mom's special walk

Make Mother's Day special for the whole family, get some exercise and let your kids express their creativity with this fun and easy project. Now that spring has arrived, you can take advantage of the warm weather and create a beautiful gift for Mom that she will enjoy indoors and out.

• A piece of blank paper—any size will do
• Markers or crayons
• Tape (optional)
• Your walking shoes

1. Help your child decide on a short, preferably circular route for a walk. Around the block or around a park is perfect.
2. Draw a simple map of your route on the paper.
3. Strap on your walking shoes and grab your paper, markers or crayons and tape.
4. As you walk, let your child draw landmarks and interesting items along the way. Or, if they would rather, they can tape special things they find on their walk right onto the paper. Wildflowers, for example, are easy to find and tape to the paper.
5. On Mother's Day, give Mom the handmade map. Then take her by the hand and let your child show her the special walk and all of the fun things they found along the way.
6.  

• You may want to bring along a clipboard, binder or some other hard surface for your child to place the map on as they draw or tape.
• Encourage your child's imagination—anything can go on the map! People, dogs, squirrels, rosebushes, stop signs, even interesting cracks in the sidewalk are fun things to help your child note.
• If they choose to pick flowers for Mom along the way, help your child understand that wildflowers are okay but flowers from someone's garden are not. It may be useful to bring a wildflower guidebook along to help identify species, and be aware of protected or toxic flowers.
• Another idea is to take a picture of your child with each landmark, and help them tape those photos to the map. Keep in mind you will need to do this with enough time to get the photos printed before Mother's Day.