Recent Posts
Junior Society
Return To Blog Listing
Junior Society features clever intelligent children's products: clothing, bedding, toys, books, home furnishing. Strong emphasis on lifestyle content: cultural events, education, travel, charity, dining, outdoor activities, arts, crafts, and creative pla
Recent Posts Tagged With 'great outdoors'
Repost: Wind in the Willows
A holiday weekend favorite, Wind in the Willows was originally posted on 7/8/09. Kids are pretty resourceful when it comes to crafting something out of nothing. A stick transforms into a sword, a horse, a wand, a baton and the list goes on. Today ...
Where Baby Stars Are Born
Have a junior scientist or burgeoning astronaut in your house? Read on. In May of this year NASA conducted its final servicing mission to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the major tasks on this trip was upgrading the existing camera wi...
Bing, Bang, Boom!
I opened my eyes And looked up at the rain, And it dripped in my head And flowed into my brain, And all that I hear as I lie in my bed Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head. I step very softly, I walk very slow, I can’t do a handstand ...
Total Eclipse
This coming week on July 22nd the sun will ’stand still’ for a full 6 minutes and 39 seconds. This total solar eclipse will fall along a narrow corridor through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip...
Blinking Bug Butts
“The firefly’s flame Is something for which science has no name I can think of nothing eerier Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a person’s posterior.” Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971) Actually, science does have a name f...
Jolly Green Giant
German electric power company RWE recently released this computer animated ad entitled Giant. The spot appears to be part of a branding campaign to put a friendlier face on a giant corporation, by depicting a literal giant roaming the land and doing...
Wind in the Willows
Kids are pretty resourceful when it comes to crafting something out of nothing. A stick transforms into a sword, a horse, a wand, a baton and the list goes on. Today let’s look at transforming that stick into a whistle. I have three wood whi...
Head in the Clouds
NPR did a little story on the UK based Cloud Appreciation Society this past week. (I can’t for the life of me remember which program. Anyone else?) Operating under the premise that “clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be i...
Bucket Bikes
Holy hot wheels! I am loving this smartly designed and super utilitarian line of bikes. With ever expanding eco-consciousness permeating our culture, people are looking for ways to shrink their carbon footprint. (Calculate the size of your carbo...
Ode to the Treehouse: Part 5
Well friends, here they are - treehouses 80 through 100…and with them comes the end of our week long ode to the arboreal abode! 1. Gifford Pinchot National Forest, 2. Orcas Island Treehouse, 3. Untitled, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled, ...
Ode to the Treehouse: Part 4
While I’m fortunate to have a lemon tree outside my kitchen window, it’s far from being a suitable spot for a treetop getaway. If, like me, you’re just not in a position to construct a treehouse in the backyard - perhaps you’...
Ode to the Treehouse: Part 3
So, you’re inspired to build your own treehouse. Where do you start? Here are a few sites to use as your jumping off point. Do-It-Yourself Treehouse By Design Features do-it-yourself plans, step-by-step instructions, blueprint examples and ...
Ode to the Treehouse: Part 2
Tree houses have a long history. From the Middle Ages on, tree arbors were popular in Europe. During the Italian Renaissance, the Medicis built a marble extravaganza in a tree. A town just west of Paris became famous in the mid-19th century for its a...
Ode to the Treehouse: Part 1
A tree house, a free house, A secret you and me house, A high up in the leafy branches Cozy as can be house A street house, a neat house Be sure to wipe your feet house I not my kind of house at all- Let’s go live in a tree house. -Shel Silvers...
Poultry Playhouse
Chickens, cooped up. Picture by Nanimo. What to do with the playhouse when the kids outgrow it? Well, you can always keep it up in hopes of grandchildren in fifteen years…or you can take a note from the folks at BackyardChickens.com and conve...
No Child Left Inside
The weather is warming and kids who have been bouncing off the walls all winter are now getting a little relief from their cabin fever and a chance to run around the backyard. As you consider outdoor activities for your kiddos this spring and summer...
Seeing Green
If you were out and about in downtown in Chicago this past weekend, you were likely there for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade and the dyeing of the Chicago River. The what now? It’s been a standing ritual in Chicago since 1962 when gree...
Kicked Out of the Club
While I certainly had heard about Pluto’s demotion from planet to member of the Kuiper belt, it wasn’t until I heard this story on NPR last month that I became aware of the turmolt this reclassification had caused…especially among g...
Hide and Seek, part 2
Being that Valentine’s Day is this weekend I thought it would be the perfect time spread a little love and finish placing the batch of Valentine Vermin I made for the Toy Society project. You can read about the first round of drops in this pos...
Sticks and Stones
I picked up my friend’s five year old from preschool last week, a favor I’m always happy to perform as this kid is pure joy. Our walk from the campus to the park was the standard post school debriefing. “How was your day?” ...
Jolly Green Junior
Junior Society loves DreamHost, they host our club house (aka blog) and have since the club’s inception. We love them for numerous reasons - they’re owned by their 70+ employees, they’re Southern California based (just like me!), t...
Bear on a Bicycle
I love the idea of Halloween costumes and dress-up clothes that have a life beyond a single night of trick-or-treating. One simple, effective accessory that has the potential of year-round usage are the bike helmet covers by Tail Wags. There are do...
Say chees..um, er nuts!
The weasel may go ‘pop’ but squirrels, I’ve just learned, go ‘click’. Boys and girls, I give you the American Camera Organized Rodent Network (A.C.O.R.N.) Under the tutelage of professional photographer Scott Alan John...
