Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Our Muddy Meanderings

We've had unseasonably warm weather in our area. In fact, we haven't had a significant snowfall yet, which is really weird. Most of our winter has been rainy. Last week though, we had a beautiful day. I hadn't planned on going anywhere, but it was too nice to be inside. My mom happened to be over and suggested a local state park. I totally forgot the entrance is free during the winter! So we dug around the house for socks, shoes, and jackets and headed for an impromptu nature walk.


The first stop was the natural spring. My mom needed a couple of gallons of water to feed her water kefir. No, it's not a pet. She makes it into a drink (see previous link for more details.)


For the first part of the walk, we took a road down to the river. That way Lil Pumpkin could get some energy out and walk on her own. She was so excited! She babbled and babbled the entire short walk to the river.


The trees' shadows lined the road. We spotted a couple of woodpeckers. Saw a couple dogs being walked, but I think our noise drove most of the wildlife away. :) Harmony Art Mom suggested doing a Silent Nature Walk. I don't think that would be possible with my group. I like the idea though!


The best part for the kids was that it was ok to walk in the mud! Good thing since the trails were mud. A stroller + mud= hard work. I probably should have worn Lil Pumpkin in the carrier. The kids went to the river bank and spotted various animal tracks. We saw deer, raccoon and maybe coyote tracks (could have been dog prints though--I'm no track expert.)


Breaking up the monotony of brown and grey tones were the occasional splashes of green--mainly from moss.


It will be interesting to come back in a couple of months and see this whole area bursting with color.

If you are looking for some winter nature studies ideas, you might want to check out Harmony Art Mom's Winter Nature Study e-book. She has a ton of resources and information on her Handbook of Nature Study blog. Reading her blog has inspired me to get my kids out more to learn. :)


I also have a nature notebook page for each season of the year. You can find them here: Nature Notebook Pages 

Not sure what notebooking is? I highly recommend reading Notebooking Success by Jimmie. You can use this tool for any curriculum and any subject.

Do you incorporate nature studies into your year? How?

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1 Comments:

Blogger Barb said...

HI Maureen,
I was just stopping by to read a little of your blog and wow...you are sharing my winter nature study ebook and my blog. I loved seeing your walk...don't worry, some day you will have a quiet walk too and it will be strange. :)

Thanks so much for sharing my work with your readers. Much appreciated.

January 12, 2012 at 12:06 AM  

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