Here is a list of all the ways we love to play in nature!

Create a mud kitchen – Grab a few bowls, spoons, jugs, saucepans – anything in the kitchen that you don’t really need and add dirt and water. Instant mud kitchen! Grab some nature items so that your mud pies look amazing! We love to hit up the op shops to find some really cool jugs, tea pots, mixers and pots.

Get creative with clay or playdough – Set up your dough with flowers, herbs, shells, seed pods and pinecones for some amazing playdough or clay play!

Paint with nature – Add your favourite nature odds and ends to the painting table. We love painting on rocks and putting them around our garden. Another alternative to nature painting is giving them a paintbrush and water- they can ‘paint’ with water on the bricks, side of the house or pavers!

Draw with Nature – Same idea as above, but use pastels, crayons, or chalks (less mess too!)

Pinecone Weaving – Collect pinecones and add string or wool, for a fun weaving experience.

Start a Nature Collection – Starting a collection is fun! It gives you something to look out for when you visit parks\beaches and forests, and you can end up finding amazing things! My daughter loves to collect pretty pieces of driftwood.

Make flower potions – Either buy or grow some flowers and add them to your mud kitchen. Give your child some water and containers and they’ll have a blast creating pretty flower mixtures!

Make a muddy puddle – Find a spot in your backyard that you don’t mind getting messed up and add water. If your backyard is not muddy puddle friendly, go to the local park while it’s raining and dress for splashing!

Water Play – Anything to do with water is always a winner. From puddles to play trays and jugs full of water, kids will love dancing in the rain and playing in the water.

Nature Hunt – Make a list of things for your children to find in the back garden, from colours to leaves, clouds or even snails. Who doesn’t love ticking off a list?!

We used the story ‘wombat stew’ to inspire our nature play in the mud kitchen, adding gumnuts, leaves and feathers to make the ‘stew’. You can never get too creative with nature play!

Their playdough is homemade, super soft, non-toxic, and taste-safe, made from ingredients families can trust. Happy Hands kits are known for helping to build fine motor skills and inspire open-ended, imaginative play, making them a favourite among parents, educators, and therapists alike.

The business was founded by twin sisters Haanah, an early childhood educator, and Zahra, a social worker, who share a passion for child development and emotional wellbeing. Happy Hands was born from their desire to create a meaningful product that supports both learning and play.

Playdough is widely recognised as a valuable sensory tool that helps develop key skills in language, motor control, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. Whether customers are looking for themed playdough kits, individual tubs or bulk quantities, Happy Hands offers a playful and purposeful solution.

1. It’s got to be kid-oriented and age appropriate (eg. no origami or glass blowing!) . This year my kids are 3 and 2 (and 10 weeks, but he doesn’t really count this year- sorry little man!).
2. It should be an activity that the kids can do the majority of themselves so they can work on their fine motor skills, creativity and imagination. Some activities may require difficult scissor work, which may need adult help. The photos I’ve added in this post are the efforts that look most like what I expected! A lot of the craft we completed looked vastly different from one to the next, which is fine too. 🙂
3. It should be inexpensive to do (eg. no fancy paint brushes, sequins or cartridge paper)
4. The mess should be as minimal as possible (eg. paint is fine, but glitter is NOT IDEAL). I’m fine with mess as long as it’s not permanent!
5. The art and craft activity should ideally use things I already have in the pantry or craft boxes

So here are some of the craft ideas we’ve completed so far…

Dyed Eggs: This one was pretty easy. Grab some eggs, boil them, then put them into food colouring with a drop of vinegar. We drew our initials and some patterns on the eggs with white crayon first to add extra effect. This was a more parent-oriented activity with the kids choosing the colours they wanted their eggs, and doing the crayon part. Obviously the hot water and food colouring was an adult responsibility. The more food colouring the more vibrant the eggs will be.

Here’s a link the might be helpful:

Popstick Chicks: These were easy and fun! Glue, colourful feathers, popsticks, googly eyes, coloured paper and you’re done! My kids made many more that were less chicken-coloured, but this photo shows the more traditional ones!

