Learning in Nature

Today we spent the morning at the local arboretum.  It seemed we somehow decided to organize our day around various water exhibits there.  We visited the ponds. waterfalls, and fountains.  Each time we finished in one location the kids wanted to head to the next water destination.  It is not always this way but it was so remarkable yesterday that I noted it to myself.  It was also interesting to me because the water views lasts much longer than the flowers will here, which is what I suppose I wanted to get my fill of :)

Only Sirah seemed to enjoy the flowers as much as I did.  She took several videos of simply walking through the gardens filled with flowers.  The video is simply her camera pointing down and out at the gardens as she walks through them, no narration, no special commentary just a walk through the gardens.  At first I thought that was odd but then I thought how awesome will that feel to watch in about 4 months?

School at the arboretum is not unusual for us.  Often in the springtime I will pack up school bags, blankets and lunch and we will find a nice spot to do all of our subjects there.  Workbooks and textbooks and certainly read alouds are portable and sometimes the change of scenery is all we need to get inspired again.  I used to be afraid it would be distracting for my kids and to an extent it is but the distraction is an overall good one and worth it.

Today we simply went with our sketchbooks and cameras.  We walked through the arboretum at a fairly leisurely pace just taking it all in.  At times we would sit quietly near the waterfall and just be, at other times the kids were exploring and looking for nature and asking questions without any prompting.  Several times we stopped in a particular area to take some photos or to do some nature note booking.

Since my kids were little I have kept nature notebooks of theirs.  Sketches they have drawn in various places like zoos, arboretums, nature preserves, our yard, etc.  I date them and write a description of what they drew and where they were.  It is fun then to look back and compare their work from when they were 4 to when they are 11.  These are somewhat scattered despite my best efforts to keep them in one book - that seemed to not work, a sketchbook would get lost and found years later, another sketchbook would be filled and sometimes they would just draw on random slips of paper.  I am saving as many of these as I can and one day and will try to compile them into one single book for them.  This past summer I bought each of the kids a very nice sketchbook with a nice cover and told them this was for school purposes only and they can't skip around or rip out pages in it.  They are now all old enough to make this work and hopefully this can be the start of a new tradition of keeping them all in one place :)  Yesterday we used those notebooks and each person drew a sketch or two.

Sometimes it is hard to let myself go out during school hours without feeling like I am losing or wasting time.  I need to remind myself that these field trips, excursions and alternate classrooms really do promote their learning in unique ways.  A visit to the arboretum helps them see science at work in a natural way.  The visit piques their curiosity and inspires them to ask interesting and unusual questions and discover answers they may not have thought of otherwise.  A walk through the flowers calms us and prepares our minds, and reminds us of what is beautiful and good.  Drawing nature challenges our artistic ability as well as our scientific minds as we pay attention to details in ways we would not if we just observed a flower or specimen.  These are not wasted but well used moments of my kids education and they are the ones I hope they recall when they remember our years of homeschooling.

After the arboretum we came home and had lunch and went back to our textbooks and workbooks and challenging our minds in the usual ways.  We still got in several hours worth of traditional school work even with our morning excursion.  I felt more refreshed, hope the kids did too.

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Of Turtles and Frogs

The season is upon us finally. Ciaran was beginning to feel it was never coming with the crazy weather and my surgery. Today we went to a nearby favorite pond to look for frogs and turtles. As I expected we did not see any frogs but we did see many turtles. We walked along the pond watching them sunning themselves on branches and diving into the water, stopping now and then to watch them or examine some other interesting thing we saw.

We found a spot they seemed to really enjoy about a dozen swimming around. I sat down on the ground and watched the kids watch the turtles for about a half hour. They managed to catch one believe it or not and carefully we examined it and carried it home. They will release it tonight but it is fun for them to care for one for a day or two and they are very careful filling a bucket with pond water and setting things up for the turtle to have a nice mini habitat. They named this turtle FireStripes for the coloring on the inside of the shell. They have been excited observing it and I think they might sketch the turtle later this afternoon.

While I still wish it was about 10 degrees warmer here the sunshine feels glorious so I can't really complain. After rain, clouds and cold weather we will take what we get.

