We headed out for our annual trip to a special conservation area over the Thanksgiving weekend (I know, it is early here in Canada – or so I’m told. As a born and raised Canadian it is just normal to me …)

This year I brought this little gem along. Worked out beautifully for the little 2 year olds! I thought I would share it again with you in case you missed it last October. Hope you are having a lovely week friends, here is the post:

My Sam is a collector.  Feathers, pine cones, and most recently Fall leaves.  I have mentioned this many times before … in this post on our nature belts, in our 5 senses activities for kids outdoors, with our Fall leaf sewing, and I’m sure in many more of our (now over 800!) posts.  It seems his interest in this hobby is not going anywhere – and as it turns out … it just may be contagious.

We celebrated Benjamin’s 2nd birthday today, and like always, my other little ones created, gathered, or otherwise came up with a gift for him.

Much to everyone’s surprise, this morning Sammy presented his brother with his prized box of “gorgeously” Fall leaves.  These were the very leaves he has painstakingly examined and collected for the past 3 weeks.  Very thoughtful of that little man – but also just the boost little Benjamin needed to get the collector’s itch himself.

Perhaps all he needed was the proper box, poor little Ben.  Now that he had the box, he was able to properly collect some leaves himself.

And while he collected in a toddler fashion (picking each and every leaf up, regardless of quality) and while Sam winced and grimaced watching his “gorgeously” Fall leaves intermixing with these haphazardly selected ones – they both suddenly had a hobby in common.

Madeline and I were talking of ways to display some of these lovely leaves that were coming into the house one way or another.  She suggested using baggies to hang them in the window.  Then she saw the boys stumble upon a jack pot of orange leaves (which may have officially been our neighbors) and thought we could make the baggies look like jack-o-lanterns.  Very cute!

This really is a cute and simple craft that is great for toddlers.  Full of fine motor skills, discerning colors, and sorting too.  And they look adorable on a wall!

The little ones had fun with this one.  Though only Sammy wanted to make the jack-o-lanterns, it seems Benjamin’s collection will stay safely in his box in a corner of his bed (I’m sure just in case big brother decides he may try to un-gift them).

***Cute right? I thought you might like it. Hope you have a bit of time to explore this week friends! Thank you for visiting!

Love this idea? Then you are SURE to love Play into Kindergarten Readiness! One simple activity a day, step-by-step, to cover all preschool core skills through play! 

Find out more about my Preschool Program right here!