Somewhere around the time I first met Peter Rabbit, Mole, Ratty, and the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, I started believing that gardens and riverbanks, ordinary patches of trees, were probably busier (and a bit more enchanted) than they looked at first glance. I began to trust that if you slow down and pay […]

The post Free Printable Fairy Scavenger Hunts: Turn Any Walk into a Fantasy Adventure appeared first on barley & birch.

If you’ve spent any time on this site, you know I love sharing videos. Nature clips, art process films, classic gems from my own childhood… But lately I’ve been thinking more carefully about how those videos are watched once they leave my hands. A link on a blog post is one thing. What happens when a child […]

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Animation has been a lifelong love of mine and something I keep coming back to with the same quiet delight I had as a kid. There’s something about the medium that never gets old, no matter how many times I’ve watched certain films or shorts. So I *finally* pulled together a little collection of my […]

The post Hidden Gem Animated Films for Children: 36 Award-Winning, Free-to-Watch Favorites appeared first on barley & birch.

Classroom-friendly and kitchen-table easy, these kid-assembled cider sachets are perfect for and afternoon activity you can use for autumn apple cider-making, fall and winter holiday gifts, or to keep in a basket by the door for neighbors. It’s Halloween week, the air is crisp, there’s pumpkin bread in the oven (seriously…here’s my family’s recipe), and […]

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Last week on an afternoon walk with the dog, I spotted a gnarly little twig hooked just so…crooked knuckles…pointed tip – the perfect witch’s finger! It made me laugh out loud (some might go so far as to call it a cackle…). That one fleeting thought changed the way I observed everything else on our walk, […]

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Kids will love bringing skeletons to life with this fun articulated skeleton craft – just print, cut, and decorate your own spooky or colorful creation for October celebrations. Meet Monsieur (or Mademoiselle) Bones! Our own Bones family loves nothing more than getting dolled up in new outfits and posing for the camera… Monsieur Bones is […]

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How many of these classic October scenarios sound familiar…? One: you’ve promised your kids “a Halloween activity” before dinner, but just realized the glue sticks are completely dried out, scissors have disappeared into the mysterious void where socks and Lego pieces go, and you only have 15 minutes before someone declares boredom an emergency. Two: […]

The post Candy Mandalas: An Easy and Quick Kids Halloween Craft appeared first on barley & birch.

Halloween has always felt like the opening notes of the biggest season of the year. As a kid, I adored it – the crisp air, the spooky decorations, the promise of costumes and candy. It was full of mystery and excitement, and it always seemed like the weeks leading up to it stretched on forever. […]

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Come October, there’s nothing better than cozying up with a Halloween story and a game everyone can enjoy! These October reading challenges are a playful way to turn reading time into a seasonal tradition – kids get excited about story time, and parents get the bonus of a little quiet time with a good book. […]

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Flip the script on the centuries-old tarot card-reading tradition by inviting kids to design their own tarot card deck, centering joy, imagination, and optimism.  I have always loved a little mystery… Whether it was peeking behind a closed door, waiting to see what prize came out of a gumball machine, or trying to “predict the […]

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