How to Grow a Living Playscape: Willow Playhouse Cave for Kids

How to Grow a Living Playhouse for Kids from Willow Tree Branches: Plan for Earth Day

Building an outdoor playscape is just one of many fun garden projects you can do with your kids in the summer. We experimented by making a living playhouse from a willow tree. If you aren't sure how to get started on an outdoor design project, visit our post on diy outdoor design templates.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

How to Make a Living Play Space

We shopped for various styles of playhouses, but they were very expensive. After a storm, tree branches covered the yard, so we gathered several willow branches and stuck them in the ground. Then, we cut a few skinny branches off the tree and wrapped them around the bigger branches forming a loose connection. Click here to see examples of  living willow tree play spaces from dengarden.com.

Miracle Grow gave our living willow playscape a boost. The kids generously watered the base of the branches. You don't need to have a green thumb to grow a Willow tree. Take a stem cutting or cut off a branch and stick it in soil. That's all you need to grow your own organic playhouse.

This is an easy project that keeps on giving year after year. Our little gardeners anxiously awaited for Spring in hopes their playhouse had survived the winter. To make sure your trees are well maintained, check with a tree care service and garden maintenance expert.

Our living willow playhouse ended up looking more like a cave than house. The kids crawled inside letting their imaginations run wild. In the spring, it was incredible to watch the miracle of rebirth. In the winter, our little play house looked like a pile of sticks, but a few months later it was well on it's way to becoming the centerpiece in our secret garden. It's the perfect place for sensory outdoor play. 

Recommended Reading:

Playhouses You Can Build

Treehouses and Playhouses You Can Build

How to paint like Eric Carle Homeschool Art Project Collage

How to Paint like Eric Carle Lesson for Kids

Don't you just love the illustrations of Eric Carle in children's books? Did you ever wonder how to paint like Eric Carle? This Homeschool Art Project takes some time, but it is worth the effort. Enjoy!

Use different household items to achieve varying patterns. I love how the piece of cardboard makes a herringbone pattern when crossed. The side of a paint brush looks like animal tracks. We even used the end of our paint brush to make stipple patterns. The dirty, wadded up paper towel made a glorious pink, green, and black impressionist style.

Jake traced this on our light table 
and then cut his patterned papers to illustrate.

We cut 8 1/2 x 11 white paper into quarter
 and each child painted in each technique.



This is salt painting.

We made 16 different patterns with our paint.

Mayhem made 3D Elements in this
Eric Carle style illustration focusing on Giraffes.

Jake doesn't like to draw so we cut images out of coloring books, traced them and filled them in with bits of our pattern painting projects. Mayhem used a coloring book image but chose to draw many of her own designs. These techniques also work fine motor skills.

Homeschool Art Lesson: How to paint like Eric Carle

You will need watercolor or tempera paint, brushes, paper towels, salt, cardboard scraps, tissue paper, art paper, sponges, plastic bags, and  imagination.

Cut a piece of art paper into fourths. (We used several sheets as it was so much fun!)

Experiment with different painting techniques:

1. Salt Painting - paint with a color, sprinkle salt over it, allow to dry for a sparkly texture.
2. Stipple - use the end of a paintbrush to make dots.
3. Animal Tracks - flatten the brush on the paper to make tracks.
4. Tissue Paper - wet and use it to paint or glue a collage of colors onto your sheet.
5. Toilet Tube - use like a roller or hold upright and stamp circles or hearts with the end.
6. Sponge - cut a sponge into small shapes and blot on paper.
7. Paper Towel - use your dirty paper towel and blot on paper for a fun print.
8. Cardboard Edge - use the edge of the cardboard to make straight lines.
9. Plastic Bag - Tie a bread bag in a knot or wear it like a glove and dab it paint.

 

Let your paintings dry overnight (at least an hour.) Draw or trace your favorite animals, lay out your design on paper, take your squares, and cut them up to fill in the pictures (think puzzle pieces.) See the example above for ideas.

How to Salt Paint

Jake complained about how horrible his turtle looked. Of course, I think it looks awesome. He enjoyed tracing the turtle. The idea of it looking perfect is very important to him. Flowing, organic art makes him crazy. As a gifted child, he needs and thrives on structure. 

