Ep. 163 Winter kids activities for both indoors and out | #GoodGrowing
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. Oh, have you been trapped inside with your children? I have. I think Ken has.
Chris Enroth:So we're gonna talk with horticulture educator Brittnay Haag all about activities that we could maybe do with our kids in the house that don't involve a screen, and maybe some gardening ideas, for us in these kind of wintery, doldrum y kind of days. And, you know, of course, I'm not doing this by myself. I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Hello, Chris. So I went outside yesterday. There's a strange bright orange ball in the sky.
Chris Enroth:Don't look at it. Don't don't lok at it.
Ken Johnson:I hadn't seen that for a while.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. I hear it's good for you, that strange orb in the sky, and it's good for plants too. So but it has been many I would say it's almost two weeks since I've seen, like, a blue sky, sunshine in the sky. So how about yourself down at Jacksonville?
Ken Johnson:Yesterday afternoon, and then we're back to our our beautiful clouds today. So Mhmm.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Yeah. We've we've been in, like, a thick fog soup for about a week and a half. And and, of course, you know, we've had to travel. I've had to travel for work.
Chris Enroth:I've had to travel for kids' sporting events. So I'm getting pretty good at narrowly missing things in the in the in the road and the fog because that daytime fog is awful. It is the most dangerous thing I think I've ever driven in. So yeah. Going foggy in Jacksonville?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Same thing. Usually, we'll burn off eventually, but, yeah, last couple of days haven't been too bad. I last week was was nice and foggy.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. I was Halloween. Oh, yeah. Oh, it was it was like day long fog. You know?
Chris Enroth:This is, you know, what you go and it's in, like, medieval storybooks or something. So I was kind of excited too because we're gonna have a fog advisory, but it was gonna be below freezing. So I thought, oh, maybe we're gonna get that what what's that called? Like, a horror frost where the frost freezes on the trees. We didn't get that.
Chris Enroth:It didn't happen. It just turned into dew on the trees and was not pretty like I've seen pictures of.
Ken Johnson:Maybe next time.
Chris Enroth:Next time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of staring out of the window, wondering about what you're gonna do as you look into the fog, into the void, I I will say we should bring on our special guest for this week, Brittany Hague in you're in Bloomington today. Aren't you, Brittany?
Chris Enroth:Where are you located today?
Ken Johnson:Ken here. Gonna cut in real quick. Just to give you a little bit of a heads up, we did have some connectivity issues with Brittnay, so her voice may come across a little garbled, from time to time. And if you're watching the video version of this, every once in a while, the audio and video do not sync up with her. That is on our end, not your your your Internet connection is fine.
Ken Johnson:Your your phone or your tablet or your TV, computer, whatever you're watching on is just fine. It's us, not you. And with that, we'll we'll return to the show.
Brittnay Haag:Yes. I'm in Bloomington. I'm McLean County.
Chris Enroth:McLean County. Ah, yes. See, it's not really it's not spelled the way that it should be, but whenever I hear someone say McLean County, I think of John McLean from the Die Hard movies, and I just see everybody in in in McLean County, like, fighting off Hans Gruber. So, yeah, that's that's my picture, my visual for folks. So, Brittany, welcome to the show.
Chris Enroth:We are excited to have you on here today.
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. Thanks for having me on.
Chris Enroth:Alright. Well, so today, you are gonna talk with us about tips to activities to do with our kiddos maybe during the winter, kind of talking about maybe the the benefits of of of our kids actually doing some gardening. So, Ken, would you mind kicking us off with this line of questions, please?
Ken Johnson:I can do that. So first one, why is it important for kids to go outside? Go touch some grass.
Brittnay Haag:That's great question. You know, we we grew up as horticulturist. I'm sure we grew up out in nature. And a lot of times our kids are not getting out in nature. They're in side.
Brittnay Haag:They love Nintendo's. They love just being inside on on electronics. So why do we need get out kids outside? The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that kids get at least sixty minutes of physical unstructured play every day. And really, research is showing that American children spend an average of, like, four to seven minutes a day outside doing unstructured play.