Ciaran is still looking forward to the first frog of summer. We hear them at night and at certain marshes we pass by but he has only caught glimpses of them as they dive into the water. I remind him the season is not upon us yet but will be soon enough and to enjoy the one we have now.

We have been making weekly trips to the local arboretum to see the progress of the flowers and trees. Each year the kids pick out a rose bush to study. We draw sketches and watch their rosebush from winter through fall. It makes the best project because the experts care for it and we get to see the full transition and all the information we want is available to us. We also have our favorite places we go each time we are there. Right now the daffodils are in full bloom, the tulips are coming along and will likely be in full bloom this week. We look forward to the irises which usually bloom around my birthday time. The Magnolias and rhododendrons are in blossom and the other trees are starting to bud. The crab apples still don't have any buds to speak of and it seems as if overnight many trees grew their leaves!

Baseball is still cold. Was wearing my winter coat, mittens and a fleece blanket for last nights game under the lights. We left the field at 9pm and I wondered when it would ever be a warm great ball game night? The kids don't seem to notice though they just run and jump up and down in place to keep warm. Of course if this was the weather in January we would all probably be wearing shorts :)

Trying to spend as much time outdoors as we can especially now while the neighborhood is still quiet and I can enjoy being with just my kids. Soon enough all of school will be out and my kids will be off to play with the neighbors more and more. I am glad they get along with the neighbors but it is also nice when it is just the four of us enjoying our neighborhood parks and paths. As we watch the school buses leave and return from the day I think my kids appreciate more and more that they worked to get their school done in time to have off most of the month of May. Especially on glorious days like today.

Off to spend more time in the yard with the trampoline and bikes. Might even be brave enough to try a small baseball catch with Ciaran. Just a few more weeks until my recovery is complete. Seems it gets harder to wait each day as the mercury rises.

Tenniel

Family Themes

I have realized over the years of parenting that from the time they are born and so far through our homeschool years certain things define the way we parent, teach and interact with our kids. Some themes that seem to continually reoccur over time. Blogging has helped me realize a lot of those themes because I tend to write about similar things often.

1. Reading
We read to them all the time. We encourage them to read. We demonstrate to them how much we read. Reading is definitely a central theme in our family. We are readers and we are raising readers. We all spend a good portion of our days reading. We read books, magazines, comics, websites really anything. We talk about what we read, we talk about what we want to read, we read after dinner as a family. I think they will all grow up remembering reading.

2. Nature
Exploring, discovering and enjoying nature is an important part of our family. We spend lots of time outdoors but also indoors at locations like nature centers, zoos, and arboretums. We hike, we camp, we geocache, we bike, we play lawn bowling and frisbee together. We often just walk together as a family around our neighborhood and around different area parks. We really encourage exploring and loving nature like Ciaran's love of frogs, Sirah loving owls and their desire to touch and examine all of nature around them. We encourage nature note booking and free exploration.

3. Faith

We are raising our kids with a strong faith. We try to live out our faith, we try to give them examples of what that means and to model it for them. We teach them about God and morality. We do our best to live according to our beliefs, we offer them materials to learn from and experiences and activities that support and encourage their own faith. We answer tough questions and are trying to raise them to have a faith of their own not just a "because my parents said so" faith. Our faith is often expressed and lived out in the small everyday details of our lives.

4.Experiences
We try to offer a lot of experiences to our kids. Our favorite family saying "One never knows what this crazy clan will do!" We bring them along with us to a wide variety of places and to meet a variety of people. We take them campaigning and to political rallies, to the art museum and book signings, to the orchestra, Irish and Scottish festivals, caving, to all the museums (not just the zoo and childrens), petroglyphs, farms and skyscrapers. Basically if we would go there they will go there with very few exceptions. And we take them to all the possible crazy places you can think of to take a child on a field trip. We always try to make it fun and often, though not always, educational. If we have read about it I will try to find a way to bring it to life for them in a more tangible way.

