Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the home blog of Caliso Learning, a natural science-based business celebrating the beauty and ecology of our natural environments. Our goal is to connect you and your family with nature--actually, we want you to fall in LOVE with nature!


Here you will find nature-inspired articles and posts, family activities, personal stories, resources, and more--all with the goal to connect you with the benefits of nature for family fun and inspiration! Please enjoy and let us know what you like :) Follow us on Facebook for even more resources, more frequently!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Dynamic Duos: Partner Mandalas!

Inspired by a cooperative time-filler found in Family Fun magazine, I have found partner mandalas to be a great exercise for building creative confidence no matter what your artistic ability. Something you can do with the little ones, this was a fun artistic activity to do with my kindergartner.

Each artist gets one color marker and a square sheet of paper. 

Partners begin by drawing a circle in the center of their paper, then they swap sheets and add an element to the design (a ring of dots, dashes, zigzag lines, or a more detailed element). Continue swapping and adding elements until your mandala is finished.
The photos (bottom of the post) are the two mandalas created with my 5 year old son. We both liked seeing what each of us would add and how quickly the madalas grew.

Try these alternatives! 
  • Find a area with plenty of natural materials (rocks, leaves, twigs, petals, sand, etc.) and have each partner alternate turns adding a ring using these materials only.
  • Use brown, grey, and/or black markers to create mandala designs you can transform yet again by coloring.
  • Create a family mandala during the holidays or a vacation. Leave a jar of colored pens or pencils along with the ongoing design out where family members can add their own ring related to their experience(s). You can assign each family member a color or let them choose as they go. *Try to keep colors alternating
  • Make a journal madala. During your next vacation, retreat, or as a personal journaling exercise, add a daily ring to your madala design to represent the emotion or experience(s) from each day.

 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Amazing Cephalopods!

Take a nature break with David Gallo, an enthusiastic ambassador for the sea and pioneer in ocean exploration, as he leads you through a deep sea and shallow water dive highlighting our favorite cephalopods like the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish!

Length 5:25 (minutes/seconds) Thank you to Caliso friend Laura H. for forwarding this clip! If video does not appear, click here to watch.


Source: www.ted.com/talks