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Playful And Mindful STEM At Home And In Nature
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Tag Archives: Outdoor family games

Fantastic Outdoor Game With Great Learning Potential

Jump the river is a fun outdoor game for children of all ages to which we can add a STEM learning twist! The game uses rope or anything you have at hand to make a river that children have to jump over. Each time the kids make it over the river, it gets bigger and bigger. It is perfect to do with a group of children and can be done anywhere. I recommend going outdoors and playing this game in nature because it offers many great possibilities to sneak in some STEM! 

jump the river

How To Prepare And Guide The Outdoor Game

First of all you have to create the river. If you are out in nature the best thing to do is to collect some sticks. Then arrange them in parallel lines and keep them close enough together.

Now you need a story! I use the following narrative:

“You live in a village on one side of the river and all the food is on the other side, so each day you have to cross the river to gather food and then cross it again to get back home”

You can even have things for them to collect on the “food side” of the river. Use your imagination to make it more exciting!

Once they’ve gone back and forth for the first time the river gets bigger! I use the following narrative:

“As everyone sleeps there is a big storm and it rains so much that the river grows!” 

At this point separate the sticks so the river is wider and ask your kids if they are still able to gather food! I like playing around with the width of the river, making it narrower at some points and wider at others. You can have them find the shortest/longest route.

This continues until the river is far too wide to cross. Make sure to put the sticks, rope or whatever you are using far enough apart so that no kid can jump over. At this point, it is time to sneak in some problem-solving skills! It is time for some STEM learning!

Sneaking In Some STEM Skills

This outdoor game is perfect to encourage your kids to problem-solve and practice some engineering skills:

“Oh no! Nobody can jump the river and the current is too strong for swimming! How are we going to get food?”

Let the challenging task of crossing the river begin. This will get your kids planning, designing, testing and building to solve a problem. They will become engineers for the day! The great thing, if you are doing this outdoors in nature, is that you have so much material available! 

Talk about the different options, the different materials you have available. Ask questions and then see where their mind takes them. If you can, bring some rope, it always helps.

How to cross the river:

  • Make a bridge out of sticks or stones
  • Build a raft
  • Other creative ways your kids might come up with

Just a heads up, your kid might come up with a sneaky apparently “easy” way to cross the river and avoid all the building you had in mind. My 3-year-old just went for a walk and came back with the biggest palm leaf in the park (it was double her size!!). She lay it over the river and there was no need to build anything, just walk over. We still had fun balancing and talking about what a great solution she had found! At the end of the day she worked through it in her mind and came to her very own conclusion that we needed something BIG. 

Questions For Thinking And Vocabulary

However, if your kids are a bit older, they might have more fun creating something, so here are some questions you can ask as you plan your project:

  • What materials do you think are best for what you are going to do?
  • How are you going to do that?
  • Are you sure it will work? Why?

Explaining a project is a good way to deepen understanding. Communication skills are important in STEM to properly communicate your ideas and it is definitely a skill worth working on! So keep on talking and communicating with your kids while they engage in STEM learning.

I’d love to hear about some of the fun ways your kids came up with to jump the river! So please feel free to share in the comments. Hope you enjoyed this fun outdoor game.

Happy STEM learning!

jump the river outdoor

Check out other fun STEM activities to sneak in some STEM learning:

  • STEM activity: Build a pyramid and learn about shapes
  • Simple Science Project For Kids: Float or Sink
  • Math Art Project For Kids: Shape Stencils
  • STEM project: Engineer a house out of natural materials
  • STEM challenge: The Tower of Random Things
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Connect As A Family Through Play And Discovery

STEM activities are a great way to engage with your children. By discovering the world together you get the chance to strengthen the bond between you. Solving problems and connecting ideas open up a new and beautiful world. Young children have an incredible curious nature. Something that tends to be neglected as we grow up. Following your child’s motivation to understand their environment is a great way to reconnect to your own inner child and connect to your family. Not only are you doing things together, but you are also growing together, learning. You become scientific teammates ready to tackle the world’s problems. And by doing this, you are nurturing a love for learning that will pave the path for the rest of your children’s lives.

Connect as a family from home

And the best thing is, you can do this at home. In your backyard. Or when you go out for a walk. The activities we focus on here, at a STEMful mind, are low-prep and easy activities that can be integrated into your daily life. The more you do these types of activities, the more you will get inspired to do your own. We also encourage you to observe and play with your children at eye-level, to discover together. You will find ways to do this in all our activities. This will help you get to know your child better so that you can all connect as a family.

Create a home learning environment that fosters creativity and wonder. Let your child become your teacher. Listen to their stories, engage with them in their play. It all counts. It all connects.

So go ahead and scroll through our STEM activities or check out some Parenting For STEM articles to gain a deeper understanding of learning.    

