Sturdy for Common Things

Chocolate Box Nature Collection

Don’t throw out those chocolate boxes just yet! After Valentine’s Day we found they make the perfect miniature cabinets of curiosities for young nature collectors. Full disclosure: I bought the boxes pictured in this post for myself, because Valentine treats to yourself is always a good idea. Also, chocolate. But what I didn’t count on was the perfect way these boxes preserve little treasures found outside. The small boxes are extremely portable and easy to tuck away for another day.

Filling a chocolate box was a good excuse to go outside during the February month when we often found ourselves hibernating from the whipping, cold winds of Kansas. If you have older children, try taking time to identify each object found by labeling who found it, where, and when. Go one step further and classify each item referring to the Linnaeus classification system. The book Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World (public library) by Gordon Grice does a wonderful job breaking down this process.

Here’s an example with another chocolate box we had on hand using items found on a walk a week ago and a couple items that were already in our home nature center. Some boxes chocolate containers are pretty deep, so I found using folded tissue paper helped support each item.

If you didn’t happen to get a chocolate box for Valentine’s Day this year, they’re usually on sale for cheap after the holiday or can be found year-round at grocery stores. Nothing says “Be Mine” like a box full of rocks, shells, and dead bugs!