Discover nature with children Tips for activities before your front door

Surely, you’ve seen squirrels scurrying through the garden or park looking for nuts. But the nimble creatures don’t always find enough to eat. They appreciate a treat all year round. We will show you step by step how to build a feeding box for squirrels. This is partic­ularly easy with ready-made kits – for example, our instructions are from Vivara, a manu­facturer of nature conser­vation products. But of course, you can also saw the indi­vidual parts from a wooden board yourselves.

Extra tip:

In summer in particular, the squirrels also appreciate a small water bowl. This way, you can make sure they always get enough to drink.

You’ll need:

A walk through the forest can be a real adventure for kids. There are so many different trees, bushes and plants to discover. Colourful leaves, pine cones and acorns everywhere – but wait a minute! What’s the name of the tree that belongs to this beautiful five-pointed leaf? Why don’t you find out! Collect different leaves and create a book of leaves at home. Just gather as many different leaves as you can find. Spread them on a table at home and identify which leaf belongs to which tree. Afterwards, you can press them and stick them into a little booklet. You can take an exercise book for this or just tack a few papers together. If you don’t feel like pressing the leaves, you can also trace the outlines of every leaf. This results in a great drawing next to which you can write the name of the tree.

Did you perhaps see a few colourfully painted stones by the wayside during your last walk? In many places, these stone rows appeared in the last few months, to the joy of people out on a walk and cyclists alike. They are intended to put a smile on people’s faces and are a joint effort. Everyone who wants can just add a painted stone. The result is a colourful, long row of stones. Would you also like to paint a stone? They also look good in your own garden or your chil­dren’s room and are a beautiful decoration. It’s really easy. Just collect a few nice stones on your next outdoor adventure. It’s important that they have a fairly smooth surface. That way, the colour lasts longer and it is easier to draw patterns. You can often find smooth stones on the shores of lakes or rivers. As soon as you have found a few stones, head home and start painting. You can use all kinds of paints. Finger paint works well, for example. Acrylic paint or permanent markers are also great. But be careful! These colours are not water soluble, so you can’t just wash them off. You can also stick colourful papers on the stones, or sponge rubber, wool or cardboard packaging. There are no limits to your creativity.

Red, yellow, blue, white – in spring and summer in particular, nature gifts us with a true sea of flowers. Flowers of all colours grow on countless meadows and in our own garden. If you want bring a little bit of the flowerage into your chil­dren’s room, you can press the flowers to conserve then. How? It’s easy! Just pick a few pretty wild flowers on your next walk and take them home. Then grab a partic­ularly heavy book. Fold a piece of paper in the middle and place the flowers inside. Then just put this piece of paper in the middle of the book. If you want to, place a few addi­tional books on top. This way, you can increase the pressure. Now let the book pile lie there for a few days. Five days should be enough. Open the book carefully, and you will find beautiful pressed flowers. Stick them on a white piece of paper and hang them up in a picture frame in your room.

Sustain­ability tip: Flower meadows are partic­ularly important for insects such as bees and butterflies. The colourful meadows help to preserve biod­iversity. If you can, plant a small flower meadow in your garden too. You can get flower seeds in numerous garden centres.