For Little Hands :: Encouraging Spring

Welcome to For Little Hands, a weekly series that hopes to inspire creative whimsy for the little hands in your life.

 

We are currently focusing on activities that have us thinking forward to Springtime by embracing the current state of things.  Mid-February always seems to be a challenging time; we feel cooped up, we've been sick multiple times already, it's cold and dark and everything seems to be encapsulated under a bed of ice and hard snow. When we think of Spring we think of the sound snow and ice melting, the trickling sound of water running along the road, dripping from the roof tops, and the streams that are now less clogged by ice flows.

 

Today we tried our hand at making frost. We filled a recycled can up with icy snow from outside.

 

We stirred it around while adding heaping spoonfuls of salt and just kept stirring....

 

.....and stirring and soon enough, there was frost!

 

 

It was the coolest thing! I find the littles with the front door constantly open so they can scratch their little fingers through the frost that forms on the glass door so I thought this little activity would fun for them. They saw right before their eyes that the outside of the can was encrusted with frost, and even a few ice drops formed. The would touch it and see their melted finger prints, stir the contents of the can again, and watch their fingerprint refreeze!

 

I am reminded that this, too, is our current state outside our doors. The weather is in that pre-Spring fluctuating stage of freezing, melting, refreezing. It was fun to bring it indoors....

 

For this weekend, our ice play will continue (as long as the temperatures are cold enough). I found this really cool post over at Housing a Forest. Who wouldn't want a rainbow of icicles growing outside their front door?

 

How are you encouraging Springtime in your home?