5. Travel
We travel a lot. We have family scattered throughout the country and many in wonderful vacation spots such as New York, Maine, Chicago and Southern California. We take them to visit relatives and see the sites. We take them places we want them to experience. I think if we were suddenly to become millionares this is the piece that would increase the most. When we were learning about the pharaohs and we talked about the exhibit in Texas Rhiannon asked if we could go there on a field trip as if it was around the corner. Ciaran piped up and said wouldn't it be better to just go to Egypt? How nice it would be! Ciaran and I have an agreement that when he is older we are going to travel to the rainforest and jungle together even if no one else comes with us. Sirah really wants to go to London because that is where her special bear is from. Rhiannon would love to visit Rome and Ireland. All of them want to go explore caves around the United States and the world. I suppose we have taught them to dream big and that travel is a wonderful thing. I did however sit Rhiannon down the year she was 7 and explain that this is not "normal" life to get to travel to the beaches of Southern California, New York City, Walt Disney World and the retreat of Maine all in the same year. We talked about how privileged we really were. I think we have given them all travel bugs much like our own since we have not stopped traveling because we have kids.

6. History/Philosophy
We have a love of history and philosophy. While they may seem an odd mix in a lot of ways they are not. If you looked at our home collection of books you would see a ton of philosophy, history and political books, along with a smattering of science books. Serona has a passion for philosophy and I have a passion for history. We will watch family movies and documentaries that show this love along with our love of nature. We take field trips and family outings to places of historical significance or places that bring alive history. We talk in ways that promote philosophy, logic and argument. We even are beginning to see it in the communication and choices of our kids. This has led to a lot of inquisitiveness in our kids and that is a wonderful thing even as we answer Why or How for the millionth time. Those two subjects I think really inform us of who we are and how we got here both in experience and in our minds and choices. I am glad that is an important theme for us.

7. Music
We all have an appreciation for music and Serona can play music. Music is a part of our daily life. We often listen to some classical music, show tunes but mostly now we are listening to Christian music we all like as a family. We have music streaming on our computers, the kids each have their own cd or mp3 player in their room, we listen in the car and on the go. We sing songs together, we in general enjoy each others music and we all like listening to it. Music has been a unifier for our family and given us yet another area of shared experiences as a family both for educational and mostly just for fun purposes.

8. Video Games
This one is harder for me to admit but it is reality - we are a video game family. I grew up playing video games. I have more limited taste in the types of games I enjoy. Nintendo Wii is a good fit for me personally and for our family. We also have an Xbox 360 system that Serona mostly uses. We play together as a family, the kids play together and Serona or Ciaran will play alone. I used to be really hesitant about this screen time but I realize how many more hours in a day my kids really have with homeschooling, they really do have more free time and when chores, school, reading, outside/exercise time is over if they want to play video games that is fine by me. So they get more video game time than people might think they would get in our house. It is social and fun for them and sometimes even for me. I really am a fan of the Wii system - it is a great family console.

9. Board Games
Not only do we enjoy video games but we play lots of board games. We play as a family and often I play with the kids. The kids will play certain games on their own as well. We have a TON of games, card and board games and I do manage to purge every few years but I amazed at how many different games we really do play. We have certain favorites we come back to time and time again but in general we play a lot of games. I see Ciaran have my competitive nature and Rhiannon having Serona's "It's just fun to play" attitude which sometimes makes it difficult to play all together a game like Blokus. I like that we play games together I think it promotes a lot of good things and offers lots of great life learning experiences.

10. Activism
We are an activist family in a lot of ways. We have been politically involved as families and individuals for a long time. We try to stay on top of important issues and participate in the ways we can. We are raising our kids to see the importance of being an involved citizen and they get to see the frustrations that go along with that involvement as well. We are volunteers in different areas of our lives, advocates in others and activists in still others. The commonality of this is teaching our kids they need to be aware and informed of what is going on in the world around them. They also need to be ready to stand up and defend their beliefs and those things that are important to them. We are trying to equip them with the necessary tools to be an involved and active citizen in all areas of their lives by teaching them and demonstrating them for them.

Together these themes often come out in our parenting and homeschooling choices with our kids. While they don't encapsulate everything about us and we are not consitent that we live all of these all the time - they give you a fairly good picture of the way we exist as a family and some of the things important to us all.

Peace,
Tenniel

Coming Out of Hibernation

I feel like I have been in hibernation for a long time now. I suppose to some extent most Minnesotans get like this because of the long winters, even as I type we still have some snow in our yard! This year though has been even more so as we have mostly been housebound due to my health. We are used to museums, field trips and much more being outside than we have had this year. We have still gotten out a bit, enough for many people I would say but I have felt cooped up.

