Forest Schooling Supplies Bin

Over the past few months, my husband has been busy working in our woods to clear spaces for the kids to play. When we moved here about a year and a half ago, the forest was completely overgrown with thorny briar patches, poison ivy, and down trees. You couldn’t even walk around up there. Slowly but surely, he has been back there clearing it away by hand. It is turning into a really wonderful space for our family! We have even added in some fun and magical bits up there, and I will share a forest tour soon! It is ever changing, and we have lots of plans to build different things for the kids to play on back there. One of the best things we added in our woods was a picnic table! We got a wood picnic table from Lowes for $140 and it has been a really great addition to our growing forest playground. We were sitting on the ground for lessons and picnics, but the ticks are really bad this year so we prefer to be off the forest floor. Now that we have a picnic table, Instead of having to haul all our supplies up and down the mountain, I created a forest schooling supplies bin. I thought perhaps someone may benefit to see what we put in our bin and inspire you to create your own backyard bin with supplies. I am sure we will add and take away different supplies throughout the seasons. For Summer, this is what we have right now in our supplies bin.

This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog. To read my full disclosure click here.

In our forest schooling supplies bin:

• cheap tablecloth– I have one leftover from a birthday party, but I often buy plastic ones from Dollar Tree and re-use them over and over. I lay this down when we’re eating or doing a messy craft project.
• beach towel – for drying things off, including kids that play in the spring creek. For playing with to make a fort, or sitting on as blanket
• paper towel– for spills, napkins, and cleaning brushes when watercolor painting
• grocery bags– for garbage bags and dirty diapers
• diapers and wipes– I put these in a ziploc bag ( I have two littles in diapers) and the baby wipes are great for wiping off dirty hands before snack time
• plastic jars & magnify glasses– for collecting nature treasures (I get these from Michael’s Craft store) and inspecting them closer
• 1st aid kit– In my kit I have bandaids, natural — ointment, some — and tick remover tools.
• small pocket knife & safety glove– my son didn’t want to keep his nice whittling knife in the bin, so we just keep a small cheap pocket knife in there. The safety glove is nice for peace of mind that my kids won’t cut their little fingers when carving sticks.
• nature resources– I have these two pocket guides for Virginia, and I have several different types of nature resources that I have printed and laminated over the years. From bees to trees, I have helpful little cards that the kids can use to identify different plants and critters.
• forest school books– I keep the books in these handy zipper waterproof plastic pouches, just in case some moisture gets in the bin. The pouches are used all over my house and are great when traveling, but I bought them primarily for organizing homeschool supplies.
• scotch tape & scissors– to tape down plants and flowers in nature journals. And you never know when you might need scissors
• art supplies– colored pencils, markers, and watercolors, a lined notebook, and a mixed media notebook that stay in the bin. My son’s good colored pencils and watercolors stay inside because he doesn’t want the littles playing with them. He brings those out in his own adventure bag. We have the cheaper Crayola supplies for the forest bin. These supplies we share with our co-op friends and also let the littles use while I am doing lessons or a read-aloud with my oldest. We obviously don’t leave crayons in the bin, as they would melt in the Virginia Summer heat. But sometimes I bring crayons up with me and then bring them back home when we’re done. We use the water from our mud kitchen for the watercolor paints.
• clipboards– these are for our friends that come on Fridays to our little wild+free nature group. If I print out scavenger hunts or lesson worksheets, the clipboards make it easier for the kids to write on. I get mine from Dollar Tree.
• bug spray– here in Virginia, we have a LOT of bugs. More bugs than I have ever seen (except for when we lived in NC- now THAT was a lot of bugs) so I just keep a couple bottles of spray in the bin in case we forget to spray ourselves at the house.
• Citronella candle and incense– mosquitoes aren’t bad in our woods, its really just the ticks. But sometimes the gnats are annoying, so I light a candle or burn an incense while we are at the table working or reading.
• baby toys– I rotate a couple toys for baby Benny to keep him occupied. Puzzles, shakers, little cars, etc. I also put this wood bead threading activity in there for my almost three year old. (link is similar- I couldn’t find my exact one)
• homemade playdough– I have this big container of homemade salt dough to keep little hands busy during read-alouds.
• first aid kit- I don’t think I should leave this kit in the bin during this heat wave, so I am taking it back and forth with me but once it cools down, I will keep it in the bin. In this kit I have: a natural first aid ointment, plenty of band-aids and bandages, Benadryl cream, tick remover tools, and tick repellent.
• small foraging pouch– in this small bag that conveniently rolls up and clips to your belt, I have a few things for my oldest son. He has acquired some really cool gear over the years with Think Outside boxes. (If you’re interested in learning more about this adventure gear subscription box for kids, head to my blog post here. It is seriously so cool.) This is where my son got the little drawstring bag of different carabiners, a stack of laminated wilderness survival cards, the first aid bandanna, and a small waterproof tarp that is great for sitting on and making forts with. And a harmonica is in this little pouch, because my son has always liked to play a little tune out in nature.
• Magnetic bug kit– I threw this in as a fun thing to keep the littles busy during lessons with my oldest. Any time the Bullseye section of Target has these magnetic nature kits, I grab one.

The bin we use is from Costco (we try to snag a couple whenever they are on sale because we use them to store all our holiday decorations and old kids clothes). And it does a good job of keeping the rain out, but not mice and bugs. To deter pesky little critters, we place a bar of Irish soap in there. I’m not sure why they don’t like it, but it works. Do not leave food in your supplies bin! Even if you live in a subdivision, you could still have critters get into your bin if you leave snacks in there.

Now, your bin may not have nearly as much as ours. If your backyard play/schooling area is closer to your house, you may not need a lot of these items. Our space that we spend time in is a bit of a walk from our house and on a steep slope. So running back to the house to get something isn’t as easy. But even if you are in your back yard right by your house, having a dedicated basket or bin with your supplies, even if you are carrying a basket out with you, is really convenient. I am all about making things as easy as possible, especially with littles, and making sure our time outdoors is as pleasant as possible.

Usually the only things I have to carry back with me is my baby, a water bottle, and a little lunch bag of snacks or a picnic lunch. My older two boys carry their own water bottles. I use an old wood picnic basket a lot to carry any books or food we are bringing back there for the day. It’s easy to throw stuff in there and see what you have and not have to dig through a backpack. Plus, it’s cute!

So there ya have it! Our summer forest schooling supplies bin.