Brittnay Haag:So that's horrible. That's like waiting for the bus type of time.
Chris Enroth:I thought you're gonna say hours, really, but minutes, that is crazy.
Brittnay Haag:Minutes per yeah. So a lot of them get recess time. Our younger kids get recess time at school, but the older ones don't. Or if it's really cold, you know, they're stuck inside at school, they may do some activities in the gym, but very few are getting outside of nature. And research shown that spending time in nature is is beneficial both for our our physical health and our mental health.
Brittnay Haag:You know, it's gonna improve our mood. It's gonna make us happier. It's gonna maybe relax us. It's gonna get us more active. And most importantly, as horticulturist, I love that it's gonna connect us to our community and our our nature, our environment.
Brittnay Haag:And when our when our kids are connected to nature, connected to the environment, they're more likely to grow up to be relegation for nature. So the more time they spend outside, the more time they're playing, you know, with our plants, our soil, they're they're gonna be more likely to have that connection their whole life, which we're gonna need that.
Ken Johnson:So I don't know if if your kids are like mine, but they don't really like going out and and working in the garden. Except for maybe my youngest. She's she's still young. She hasn't been completely corrupted. But your kids still get excited about going outside and, I guess, working or or helping in the garden?
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. So I have a nine year old and a five year old, and it it depends on the day. Most of the time when my kids wanna go outside, they wanna go out and play as long as the weather is nice. But as far as getting them to to help in the garden or to work a little bit, I try to make it fun. So I don't say, hey, we're gonna go work.
Brittnay Haag:We're gonna go do this. I say, alright, we're gonna play a game. Sure. It's pruning season. We're gonna be out there pruning our trees, keep them healthy.
Brittnay Haag:So when our the adults are out pruning the trees, maybe we make it fun where the kids use the sticks to build forts, or they arrange them and and make a maze or a labyrinth. We're getting ready to, here in the next couple weeks, prune our grapes at our house. And, you know, with that, you remove a lot of plant material from grapes and, pliable, so maybe they can build that labyrinth or build that maze with a really long grapevine. So make it fun. You know, once you're done, pruning, then we can clean up and make it all the yard nice.
Brittnay Haag:But, try to try to incorporate some game of, like, who can pull the biggest weed or let's see how many things we can do in in a minute. How many weeds we can pull? So always trying to have fun and make it a competition in a game. Seems to work for my nine and five year old.
Ken Johnson:I think for my my older two, I think gardening has turned into a four letter word. So as soon as you mentioned gardening, moaning and groaning.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. Yeah. That's it's or or it becomes a how long do we have to do this before we can stop and go do something different. Yeah.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Work for five minutes. Like, we've been doing this for an hour.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. Yeah. Right. Alright. So we're we're gonna complain a lot about our kids apparently today.
Chris Enroth:So I'm sorry, Britney. Okay. So, Britney, in the vein that we're kinda talking about of them being outside, you know, in the summertime, but it is kind of an issue in the summer, winter, whenever, screens. Like, I we it's a constant thing of, like, get off the screen, you know, get off the phone, get off of this, get off of that. And so thinking about wintertime right now, we're stuck inside.
Chris Enroth:Do you have any suggestions or tips for gardening activities that would we could do indoors with our kids right now?
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. It winter's cold. Winter, sometimes we don't wanna go outside when it's really cold. So we can bring nature inside. We could go maybe on a a scavenger hunt and bring in some loose parts.
Brittnay Haag:So those the pine cones and the sticks and the rocks where they could build with natural material, so still getting that connection with nature. They can also create art with nature or maybe paint with mud. Have you ever had your kids paint with mud? Sometimes right now, the ground may be a little frozen, but just using nature inside can still build build that connection. Terrariums are also a great way to get our hands in the soil, plant some of those indoor plants that we need in our our houses right now.
Brittnay Haag:There are a lot of really cute little plants for terrariums. And then also this time of year, we're thinking about starting seeds. So maybe get your kiddos involved in starting your your tomato and peppers or some of your flowers here in the next month or so to to grow your your vegetables, your your flowers for the garden for the for the summer.
