Fun Flower Garden for Kids with Upcycled Cartons

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This fun and flowery garden from contributor Alisha is made from an everyday object just sitting in your refrigerator: a juice or milk carton.

A flower carton garden gives you a fun opportunity to be hands-on with your kids as they make and personalize their own flower gardens. This flower garden for kids can be as simple or as complex as you would like, depending on the age and interest on your kids. So grab a carton and let’s make a flower garden!

Here are 12 more garden activities for kids!

Supplies Needed:

• Half gallon milk or juice carton with a cap
• Soap and water
• Scissors
• Potting soil (affiliate link)
• Flower seeds (affiliate link) or flowers from a nursery
• Optional: gardening gloves
• Optional: materials for decorating (construction paper, paint, glue, markers, glitter, etc…)

Prepping your flower carton:

Your first step is to wash out the carton with soap and water.

I put some soap and water in the carton, put the cap back on, and let my kids shake the carton really well (they loved it!)

Then we poured out the water and rinsed again with clean water.

It’s okay if the carton is still a little wet inside because you’re going to add soil, which needs water anyway.

Cutting your flower carton:

The next step is to cut the opening for your flower carton.

All you need is a pair of scissors. You can also use a razor blade, but I recommend this tool for adults only.

Take your carton and turn it on its side so that the cap is facing sideways.

Begin to cut your carton by simply poking a small hole in the corner.

Then put your scissors through the hole and begin cutting along the edge of the carton.

If your kids are experienced with cutting, they could definitely do the cutting (with guidance). But if your kids are younger like mine, you’ll want to do the cutting while they help to hold the carton.

Here are 5 cutting activities to help build fine motor skills

You can choose to draw your cutting lines beforehand, but it isn’t necessary.

I recommend leaving a little edge to frame your soil.

Time to decorate (optional):

If your kids want to decorate their carton, you’ll want to have them do that before putting in the soil and flower seeds/flowers.

Here are some ideas for decorating your flower carton:

• Paint the outside of the carton with a washable tempera paint (affiliate link); making it one solid color or many colors.
• Wrap the carton in construction paper with glue and then use markers, stickers, and glitter to decorate.
• Glue on collected nature items to decorate as a nature collage.
• Cut out pieces from a magazine and glue them on to fill the outside of the carton.
• You could simply attach a tag to your carton and give this beautiful upcycled craft as a gift.

Making the carton into a flower garden for kids:

Once your carton is cleaned, cut, and possibly decorated, it’s time to add in the potting soil and seeds or flowers.

This can be done outdoors or indoors depending on the weather.

Here are 15 simple outdoor activities to do with your kids.

Let your kids choose if they want to wear gardening gloves or just explore the feeling of the soil (it’s a great sensory activity, too!)

Fill up the carton with potting soil, patting it down and smoothing it out along the way.

Once it is full, add a little bit of water to make the soil nice and damp. Then add in your flower seeds, following the directions on the back of the seed bag.

My kids loved poking the holes with their fingers and putting in the seeds.

Another option is to plant some already grown flowers for a more instant flower garden. We chose to make one flower carton with African Daisy seeds and one with Geranium flowers. It’s completely up to you which seeds or flowers you decide to plant.

You could even choose to plant herbs and some vegetables for a lesson in food sources.

You could make this an extended activity and track the growth progress of your seeds as they turn into flowers.

Your kids could also make another flower garden out of play dough and printables. 

Activity Follow-up:

Your beautiful flower carton garden is complete!

You can keep it inside for a few days next to the window (especially if it’s cold outside), but eventually, most flowers need to be placed outdoors in full sun.

Once placed outside, it would be best to poke some holes on the bottom of your carton to allow for the soil to drain.

The length of time your flowers will last, will depend on the type of flower, weather conditions, and overall care.

Just remember to add water, give sunshine, and take some time to smell the flowers.

What type of flower seeds or flowers will you use in your flower carton garden?

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What to Expect From Your Golf Game As You Age

How much closer to the pin does Jordan Spieth’s typical approach land compared to daily-fee golfers? How far does the average golfer hit their 7-iron? What’s the ideal layup zone for most amateurs? These are all questions without answers – until Arccos.

Since releasing its first shot-tracking system in 2014, Arccos has become the leader in on-course data capture for amateurs. What used to be guesswork can now be quantified by the immense amount of data accumulated in its system.

