Fleabane is a very common plant that blooms from spring to fall. There are lots of different species that grow here, but they are all similar enough that we’re just going to call all of them Fleabane.

Wiggle worms! The spring rains have been bringing them out and the girls enjoy investigating them. I handed one to Nora and she decided that it was important to carry it all the way to the fence and throw it through. I guess because that’s where she saw me release the snake? Haha, I’ll never understand what goes on in a toddler’s head.

We’ve started to see our first butterflies! In our yard we mainly see white and yellow ones right now. I haven’t gotten a good look at the yellow ones to know which Sulphur butterfly they are, but I figure that a toddler knowing that a yellow butterfly in our area is some of Sulphur butterfly is still a good start! I’ve gotten a little tired of trying to find realistic coloring pages for toddlers, so I’ve decided to start drawing them myself!

Robins are the real harbingers of spring! Even though robins are probably the most abundant bird in our yard, I held off on doing them because 1) I wasn’t sure how I was going to get black feathers using red/blue/yellow/green dye and 2) they clearly have two colors and I wanted to make sure the craft was good before really diving in with multi-colored birds.

Blue Jays are another common visitor to our yard and, while they can be a bit obnoxious, they are a beautiful bird. Today was a little hectic, so I forgot to take photos as we went along - but I dyed the feathers using the same process as with the Cardinals. The blue came out deeper than I expected and was actually a really nice color for our birds.

Honey bees are such an important insect. From pollinating many crop plants to making delicious honey, they are a huge benefit for humanity and the natural world. We also happen to have a couple hives of our own, so they were the obvious pick as our first insect. The idea behind the craft was simple: color some hexagon “honey combs”, add puffy paint for “honey”, and then add some bee stickers!

Living in Ohio, we naturally have tons of Cardinals in our yard. Since they are plentiful and easy to identify, they were an easy pick for our first bird. For the feathers, I decided to get white ostrich feathers used for fringe trim and dye them to the colors I need. Cardinals are not the only birds we’re going to learn about, so this seemed to be the most cost effective way to get lots of small feathers that I could dye to “natural” colors.

Violets are an important early spring flower native to eastern North America. My backyard is covered in them, which makes it a great flower for us to learn about next. Similar to the dandelion craft, my goal was to make something that highlights the details of the flower. Since a violet only has five petals, I decided to cut them out of purple construction paper.

We were lucky enough to see a garter snake in the yard a few weeks ago, so I knew I had to include a craft early on in the season board. My goal with this craft was to try to find a way to replicate the feel of a snake. I really want the art to be more than a coloring page and to be interactable after it is made. Which of course means that step 1 is spending about 3 years hole punching some construction paper. I folded the paper and used a three-hole punch to speed things up.

Something simple but engaging, this craft helps bring the dandelion to life. I used the coloring page found at Supercoloring.com, yellow construction paper, and a brass fastener. For each flower a cut a 1”, 1.5”, and 2” circle. I then poked a hole in the middle and cut around the edges to make the petals. If your child is skilled with scissors, you can certainly have them do this part.

Spring has finally arrived, and I am thrilled to kick off a new project I like to call the “Season Board.” The main objective is to introduce the girls to the local flora, fauna, and insects in an engaging way. Claire, at almost 4 years old, will delve into names and intriguing facts, whereas Nora, nearing 2, will just focus on names.