Chris Enroth:The painting with mud, I will just say that brought to mind the idea I I don't know if you ever played the game. Is it mud, poop, or chocolate? That's that is a game that happens more often than it should in my house. But I like that idea, painting with mud. Our our ground is not frozen.
Chris Enroth:We've had snow melt, so it's probably frozen a few inches down, but that top layer right now is just goo and gross. And so, I mean, we could definitely we could probably do, like like, I don't know, prehistoric looking finger painting on the deck or something. That would be fun. Yeah.
Brittnay Haag:There we go. Yeah. And different soil has is different colors. So you may get one that's orange or one that's really dark brown.
Chris Enroth:So alright. Well, so ideas for for doing things with kiddos inside, I mean, painting with mud is a lot of fun. Getting plants started. So that's something I I really like to get plants started with my kids. We've been doing that for a while, and they're really excited about it at first.
Chris Enroth:And then usually, I like Ken said, my youngest one, he still, like, reminds me, like, dad, time to water the seedlings. Time to do that. I'm like, okay. So he keeps me on track with things. Any other ideas or things to do indoors with our kiddos?
Brittnay Haag:For the, for the best time to propagate our house plants. So have my house plants growing, propagate some of your your plants, to your, like, snake plant, your spider plant, things that are really easy. Aloe can easily easily be divided. So propagate here in the next cup like, month or so, and then you can that those make great gifts for people, you know, that they those kiddos prop as a new start. So propagation is a great time.
Brittnay Haag:It's a great time for that. Other ideas, I I love making art with nature that's different. You know? No. It's brown outside.
Brittnay Haag:Everything's brown. It's it's a little dry, but we have so many unique characteristics of our our plants. So bringing those in the the berries that may still evergreens. So our our conifers can be used as art. Another thing, along the painting lines, you can use evergreens as paintbrushes.
Brittnay Haag:So just a different technique, to use nature, but then also create art. So if you go out in your yard and collect different, you know, your pine trees, your spruce, your furs, maybe feel out those the needles, see how they can compare to each other, and then use them to paint a pic textures. So there's a lot of different ways to create nature using or create art using nature.
Ken Johnson:So if you're doing some some pruning, you were doing flowering shrubs and stuff, you could force those branches. So I have forsythia and and things like that. So get some color that way too.
Chris Enroth:That's
Brittnay Haag:true. Idea. You can also force some bulb. Some of the now to to force paper whites inside your house. So it replicates that environment outside.
Brittnay Haag:You can grow the the bulbs, they'll bloom inside for you. That would be another way to to grow indoors this time of year.
Ken Johnson:Alright. So we've talked about about inside. What about what about outside? And we bundle them up. The next few days are supposed to be pretty warm, but it's still winter, so it's still good chance it's gonna get cold again.
Ken Johnson:Bundle them up, get the the clothes that can get all nice and muddy. What are some things that we can do outside or have our kids do outside in the winter?
Brittnay Haag:Yes. Outside. It's hard sometimes when it's a little chilly to get them out. One thing that we did a couple weeks ago when we had snow was and one thing we we spotted were animal tracks. So animal tracks, they're really just they're more than marks in the snow.
Brittnay Haag:They they tell a really fascinating story. So we may not always see the wildlife in our backyard or at the park, but they leave these tracks. These are distinct marks for each animal and let us know they were there. So the the tracks help us identify the animal, but then I can also tell a story about maybe how big they'll find food. Is it gonna go find water?
Brittnay Haag:Is it running? Is it jumping? Walking? So we we were at our house a couple weeks ago, we saw the it had snowed. There were a couple inches of snow, and there were these tracks that went from our playground down along the fence, across our patio, and then to the rain barrel.
Brittnay Haag:And we're like, what? What is that? What's going on? And so we we watched. We watched.
