Nature walk and outdoor treasure box

The world right outside your home is full of opportunities for your baby to learn. All throughout the year, nature—even in a busy city—offers new colors, textures, scents, and shapes for your baby to experience. Take a stroll around the neighborhood with your baby, enjoy the fresh air, and collect some natural souvenirs for an outdoor treasure box.

Here are simple tips for a nature walk:

• Allow your baby to get close to the ground and examine natural details—different types of grass, bark, moss, leaves, stones, pinecones, and soil may catch their attention. Collect one of each item into a container or basket.
• Hunt around for some bugs! Talk about which insects crawl and which ones fly.
• Look up at the sky, and tell your baby about the weather and how it makes you feel (physically and emotionally).
• Trees are full of lessons—help your baby feel the texture of the trunk by placing your hand over theirs and run them along the bark, and count the other trees around you together.
• Practice sniffing scents of flowers, grass, fruits or berries in a garden if you have one.