If you’re feeling trapped indoors without any spring in sight, creating spring crafts will help you see the coming light and green that is just around the corner. Soon, the birds will be singing their spring songs and building their nests. Building a bird house is a big project, but lots of fun. There are online birdhouse kits available at stores like The Bird House Depot if you and your preschooler would like to try hammering some nails.
If you’re looking for a shorter project to keep you and your preschooler thinking about spring, try creating a bag of nest material for the birds. Find an onion bag or another fine mesh bag. It does not even need to be a bag. Any flat sheet of fine mesh will do. Find a ribbon that you can use to close the bag or the mesh. Look around your house and your yard. What can you find that might be in a bird’s nest? What has your preschooler seen in a bird’s nest? I have seen many different objects, some human-made and some from nature. Mud, grass, sticks, feathers, and moss are all natural nesting materials. Many birds will happily create nests out of fancy string and yarn as well.
Look in your craft drawers and around the garden for long, thin items that birds could put into their nests. Avoid items like small plastic beads and jewels, since birds may mistake these for food. Place the natural and human-made items into the mesh sack and hang it somewhere in the garden, perhaps on a tree near a bird feeder. Watch to see what disappears! You may find it in a nest nearby at the end of the nesting season.
Do you and your preschooler enjoy watching birds? How do you attract birds to your yard?