Monday, September 21, 2009

All Summer In A Jar

Last summer when it came time to say goodbye to our summer nature table and start with our fall nature table things didn't go well.

You see our nature tables are primarily nature. I never quite saw the point in spending lots of money on carved figures representing the seasons when Mother Nature herself offers up the real deal for free. We have the odd home made gnome, or a wooden tree or animal from etsy, but rather than empty my pockets on the "perfect set", I let Zach empty his pockets to form our nature table. 



 But as Zach collected his treasures over the season, each one became precious. Each one had a story and a memory and a special place in his heart. Summer seems to offer up such a bounty of natural wonders from shells to turtle eggs to whelk egg cases to sea glass and exoskeletons of molting insects. What little boy could possibly toss these goodies back in to nature come mid-September?

So for summer we came up with the jar. We scoop the precious contents of our summer nature table into the jar, label it with the date and season, and set it up on the book shelf. I can't tell you how many times throughout the year he unscrews that jar lid and inspects his summer treasures. And always he carefully puts them back in the jar for safe keeping.


 
So as we officially welcome fall this week, we'll be adding the filling of the summer jar to our seasonal rhythm... how will you welcome fall?

8 comments:

FrontierDreams said...

What a wonderful idea!

We welcome(d) fall by celebrating my oldest's 4th birthday - we celebrate fall 2 days early for her :)

Amanda T said...

Great idea! I love how the jar looks all filled up :)

Anonymous said...

i love the jars! so lovely! i look forward to fall!

lily boot said...

that's just a wonderful idea! Your little person is such an inquisitive and thoughtful fellow isn't he. And I think your idea of the nature table sounds perfect - on a boat - awesome.

gardenmama said...

we also make our nature table from nature. love, love your idea to scoop it all up into a jar! happy fall days to you mama!

Positively Orphaned said...

This is such a great idea! I'm going to bookmark this post. Thanks for sharing.

boatbaby said...

It's a good thing summer only comes once a year or the boat might start sinking! Thank you Lily for the sweet words!

christine ~ ourdayourjourney said...

Great idea. And I'm with you on the "nature" table.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...