Fall Scavenger Hunt

Today it was beautiful outside, and little man was home from preschool so I decided to take the time to explore the fall surroundings.  Since Pinterest is full of outdoor fall activities, I figured I would find one to entertain us while we enjoyed the weather.  I remembered pinning fall scavenger hunts, and I thought this would be the perfect activity. I knew that it would be a little over Tink's head, but I figured little man would love it.

Here is the link.  I made sure to pick one that only had a few items to find since I am entertaining young toddlers.

I printed each child a sheet with the scavenger hunt pictures, and I also gave them a zip lock bag to collect their items.

We then started on our journey.  Tink of course wanted to ride in her bike stroller, and Little man wanted to ride his four wheeler, so we were off to a semi slow start, but we eventually made it to an old road in our neighborhood that is filled with trees. 

Little man was all about finding the yellow, and orange leaves.  He also was interested in finding a stick. 

Tink on the other hand just had fun sitting on the ground filling her bag with rocks :).  As I said before...I knew it would be over her sweet little 20 month old head. 

To my surprise we could not find a pine cone or an acorn.  This baffled me because I grew up in the mountains where these fall items were everywhere you stepped.  So...my children did not get to explore those fall items :(.  We also did not see a squirrel, but we saw lots of bugs and birds.

Once we arrived home the kids played outdoors a little more, and then we headed indoors for some craft time.  I was going to find a cool Pinterest art activity but I decided to go old school and let them just enjoy glue, and watercolors.  This was a hit with both. They enjoyed gluing the leaves to the paper, and Tink enjoyed painting the leafs with water.

All in all I would say that my kids Liked this activity.

It wasn't a love, and it wasn't a bust, but they were not overly excited.  This could have been due to their cranky moods all morning, or the fact that they were playing outside in their pajamas........(I promise when we go out in public they are dressed nice....most of the time....and that my daughter can usually see where she is going....and no she does not always wear her brothers hat....)

Sorting Bears

My little "tink" is completely and totally obsessed with sorting, so I knew when I came across this Pinterest activity that it would be a hit.  I of course modified the materials with things I already had laying around the house instead of buying new.  That is the point of Pinterest activities correct....FREE entertainment.

Here is the link to the original pin.  It is of course one of those links that lead to no where.....(but thank heavens the picture was self explanatory).

So the materials I used....

1. Counting bears and cups.  (I get a lot of use out of these tiny bears).  They can be purchased on Amazon here.

2. Cups from counting bears set and a random larger bowl.

3.  An IKEA spoon...that looks like...well..."a dong".....(I can't believe I let my children eat off of this) :).

I just poured all the bears in the big bowl, placed a spoon in it, and placed the other cups around the bowl. Tink then went to town.  She scooped, poured, tried to feed our dog Bella, and stayed entertained for about 15 minutes.  That is amazing with her.  She does not sit still.

 After her 15 minutes of fun she took the activity to a whole new level.....this is when the ikea "dong" shaped spoon became even more awkward.

So, all in all I would say that we Loved this activity.

It could be taken to a whole new level with my 3 year old in terms of learning, but its sole purpose today was to entertain my 20 month old, and that it did.