Nature-Inspired Outdoor Caf

Having a son helps me take a fresh look at many familiar sights. In our backyard, for instance, I always admire flowers, but it has been some time since I paid attention to little branches, rocks or pine cones. Getting down to my son's height and slowing down has made me notice these things again and appreciate their complicated textures and unique appearances.

We've started including nature objects in our games and I've been astonished to find out how many different roles a simple leaf can take. Our leaves can be blankets for caterpillars or filling for sandwiches!

That's why one summer afternoon, we decided to open a pretend café in our backyard and serve dishes made of natural ingredients gleaned from our immediate surroundings — petals and blossoms, rocks and sand, branches and pine cones.

Looking for natural materials was half the fun. We sorted through our enormous collection of rocks and picked a blossom or two off each bush in the garden. We raided the drawers for bowls and plates, as no chef could expect the best results without a properly organized kitchen!

As an additional role-playing element, I threw together a menu for our café. We offered a rockburger, a bowl of stone soup, a plate of branch fries, a pine-cream cone or mud-pie. The menu included pictures with ideas and prices to practise simple math. Feel free to print it for your inspiration!

In our café, kids and adults took turns preparing food and making orders. My son enjoyed making dishes and I certainly couldn't resist ordering another pine cone ice cream cone from such a happy waiter.

There was soon little doubt that mud pies would become our café's speciality. We had branch mud-pies and pine-cone mud-pies, flower mud-pies and rock mud-pies. Some of the more sophisticated mud-pies were served with a dash of "sauce" on top, too!

So get outside and see what ingredients your yard has to offer. Even if rain keeps you indoors, I am sure your little chef can brainstorm a mouth-watering menu!