Summer Nature Table
I’m a bit behind on sharing all the things we’ve been up to. Here are some shots of our summer nature table this year, all of which were taken in June. (It’s the end of July now! Holy moly!)
My new favorite easy-peasey craft is to create these watercolor circles. I wrote a tutorial about this for Earth Day here. Of course, you can have fun creating these using all kinds of colors. Since I had these lovely tie-dyed-looking circles, I decided to incorporate them into our nature table.
I had a wreath from the dollar store on hand, and I taped on our painted circles to make a kind of large flower. I’m used to having a wreath up above this piano top nature table of ours, so this seemed to fit the bill.
As usual, I have some of Lucas’s watercolor paintings framed in black frames on the wall. These can easily be changed out for something new, but so far I haven’t done it. I’m very fond of these three paintings. I’m 39 and I’m still a sucker for rainbows. The kids love them, too, so we’ll just go with it. (Daddy’s penchant for modern art is indulged at his office.)
I also framed this beautiful painting Lucas made in third grade. It gives me a lazy, summery, contented feeling to see it there in the center. I kind of want to fall asleep on a picnic blanket in the middle of that lovely meadow and wake up with just the mildest of sunburns.
On the right is another painting by Lucas, which he made at grandma and papa’s house. I like its tropical paradise imagery that certainly matches our temperatures, if not our actual proximity to the ocean. And it seemed to go nicely with a beach and ocean made of playsilks and this lovely wooden tall ship model, which is still “in progress” I am told.
We’ve added other objet d’art, such as a pretty ceramic fish, some seashells, an orchid plant (to go with the island feel), a sailor puppet Lucas made in kindergarten, a particolored goat from Mexico that was a gift from GG and Mimi, and a wooden horse we made for Asher. Now that we’ve been to the woods a few times this summer, we have some pinecones and moss and other goodies to add.
And here’s my secret: I create levels by wadding up scrap paper and placing it underneath the silks. This gives the look of rolling hills or sand dunes, and can even help create wintery gnome caves when the season is right.
Finally, we had to add a second summer nature table for a while because this mermaid aquarium we made was just so darn cool. We created this for a Little Acorn Learning ebook and it graced our home beautifully for weeks this summer.
