If you'd rather be outdoors than anyplace else, if you like to bring home cones and leaves and rocks but never know what to do with them, then Nature Crafts for Kids is for you. Organized by season, the more than 50 outdoor projects will show you how to learn by doing, as well as by looking and reading. You'll dig for clay in a creek bank, make pinch pots just as Native Americans did hundreds of years ago, and build a sawdust kiln that really works. There's even an ant house and a worm farm, candles sculpted in sand, a "stained glass" project made from autumn leaves and a cement birdbath. Recommended for ages 8+. Not recommended for children under eight years of age. Some projects require adult supervision.
Gwen Diehn was born and raised in New Orleans, LA, and studied art at Indiana University at South Bend, The University of Notre Dame (MA), and Vermont College (MFA). She has exhibited her artwork internationally and has work in many private and public collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. She has taught college art as well as workshops for many years. She has also written several books about art and also journal keeping and making. One of them, The Decorated Page, is being re-issued in a revised edition/bind-up with another one, The Decorated Journal, in spring, 2012. Her most recent book, Real Life Journals, was listed as one of the top 10 gardening and crafts books of 2010 by Booklist.
You can visit her blog at http://real-life-journals.blogspot.com.