Brittnay Haag:And soon enough, we saw a squirrel on the rain barrel, and he jumped about four feet onto the bird feeder. And so then we pieced it together. We worked backwards. So the squirrel was after the food. He he jumped up on the rain barrel, and he was probably hiding underneath the the slide under the swing set.
Brittnay Haag:So he we saw that little track and kind of pieced together what he was doing. Whereas if there wasn't necessarily snow on the ground, we wouldn't have seen. So it's it's really cool to see the wildlife in our yard, go out and maybe have some deer tracks, and you watch where the deer walks through your yard or walk to the park. So just a a fun little way to know what's been visiting. So maybe go on a scavenger hunt to see some animal tracks.
Brittnay Haag:I love going on scavenger hunts. It's I did one earlier today at my at my office to find some goodies. But you can find these online. You can re you can print it or recreate it, but you can also create your own. So if you're scavenge for my five year old, I can go, alright.
Brittnay Haag:Let's find some things of the alphabet. So let's find something starts with an a and a b. You can find different colors. We we talked about it's pretty brown right now. Maybe a little white if you guys still have snow on the ground, but finding different shades of brown or shades of green or different different natural materials of different colors.
Brittnay Haag:So go on a color scavenger hunt. You can also go on one to find natural material days. Oh, and then I found the the swamp milkweed seeds still in the the pod in my garden. So just seeing what we can find still out in nature that was left over from the fall. So get get them out there.
Brittnay Haag:I like to give the kiddos a magnifying glass or hand lens to get them to look up close. So hand lenses, you're like, that's gonna get lost. You can you can get these little lanyards and but it makes them feel like they're, you know, really observing and they're looking up close. So maybe that'd help keep their interest if you if they felt like a scientist and and made it fun by, oh, let's see what's see what's in there. So keep keeping it fun.
Brittnay Haag:I also suggest doing a sensory scavenger hunt. So sensory sensory is a great sensor sensorimotor activity uses all of our our senses and gauges. It forms that connection with nature, but you listen. You're like, what sound are we making? You know, the the crunching of the snow or maybe tasting a snowdrop on our tongue, or you smell the evergreens.
Brittnay Haag:Evergreen smell wonderful? Or maybe we smell skunk, something bad, or some like, the touch. A lot of times, we can feel really crunchy items in in winter. Or if there's icicles or snow, we can feel the cool. So using our senses outside this time of year, is is really great to, form that connect.
Brittnay Haag:And then you're you're in that moment. You're using all of your senses, and it it does help relax you when you're, being mindful and and using and appreciating what you have. So
Chris Enroth:I hear my dad cursing the deer for eating the viburnum. So that's that's what my kids would say. Yeah. Yeah. He he I learned new language now that I didn't know before.
Chris Enroth:But but you're what you're talking about, Britney, I mean, at its core, I mean, there are these activities, but the the core is you're getting them outside, and you're you're you're just getting them into some fresh air, into some sunshine, and for them to move their bodies. Like, that's just, like, key, I think, this time of year is, like, kids, you gotta get out. You gotta move your bodies. You gotta exercise. You gotta breathe that fresh air.
Chris Enroth:And, yeah, I the best thing I think is taking a hike, and then I would highly recommend all of the activities that you mentioned so you can each hike can have its own theme, and I just I love that. So I I can't wait to adopt that because we're gonna if it we're gonna put on our mud boots, and we are gonna go on a hike, I think, coming up this weekend because we finally have a little break in all of our extracurricular activities and things. So I'm I'm excited to go out and do that. And I think I'm gonna do the sensory one. I think that'll be fun.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Especially for my six year old. He will like that.
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. You know, some kids may not need a whole lot of guiding. They can just figure out on their own what they're gonna do in nature. Maybe the kids who are newer to playing outside need a little prompting with some of these scavenger hunts. My my kiddos love going out and collecting, you know, all these materials and making a coffee shop drink.
