The Mindful Homeschool

The kids and I have been having a ton of fun outside lately.  We went on a nature bike on Friday morning and spent the rest of the day making bird baths from terra cotta pots.  On our bike ride into the woods, we saw all kinds of cool stuff.  We saw a huge wasp nest along the bike path, then later ran into the woods to check out the “kids’ fort” and scared away at least one antlered deer.  It ran out of the wooded area when W went charging into the tall grasses by the creek.  W also found a very pretty blue and black and white striped feather.

When we came home I started pulling out our assorted collection of terra cotta pots so that the kids could make bird baths.  We saw this idea first on PBS’s Donna’s Day show.  It is a lot of fun, doesn’t cost any money, and keeps the kids busy for hours.  We have been stacking the pots, rearranging them and decorating them for going on three days now.  The children have decorated them with pennies, glass gems and other things we have found in our house.  And the water that we add to the pots to make them look like fountains cools us all down.  At night we have placed candles in the center of the baths, making our own version of ishi-doros (stone lanterns).

I found this on the web to illustrate how some others create these works of art.  My dc have yet to commit to gluing them and painting them.  I think at this stage it is more fun to rearrange and design the pots.  It is kinda like building blocks for the garden.   Here is the site:

  http://patriciaspots.com/birdbathhowto.htm. 

I would love to hear if others enjoy this as much as we have!