Here is a list of our favorite activities:

Play-Based Learning Activities

  • Fantastic Outdoor Game With Great Learning Potential
  • Milk The Cow STEM Challenge: Can You Mimic Nature?
  • STEM Nature Box: Sort, Categorize, And Learn
  • Exciting Math Games For Movement And Learning
  • STEM Water Play: 8 Fun Activities to try this Summer

Hands-on And Sensory Learning Activities

  • String Rainbow Art Project: Explore Shapes With String
  • Math For Toddlers: Easy Sensory Bath Time Activity
  • Beautiful Hands-on Activities For Preschoolers: STEM Nature Eggs
  • Multisensory Learning: The Sound and Feel of Materials
  • Nature Puzzles: A Wonderful Way To Explore Shapes
  • Hands-on Engineering For Kids: How To Make A Wind Farm

Rainbow Activities

  • Fun Color Experiment For Toddlers Who Love A Good Mess
  • String Rainbow Art Project: Explore Shapes With String
  • Math For Toddlers: Easy Sensory Bath Time Activity
  • 5 Brilliant Ways To Experiment With Oobleck

And favorite parenting topics:

  • Play-Based Learning: How Children Learn Through Play
  • Have You Wondered With Your Kid Today?
  • The Do’s And Don’ts Of Free Play. A STEM Perspective
  • What is STEM and why is STEM Learning important?
  • Discover The Best Strategies For Learning That Sticks
connect as a family through STEM


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Hi! We are Anni and Stefan, a mix of engineering with a dash of education and a pinch of social work, blended together and turned into parents who have a passion for creating lightbulb moments. We want to help you bring STEM learning into your home in a way that is fun, educational and challenging enough so that children can develop their thinking skills. ♥

