Our little ones love to go outside. It’s a very rare occasion that they don’t want to go outdoors to play . Even rarer is an occasion that they are bored outdoors. We are regularly outside listening and exploring our neighborhood or the mountains!

Because of how much they love the outdoors, they always find something to do. I was pleasantly surprised about the new Nature Cat’s Great Outdoors App. The app not only helps her be more intentional but gives A a place to record nature! 

The Nature Cat’s Great Outdoors App is free in the app store (iPhone and Android) and encourages your kiddos to explore nature using their eyes via Daisy’s Camera, their ears via Hal’s Sound Recorder, their creativity and memory using the journals and their sense of direction using Squeeks’ Compass! We have had a good time using the app to try explore nature and record it on my iPhone. 

The Tools

Daisy’s Camera
With Daisy’s Camera you are able to capture photos and save them into your media file for later! These are great to add to your journal which you can access the media files through or take a fresh photo. The media section is great to go back and see what photos they have snapped. Make sure the app has access to your camera for this feature! 

Hal’s Sound Recorder
With Hal’s Sound recorder it encourages you little one to start really listening to the noises around them. When we explore our neighborhood we hear noses like dogs barking, the train nearby, crickets, the wind, wind chimes, and more! Once your child record a sound they select what type of nose it is such as: weather, animal, insect, mystery, and more. These can be imported into the journal pages! 

Squeeks’ Compass
With Squeeks’ Compass the child is taught to hold the compass flat so they can find their direction. If your child gets distracted and lifts your phone upright Squeeks will remind them to lay it flat. As your child moves around the compass moves and Squeeks gives them the new direction they are facing. In addition to the verbal prompt the word changes at the bottom to the correct direction. Squeeks also talks about the directions and ways to remember them.

Journals
There are premade journals featuring the characters from Nature Cat – Hal,  Squeeks, Daisy, and Fred. Within these journals your kiddo can color their premade pictures using the tools within the app. Your child can also create their own journals – one for each type of thing they might see and find – nature, animals, bugs, etc. – if they choose! There are stickers, paints and more to get creative. 

Within the journals you can also import images and sounds that you have captured within the app! In the collage above you will see the photos we took while outdoors on our most recent adventure: leaves, our dog, Rudy, and our lavender bush. We also used sounds that we recorded: the sound of chimes and the sound of a cricket. 

Daily Adventure
When your child clicks on Nature Cat – also known as Fred the house cat – they are taken to the Daily Adventure. The first thing they do is select if the weather, then it pulls up the activity that day. The activities utilize the different tools that the app offers and there is one basic activity per day. Some times it tells your child to use the compass, find WEST and asks what they see. Other times they record sounds or take photos and it prompts them to record what they found in their journal. 

My Thoughts:

I like the Nature Cat Great Outdoors App! Since it’s a FREE iPhone and Android app makes it accessible to all families with a smartphone. The app encourages kids to get outside by connecting a device to nature.

I really like the ability to import things back into the journal. With A turning 4 next month she defaults to make fun photos with the art tools and the stickers. However, I like being able to go on an outdoor adventure with her and come back inside and review what she saw and talk about it by making a journal entry.

The app helps kids be more intentional about listening to nature, seeing what is around them, and being able to recall it later. These are all things we have started our kids doing from early on but I love seeing A get involved and get excited to show me what she has snapped on the camera or recorded for a sound. 

While I don’t see us using it on every outdoor adventure, I do see it being a great tool for the days we need some inspiration, ways to record nature and more! Overall I think it’s a fun app to use outdoors! As A gets bigger I also think that she will enjoy having a place where she can have all of her sounds recorded and adventure photos to look back on!

Do your little ones love Nature Cat? Do they explore outdoors? In what ways are you intentional with your child exploring outside?

Today’s post was sponsored by PBS Kids. All opinions and images belong to Joyfully Smitten.