Brittnay Haag:So they make Mhmm. They mix a little bit of soil, and they mix some rocks, and they mix some dried seeds and some water and mix it all up in a cup. And they're like, here, mom. Here's a cappuccino. So I I think the more kids play outside, the easier it's gonna get be for them to connect and to use their imagination, use their creativity to just find what's out there to to make play.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. And and maybe it's would be good advice to parents that are listening, like, accept accept some of that destructive behavior that kids can get into. So I let my kids dig holes in certain areas of the yard. I let them kind of cut limbs and make little forts and lean to shelters, and so it doesn't look good. It's it but they're having fun.
Chris Enroth:They're figuring things out. You know, just, you know, you have your your boundaries. You know? Kids, don't peel the bark off the tree because that's gonna kill the tree. Just but you can teach them while they're out there playing, and they can learn about, you know, you peel the bark off the tree, it's gonna kill the tree.
Chris Enroth:Well, that's that's important information to know, you know, whether you're a child or you're an adult that that owns the tree. So, parents accept accept, can't say that word, that destructive kind of ex experiential learning behavior.
Brittnay Haag:Absolutely.
Chris Enroth:Well, Britney, I will add that this time of year for me and my family is it's holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and our capstone to it all is Valentine's Day. So I will say I'm exhausted. I'm tired of parties. I don't need to eat cake anymore. But Valentine's Day is coming up.
Chris Enroth:And, yes, some people might look at Valentine's Day like, ah, it's a card card company holiday or whatever. But, you know, in my household, we still do celebrate it. It's kind of our way of expressing love and gratitude towards each other. So but I need help. I'm exhausted of gift ideas.
Chris Enroth:I've I've used them all up. What would do you have any suggestions as as as Valentine's Day is is right on our doorstep? Is there anything my kids can do that I can give to my my wife that or, you know, someone's significant other is, you know, activities they can do at their their own home?
Brittnay Haag:Absolutely. So those, the succulent planters, terrariums, I think, would be wonderful. Instead of fresh flowers that may die in a week, you have a a potted plant that they can enjoy for for many months or or years even. So I I like going that, you know, houseplant route or that that potted plant route versus always our our cut flowers. You could go go and get fresh flowers or even artificial flowers and have them arrange something themselves, make a little bouquet or pick out some some special flowers.
Brittnay Haag:A lot of flowers have very special meanings, that language of flowers. So maybe finding out what some of the flowers mean. I love you or thank you, and then they could make an arrangement that way. I also mentioned nature art before. One of my dear friends for our wedding gift gave us nature art that she found at various sites that were leaves or rocks of of hearts.
Brittnay Haag:So I think finding different items in nature or finding hearts in nature, if you go on a walk and you your goal is to find something that's in the shape of a heart, I think would be really special. So you can either, depending on where you are, take that back and and gift it or take a picture. I've also seen a lot of nature photography where you find letters out in nature. So you can take pictures of those and maybe say, I love you or or mom or something along those lines. So using nature to to create art through photography.
Brittnay Haag:There's also a lot of frozen art items that you can make. It's cold outside or it probably will be cold outside for a couple more months. But if you use dried material and maybe make a an ice lantern, so you take a bundt cake and you fill it with botanical materials and then ice makes a really beautiful ice lantern. You can also do that as, like, a stained glass or a, like, a mandala. So maybe you make a heart in the in the mandala with your your berries or your dried seed pods and then have a frozen frozen mandala of of a heart.
Brittnay Haag:So using those botanical creations, you the the really, the possibilities are endless for creating nature with art. I've seen a lot of, like, portraits made from from art. So you find leaves that are you know, some of the portraits, some of some of the time, the the kids can make animals, but they can also make people. So they use maybe some some seeds for the hair or some different leaves for for the face. So using nature to make make somebody, make a face would be fun.
Brittnay Haag:You can also do make jewelry with nature. So have you guys ever made the bracelets with the clover stems where you tie the clover together?
Chris Enroth:The dandelions. Yeah. Mhmm.
Brittnay Haag:Dandelions. Yes. You can do that with maybe some pine needles and then put some dried flowers or seeds in. You can also make a crown and then glue some some beautiful seed pods. Like, the hydrangea has a beautiful, like, seed pod that you could make glue onto your crown.