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astemfulmind

Anni | STEM + Nature Learning
The wonder of simple experimentation ✨ When you The wonder of simple experimentation ✨
When you let the child lead you never know what will happen. Sometimes nothing really happens, and that's ok too. But then there are times when you bring out some materials and "tools", add a bit of water and you suddenly have a full on experiment station on your hands!
I saved some pumpkin seeds from a pumpkin I had baked, thinking they might come in handy some time. I didn't have anything in mind, but when my 5-year-old said she wanted to do an experiment I offered them to her. 
She directly asked for water to check if pumpkin seeds sink or float. So we gathered water, some containers and a few extra tools (just some kitchen utensils). Turns out some actually sink and others float! We discussed why this might be happening and then I asked her if she thought she could find a way to separate them with the tools we had… this led to some critical thinking, some trial and error and a lot of experimentation and conversations. She was engaged, on a mission, and she had initiated the experiment herself. 
💜 I love watching these moments unfold and they just further convince me that experiments don't need to come with flashy reactions, or bright colors. They can be simple, like this one. Experiments should make us think, tickle our minds with questions about what we see and drive us to test possibilities that will reveal answers, solutions or rethink our questions. And childhood is full of moments like these if you look close enough.
The art of noticing the small details 🐚✨ A s The art of noticing the small details 🐚✨
A simple activity with natural materials and a magnifying glass. I just set this up on the table and we started looking at each material and paying attention to what we could see. It made us think and wonder about patterns, irregularities and just other things we might not notice otherwise. 
We learned to pay attention to details and that things might look different depending on how close you look. And these observations lead to questions and these questions lead to a search for answers, discovery, learning. 
And all it takes is a magnifying glass and some nature 🤎🧡
DIY OOBLECK BLOCKS 🧱🌽💧 These Oobleck blo DIY OOBLECK BLOCKS 🧱🌽💧
These Oobleck blocks are so easy to make and were a perfect addition to our dry Oobleck play as it gave us the chance to build structures and create small worlds. 
Materials you'll need:
🌽Cornstarch
💧Water
🧊Ice trays
🧘‍♀️Patience
To prepare the Oobleck you mix 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water. If you have never tried Oobleck you are in for a fun treat! It is a great sensory experience for kids and really engaging as it behaves both like a solid or fluid depending on the pressure it's under. 
Once you are done experimenting with Oobleck try filling some ice cube trays with it and then let it dry (it can take some days, which can be tricky for little kids but is also a great opportunity to practice patience).
❗A lot of ours cracked and broke so make sure you prepare enough. We made 3 trays.
🧱 That's it! We crushed some of the broken blocks and used the other ones to create, nurturing some STEM skills through play. 
For more ideas for STEM and nature play follow along!
"If children are to keep alive their inborn sense "If children are to keep alive their inborn sense of wonder… they need the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in." Rachel Carson
These words truly resonate with me.
Sharing the path of learning and discovery with our children is so beneficial and not only for our kids. It is so positive for us too! It reawakens our inner child, our own sense of wonder. It allows us to slow down, to play. 
We explore together, we seek out the answers to our questions, we experiment and play, we struggle to find solutions, we persevere and through these experiences we learn. About the world, about each other, about ourselves, giving us the chance to bond over something beautiful.
👉 Follow along for inspiration on family activities that nurture curiosity and drive learning
Have you ever let Oobleck dry? ☀️ Letting Oob Have you ever let Oobleck dry? ☀️
Letting Oobleck dry is the best way to clean it up but it also gives you the chance to use it again in a different way. 
I like to leave it in a tray or cooking pan so it spreads out and dries faster. Once it's dry you can just poke it and scrape it out.
It crumbles and cracks nicely between your fingers and has a lovely texture that my kids (and I) really enjoy.
You can keep it dry or combine it again with water to get the gooey, slimy, and fascinating Oobleck back.
👉 I'm also testing a different way to use dry Oobleck so make sure you stay tuned!
DIY STONE STACKING GAME 🌈🪨 Stone stacking h DIY STONE STACKING GAME 🌈🪨
Stone stacking has many benefits, for both kids and adults. It encourages patience, creative processing, concentration, focus, and hand-eye coordination. We love doing this when we are outdoors and in nature, it gives us a moment to stop and relax. 
This simple DIY is inspired by all those stone stacking moments and adds a bit of a challenge to nurture those skills even more. 
👉 This is how we prepared it:
We collected stones and selected 6 of them for the game, we painted them using acrylic paints, and borrowed a color dice from one of our board games. If you don’t have a color dice just add stickers to a normal one.
👉 How we played:
Players take turns to roll the dice, find the stone that matches the color and place it on the stack. 
🌈 It’s pretty simple, but it adds a new layer to simple stacking, as you navigate having to put bigger and heavier stones on top. It also encourages problem solving, conversations and observations which are key drivers of learning. 
💫 For more simple nature and STEM play you can take outdoors and that nurtures learning make sure to follow along
Motherhood is definitely reawakening my childlike Motherhood is definitely reawakening my childlike curiosity and wonder 💫🌱🦴 
As we were on one of our nature walks one day we found some animal bones in the forest and our reaction was… wow!! Let’s take them home! After packing them in a bag, we decided it would be a good idea to clean them before examining them.
A quick google research revealed that we could use hydrogen peroxide to clean and whiten the bones. Gloves on and to work!
With great care we handled the bones and the hydrogen peroxide, saw the fizzy bubbles come out and observed the reaction (a bit of chemistry at play here!) We talked about what was happening and about the bones themselves, how they are different from ours, what type of animal they could be from according to their teeth (herbivore?) and a lot more.
This process of curiosity, hands-on exploration and discovery is a key part of childhood. Children are naturals at this, and if we follow along and support this process who knows what amazing things we might discover together. What is certain is that by exploring together like this we are nurturing their natural curiosity, cultivating a love for discovering new things and giving them the tools to drive their own learning. 
Never would I have thought that cleaning bones would turn into a great hands-on learning experience. But I have learned that following my children usually leads to moments of discovery like this.
OOBLECK WITH NATURAL MATERIALS 🐚🪨💫 Oobl OOBLECK WITH NATURAL MATERIALS 🐚🪨💫 
Oobleck will never cease to amaze me! This fascinating sensory STEM play is always a win in our home. 
👉 For those of you who have never tried it, Oobleck is a mixture of cornflour and water (the ratio should be about 2 cornflour to 1 water). I always keep extra cornflour around cause my kids love making the mixture themselves and they usually add too much water.
👌 What is special about Oobleck is that it behaves differently depending on the amount of pressure you put it under. It can behave like a solid or a liquid!! 
➡️ Try rolling it into a ball and it will more or less keep its shape as long as you keep putting pressure on it. As soon as you stop, it will flow out of your hands.
➡️ Try to poke it really, really fast and your finger won't go through, do it slowly and you can dip your finger in it. 
💫 Oobleck by itself is a great way to encourage observation skills and critical thinking. Most of the time I let my kids prepare it and as they try to get the perfect consistency, they test it out and decide if they need more water or cornflour. It is also just a great sensory activity!
🐚 We love adding natural materials and color to the mix. One day it became snow, another it was a beach… There are so many possibilities. And many times that involves my kids letting it drip over their arms and legs 🙈 yes… Oobleck can get quite messy, but that's part of the fun!
Have you tried Oobleck before? 
👉 Follow along for more simple STEM and nature play 💫🌱
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SKELETON PUZZLE 🦴🧩🦴 Puzzles are a wonder SKELETON PUZZLE 🦴🧩🦴
Puzzles are a wonderful way to nurture your child's memory, problem solving and critical thinking skills, spatial awareness and attention to detail. We even discovered a few extra games to extend the learning even more! 👇
🧩 Simple puzzle: sort out the pieces and recreate your skeleton
🧩 Correct your skeleton: identify what is wrong and correct it, takes turns to build an incorrect skeleton
🧩 What is missing?: Find out how many pieces are missing and try to name them. Take turns taking the pieces away
We had so much fun with this activity. I had seen it on @one_little_project and thought it would be perfect to try it out for some STEM play, and it did not disappoint! Not only are puzzles and games a great way to cultivate important STEM skills, but this specific skeleton one also encouraged some great conversations about how our body works and the names of different bones. We tried feeling the bones in our body and had fun creating funny skeletons.
❓ Can you think of any other ways to use this in your play?
🧩 This just came to mind while writing… What about having two skeletons and playing a copycat game!?
For more simple STEM play make sure to follow along 🤗💫
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