Get the kids outside and help them explore their surroundings with this great activity!

Last week we moved into our new home. Anyone who has moved with young children knows how difficult it is to unpack, sort and organise your new home and life while keeping the kids entertained. By day 4 the kids were starting to get a little bored. I needed to keep them busy and help settle them into their new house so I created a 'sticky wall' for them too collect things they found around the backyard.

Miss 3 LOVED doing this. Mister 1 just pulled everything off the sticky wall! Eventually he happily played the his twigs while Miss 3 created her collage. At first she grab whatever she could find but then she started finding what she called "treasures" - things like a broken shell and mirror from the previous people who loved here. 

When she was finished collecting her bits and pieces she carefully stuck them on the sticky wall. Some bits wouldn't stick or would fall off after a few seconds. This frustrated her but it gave me an opportunity to explain why it was happening. Some berries were wet and some of the stick were too heavy and one of the nuts was too round so we discussed this and she was content again.

When she'd run out of bits for her collage we pressed sheets of pink paper against the sticky wall and then trimmed off the edges. It was then stuck to the wall in her new room, just above the bed so she can look, touch and feel all the different pieces from her new surroundings.

This is a great sensory activity and can help children to feel familiar and comfortable in their new surroundings. I definitely recommend doing an activity like this if you are moving to a new place, have new children who will be staying at you home or something has happened at home to discourage outside play. It keeps the kids busy hunting for interesting and different things in the outdoors and makes them stop and really investigate nature.

We'll be doing some more nature craft soon and hopefully Mister 1 will get on board with us next time!

How would you help your child feel comfortable in a new home?

You might also like our Collage Craft for Toddlers or our Rainbows Touch Sensory Play

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