Yesterday the kids and I went to a nature center and our local arboretum and spent the day at those locations. It felt wonderful to be out exploring nature, wildlife and beautiful plants and flowers with my kids again. At the nature center we saw frogs, toads, snakes, lizards and explored various nests, shells, bones, furs and many other items from nature. We looked at stuffed owls, birds and small animals. It was fun to connect and talk about nature and the coming of spring. The kids put on puppet shows and colored pictures, we read some books they had and walked around and explored some. The temperature was in the low 30's and it was actually snowing while we were there so we spent more time indoors but at least it wasn't at our house. We had the entire place to ourselves with just the naturalists there. We watched her clean the turtle cage and talked about various reptiles and amphbian care with her. I think the naturalists enjoyed that we were there - it was good all around. One of the beautiful benefits of homeschooling, you often get educational facilities all to yourself!

On the way home Ciaran really wanted to visit the arboretum so we did. They have a wonderful Children's Learning Center with a hands on, touch and smell everything greenhouse. It felt so good to be in the warmth surrounded by color and green. We just walked around for a bit smelling and pointing out our favorite things to one another, discovering what the plants and flowers were named. Some volunteers were working on cuttings and the kids asked questions about how and why they were doing it. They made a cutting of an Artillery plant for the kids. We finished up our time there with the kids each sketching their favorite things. Ciaran sketched several cacti and some bamboo. Rhiannon made an involved sketch of the orange and lemon trees and Sirah walked around making sketches of all the pink flowers.

It felt good to be out exploring the world and nature with my kids. I think in some ways that has been one of the hardest limitations on the family this year. Looking forward to that all changing soon and of course to the good weather.

Nature Walks

One of the reason blogging is so light in the fall is that it is one of the best times to live in Minnesota. This year our fall has been odd - though I don't know what I am really comparing it to when I say that. Still we have had cool crisp fall weather and hot 80 degree weather, lots of rain and lots of sunshine. So you never can tell. Well we grab on to those great moments and get outside as much as we can.

We go on nature hikes a few times a week in the fall. We pick a local park and go for a good walk, draw nature sketches, catch wildlife, or geocache. Some days we do all of these things and others we just end up strolling and enjoying the view. I love being outside with the kids, I love it even more when Serona can join us in the evenings or weekends but we just enjoy being out as a family.

The kids have learned to be flexible and we told Sirah the other day that she will have a strong constitution for all the walking she has to do for a child her age. I would say the minimum time we spend walking is about an hour. Sometimes we walk one mile in that time somedays we walk three in that time or just a little longer and majority of the time she has to walk on her own. \

Yes more than once I have to remind her that we do not speak "whinese" in our family but for the most part she really is great about it. Unless she sees another child in a stroller then she will pitch a fit that she needs a stroller or backpack or to be carried - otherwise she is content to walk and be one of the big kids. Besides our accidental 7 mile walk at the beginning of the summer kind of set the bar unreachable and we can always use that to remind the kids that they in fact can walk a mile back to the car themselves. Usually though our walks are pleasant, relatively short and filled with lots of nature stops.

Lately Rhiannon has begun classifying our walks. "Does today have to be a weight watchers walk?" or "Can we just have an explore and appreciate God's creation walk?" or "Can we go geocaching while we walk?" Often our walks overlap all these kinds of walks but it is interesting to listen to her describe the different kinds of walks we typically take with her bent on which she likes better.

We had a great walk last week just the kids and I at a favorite Nature Center. We saw an osprey, leopard frog, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, ducks, chipmunks, squirrels, and caught a garter snake. We stopped to examine many different types of fungus including a puffball which was larger than a softball. We stopped for a rest and listened to the wind in the trees and appreciated the perfect 70 degree and sunny day we were having. The kids asked if we could pray and sing, so we did. It was not contrived at all it was simply from their heart as they had spent the day in God's creation they wanted to thank Him in their own way. It really was a special moment to be a part of.

