We spend a lot of time exploring outside and collecting natural treasures. When I discovered the Nature Pal Exchange on Instagram I was like "no way! look at all the other families who like to collect nature!". It took no time at all to decide we needed to sign up and it only cost $5, which actually goes to benefit an orphanage in Uganda, such an awesome thing!
I must admit, that I was a bit nervous that signing up for an extra thing to do was going to be a burden to our schedule, which I purposefully keep simple and free. What I discovered, though, was that we were already going on nature explorations, and we were already collecting treasures. Now we were just adding in thinking of others as we collected, rather than ourselves. Even better! We also began to see our "ordinary" discoveries through new eyes.
The girls thoroughly enjoyed finding special things to send their new friends in Georgia, and even thought of specific things they wanted to include in the package, like sea glass and tiny shells from our favorite beach. The lessons learned were countless...names for things we hadn't thought to look up before, following though in a timely manner, presentation, even geography!
The whole process was such a great experience, and then as a reward, to receive a package in the mail from Georgia full of unknown treasures was a real treat!
Nature Pal Exchange Christmas sign ups will be starting November 17th, 2015. It's going to be a nature inspired Christmas craft exchange! I can't wait to start putting glitter all over EVERYTHING! I've actually already started collecting some nature craft ideas!
You can find out more about Hope Children's Home in Uganda here.
For more information about Nature Pal Exchange and to sign up.
Follow along with the Nature Pal Exchange on Instagram!