Links here for more pop stick instructions:

The craft idea from was simple and quick. We wrote on ours and will give them to grandparents on Sunday for Easter (lucky grandparents! Haha.).

Our was great because we got to use our endless supply of recyclables to create it. Plus, it didn’t require much paint. Hit the link for more instructions.

Balloon Bunny

No explanation needed for this one! We’ve had a whole family of balloon bunnies in our lounge room this week!

Handmade in South Australia, natural, non toxic, plant based, biodegradable, plastic free.
If those are words you love to hear when it comes to art and craft supplies for your kids then take a look at range of crayons and paint.

Eco Crayons are an 91¹û¶³´«Ã½ based business run by owner Naomi and we were recently gifted a beautiful little box of her products to try. Both of my girls are very much into their drawing and painting so they were very excited to open the gorgeous packaging to find a packet of and a wonderful ready to mix.

The Eco Crayon range are 100% plant based making them non-toxic, vegan and biodegradable. They’re handmade from all natural ingredients, waxes and butters, and colour pigments derived from plants, roots, seeds and flowers. The colours are really earthy and natural and it really makes a nice difference from the standard primary colour paints we’re used to. They’re also really sturdy. My 3 year old is a serial crayon breaker and try as she might, these crayon sticks stayed in one piece!

The standout for us though was the powered paint. I have to admit I have never seen or bought this kind of paint for my kids before but what a GREAT idea!! You just mix up the amount you need and away you go. No more waste and so great to experiment with!

Need more blue?……Just mix a bit more.
Want to make your purple a bit darker?…… Just add some black.
Want a thicker paint ?……Add less water.
Want watercolours…..Use more water.

The kids had a great time experimenting with the colours. Mixing two together, adding more or less water, painting with different brushes and sponges. And we went through only a tiny amount of powder, it will last us a long time.

If you want to check out the full range from Eco Crayons visit their online store at

SNOWFLAKE DECORATIONS

You will need:

• Paper
• Scissors

Method:

Start with a square. Fold in half to make a triangle, then fold the points upwards (check picture for reference) Then draw the snowflake design and cut out!

Make a few in different sizes and decorate a wall or door!

SNOWMAN SURPRISE

You will need:

• Clear contact
• Scissors
• Coloured card (or an old cereal packet you can cut up and colour)
• Either old lace doily from an op shop, cotton balls or white paper

Method:

This one is really simple but kept my three year old entertained for quite some time and she was thrilled with the result.

Simply draw the snowman shape on the contact. Cut out and peel off backing. Stick to door or wall by folding over a couple of centimeters at the top and bottom.

Let your child decide what accessories the snowman will have. If they can draw and cut them out by themselves, give them ownership of their artwork. My three year old drew the circle buttons, the lines on the carrot and the shape of his smile and I cut them out for her.

We recently found a version of this ‘hot wheels’ style shelf on Pinterest and thought we would give it a go. Not only was it easy, and fun, it was quick and the job was done for under $50. It’s a great gift idea or just an excuse for a trip to Bunnings and to spend an hour in the shed, with or with out the kids.

Here’s what you will need:

1 x Mountain Bike tyre (we picked one up from 99 Bikes for $18)

1 x Pkt of black countersunk timber screws. We used short 16mm and picked them up for about $3 for 45 screws at Big Red Hammer (Bunnings). Depending how many shelves you want to insert, just ensure you have four screws for every shelf. We made ours with 9 shelves, so 36 screws.

2 x 2.4m length of pine that will fit widthways inside your bike tyre. (Is it called pine trim? Pine battening?) You may need more if you have a bigger bike tyre than ours or want more shelves. Grabbed ours from Bunnings it was around $13 per 2.4mtr length (Take the tyre to the shop and you will ensure to find the most suitable timber)

Drill (we used a cordless Makita)

Saw of any kind (We used a cordless circular saw, but a hand saw would also do)

Pencil

Set Square

Calculator (Optional)

Safety glasses

A work bench and vice would be handy. We didn’t have this luxury.

