Backyard Exploration with Kiwi Crate 'Nature Explorer'

Just a disclaimer-type statement before I start: I'm not a spokesperson for Kiwi Crate, I am a paying subscriber and I (and Monkey) happen to think Kiwi Crate is pretty awesome.  If you wanna get in on the action, you can get your very own Kiwi Crate here.

When June's Kiwi Crate arrived, I was ecstatic.  The theme was 'Nature Explorer' and one of the crafts was a nature collection box with scavenger hunt cards.  Being desert-dwellers, nature exploration pretty much comes to a complete standstill in the summer, but I knew the box would be perfect for my Mom's yard in New Jersey, so into the luggage it went and after four days of this....

...we finally had a sunny day just right for exploring.  Monkey started with a color hunt, and found purple, yellow and green on his own, but then he decided he wanted a hunting partner, so Bear and I headed outside to lend a hand.  After we filled up the color card, Monkey decided to move on to shapes.

At first he rushed through, just trying to fill each slot with something and then run inside to show Daddy what he'd found, but after a few hurried hunts, he really started to slow down and examine everything before placing it in the appropriate section of the collection box.

While we were hunting, we also had a discussion about being gentle with the trees and plants in the yard and only taking a tiny sample of each thing for the collection box.  "See, Mom, it's tiny!"

Finally, Monkey decided to use the most specific scavenger hunt card with pictures of a flower, rock, stick, grass, leaf and clover.  He was actually able to find all of those things in the yard, a task which would be nearly impossible in our yard and he was thrilled!

And what did my little guy say on our very first visit to the mailbox after we returned from our vacation???  

"Maybe I'm going to have another Kiwi Crate!!"