DIY Bird Feeder Craft for Kids- Raising Good Apples

I’m raising my kids with a love for the outdoors. We love to go on walks, hikes, swimming, camping and just spending time outside playing. So I’m happy to announce that I’m teaming up with Tree Top Applesauce who’s teaming up with KidsGardening.org to raise awareness of the Raising Good Apples Campaign and to teach you how to make a DIY Recycled Bird Feeder with your kids.

We are renting a townhouse right now so we don’t have access to a large garden. But last year we did plant some tomatoes, basil, lavender and bell peppers on the side of our house. My kids had fun weeding and taking care of the plants. They were especially excited to pick the big red juicy tomatoes and make Caprese Salsa with them. I loved the garden not only for the fresh vegetables it provided, but it provided a lot of family time together and opportunities to talk to my kids about nature and where our food comes from. I think teaching our children where our food comes from is a very important lesson for them. To understand how healthy home-grown fruits and vegetables are for their bodies. We have been concentrating on this a lot lately since I have been trying to eat a clean diet to bring my health back to normal. I am lucky enough to have kids that like to eat fruits and vegetables, but I know some of you might not be that lucky. This is why I’m loving the KidsGardening.org website. I know that if you grew a garden and had the kids take care of it themselves, they would be way more willing to try the vegetables they grew themselves and take pride in the fact that they helped create their snack or dinner. Then we’d be raising good apples! Snacking healthy for my family is a must. I’m so sick of processed, prepackaged food being shoved down my kids throats. Not that I don’t ever let them have a treat. I’m not like that. I just make sure they choose a healthy stack before they can have a treat. When I say healthy, I mean something that is in a natural state, or close to a natural state. Like apples or applesauce that has no sugar added. My favorite applesauce is the Tree Top brand.

I love the Tree Top Apple Sauce Pouches because we are always on the go. Like tonight, we have a soccer game, my other son is reffing a soccer game and I have a meeting to go to.

If your kids are like mine, you know that they are always hungry. I bring along the Tree Top Apple Sauce Pouches in the car because they can eat them without a spoon and I don’t have to worry about them spilling any in the car.

The kids think they are fun to eat, and I feel good about feeding my kids Tree Top Apple Sauce because it has no preservatives or added sugar. And they fill their little bellies until dinner time.

Tree Top is a grower-owned co-op. It’s located in the heart of Washington’s apple country. Tree Top has been a trusted brand for more than 50 years! I think their products are top quality and I love the premium ingredients they use in their products. Tree Top’s growers are raising quality fruits to great the best products for families to enjoy together. And because Tree Top loves families, they are teaming up with KidsGardening.org to help teach the next generation of growers the importance of growing our own food. I’m excited for the Raising Good Apples Campaign. For every purchase of Tree Top Apple Sauce Pouches, they will donate a dollar to KidsGardening.org to help fund community garden projects around the country. They are raising “good apples” that want to eat from their own gardens.

In addition to my kids learning about how to grow their own food, I think it’s really important to teach them to love and respect the animals, birds and critters on this planet. So we like to make bird feeders so the kids can observe the birds that come to feed. The most common bird we have visit us is the Robin, but sometimes we get lucky and see a different kind of bird. I’m going to show you how to make a bird feeder for your tree. It’s so simple and the kids can do most of the work themselves. Making it from a recycled milk or juice carton is a great way to teach your kids to recycle and reuse too!

Hang your bird feeder in a spot that you can see from a window inside and have fun together trying to identify your visitors. Keep a journal to keep track of the different species seen and ask  your kids questions about the bird behaviors and interactions. Here’s what you’ll need to make a recycled bird feeder:

• Half-gallon coated milk or juice carton with pour spout (keep plastic cap on pour spout)
• Permanent marker or wax pencil
• Craft knife
• Ruler
• Hand-held hole punch (optional)
• (1) 18-inch long ¼-inch diameter wooden dowel, cut into two 9-inch sections (available at a craft store)
• Length of twine for hanging the feeder (length will vary depending on where you hang your feeder)
• Bird seed, such as black oil sunflower seeds

Directions: Wash and rinse your carton and let air dry. Using a marker or wax pencil and ruler, measure and outline the areas to cut out at each corner of the carton. Measure the line about 2 inches from the bottom of the carton. Have an adult cut out the four slits with a craft knife about 2 inches from the bottom of the carton like so:

Fold in the sides of the carton to create a “hole”. Alternately you can cut away all that is bent in on ours.

Using a hand-held hole punch or the tip of the craft knife, make ¼-inch diameter holes at the base and top of the carton.

Poke the 9-inch long dowel pieces through the holes at the base of the carton so that they run through the middle of the carton, protruding about 2 ½ inches from either side of the carton to form perches.

Punch a hole in the top of the carton and thread a length of twine through it. Make the length of twine suitable for the location where you plan to hang your feeder.

Fill the feeder with bird seed and hang it in a tree that you can observe from a window in your home.

Now I have a surprise for you! You can win a gardening kit for your family  to get your family motivated to start a garden or take care of the one you already have! Enter to win with the rafflecopter below!

The giveaway will be open until May 15, 2015 at midnight PST and is sponsored by Sway Group. Forty winners will be selected to receive a gardening set valued at $60. Sway Group will select the winners on or about May 18, 2015 and will follow up with the prizewinners.  No further action will be needed from the campaign participants.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

“This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tree Top.”