Brittnay Haag:So using really ornate seeds to create a natural jewelry piece for mom is is an option. It's gonna take some creativity and some exploring depending on how many flowers you have in your yard. But, there are so many seeds that are that are just really uniquely shaped and colors that could be really striking.
Chris Enroth:Well, I think we need those grapevines that you're about to prune. Bluesome hydrangea flowers. You could make crowns for the whole for the whole family. Oh, you're gonna have to send me some grapevines. Yeah.
Brittnay Haag:There we go. Yep. It'd be a nice little little, decoration to set it up on the on the shelf for mom. Yep.
Chris Enroth:Yep. I I also like the ice idea because they melt and you don't have to store them, which, you know, after a while, you get piles and piles of paper. How do you how do you throw all that stuff away? So yeah. Yeah.
Chris Enroth:This one, it just melts. So
Brittnay Haag:Yep. You can decorate the patio with colorful frozen items for Valentine's Day.
Chris Enroth:So the one with the bundt cake, would you put a candle in the middle of that one to light it up?
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. Absolutely. You could. Yep.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. You could at night. Well, I I know, Ken, you also had a while ago, you talked about creating seed cards. What was what are seed cards?
Ken Johnson:So you just you basically take some paper, tear it up, put it in a blender with some water, make a slurry, you know, strain that with a strainer, get most of the liquid out, flatten it, make a sheet, get rolling pin, make a sheet, put some flower seeds on there, smoosh it again, and then there you go. You write a message on there if you want, and then when you're done, instead of saving it, you just toss it outside and flowers can grow.
Chris Enroth:I love that. And we can link to that that blog and that video too. So if peep people wanna see how that's done, Ken demonstrates that in the video. So excellent.
Ken Johnson:It's easy enough even I can do it.
Chris Enroth:That's right. He he can do it. Yep. Mhmm. Alright.
Chris Enroth:Britney, is there anything any other thing else yeah. We can't talk. Anything else you wanted to share from your list?
Brittnay Haag:Oh, I think bird birds is another great thing. We talked about some ideas for, doing things indoors. And, well, really birds are a vital part of our backyard for that biodiversity. We want biodiversity. We need to care for the birds.
Brittnay Haag:We need to make our bird our backyard bird friendly. So one activity that's that's coming up soon is the great backyard bird count that people can do inside or outside the citizen science event that collects data on, bird populations and how they're changing, and then submits that information to researchers, at Cornell University and National Audubon. So all you have to do is, sit and watch anywhere, a feeder, a site for fifteen minutes to see what birds are visiting, and when. And then you submit that information online, and that helps the scientists, you know, collect the the data of of the bird populations. There's also a lot of online applications or phone applications that help identify the birds if you don't know what they are, but just a fun way to see what's in your backyard, the birds that are visiting this time of year.
Brittnay Haag:You can also help feed the birds. So birds need that steady food source for the year to survive those cold temperatures. They're used to eating the, you know, insects and berries and seeds that aren't available this time of year. So you can also make bird feeders. We, a couple of winters ago, made a a garland that we hung on our trees.
Brittnay Haag:So taking a piece of string with a needle and popcorn and dried fruit, berries, peanuts in a shell, or or fresh fruit even. You thread that string throughout the the dried material or the the food, and then you hang it up on your your tree. So it's really pretty, but then you watch the the little birds visit it. You can also make just any kind of DIY feeders. There's a lot of different options available online, but these help us be creative but then also be resourceful by, you know, recycling some of the items from our house.
Brittnay Haag:So I've used burr I've used pine cones before or even a toilet paper tube. You slather it in either peanut butter or vegetable shortening if you have a peanut allergy or or you have vegetable shortening available. You roll that in seed, and then you you hang that up. I have my example. Here's our little bird feeder.
