20 Hygge Nature Crafts for Children

🌿 Feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to constantly plan activities?

What if children didn't need more activities, but more time to wonder, explore and simply be?

In my FREE 30-minute training, I'll share the three simple Scandinavian-inspired shifts that helped me create calmer days, happier children and a more joyful way of teaching.

✨ Watch the free training here.

Perhaps it's because as a teacher, summer felt like a chance to finally breathe. Or perhaps it's because some of my happiest childhood memories happened outdoors, with very little planned at all.

I remember long days building dens, making potions from flowers and spending hours outside until someone called me in for tea. Nobody worried about whether the activity was educational. Nobody had printed a worksheet. We were simply allowed to be children.

Now, as a mum to Oliver, I find myself wanting the same thing for him. We lean towards the Scandinavian summers we've experienced (Read more about that here)

Not a summer packed with activities.

Not a bucket list to tick off.

Just time.

Time to notice the ladybirds crawling through the grass.

Time to pick strawberries and eat them before they ever make it into a bowl.

Time to sit beside a stream and wonder where the water is going.

The older I get, the more I realise that childhood magic often lives in the moments we don't plan.

A few years ago I would probably have searched for the perfect summer activities.

The truth is, the more I have learned from Scandinavian approaches to childhood, the more I've realised that children don't need us to create endless entertainment.

They need space.

Space to wonder.

Space to explore.

Space to become completely absorbed in something as simple as a dandelion clock or a patch of grass.

That's why I've put together these 50 simple summer nature ideas.

They're not designed to keep children busy.

They're designed to help us slow down enough to notice the season together. Ideas to just dip in and out of and slow you down. 

1. Make a stick nest

Add a pine cone bird - pine cone with feather for a tail and wings

2. Clay or playdough Faces

Use homemade playdough or air dry clay to create creatures and faces on the bark of trees.

3. Bark Rubbings

Create bark rubbings or leaf rubbings then use them in your other craft activities - perhaps on your nature bracelet or wand?

4. Flower Pressing

Flower pressing has long been a wonderful nature craft activity. If you don't have a press just use heavy book lined with paper to press your flowers. These can then be used in crafts later in the year - perhaps on a Cosy Hygge Jar with fairy lights inside?

Or, create an air dry clay trinket bowl with your pressed flowers stuck on with a layer of pva on top to protect them.

Or, add them to candles to decorate them.

5. Leaf and Stick Butterflies/dragonflies

A cute nature craft using nature.

6. Hessian Ribbon nature bracelet

Stick collected nature treasures and stick them to some hessian for a pretty nature bracelet. Or use paper or card for your bracelet.

Before you continue, I want to share something important.

Many of the ideas in this blog aren't complicated.

In fact, that's the point.

One of the biggest lessons Hygge has taught me is that children often need less than we think they do.

Less planning.

Less rushing.

Less adult direction.

If you'd like to discover how I use Hygge to create calm, connection and deep learning without constantly doing more, I'd love to invite you to watch my FREE 30-minute training.

🎥 Click here to watch.

7. Nature Wand 

A stick with hessian or string ribbon, craft wire or string to attach natural treasures - shells, pine cones, feathers, leaves, flowers.

8. Create a loose parts / transient art insect.

Simply draw a basic outline outdoors on the floor or in a tuff tray and then get the children to fill it in with nature.

9. Make a stick sail boat with a leaf sail

10. Make a pebble insect - caterpillar, spider, butterfly, ladybug

11. Make a nature crown

12. Make your own scarecrow!

These two were found at our local forest school! Perfect to scare away the pigeons if you grow your own fruit and vegetables in your setting. Use old clothes and straw to fill it.

13. Decorate a pine cone with nature

14. Simple rock painting

You don't even need paints!

15. Make a perfume using rose petals or Lavender

16. Make a peg fairy

17. Make a nature Journal

18. Make nature paint brushes

19. Make a flower wall hanging

20. Create a shell or nature mandala

What If Summer Didn't Need To Be So Busy?

As I look ahead to summer with Oliver, I'm reminding myself of something I often need to hear.

Childhood isn't a race.

The moments children remember rarely come from elaborate plans.

They come from muddy feet.

Strawberry-stained fingers.

Picnics on blankets.

Stories shared under trees.

Watching butterflies drift across a field.

These are the moments Hygge has taught me to notice.

And perhaps that's why so many educators tell me they feel emotional when they discover Hygge.

Because deep down, they already know this is the childhood they want to protect.

If you're ready to create calmer days, deeper connections and a more joyful approach to teaching and parenting, I'd love to invite you to watch my FREE 30-minute training.

In just 30 minutes you'll discover:

🌿 The 3 simple shifts that transformed my approach to childhood

🌿 How to create more calm without doing more

🌿 Why less often leads to deeper learning

🌿 Practical ideas you can implement immediately

Thousands of educators have already watched this training and gone on to transform their environments, reconnect with their values and fall back in love with early years.

✨ Click here to watch the FREE training now.

I can't wait to welcome you.

Kimberly 🤍
Founder, Hygge in the Early Years™