Home Nature Museum Events for 2023

Eric and Gail, the folks behind the Nature Collector’s Garden and Make Your Own Home Nature Museum, participated in a bunch of events during 2023:

On Halloween, we really went to town with the Teal Pumpkin concept. Our young trick-or-treaters could choose either a granola bar or a Teal Pumpkin treat: a mineral specimen, sea shell, or toy car (which represented some of the deep interests our kids developed when they were young).

Open Boulevards at Lawndale Pop-up Spot: On October 22, 2023, Noon until 5 p.m. Eric and Gail’s activities focused on both transportation (with a GeoTrax layout) and Halloween (with a hands-on exhibit of skeletons and bones). We also gave away free rocks, minerals, fossils, and seashells at the Make Your Own Home Nature Museum Shop, and kids and adults could decorate a free nature collection box to take home with them.

South Elmwood Block Party: October 7, 2023. Gail and Eric set up a huge GeoTrax layout in the street, giant bubbles, Nature Collector’s Swap Shop, and a craft activity where we decorated boxes for kids’ collections.

Sundays on the Boulevard: Animalpalooza: September 10, 2023, at the Lawndale Pop-up Spot. The Since Gail and Eric came down with COVID during August, we finally did the activities we had planned for the Back-to-School Lit Fest on the second Saturday in September. Back-to-School Lit Fest was part of the Open Books North Lawndale Reads initiative. As their contribution to this event, Eric and Gail developed a special version of make Your Own Home Nature Museum that focused on the ways in which children’s books can contribute to kids’ interests in rocks and minerals, dinosaurs, trains, and bubbles (and inspire kids to read).

Sundays on the Boulevard – Growth and Abundance: June 25, 2023, 1 to 4 p.m. at Lawndale Pop-up Spot. We gave away rock, mineral, and fossil specimens through several Make Your Own Nature Museum activities, plus went through six gallons of Giant Bubble juice (and still ran out).

Chicagoland Gems & Minerals Association (CGMA) Show at Kane County Fairgrounds on May 27-28, 2023: Eric and Gail ran the Kids Korner booth at this annual show put on by five geologically oriented clubs in the Chicago area. Children (18 and under) could take home free specimens of tumbled stones, crystals, fossil shark and ray teeth, and Paleozoic sea life for their collections. We also displayed a hands-on tribute to dolostone, the new Illinois State Rock; activities with magnetic rocks and geodes; a plastic pool full of plastic prehistoric animals; and a GeoTrax quarry layout to play with. Children with a little cash to spare could win more minerals, fossils, and seashells at the CGMA spinners, two spins for a dollar. We plan to be back for next year’s show on May 25 and 26, 2024.

Here are some links for families who we met at the CGMA show:

Go here for more information about the Dolostone: Illinois State Rock! exhibit: https://natureswapshop.org/dolostone/

Resources for families interested in collecting rocks and fossils: https://natureswapshop.org/resources/

Identification resources for seashells: https://natureswapshop.org/seashells/

Identification resources for tumbled stones: https://natureswapshop.org/tumbled/

Ideas for making your own home nature museum: https://natureswapshop.org/home-nature-museum/

STEMCON at College of DuPage on April 29, 2023: STEMCON is an annual event for kids interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (the STEM in STEMCON). Eric and Gail developed and ran the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois (ESCONI) Juniors booth. FREE collection-building activities included both trading free points for rocks, minerals, fossils, or shells and hunting for fossils of Paleozoic sea life in a fossil-rich gravel.

Earth Day at Douglass Park. We set up both Make Your Own Nature Museum activities and Giant Bubbles at Douglass Park for the Earth Day cleanup on April 22, 2023.

Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois (ESCONI) show on March 18 and 19, 2023. Eric and Gail helped run the ESCONI Juniors booth at the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois annual show. We hope to be back at that show in March of 2024.

Also, at our home in Oak Park, Illinois: The Nature Collector’s Garden was open every day in Eric and Gail’s front yard at 1003 South Elmwood. (Scroll way, way down to see photos of Nature Collector’s Garden.)