Making a Nature Cabinet for The Kids' Treasures

“...I have a regard for children’s little treasures, and think they should be treated respectfully.” - Louisa May Alcott

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

It doesn’t matter where you live, if your children go outside, they will find interesting discoveries out there and want to bring them inside.  When my Bigs were littler, we would walk through our suburban neighborhood to the library every week and come home with more than just books. Usually, it was rocks, sticks, leaves, or prickly gumballs: nature treasures found along the way. As a toddling two year old, William loved rescuing earthworms on the sidewalk - even the dried-up, shriveled ones. I cringed slightly and encouraged him to leave them in the grass because I didn’t want dead earthworms in my house. For the first few years of my kids’ lives, I treated nature finds like an unpleasant task - something I had to put up with.

But, before long, I began to see the beauty in it. On early autumn days, it was a game to see who could find the first colorful leaves to take home. Later in the year, we hunted around a neighbor’s evergreen tree for pine cones to use with Christmas decorations. A certain park nearby had an oak tree with massive acorns, and my boys collected acorn hats like coins. Eventually, the non-decorative nature collections moved to a spot in the back yard because, with twin babies around, I couldn’t keep it all off the floor and out of their mouths.

I’d been aware for a while how important outdoor play is for kids. Research shows that time outside reduces stress and anxiety by 28% in children. Just being outside for 20 minutes allows a child with ADHD to concentrate better. This was an important reason why we chose to homeschool: knowing that boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, I didn’t want my boys to sit in a classroom for the best hours of their day when they could be active, playing and learning outside. Kindergarten homeschool only takes about an hour and a half of focused sitting time leaving lots of free time for playing.

In my education philosophy, the way in which I want my children to learn, I lean toward the teaching of Charlotte Mason. She was an influential British educator at the end of the nineteenth century. Her writings are a beautiful picture of what education could be. One of her foundational tenets is that children, especially young ones, need multiple hours outside every day. She says, “Never be within doors when you can rightly be without” and “We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

I highly recommend the book, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv for a new perspective on getting our kids outside to play. I was shown that just taking a child to the park wouldn’t teach them to love nature. Even at parks that are more than a playground, they can’t climb trees and aren’t supposed to leave the trail. I understand that it’s important to protect the park for other visitors, but my kids can’t explore through the woods, study tadpoles in the pond, or build a fort out of tree branches at most parks. A child needs lots free play time outside to develop a relationship with nature, and I saw how challenging that would be in our suburban yard and city parks. 

We were six people living in a three bedroom, 900 square foot ranch (I could plug the vacuum into one outlet and reach every room). We needed a bigger house, but more importantly, I wanted land for our kids to experience nature without restrictions, to raise animals, and to grow our own food. Most properties we saw were either way out of our price range or had a tiny house. At this point, we didn’t know yet that I was about to be pregnant with our second set of twins, but we wanted another bedroom. When we put our little house on the market, we had a contract on it the first day. We were instantly in a scramble to find a new home - the one we wanted to raise our kids in.
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The first time we came to see the house that we finally bought, Michael wandered back into the overgrown woods to see what possibilities the land had. And he came back with a three point deer antler. We took that antler as a strong sign that this land had what we were looking for. There was a lot against this place: the septic needed to be replaced (and we had never been on septic before); the basement leaked; steep hills make some of the property unusable; and it had an in-ground pool that we didn’t really want. But, the area had a wildness about it that made us want to explore; plus, it already had a fenced in pen for animals and two cherry trees.

It was during the process of moving out of our little house and staying at a friend’s for a few weeks with all our stuff in storage, that we found out we were expecting again. My first twins had just turned a year old - I was still nursing them both! I wasn’t ready for more babies, but God knew our family wasn’t complete - He worked out our house situation in His perfect time. We would need that fourth bedroom.

Moving a family of six into a new house when you’re eight weeks pregnant is definitely not my favorite memory of that summer. But, in the midst of putting beds together and finding our dishes, Michael and I both felt that the antler he had found needed to be displayed somewhere to remind us why we chose this place. This “treasure” was important to us.
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For the time being, I put the antler in a vintage china cabinet that held dishes. But, soon enough, Peter found a wild turkey feather and then an abandoned paper wasp nest; William found a snake skin; I found the remains of a delicate dragonfly. The next spring, a pair of wrens made a nest on our back patio. We watched the momma lay several eggs and saw the freshly-hatched babies. The messy nest eventually made it into our collection. Slowly, my dish cabinet was being over-run, but I was so excited to see what new treasures the kids would discover while playing outside! Yes, the younger ones mostly find acorns, rocks, and leaves, but I respect their treasures, too. Within reason, I’ve tried to find a home to display all of it (I will admit, I don’t allow sticks in the house - those aren’t usually treasures, they’re weapons).