Without structure, all chaos breaks loose. Perfectionism is an artist's worst enemy. Mayhem, on the other hand, sits down and lets her art tell her where it wants to go. Great artist come in both styles. We're working on Jake's rigid issues in Jake's Journey in Art. We'd love for you to join us!


Recommended Reading:

Eric Carle Favorite Animal

The Nonsense Show Book Review and Surrealist Art Ideas

The Art of Eric Carle

Organic Strawberry Raspberry Smoothie Recipe

Healthy Organic Strawberry Smoothie Recipe Kids Like

Kids like shakes. If only they knew healthy yogurt smoothies are just as good. This healthy, organic, strawberry-raspberry smoothie recipe is fun to make at home and delicious too. Enjoy!

Healthy Kid-friendly Strawberry Smoothie Recipe.

Cascadian Farm sent us coupons and a little book of 
recipes to made our Strawberry Smoothie.

Blend the Strawberry Smoothie.

To Make a Strawberry Smoothie at Home you will need:

Fresh or Frozen Strawberries and Raspberries

Crushed Ice (We tweaked the recipe.)

Plain or Vanilla Yogurt.

Whip Topping (Added that too...)

Cascadian Farm Spa Smoothie Recipe 

So good, kids will love to drink smoothies.

Fun Try It:

We also made a Smoothie with Frozen Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri Mixer, Frozen Strawberries, and Vanilla Yogurt. Tastes great, but the Mixer is sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Grown-ups can add the rum for a little extra kick. :)



Recommended Reading:

Kids' Fun and Healthy Cookbook*

Kids Creative Chaos Cooks (Kitchen Kids Book 1)*


















ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Earth Day: Friendly Spinach Stuffed Manicotti Recipe to Cook with Kids

Celebrate Earth Day with green friendly recipes, like this Spinach Stuffed Manicotti.

Happy Earth Day! This is so good, your kids will enjoy it. Yummy frozen spinach manicotti. Enjoy!

Spinach Stuffed Manicotti for Earth Day.

Multicultural Earth Day Craft

Kid's love mixing the ingredients.

Pair it with an organic salad.

Print the Recipe from Cascadian Farm.

Recommended Reading:

I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (Little Green Books)*

What does GMO mean?

Fair Trade Lesson Plans

This Earth Day, Grow a Memory: Activity for Preschoolers

Easy Activity to Celebrate Earth Day with Preschoolers

As a little girl, trips to McDonald's were rare. Today, it seems to be a staple in the little's diet. I wonder if they will remember their favorite Happy Meal prizes as I do.

Once upon a time, Mickey D's gave out tiny little peat pots and sunflower seeds; the gift that kept on giving. My Dad and I went home, planted those seeds, and later transplanted them into our backyard garden. For years, we had a row of giant sunflowers. I even entered them in a 4-H contest. Sweet memories... you can make yourself. Enjoy!

Just add soil, water, sunlight, and love.

This is a great project to pair with our Daisy-Head Mayzie Activities.

Recommended:

Daisy the Donut Fairy*

Rodale's Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden*

Earth Day Recipes

Daisy Hat Craft

Celebrate Earth Day Organically with these Activities: Grilled Chicken and Raspberry Salad Recipe

Raspberry and Grilled Chicken Recipe for Earth Day

This Earth Day, celebrate with organic and green friendly recipes. Let the kids help make dinner with this easy grilled chicken and raspberry salad recipe. Enjoy!

 Homeschool Science: Research an Endangered Species for Earth Day

Click Photo for Free Printable Recipe from Cascadian Farm.

Earth Day. What a fabulous day to celebrate life. This year, Cascadian Farm sent us an awesome gift pack to help us celebrate organically. The main thing I want to say is, YUM!

Earth Day: Celebrate with a Cooking Lesson for kids.

I love the honey granola cereal, chocolate chip granola bars, and the to die for raspberry fruit spread.

They sent us a picnic basket with water bottles and yummy recipes to try. We chose to make the Grilled Chicken and Raspberry Salad with Spa Smoothies and Spinach Manicotti. 

Marinate Chicken in Pomegranate Red Wine Vinegar
 and Raspberry Fruit Spread.

Earth Day Craft for Kids

Arrange on plate. Why, yes, that is a styro-foam plate. Not Earth friendly you say?  I use them, wash them, and re-use them for lots of craft projects. We try...