Here’s how to make it:

Measure lengths of wood to fit inside your tyre as shelves. Start with the middle / widest part of the circle and move outwards towards the top and the bottom, measuring for as many shelves as you’d like. Nine was nice spacing for ours. I have seen more. Mark up the timber with pencil and a set square.

Cut timber to length for all shelves.

Insert the cut timber lengths one at a time, and then hold in place with your black countersunk screws. Each shelf will need four screws

Erase any pencil lines that are visible and you are done!

Hang and place cars!

You could stain the pine before screwing it in place if that’s your jam.

Firstly, a few disclaimers – There is a lot of adult assistance required so it’s something you will need to do together. Also it’s way messier than it looks so prepared to get dirty. Don’t be fooled by the YouTube clips that claim they just scoop the centre out with a spoon – we fast learnt this is NOT reality! Be prepared to be elbow deep in pumpkin seeds! Also pumpkins only last a few days once cut so don’t cut too early if you want it to still be around on the the 31st.

First step is to draw up your pumpkin with the face you’d like to create. We spent some time googling different images before settling on one. Also keep in mind cutting the pumpkin is quite difficult so you want a face that is forgiving with miss cuts (not too intricate for your first attempt). We used a pen which we found great as it allowed us to wipe off as required.

Once your set with your design the next task is to cut a lid in the top. This proved quite difficult to cut through and is definitely one for the adults to complete. A really sharp knife with some muscle power is required.

When you have the lid off place to the side for the time being and time to clear out the centre of your pumpkin. This is the part your going to get quite messy! we found a spoon helped to scrape around the edges but to pull the centre out required our hands. Mr 4 loved getting dirty through this part, me on the other hand…. not so much! We pulled out as much as we could and placed into a bowl for disposal as we went.

Then onto the face cutting. Again, this is something that the adults should be doing and again quite tough to cut through, although not nearly as hard as the lid. We made many cutting errors as we went but it really added to the final effect so it really doesn’t matter. Once we had cut through pieces we just pushed them out and then used a sharp knife to tidy up the holes and make them look cleaner.

When all the cutting was done it was easy to remove any left over pen with a baby wipe, then added in some tealights placed the lid back on and our newest house mate was complete!

Buying plain pots means there is lots of room for customisation, and they can really take pride in this craft and turn it into a lovely gift or even teacher gift as that time of year is fast approaching! We chose a mix of free hand painting as well as some stencils.

The supplies were really easy to come by and I found including the kids in this process really gives them a sense of creativity and passion. As above we brought some pots from Bunnings, there is such an array to choose from there all different shapes, sizes and prices. We also HAD to buy a Dino pot for the dino obssessed toddler while we were there (pictured which started hot pink but we painted white). We were then off to Cheap as Chips for some stencils, paint brushes and paint, you need to use acrylic or ceramic paint, washable will not stay. Then it was home to put our creative hats on and get messy.

This project will get quite messy and as the paint is not washable we do recommend old clothes or a smock. Also cleaning up straight after before the paint stains.

All in all this project is very cost effective and really enjoyable to do with the kids. There are so many ways to get creative with this project, From sponging , paint brushes, stencils to free hand we had the best time mixing it up and the memory of keeping it on display around the house is such a sentimental reminder of how quickly they grow up!

Thankfully here in SA it isn’t quite mandatory to wear masks due to Covid-19 like it is elsewhere, but it may be worth preparing just in case and this seemed a cool way to get the kids involved and hopefully make something they will wear!

Spotlight’s page have some fantastic tutorials and instructions (Download free pattern ) but we found it best to use a tightly woven cotton and printed poly cotton. You can also use broad cloth or top pop cotton though. We used top pop for the middle layer as it needs to absorb moisture, so any material similar to pillow protectors are suitable for the middle layers.

All this info was given to us by the uber helpful staff at Spotlight when we went in and asked for help.