So, I have to say that it’s a good thing that the only people who have been subjected to the condition of our house lately are my sweet friend Kathy and her family. While she might think “Oh my God, don’t touch anything!” and her lovely little girl did actually ask if she could help us clean up the other day (oh, the honesty of a nearly 4-year-old), she’s too nice to think us anything more than overly busy.

I mean, the blankets are folded, the clothes mostly put away, the dishes – well – Ken keeps asking me if I’m on strike. But, what really seems to be the crux of our clutter issues is one very spunky, tiny science nerd who believes that collecting cool things she finds on the trail, beach, meadow, farm, OK anywhere outside is her mission in life.

I don’t begrudge her this very intense focus on “cataloging” nature from a preschool perspective. In fact, out of sheer adoration for her loving something I love so very much, I pretty much cannot tell her no when she wants to stuff a rock or a pine cone or the jaw of a squirrel (yes, we have one of those) in my pocket to take back home.

(For full disclosure purposes, we never take anything from places that are protected, or anything that is alive.)

Anyway, the bowls of nature were getting a bit unwieldy and ditching them was out of the question. So, I was looking for inexpensive, fun ways to display all of our discoveries and the light bulb went on (whew, it still works) over breakfast one morning.

Egg carton shadow boxes (gasp, that’s too easy to actually work) and rock gardens.

Here’s what you need:

- An egg carton with a flat lid (see photo below for difference in lids), cut in half

- A glue stick (for the kids) and a hot glue gun (adults only)

- A collection to mount

- Craft paper for labeling

- Clothes pins for the rock garden

- Scissors

- A Pen

Directions:

1. Take the flat lid side of the egg carton and cut off the flap that would normally keep the egg carton closed. Save it. Then have the kids use a glue stick to glue on things like moss, leaves, anything that may be used as a “Border”

2. Fill in the “Border” but leave a long space in the middle to glue in your collection.

3. While the kids are doing that, take the strip you cut off and hot glue the collection on to that strip. Then, hot glue it into the middle space on the lid. Take craft paper and make a label for your collection. Glue it on and then start the “nature wall.”

4. For the rock garden, take the other half of the egg container and place the rock collection in it after using the local Rock ID Guide to see if you can figure out what kind of rocks they are.

5. Take craft paper and cut it into strips. Glue on to clothes pins and label the rocks accordingly. Then you can take them over to the Courtenay Museum (call ahead) and see how your IDs match up.

The clutter issues around our house are definitely on the mend with this fun project in play. Pretty soon we’ll be able to open a kids nature museum.:)