Spinach Stuffed Manicotti Recipe for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!  Note the Earth Friendly Tickle Me Crown and Necklace.

This weekend, we moved into our new home on five, amazing acres (in which I have high hopes for self-sustainable farming) we'll have a picnic next to the pond with the awesome basket they sent.

How we celebrated Earth Day

Recommended Reading: 

I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (Little Green Books)*

Hip Moms Go Green: 
Very Berry Smoothie Recipe and Organic Garden Party  

For Such a Time as This: Earth Day Picnic  

In the Kitchen with Audrey: What's for lunch? 

Cascadian Farms and Snack Girl's:  Healthy Blueberry Muffins














ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Fall Funtastic! Fun October things to do for Halloween in Indianapolis Indiana

Fun Fall things to do in October for Halloween in Central Indiana

At last... In the Fall of 2009, my kids suffered with the launch of my "Fun Kids" business. For them it was more like torture. This year, we were determined to find and do all of the fun things in October for the Halloween season.

Mayhem on a preschool hayride at Beasley's Orchard.

We only visited "Waterman's Farm Market" in Greenwood, Indiana to watch the pumpkin eating dinosaur, race big trikes around a track, pet a few goats, get swallowed up inside a stack-of-hay maze, and follow the trail in a field of corn on a very cold day during Fall-Break.  Oh what fun!  Waterman's is great, don't get me wrong; the kids love it.

This year, determined to make it up to them, I scheduled fall-fun into every spare minute.It started with a trip to "Trader's Point Creamery" during Oktoberfest; although the event seemed well received by others my kids gave it six thumbs down. It was crowded, hot, and we walked a lot.


However, it is a lovely fund-raising event for adults. Vendors sell their wares in a cozy farmer's market.  The farmer's offer crafts, fruits, jellies, jams, and warm, seasonal specialties.  If you come hungry eat here first.  The restaurant is closed while they serve gourmet burgers and organic items in the barn.  While these items were healthy and delicious my hungry kiddos didn't find anything appetizing (hot dogs ran out early) and my significant other spent around $40 on himself alone walking away in need of "real food".  Luckily, the dairy had cheeses and organic milk.

The kids did not enjoy the hayride thru the farm's hilly landscape to see the non-existent cows. The cows had come home for milking.  Nor did they dance a jig to the happy, live Polka Band.

Calves cried at the door to see their Mamas who were standing on the other side in line for the milking machines. The real pitchfork my son used to grab the hay was a big hit as was the tour of Milking time.

Not a big hit $13-40 pumpkins that were grown elsewhere. These were our first pumpkins of the season so the kids were overjoyed at the sight, but I bribed them with mega pumpkins two for $6 at Meijer. While they were kicking and screaming on the way out, I did notice a farm vendor selling little pumpkins for $1 each. C'est la vie.

Awesome, educational corn maze at Jacob's Orchard in New Castle, Indiana.

Needless to say, I had some fall-fun making up to do! On the next outing, I took them to a tiny apple orchard in my hometown, New Castle, Indiana. Previously known as Anderson's, the new owners renamed it "Jacob's Orchard" which made for a nice photo op for my son (and the 90 million others) named Jacob.

Unfortunately, Jacob had no desire to attend the event. He complained profusely until he spotted the inflatable tunnel. Success! Goat's, fortune-telling corn-maze, cider doughnuts made while-you-wait, apple slushies in apple-shaped bottles, and if you feel like it, You-Pick apples, sealed the deal. The price is right too.

He got hurt the first time but went back for more.

The angry faces say, "Let me go play".

Hay tower at Jacob's Orchard in New Castle, Indiana.

On a "No Pre-school Friday", Mayhem and I visited "The Old Farm Market" in Avon to purchase old-fashioned pumpkins and giant gourds. Bummer, the have gone out of business!

Mayhem with Fall Pumpkins and Gourds for Halloween.

Mayhem with a Pirate, Arrgh!

Fall Break called for a trip to our local Zoo Boo and the world famous "Indianapolis Children's Museum" for trick-or-treating, pumpkin bowling, and a scare-free haunted house entitled, "Skeletown". My little one tired out after the first treat-post preferring to be carried and then tip-toed timidly thru the haunted house expecting a fright at every corner. It hadn't occurred to me that, at four, this was the first haunted house she would remember.

Vampires, Indians, Scouts, and Racecar Drivers oh my!

