First of all, what boys wouldn't love to build a fort in the woods? Well, apparently the ones who would rather find a place to slide down a steep hill on their bums! Alrighty, then. I thought about mandated fort building, but that didn't seem right for a fun summer adventure. So hill sliding was now on the menu.
While we were in the forest, I had the children collect items that could be used to paint with. Instead of brushes. They found a bunch of possibilities: ferns, clovers, bark, redwood cones, lichen, moss, etc. we brought those back to the house and rinsed them off.
Before painting, though, we had some snack preparation to do.
Today the children made a hearty snack that included a quinoa salad with mango, avocado, tomato and a lime dressing. They also made black bean and sweet potato quesadillas. Both were delicious!
Back to wackiness. After snack, we set out to paint with our tools from nature. It was such a fun exploration that any sort of form went out the window. I had thought we would paint the bum-sliding hill, but it was so much fun just to try the different plants and see which ones painted the best.
In the end, I challenged the children to see if they could find all the colors in the rainbow in their painting. Otherwise they were completely free to paint as they wished. It was delightful to see all of them spending time with the colors, and although the end result was on the *ahem* abstract side, the process was priceless.
I tried once more to encourage some fort-building. Some things, I guess, are best left for another day...
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