imagine those parents were equally dumbfounded when the plastic apple container from Costco came back home covered in tape, google eyes and pipe cleaners.) And I involve my own children in recycling, reusing, growing some of our own food and picking out cloth napkins at the thrift store. They can reach a tissue for their nose and they can reach a rag from the drawer. We shop for most of our groceries at Walmart, but we also take the boys to the thrift store when we go or the farmer's market, food co-op and garden center in season.

As we play with our collection of wooden loose parts, we talk about the gifts we get from trees--and also that these gifts are given to the detriment and demise of that tree. It's not that I want my children (or my students) to feel guilty using a sheet of paper or building with wooden blocks. It's that I want them to experience the true joy of gratitude in it and the sense of wonder that a pencil, a tissue, a piece of paper and a cardboard tube all came from a tree. And so did the door on our pantry and the popsicle stick on our dessert and the apple in our lunchbox, not to mention the great place for climbing, the special spot for sitting in the shade and the fresh sweet air we breathe on our Shabbos afternoon walk.

I sew and knit rags and towels in a variety of sizes for a variety of uses. Flannel and terrycloth backed "wipes" are perfect for traveling in my purse and are a great way to re-purpose bits of worn out towels, pajamas, baby blankets and such that are sentimental or not entirely ready to be tossed out altogether. S brings a knit napkin in his lunch box each day and even though I know for a fact he is so eco-friendly he only uses his shirt sleeve, I like to think that this little bit of handmade Mommy love reminds him of home while he eats his lunch. It's also nice to have small, quick projects for working on the go.

And so this is not a post preaching that you should don a pair of printed socks and sandals (but you can if you want to, I won't judge). I won't tell anyone to adopt any of the habits I have or to ditch any others that you may have. I really do think it is about balance and about what works for your family at the time (knowing that these things change through the seasons and years). If some of these do resonate, go for it! If none of them do, keep scrolling! I am not going to unplug my fridge. I'm not going to sell our cars. I am not even going to ditch the tissues ever again because, um, going green just can't be that green in my world. And whether the recycled items I toss in the bins (if I ever actually do make it there) go into a trash bag or to the recycling center, I don't know. But I do know that a connection is made for my children when they help to sort them or even when they pull a cardboard tube from the stash to turn into a telescope. I know that bit by bit, they learn through my own modeling and their participating in this endeavor that the joy they have in blowing through a paper towel tube trumpet is from the same place as the joy they have when climbing the low, gnarly branches of the 100 year old mulberry tree at our botanical garden center. They will connect, too, the joy they feel in biting into a juicy strawberry with the joy they feel at seeing that first red berry emerge on their own strawberry plant in our yard.

It's the same joy I felt with those thrifted mismatched cloth napkins five years ago. The joy of living in a way that exudes the gratitude I feel for this immense level of interconnection. That everything from the bracha (blessing) I make on a glass of water to the way I wipe a spill that subsequently happens is all an opportunity to tap into that joy and feel as rooted as a 100 year old mulberry tree. So if you happen to see a minivan drive by with a bin of reusable grocery totes and spilled recyclables "on their way to the recycling bins" rolling around in the back, it might be me. If it also happens to be parked across no fewer than 3 spots about 7 miles away from any other cars in the lot and there's someone rather shadily walking toward the grocery store pushing a cart with two cuties and donning a pair of bumblebee knee socks and some sandals in January, it's definitely me.

Happy Playing!