So, you want a place where your child can connect with nature and continue to be mystified by the scent of a pine needle or the burst of wind rushing through their hair. You want your child to fully sense the moment in all its complexity, not one who walks through this world desensitized, cut off from what’s natural, and finding the simple brilliance of life mundane and boring.
When my son was young, I was getting frustrated when I realized that so many of the typical crafting materials on the market were full of so many harmful chemicals and substances. Since I'd gone through this with our food, cosmetic products, and cleaning products, it didn’t take me long to realize the label “non-toxic” on crafting materials is also a complete joke. Aside from the consumption to make the craft, what do we do about the bins and bins of art and crafts that our children will make over their lifetime? The best will be kept, and the rest left to landfill.
And then I realized quite quickly that we could make very natural, beautiful and environmentally-friendly crafts if we turn toward simplicity and the outdoors. A win-win for us and the environment! The benefits to kids crafting with nature include: broad-range sensory stimulation (we even include essential oils as much as possible), develops fine motor skills, boosts self-esteem, encourages self-expression and enhances decision making skills!
Each yoga camp and yoga birthday party with Appleseed includes a themed nature craft. Our nature crafts are simple (easy for little brains and hands), chemical-free, eco-friendly, and as earth-focused as possible. We love and value vegan crafting and also enjoy using organic, fairly traded wool, beeswax, and other animal products when we see fit.
Through nature crafts, we also maintain our corporate commitment to our beautiful Mother Earth as we use less packaging and overall consume less. Even searching for the craft materials is a mindful and yogic endeavour! We use yoga and mindfulness from craft inception to finished product; choosing where to find the appropriate materials, scouting them out, dreaming up the process of crafting, and assembling the product!
Appleseed loves committing to the things that matter, so the generations after us have a space to do the same.
With Love,
Megan
{The nature craft pictured is from our latest PA Day Yoga Camp under the theme Winter Wonderland. We made Winter Wonderland scenes with homemade salt dough (salt, flour, water, high-quality fir essential oil for scent), recycled cardboard, and added branches, small wooden animals, second hand miniature animal figurines, pine, cedar and other tree branch/leaf clippings, pine cones, acorn hats, birch stumps, etc.}