We returned to this nature center a few days later to take Serona on a walk. We walked different trails but eventually came across the spot where we stopped for that special moment. The kids remembered and talked about it as we passed through the space. This time at the end of a longer and hot humid walk with temperatures in the 80's and the sticky heaviness right before a big thunderstorm you know needs to come. Serona caught a garter snake on this walk too and we enjoyed the fall leaves and the kids found some fun trees to climb. As we held hands and walked along the path with the kids running ahead of us I was so thankful that this is part of who we are as a family and I love this part. I can even deal with the "whinese" and the need to go to the bathroom at the precise moment we are atleast 2 miles away from any sort of bathroom option because to see us as a family outdoors is worth it.

Nature walks are easy to build into your day. They don't have to be long or complicated. They are a nice way to pass an afternoon, a morning or even just an hour in the middle of your day. Often you don't need to go very far to have a place you can get out walk around and appreciate nature. Some days we bring our sketch books and enjoy that time. Other days we bring a field guide or our GPS. Still so many days we just walk with a bottle of water and see what we see making snapshots without a camera as we build those memories into the lives of our kids and ourselves. So if you haven't taken a nature walk lately I encourage you to do it and have fun with it.

Nature Notebook Class

This semester for our homeschool cooperative I am teaching a great and easy class for the 2nd-4th graders, nature notebooking. On the first day I gave a general overview of what nature notebooking was and what sorts of items they might want to include in their books. I gave them only two rules for the book.

1. It doesn't have to be perfect.
2. If God made it you can draw it

Only God made it perfect so all I want you to do is draw from your heart and mind what you see in the way you want to. Then we headed outside.

We had a lovely but breezy day to be outside. Thankfully some flowers survived our first frost in Minnesota and they were able to sit outside near the flowers and sketch. There was a wide variety of what was sketched - trees, spiderwebs, flowers, berries, landscapes, leaf rubbings, moths, grasshoppers, bees, and on the list went.

I think this will be a lovely class - as the kids gain confidence and continue to enjoy themselves. It was a sight to see the kids all spread out in different spots sitting quietly sketching. Some worked very quickly and went through several pages drawing individual items such as a single berry on a page. Others sat for a long time and created complete landscapes.

We encouraged each child to draw for the entire time no matter how many items they sketched and to put the date, location, and time on their pages so they can refer back to them later. They all seemed to enjoy themselves and this is a time I will look forward to each week. In case of unpredictable Minnesota weather I will have field guides, books and pictures for them to sketch from indoors when needed.

Sneak Peek

Want a sneak peek at some lesson plans you may seem coming from me this fall? Here are my class descriptions for our homeschool co-op. This semester I will teach two classes: nature notebooking (2nd-4th grade) and Star Wars Study (5th-high school).These descriptions are first drafts and subject to change but here is a sneak peek at the topics I will teach and what you can look forward to finding more detailed lesson plans on through the fall.

Nature Notebook: Join us as we explore God's creation outdoors and draw, write, sketch our favorite memories. Class each week will include walking outside on the grounds and finding something in nature to sketch or write about. On poor weather days we will sketch from artifacts or pictures indoors. This is not a how-to draw class but rather a time to express your love for nature through artwork, poetry or whatever else you can fit into your notebook.


Star Wars Study: You loved the movies now come learn a bit more about the characters and films. What really makes that lightsaber sound? When did Luke "come of age"? Was Anakin truly good or evil? Who is Jocasta Nu? Get just a glimpse at what goes into making a film.

Each student will pick a character (from an assigned list) to focus on for the semester as we learn more about the creation of the films. While having seen the films is not mandatory a fresh working knowledge of the whole saga (Episodes 1-6) would be most useful to you. Besides isn't it fun to have an excuse to watch 9 hours and 22 minutes of movies?

In class we will cover film and literary topics like: plot, theme, setting, soundtrack, special effects and more. Class work will include some outside homework such as reading material provided, watching the movies, short writing and your role in a class project of creating a short Star Wars fan film.

Great Outside Days

The kids and I have been braving the hot and humid weather to be outside enjoying nature. Yesterday we had a nature explorers session and we went to a small local pond that is right in the middle of a busy suburban area. Originally I was not even going to add it unsure there would be much there for us to see. But the kids found so much reminding us parents that it often takes very little to capture their imagination.