Brittnay Haag:So very easy to make with with items we have around our house. People always ask, like, well, what kind of bird feed do I need to or birdseed do I need to use? And it's really gonna depend on what what you have in your backyard or what you wanna attract. You know, different birds have different preferences depending on their beak what kind of seeds they eat. The most popular, of course, is gonna be our sunflower seeds for our backyard birds.
Brittnay Haag:But we always wanna remember the the highest quality is always gonna attract the, you know, provide better nutrition and attract those those healthier birds. And then when you hang it, you wanna make sure you hang it away from other bird feeders. You don't want all your bird feeders to be together. You want it spread out to avoid overcrowding and and that spread of disease if they're and then you wanna discard it after it's done it so it doesn't spoil or make the bird sick. So if seeds are gone, get rid of it.
Brittnay Haag:But then you have these bird feeders, and you can watch them then. And I don't know about you, but birds can can entertain me for hours. They're just they're beautiful birds, but the then if you watch their their different behavior, it it's it's really quite funny. So creating a journal or a chart with your kiddos to see what birds are visiting and how often they visit can be a a learning experience, but then just really entertaining, like, the cardinal's on my feeder. So it just kinda catches you off guard, but then it's fun to watch too.
Brittnay Haag:So that's that would be a really great winter activity indoors that you can do.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. I'm I'm so glad you mentioned birds. I think birds I I I echo everything you just say. In my house, for some reason, my kids love they do love to help me feed the birds. They love me to help me go out.
Chris Enroth:We have different suet feeder stations, out in the backyard, so they love to even when their friends come over, they're like, hey. Is it time to feed the birds yet? And I'm like, oh, not today. I fed them this morning or something like that, but they will want to help me feed them. And so it it it really is true, folks listening, watching us.
Chris Enroth:Like, birds, like, kids really do love birds. It's it's something that they can watch, and, you know, they will come get me and say, you need to see this cardinal. It is huge. You know? This is, the the roundest red bird that has ever existed.
Chris Enroth:So, yes, 100% birds. Well, we have a series of videos also that talk about making different types of bird seed feeders, and so we'll link those below. There's a backyard bird count. Ken, you got a lot of links to put in the description this week. That's I think that's through Cornell.
Chris Enroth:Is that correct, Britney? Is that a Cornell? Okay. Yep. So oh my gosh.
Chris Enroth:I love birds. Kids love birds. Yes. They do. 100%.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:And if they don't tell them they're just mini dinosaurs, then maybe they will. Yes.
Chris Enroth:Yep. Just little velociraptors flying around out there. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, that that I mean, I'm, like, super excited.
Chris Enroth:I I kinda wanna go outside right now. I wanna pull my kids out of school, be like, guys, come on. The you know, they're not teaching anything good right now. Let's go learn about birds. Let's go do this and that.
Chris Enroth:But no. No. They are learning good things. My my kid who learns math, I they do math differently. I think every generation learns math differently, so keeps the parents on their toes.
Chris Enroth:But, yeah, this was great. I'm so excited. Thank you, Britney. Excellent. Excellent.
Chris Enroth:Yeah.
Brittnay Haag:Yeah. Thank you for having me on today.
Chris Enroth:Oh, well, the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by Ken Johnson. And thank you, Ken, for hanging out with us this week and and and chatting and maybe complaining a little maybe a little bit too much about our own children. But, yeah, thanks for being here today.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So, unfortunately, they don't listen to this. So
Chris Enroth:No. They don't.
Ken Johnson:And and thank you, Britney, for being on. I'll have to try some of this stuff. Try definitely get away from the garden work instead of think of another phrase to call working in the garden. Mhmm.
Brittnay Haag:Yep. Make it fun.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm. And as always, thank you Chris and let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth:Oh, we shall do this again next week. We're gonna be talking with Zach Green about soil contamination. What the heck is it and what do you do about it? So that'll be an interesting show. Soil contamination affects us all whether you live in the middle of a city or kind of out in in the middle of nowhere.
Chris Enroth:So there it it can pop up anywhere. So check out that show next week. So listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening or if you're watching us on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing. How we can.
Chris Enroth:Are you frozen? No. Oh, okay.
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