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| Click on Image to Enlarge Mattie-Belle and I Playing Butterflies & Bees |
The Butterflies & Bees version of Tic-Tac-Toe I crafted, is getting quite a bit of use in our front garden, these days.
It all began several months ago, with the acquisition of a round outdoor coffee-table, which I covered with clear vinyl to protect it from the elements. The table made it's way to the front garden patio, where it sat, waiting for a purpose.
A little while later, I discovered internet pictures of outdoor garden themed Tic-Tac-Toe games, and thought I might have a go at creating a set for our house and garden.
The base of my version is a small piece of sheet metal decorated with MACtac, and the game pieces - Butterflies and Bees - in honour of our pollinator patch, are carved out of weather-proof orange and yellow Flip Flops. After gluing magnets into the underside of the pollinator pieces, I decorated their top side with fade resistant Sharpie Marker.
Outside, I carefully pealed back the vinyl table covering and tacked the metal game board to the round coffee-table and reattached the protective covering. I stacked the Butterflies & Bees in a recycled peanut butter jar, and waited to try the game out with a small child, or a young-at-heart older person like myself.
I've played Butterflies & Bees with my granddaughter, who quickly mastered the concept of getting three of the same insects in a row, and has become fairly competitive. She's since played the game with a friend from school, with neighbours nearly twice her age, and she "taught" her great-grandma how to play.
Tonight, I introduced a simplified version of Butterflies & Bees to a very young neighbour, who mastered identification and verbalization of "butterfly" and "bee" in minutes. He also volunteered to help me stack the pieces in the storage jar when we were done.
Note: Flip Flops are pretty tough to cut through, and memories of my bruised and battered fingers make me protective of the little critters I created. To protect them from being lost or stolen, I keep the game pieces just inside the front door of the house when they're not in use.
All in all, Butterflies & Bees has turned out to be a pretty good idea, as a fun all-ages learning activity for the garden. It's also proven to be an environmental component, of sorts, to an unintentional outdoor education program: The game invites conversation about beneficial pollinating insects, their habitat, and the benefits of recycling.
Drop over sometime and we'll play a rousing game of Butterflies & Bees. Who knows, I might even let you win!
