The future pinecones look like little candles in the shape of pine trees.

In the picture below, you can see both pinecones and needles being formed.

Make Wishes on the Needles

The needles are long and come in bunches of 2. You can make wishes on the needle bunches the same way you’d make a wish on a wish bone (being vegetarians, my little ladies have never made wishes on wish bones, they prefer to wish on pine needles).

The winner of course gets to make a wish!

So go find a red pine tree and make some good wishes!

I should give credit where it’s due- a Japanese woman shared this tradition of making wishes on red pine needles with my sister, Katrina, who works at an arboretum. We have been huge fans of the tradition ever since!

FYI- these pictures were taken during the summer, right now we actually have a lot of beautiful snow on the ground!

“That’s all,”
 Lisa

It’s a perfect day to find slugs on magnolia petals

and worms needing rescuing from the driveway puddles!

 A day for playing in puddles

and a day for a little bit of drama because one of us was “freezing to death!” It was in the 40′s today after a string of days in the 80′s, so it did feel very cold today. Crazy spring weather!

A great day to stop and taste a magnolia blossom as well! I have to warn you though, they taste like cheap perfume (not that I know what the taste of cheap perfume tastes like)!

Yep, some of those tree blossoms are indeed edible. I would only just have a little taste of some of them, but some taste quite good.

Here’s a list of trees that are “category 4″  or plants generally considered non-toxic to humans (according to the University of Arkansas)-
-Redbud blossoms- Our favorite, highly recommend trying!  They taste just like sweet peas if you nibble them while they are very young. Ours aren’t quite to that stage yet though.
-Mimosa
-Pecan
-Russian-Olive
-Tulip-Poplar
-Pine- Fauna was just complaining last week that she had a pine needle stuck in her throat after eating some, she nibbles needles all of the time. Pine is also a great source of Vitamin C and makes a good tea too!
-Plum
-Weeping Willow
-Forsythia
-Gardenia
-Hibiscus
-Nandina
-Lilac
-Yucca

To learn more about the toxicity of trees, visit the longer list here. Please use caution when eating wild edibles and make sure the id is CORRECT before tasting! There’s the warning, don’t come back to me if you should get sick. I get a little nervous sharing wild edibles on the site because of this, but wild edibles are such a pleasure to my girls and make “knowing nature” fun!

I thought I would share an Outdoor Challenge Participant of the Day from now until the end of April. Today’s picture is from Sherry of Living and Learning; it’s a shame not to show her boy’s cute little face, but this pic is PRICELESS! Love a kid in the mud and a mama not afraid of a dirty kid!

I will try and share more participant pics daily. If you come back here and leave a link on the days you participate, I will know I have permission to share. 

 Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players- 105 players so far! It’s never too late to join!

lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy, elizabeth, sarah, eileen, lisa, stacy, jennifer, tulsileaf, lisa C, morticia, angela, rana, jamie, lisa c, luz, charley, heather, valerie, kirsten, rachel, annie, kendra, beth s, lindsey

“That’s all.”

We did a little activity today called Tree Body Sculptures, suggested by my sis Katrina who needed some pics of this activity for her arboretum brochure, we went outside and observed the trees first-

Then moved our bodies in different ways to mimic the shapes of different branches.

Becoming part of the scarlet maple-

Mimicking the ash- love the curve of the foreground limb-

Pin oak sweeps downward-

Another ash tree, need 2 bodies to mimic the upward reach of limbs; fingers spread apart as small twigs at the tips-

 Mimic the magnolia piggy back style-

And Fauna found a way to mimic a tree using her shadow-

 Now to sketch the silhouettes in our nature journals and I feel so inspired to make a tree out of felt right now! Happy Spring!

Simply laminate a pressed leaf, trim around the leaf, place the leaf backside-up and you’ve got yourself  a leaf rubbing plate. 

These plates work just as well as the ones you buy from the education stores! These are much cheaper and you can use any leaf from your yard or park.

Poke holes in the plates and add them to a book ring (love book rings) for safe keeping. Label the names of the leaves with a Sharpie to help learn leaf identification. They are so much prettier than those plastic plates!

Thank you everyone who has voted for me for the Best Unschooling Blog Award, please keep the votes coming!  If you haven’t voted yet- vote here.

The first thing to do is go for a hike in your yard or local park and collect 2 leaves from each different kind of tree you find (preferably taken from the ground not off the tree); you also need only one leaf from one special tree. Press the leaves for at least 24 hours, this makes gluing down the leaves easier. We picked leaves from 12 different trees, 2 from 11 trees and a single leaf from one tree.  We have a 23 card deck so far, but we plan to build on this.

What you need:
pressed leaves (at least 24 hours of pressing)- you need 2 of each leaf, and one single leaf like no other
manila paper, construction paper, or cardstock
glue
marker
a laminator or contact paper

Glue on the leaf and label it. I wish I would have had the little ladies include the Latin names, that’s good to know too; actually we will go back with a Sharpie and do this after they know the common names! 
*You might want to add another thickness to the back of the card if using manila or construction paper; after putting the card through the laminator you can see a leaf print on the back. I don’t mind this because I like how it makes the girls recognize the shape of the leaf, not just the color.

 Let the glue dry before placing in the laminator. I got a little impatient at first and put some of the cards in with wet glue, it smeared  the glue and discolored some of the leaves. The leaves I was more patient with and allowed to dry overnight, came out perfectly.

Cut around the cards and they are ready for play. I also punched holes and keep the cards on a book ring to keep them together when not in use.

  The 2 games we play with these cards are like Old Maid and Go Fish:

1. Odd Leaf Out- pass out the entire deck of cards, pull out the matches, take turns taking a card from each others’ deck looking for a match. The first person to match her whole deck wins, unless she has the odd leaf, in which case she will lose.  ;(

2. Go Fish style (my favorite); however you don’t fish unless you have a huge deck of leaf cards. Pick a person, ask for a leaf, if no match it’s the next person’s turn. Once again you win if you match your whole deck, but lose if you have the odd leaf. I really like this one because the little ladies are calling out the leaves’ names looking for matches.

I’m sure there are other games to play with these cards. Of course you could play Memory, but remember to take out the odd leaf.    These would be great to take on a hike to ID trees as well or do a scavenger hunt with them! I want to do an herbal deck too, but that will have to wait until next summer. Ooooh, and a flower deck full of pressed flowers would be pretty! The possibilties are endless! Enjoy!