Yesterday was all about bugs. They found lots of grasshoppers, dragonflies, moths, spiders and other creepy crawlers. The most interesting find were these huge clam shells in tact. They were like ocean size clams and very unusual for where we were - had all the parents scratching their heads. The kids had a great time and were very into it - a nice group of kids and a fun time. As an extra treat they got frozen custard afterwards, it doesn't get much better than that.

Today the kids and I headed down to our favorite pond and walked around. Today was all about turtles. We must have seen 30 turtles in our little pond. It was amazing how many there were swimming, sunning and diving into the water. Ciaran was determined and kept trying and right before we reached the end of our walk he managed to catch a small box turtle as it was burying itself into the mud. He was so excited, I was just thankful it was not a snapping turtle. He also caught a frog (for once overshadowed by the accomplishment of the box turtle), a big caterpillar (thought they were mostly past season) and had a great time getting all muddy and scratched up.


Rhiannon found a great surprise. We were walking down a dried up creek bed (since it hasn't rained here forever it seems - how many of you have not had to mow your lawn since mid June?) when she stopped to examine some rotting logs. She spotted inside one a "cache" as in geocaching. It was a small tupperware covered in camo tape and she recognized it from when we went geocaching with our friends. We still do not have a GPS so she found this just by accident. The kids were super excited - though we did not have any trinkets to leave behind so we did not take the little frog that Ciaran fell in love with. Still it was great fun to find one without a GPS or even looking for it. Now their desire to geocache is even greater. We are having a garage sale in the hopes of raising enough money to purchase a GPS and begin geocaching. I have no doubt it will be an instant favorite with the whole family.

It was hot and it was humid but we all had a great time. Even Sirah managed to walk for a little over an hour without complaining or whining. She was so proud of herself when we got home that she had done it all by herself.



Everyone was in good spirits and the kids decided to build a small fort in their closet and tucked themselves in their with a book on tape of magic tree house and some snacks while I picked up and made dinner. Then we read stories over dinner. Our current family read aloud is a Sugar Creek Gang book and they are really enjoying them. We also read Make Way for Ducklings in honor of the ducklings we saw today.

I headed back outside this evening for a three mile walk at the arboretum alone and it was wonderful to have time in nature alone. I even brought my sketch book and enjoyed sitting and drawing. I never realized how hard it is to draw until I started trying to do it myself. Still I am getting better and I enjoy the quiet activity and representing what I am seeing in a way that will be memorable to me - just wish I had started when I was younger. Still better late then never. Part of why I decided to teach a Nature Notebook class for our homeschool co-op. Let them start early and maybe some of them will continue on through life. Then to look back over the years and see all that you saw and how you improved. Kind of like looking back on your favorite books and reading lists.

Hope you can get outside and enjoy the days of summer - even if it is hot where you are. The air conditioning just feels like heaven when you return home and get to cool off.

Blessing,
Tenniel

Excitement of Nature

Watching my kids in nature is great fun. They get extremely excited over the precious little things. We were on a nature hike with friends and the mom asked me if they were more excited because they were with others or if it is always like this. I said it is always like this, they get very excited in a way that is hard to express in a blog.

Sirah's mood can change in an instant if a frog, butterfly, catterpillar, interesting insect or really any critter is discovered. She could have been crying seconds before and suddenly she is running with a great big smile so excited to see the newest find. Her excitement is contagious as she rushes to you to get the bug cage or to show you the newest frog. It really brings a smile to everyone around her.

Ciaran is loud and proud. He is so happy when he catches something and he wants to share it with you. He is jumpy like a frog when he finds something until he shares it with everyone and has a moment to enjoy it - then he slowly calms down. That is until the next thing is found and the excitement loop starts again.

Rhiannon is a bit more staid in her reaction. She is excited like the others but less expressive of that, unless it is butterflies. She has always had a thing for butterflies that is hard to contain. She does get excited for the other finds as well but expresses it more calmly.

Being out in nature is always fun and interesting with my kids. I love their excitement and pure joy.

The Bane of Nature..

I love being outdoors, I really do. I love encouraging my kids to explore God's creation and spend as much time in the spring-fall outside as we can. Very little discourages me from being outside. But I do have my weaknesses and I have had to overcome them over the years. For me there are two banes of nature that I could simply live without.



