Outdoor Activities for Summer

 Summer is here (unless you say summer doesn't start until the solstice, but it's been over 80 here for weeks, so it's summer) and there's tons of great outdoor activities. After six summers working at camp and a grand total of 24 years of Girl Scouts, I've gotten to know a ton of great activities and resources. Here are some of my favorites:

• Build a bee hotel - buy small bee tubes and stuff them inside of a TP or paper towel tube
• Stargazing - start with the big dipper and work your way to harder to find constellations, or check out a local star party, as many of them are free and open to the public
• Go on a scavenger hunt hike or walk - make a list of things you hope to see then check them off as you go
• Do a soil experiment - using an egg carton, plant seeds for the same plant, then do something different to them such as using different fertilizers and natural additives
• Pressing flowers
• Pine cone crafts - literally so many to choose from
• Bird feeders - tons of options, again, for homemade bird feeders, with items like apples, milk cartons, and TP tubes
  
• Nature prints - different options include crayon rubbings and making prints in salt dough
  

Some books to check out include The Outdoor Scientist by Temple Grandin and Vitamin N by Richard Louv. They have literally hundreds of ideas for what to do outdoors.