Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in kansas city, KS

Go green! Plant a tree!

by Jenny Meade

March 26, 2009

Bugs and Dirt and Flowers: Spring is here!

by Jenny Meade

March 24, 2009

Spring is officially here. I realized just this weekend how much I am looking forward to it this year. I see trees budding and grass greening up, and soon there will be leaves on those trees which will block the neighbor's view of my patio, left so naked and bare in the winter.  There will be new thatch to mow. And then it will be time to put flowers into pots and hose off the deck, and drag out the patio furniture. I'm truly thrilled imagining all the work that Spring brings.

It isn't new to any of us that Spring is a time of rebirth. But to the kids, it's a time of miracles. At the church we attend, the children have a jar of caterpillars they are watching (I prefer the term caterpillars instead of larvae. Call me crazy.)  Each week the squirmy little guys look a little different, and each week the kids ask, "When will they be butterflies?"  The symbolism never gets old. 

As adults ticking off our mental ToDo lists for Spring, we forget sometimes the wonder of it all that our children are experiencing.  The worms on the sidewalk after the rain, the daffodil stalks peeking through the mulch, the robin eggs in nests in the trees.  These are the moments that we should remember to stop and enjoy with our little ones, before that ToDo list gets too long and we can't focus.

Here's a few things that you can do with your little ones to prepare for Spring:

• Pick up a butterfly growing kit and watch the metamorphosis at home
• Make a tiny herb garden (I don't recommend the Eggling sets though, because, Wow, confusing to little ones)
• Clean out the garage/outdoor toy bins, and make piles to donate or throw out
• If it's a warm enough day, have them put on their swimsuits and help you hose off the deck and patio furniture
• Or, wash the dog.
• Pump up bike and trike tires and balls. You'll be amazed at how much better than can ride and turn on full tires!
• Stack and bag for recycling old magazines(You can also donate some of these to hospital waiting rooms or homeless shelters, if content is appropriate and you mark out your address with a sharpie.)

Now, the little dead baby bird carcasses that my kids always discover near the rain spout on the back of the house, because of that same dumb mama bird that builds her nest every year in the same bad place? That I could do without.

Things Little Gardeners Can Do that Don't Make It All Worse

by Rita Arens

June 04, 2008

Now that it's hot, hot, hot in Kansas City, I've had to address the yard. Lo, this year I was certain I would landscape the pants off my yard. Oh, yes, it would be lovely. I even drew a map of where all the different, carefully researched native plants would go. Then I got sort of busy. My daughter and I started 140 peat pots of flower seeds (buy the pots made of peat, not the plastic  Read more...