Collecting from the natural world

In case it isn't readily apparent, I'm a near-hoarder. A collector. One foot in the "that's neat" world and one foot in the "she might have a borderline illness" world. No disrespect to those who actually suffer from this affliction -- I think I'm safely within my boundaries as I can still shower, find clean clothes to wear, and I know where both children and dogs are at most times.

However, I do pick things up. On the side of the road (awesome kid's play kitchen), out of a ditch (toy plane), out of someone's dumpster (okay, that was my husband and that was good stuff he found), and out in nature.

Kids love to collect stuff. I got each of my kids a flat, plastic bait box from Cabella's with the little compartments. We pick up shells, acorns, feathers, pretty much whatever neat little doo-dads we find. I also ran across this image from the Australian website HomeLife.com and loved the idea of collecting pictures or creating a scrapbook with drawings and pictures of nature.


Photo from HomeLife

Do you and your kids collect anything? Have you done any fun "nature projects" with the wee ones?