So where does that data come from? Using sensors installed in the grip of your club, Arccos has tracked more than 70 million shots (and counting) during more than three-quarters of a million rounds on golf courses in more than 115 countries. These shots have been taken by players ranging from middle-schoolers to grandpas, from scratch players to beginners. The platform knows what club you’re hitting, where you’re hitting it from and how far it travels. It has also captured more than 8.1 billion time-stamped geotagged data points on golfer behavior and 368 million GPS course mapping data points.

Leveraging that incredible data set – without question the richest in golf – we’re able to take deep-dives to deliver previously inaccessible insights. To kick off this series, we’re taking a closer look at what golfers can expect from their game as they grow older.

Let’s begin with a simple truth: No one is going to age like Bernhard Langer. The 59-year-old German won his first pro title in 1980 and is still earning major championship victories on the Champions Tour.

So, what should you expect as you age? What changes will you see on the course – for good or bad?

• You’re going to lose distance – No surprise there. Every 10 years after you hit age 30, your 7-iron will lose about four yards.

• You’re going to hit more fairways – There’s a clear correlation between age and accuracy off the tee.

• Your skills evolve – Approach shots begin to save you more strokes, and your putter will win you more matches – until you hit 60. The numbers predictably show the 60+ age bracket experiencing the most severe drop-offs across the board.

• You’ll play a lot more often – What we all hopefully can look forward to is more leisure time, especially after age 60.

Ready to look into the future?

Driving Stats

One of Arccos’ core tenets is identifying the “true average” distance for a well-hit shot with each club in your bag. Dubbed “Smart Distance” this proprietary algorithm removes outliers from the calculation – be they abnormally short (flubs or punch shots) or long (downhill/downwind or cart path bounce).

Arccos data shows the longest hitters off the tee fall in the 21-30 age bracket, with an average Smart Distance of 258 yards with their driver. Two decades later, that Smart Distance is down to 244 yards.

All hope isn’t lost for the older players, however. Players in the 60+ age bracket may hit it 43 yards shorter than their 21-30 year-old counterparts, but they average 49% fairways hit. That’s 10% higher than 21-30 year olds.

Another way to look at driving performance is through Arccos Tour Analytics, which uses an enhanced version of the Strokes Gained model to break down a player’s handicap into five facets – driving, approach, chipping, sand and putting. This analyzes every shot you take and determines whether you got more or less from that shot than you should have. After the round, Arccos takes all of the data and benchmarks your performance against how players of different skill levels typically perform and generates a handicap level for each of the five aspects of your game.

The top driving handicap is in the 21-30 bracket with a 13.2 average. The next best group is the 11-20 bracket with a 13.5 driving handicap.

7-Iron Smart Distance

Focusing on 7-irons, the 21-30 bracket’s Smart Distance is 164 yards. Again, it’s not news that you’ll likely lose distance as you age, but we can zero in on precisely how many yards players can expect to lose in each age range.

On average, each bracket loses four yards, with those who are 60+ have a 140-yard Smart Distance with their 7-iron.

Even though the older age brackets are hitting it shorter, their approach shot handicaps are actually improving. The best approach shot handicap falls in the 11-20 bracket, at 13.0. The next best is the 51-60 bracket, coming in at 13.8. Coincidentally, both age groups have similar 7-iron Smart Distances, at 152 and 151 yards.

Putting Handicap

On the greens, the youngest Arccos users perform best with the flatstick. With a putting handicap average of 10.1, the 11-20 age group has the lowest figure by far. That figure takes a big leap into the 21-30 bracket. Are teenagers less susceptible to nerves on the putting green? Could their putting stats take a dip as they strive for more distance in their 20s? Those are areas about which there will no doubt be debate, and we’re excited to continue analyzing the data and exploring insights from other sources.

Annual Rounds Played

Even though your distance will tail off, there is major bright side as you age: you’re going to play a lot more golf. The average annual round count for an Arccos user jumps from 19 in the 21-30 bracket all the way to 33 for the 60+ bracket.

So, while getting older isn’t necessarily fun, you now at least know what’s coming as far as your golf game.

What You You Like to Know?

If you have a topic suggestion or question you’d like explored as we continue this series, leave a comment or reach out to Arccos on Twitter @ArccosGolf.

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from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2ulH6rM

Refinance rates rise for Tuesday

If you're thinking about refinancing, it may be a great time to lock in a rate.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2ulwPvT

Mortgage rates trend upward for Tuesday

If you're thinking about refinancing, it may be a great time to lock in a rate.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2ulH6rM