2 things to do with the children when its dark, cold and raining outside
You will need a plastic tray, if you dont have them you can buy them easily at pound shops - that way you don’t care what happens to them!Some sticks, moss, pine cones, stones, shells etc
A couple of little dishes
Plasticine
Food colouring, not essential
Optional plastic miniature animals
First go on a hunting/gathering trip to the park or garden. Collect anything small that looks interesting from the list above and preferably get quite a bit of moss.
When home make a miniature garden on your tray using the sticks as bridges and trees supported by a blob of plasticine stuck onto the tray.
Fill the dishes, cover with silver foil if they are patterned, and fill with water. This is even better if you splash a few drops of food colouring in the water so you can have blue and green pools. The moss can then be arranged around the edge of the pools and animals can be placed on the moss having a drink at the pool.
Pine cones stood up on a little plasticine make a great wooded area. If you find any empty snail shells bring them back to life by making the snail out of plasticine and sticking the shell on top.
Walnut shells also make great parts of an animal.
My children do an enchanted garden about once a week now and spend ages putting them together. I love the look of the trays and seeing what they come up with to make out of what they have collected.
Our most recent attempt contains nativity figures to follow the Christmas theme. Giancarlo says when he was young he used to help the local priest in the church make their Presepio - the Nativity brought to life through moss, waterfalls, donkeys and little figures. I have seen some of these in churches at Christmas time and couldn’t believe how intricate and beautiful they are. It must be wonderful to see when you are a child.
Good luck with the trays, do have a go - the results are worth it.