For over a decade, Tinkergarten families and friends have gathered with homemade lanterns to welcome winter’s darkness, celebrate the changing seasons and connect as a community. Lantern Walks are beautiful, free events open to all. We welcome families to join us in our outdoor classroom to sing traditional songs, light lanterns and set off on a cozy sunset walk together – simple and lovely!
This is our second year to host a Lantern Walk at our local park in our Tinkergarten classroom and I am so excited! This event is truly my favorite tradition that we do as a community. I love the simplicity and the cozy way we welcome in the coming peace and rest of winter.
Why is this beneficial for kids?
Learning to embrace change is an important part of becoming resilient. Our Lantern Walk celebrates and teaches kids to embrace the darkness of fall and winter and cycles of nature. When kids make their own lanterns, they prepare and get invested in the tradition as well.
We often focus on giving our children strong wings and the freedom to fly. While this is wonderful and necessary, it’s also important to stay mindful and be intentional about helping make their roots deep and strong. Family traditions and rituals are perfect food for kids’ roots. These can be any purposeful and repeated practices that involve the members of a family and sometimes even a community. It can be simple routines that organize our daily lives, like my own family's Friday ‘make a pizza’ night, or seasonal special activities that are more symbolic and planned. Either way, these repeated and shared experiences make us who we are – and during times of incredible stress, they can keep us afloat and bring us joy and comfort in ways we cannot always imagine.
Psychologists’ findings link family rituals to increases in children’s happiness and emotional well being as well as to their sense of identity and even success in school. Family traditions give life a good kind of structure, give us a sense of belonging, teach values, and connect us to each other as well as to our past.
The Fall Lantern walk is a simple and sweet tradition my family added to our lives last year. For the last decade, Tinkergarten families all over the country have been walking together to welcome in the darkness of winter. Keep reading to learn how to make your own homemade lantern or click the button below to register for our free lantern walk event. I hope you’ll join us, and the rest of our country wide Tinkergarten community in this year’s Lantern Walk!
The only thing you need to bring to our Lantern Walk is a homemade lantern. Here are two options for making lanterns with your explorers!
Attend a Make a Lantern Event
Our Annual Lantern Walk is happening the first Friday in December and we cannot wait! To prepare for our walk, let's make lanterns together!
When: There are two dates to choose from for our Make a Lantern events
Tuesday, November 14th from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. or Wednesday, November 15th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Where: Gregg Park Civic Center at the large picnic shelter next to the parking lot.
What: Mycah will be there with materials for lantern making. There is also space for play and exploration as well as a playground.
What kids are learning:
✨ Kids use multiple senses as they work with our glue-water mixture, tissue paper and nature treasures.
✨ As kids use a brush to apply glue mixture and carefully place tissue paper, they'll develop their fine motor skills as well as their ability to direct and sustain focus.
✨ Creating something of their own design nurtures creativity and confidence.
✨ Making our own lanterns helps us to prepare and get invested in the tradition.
Tinkergarten DIY Lantern
If you’re unable to attend one of our Make a Lantern events, you can still make a lantern at home! Tinkergarten has provided simple instructions for a DIY Lantern can be found here.
We'd love to see all the wonderful lanterns you make! Tag @magnoliaoutdoor on Instagram with photos of your lantern or your explorers making their lanterns.
See you outside!