Class field trips took us to  "Country Pumpkins" in Zionsville and "Beasley's Orchard" in Danville for hayrides to pumpkin patches topped off with a free mini-pumpkin. You might want to start logging a pumpkin tally about now.

Preschoolers and pumpkins.

Finally, Halloween weekend arrived.  The kids enjoyed our trip to "Westside Retirement Village" for a safe treating experience. The residents were sitting in the lobbies handing out candy and we were pleasantly surprised by a haunted garden on the way to more candy-giving seniors, six thumbs up here.  


My teenager appreciated the duality of the elderly enjoying the children. Such a cute idea transforming a pathway into a spider garden- a giant spider waved happily at the end of the trail to lull visitors into a sense of well-being just before a friendly, smiling ghost popped out to say, "boo".  Unfortunately, the happy boo had my littlest jumping out of her skin.

Now, we aren't known to be a greedy family but while we were waiting for Daddy to complete his projects at work we needed to pass the time, so, we stopped off at "Church of the Master American Baptist" for trunk-or-treat before meeting up for "Ghoulish Garfield" . Forget about icing, Indy Park's Garfield Park, put the cherry on top of the cupcake. Picture perfect.   


The haunted conservatory is scary. My teenager let go of her six-year-old brother's hand  to grab her Daddy's! Daddy carried the shaking little one with one arm and held Sam with the other arm while I led the way with Jake. Seconds after telling a witch he wasn't scared at all some 'air' caused Jake to stick to the floor. The same 'air' that had Sam unglued (go figure, it was literally just air from a blower of some sort). Kudos to the spookmaster.  

The exit led directly to the hayride. "I'm never coming to this park again," exclaimed Jake!  "I know, I got worried when it said, 'not suitable for small children'," winced Sam. No one wanted to take a hayride but the clown taking our tickets (literally) assured us it was only a means of transport so off we went. Unfortunately, we were short on time. The ride leads to the Arts Center to decorate pumpkins and then to the Burello Family Center for refreshments and such. Time was running out so we opted to stay on the wagon.  Neither of us felt the need to walk back to our car toting frightened children through a dark park. An amazing ride thru the park with the full-moon and stars above made for the perfect ending to a fall-fun evening.

I question my sanity, as I remember my first haunted house at the age of six. My uncle was playing Frankenstein. It must have been a scare-free time for everything was well-lit. The coffin and vampire are burned into my psyche forever. Dracula chased us into the next room as my aunt shooed him away with her purse. I recognized my uncle right away - he's well over six feet tall - still I worried about Dracula.

Could Frankenstein stop him from sucking our blood? Could he pry the casket open if the venomous vampire tossed me inside? I have no idea what treasures the other rooms held.  While the smell of alcohol wreaked from the vampire's fangs the smell of fear drenched my aunt's persona. I could not be consoled by their trifling claims otherwise. Isn't it odd that Halloween is my favorite holiday?  

Thanks to that fateful day, I've never met a Creep I've liked since.  To be sure, we're going to have three kids who have an irrational fear of air.

Trick or Treating in Avon's Washington Township Park.

Trick or Treat.

Then, I took the kids to "Washington Park" in Avon for the non-scary, trick-or-treat trail. It's a nice hike thru the woods. Candy stations are sprinkled along the trails, cute, carnival-style games abound, and the kids enjoy a costume contest and $1 pumpkins all before dark.  This one is perfect for even the littlest tykes unless they discover an urgent need to potty. (Don't worry Jessica, we made it back to the public restroom, but I overheard one little boy who had to go behind a tree.)

Super easy Halloween Costumes: The kids were done with puppies, ladybugs, clones, hulks and pumpkins. So we went with comfortable costumes; that's a ghost puppy and a skeleton kid.

Halloween Party Activities: Bobbing for Rubber Duckies!

Tomorrow I present, "The Princess and Wanda Witch" at Garfield Park Arts Center, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

Wanda Witch, lead actress in our skit.

Join us but don't dawdle; I have to hurry home to take my kids trick-or-treating, hand out candy, and visit the festivities at "Spirit of Life Church" in Clermont. 

It's hard work making up for lost time. Mayhem has had several different costumes to celebrate the season.



Recommended Reading:

Five Little Pumpkins (A fun Halloween book for children)

A Ghost Went Trick or Treating