With some down-time this summer, I decided to officially take out the dishes and designate the china cabinet for only our nature finds. I scavenged some extra items from around the house to add, like an impressive pair of seashells Michael has had since high school, a tree slice that I use as table decor, and some painted clay leaves we made recently. I am pleased with the display and am excited to show it off to visitors. Over the past couple years, I’ve learned a bit about keeping and displaying our nature treasures. I would encourage your family to begin your own nature cabinet, but before you do, let me share a few tips that I’ve learned along the way. 

Protect the Items
A glass-doored china cabinet really works out well because the glass doors protect the kids’ treasures from curious little fingers. Everyone wants to touch the sweet cardinal egg in its nest, so I absolutely would not have put it on the bottom shelf (where it’s so easy to see) without the glass door. Also, delicate feathers and leaves might blow away when someone walks past an open shelf.

​Paint your Shelves
A white or light colored shelf works best. Most of the items we find are brownish so the wood tone of the cabinet wasn’t helping us see our treasures. I chose to paint only the inside of the cabinet (to be honest, I didn’t want to commit to painting the whole thing) and absolutely love how it turned out! If you have a tight budget, don’t hesitate to look for used furniture that you can modify - you won’t feel bad slapping paint on a twenty dollar cabinet.

Beware of Bug Stowaways
When you and your kids start finding “treasures,” beware of bugs living in them. Acorns seem harmless, but can have worms inside - yuck! Bake them on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees for two hours. Shake the sheet a couple times during cooking to turn them and prevent them from burning. This also dries them which will keep them from molding. We had a fabric basket of buckeyes that started to mold and permanently stained the basket.
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Birds’ nests can also be a home for mites or ants. Tie it up in a grocery bag and place in the freezer for a week before adding it to your indoor collection. Peter discovered a squirrels’ nest in a tree we cut down; it was exciting to open it up and see the inside, but there was also a nest of angry ants inside. We didn’t keep the squirrel nest.

We have few bug nests in our collection. We found a praying mantis egg case on a rose bush that we were pulling out of our flower bed. I left it in an out-of-the-way place on our front porch for months to be sure that any baby mantises wouldn’t hatch in our house - those egg cases can have hundreds of babies inside! Also, the Bigs brought a paper wasp nest in one day - in hindsight, I should have stuck it in the freezer for a while because it could have had hibernating bugs in it, too.

Keeping Egg Shells
Bird eggs are so petite and beautiful. We found a perfect cardinal nest in our lilac bush as we were pruning it back. The mama bird had been gone for a while so I was surprised to find an egg left in it. You can keep a whole egg, but if it breaks, it will probably stink. If you’ve found a broken shell, bake it in the oven for a bit (350 for 10 minutes).

Press the Leaves and Flowers
Every autumn, we end up with piles of gorgeous leaves in my house. If you don’t press them right away, they will dry out, curl up, and disintegrate into dust. The easiest way to press leaves (and flowers) is between two sheets of paper placed under a heavy book. Leave it there for a few days and then they are ready to use. I’ve found that the color of the leaves never stays as vibrant, so I only keep leaves for the season and we typically use them for a craft or decoration. I’m currently learning how to display pressed flowers better, so I’ll have to let you know how that turns out!

​Make labels
If you know specifics about the item you’ve found, be sure to label it. I’m terrible about looking up details about something (particularly insect body parts - I find them confusing) and then forgetting the correct terms. Write it all on the label so the viewer can learn about it, too. I made simple tent labels with cardstock cut to one inch by two inches.

Make an Interesting Display
​I used several bud vases to display feathers, the praying mantis egg case, and other skinny objects. It adds height and interest. Also create dimension by placing items on plates or covered boxes. Add contrast behind light-colored pieces. I placed a delicate leaf skeleton against a red background because the veins were too light to see against the white shelf. Include equipment (such as binoculars, magnifying glass), nature guides, and reference books - books make any shelf look better. If the books are solely decorative, you can lay them horizontally and place an interesting piece on top of them; however, if you’ll be referencing the book, keep it vertical and easily accessible so your kids don’t risk ruining a beautiful artifact.

Pin your bugs
RIght now, our bug collection includes a dragonfly and two cicada exoskeletons. I (very unprofessionally) pinned them onto foam core board placed in a vintage frame. I’ll confess, I had no idea what I was doing but this is another skill I plan on learning more about soon (In my opinion, that’s one of the best parts of teaching my kids - I get to learn alongside them. I’m sure I studied insects from a textbook in school, but when I see the lifecycle of a ladybug happening on one of our apple trees, I actually learn it!).

As I was putting the final touches on our nature cabinet, Peter walked up to see the progress. He commented, “It’s like having a museum in our house!” Then, he headed back outside to find more treasures. If you would like to see more detailed pictures of the cabinet, be sure to check out our Instagram page.

Do you display your children’s treasures in your home somewhere?  If so, I'd love to hear about what you do!  Comment below.  Until next time, happy hunting!