With how much time we spend outdoors it should not surprise me how many of these we see in a season. We have already pulled off more than I can count just this year. Even in Ireland we were awoken in the night to realize we had a tick crawling in our bed after our country hike. There is nothing quite like the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night with something crawling on your arm only to feel and discover it is a tick. Or looking at the back of your sons head and discovering that yes indeed that is a tell tale bullseye symbol on his neck.


Now you might think with how many ticks have hidden themselves on us that we are irresponsible in nature. Nope, we wear long sleeves and pants often, light colored clothes, hair pulled back, baseball caps and do a tick check both at the site after we are done walking and again before bed each day we have been in likely tick areas. Still we manage to bring some home with us and even get bit from time to time. We caught Ciaran's pretty early and the medicine took care of it - it is the ones we could miss that concern me.

Still even with the ticks we are heading out on hikes, in brushy areas, looking for frogs and walking the less traveled path. We do our best to try to keep them away and leave them where they belong. The other offender is much harder to ignore and more likely to leave us running for the solace of indoor shelter.

Let me introduce you to the State Bird of Minnesota:


I have lived in a lot of states and traveled to nearly all in the United States and I have never been to a place that is worse for these pests than here. I suppose we live in the land of 10,000 lakes what can I expect? I am resistant to bug repellent but if we want to be outdoors at all we need to use it. Okay I am exaggerating slightly but only slightly. We don't use it every time we walk out the door but for sure on hikes, camping trips, dusk, fourth of july and being outside in the evening without a fire.

Why is this on my mind? Because today I found 5 mosiquito bites, Sirah has another four and we found two ticks this week! _Sigh_ but it is all part of being a "nature girl" as I tell Rhiannon every time she complains about the bugs. She always reminds me she simply does not like the blood sucking ones. I can't say I blame her - I don't like them either. But they won't keep me indoors. Any other banes of nature out there for you?

A Boy and a Frog...

Here is a familiar sight for our day today - an image of a Leopard Frog jumping away into water. We took a nature walk today with grandma and Ciaran was quite focused on finding frogs - now I know you are surprised.

Grandma found the first two frogs and pointed them out. Very excited as these were the first frogs seen of the season - until now it has been toads and merely hearing frogs. These frogs leaped away before Ciaran could get anywhere near them. He quickly moved to all the sunny bits of the pond where they might be waiting and sunning themselves. Together they saw about a dozen frogs with nearly as many failed attempts at catching one.

Ciaran looked the part of a little boy on a frog hunt. He was wearing shorts and mud boots. The mud boots were a battle to get him to wear - he wanted to wear sandals - but mom withstood the power struggle anticipating what was to come. Mom was wise. Ciaran was covered in mud and muck all along his boots and legs and his hands where he stuck them in as he attempted to reach the frogs.

Anyone who has ever tried to catch a leopard frog knows it is challenging - they move quick, leap far and are very jumpy and slippery if you manage somehow to be lucky enough to catch one for a moment. It is entertaining and also a little heart breaking to watch Ciaran try to catch the frogs. He is so focused and determined and it is hard frustrating work as he moves through the brush, weeds and muck to follow the frogs. A mother's heart just desperately wants him to catch the frog for a payoff for all his hard work.

Thankfully today we had a brief moment of victory. Ciaran and Rhiannon were along the shore together and found a prime sunning spot - three leopard frogs. They approached each one and it jumped away immediately. The third one Ciaran decided on a different approach - he put himself in the water and the frog had no choice but to jump into the brush. Rhiannon was standing there and moved quickly towards it and the frog leaped towards the water and instead landed on Ciarans chest as his hands quickly went up and around the frog. Success! For a few shining moments he was able to hold the leopard frog - who quickly squirmed out of his hands and back into the safety of the water. But it was the moment he has been waiting for since October when they went into hibernation and the first frog encounter of the season. Whew!

Our nature walk also yielded many other fun things, most especially time with grandma. Sirah found a broad-winged hawk feather and really enjoyed the ducklings. Rhiannon loved finding a sumac tree filled with red admiral butterflies. It really was a beautiful site. I am so thankful for the time spent outside with my kids appreciating and enjoying nature. As I watch them grow in their outdoor skills and love of nature it makes me joy-filled. As Rhiannon correctly identifies a hawk and stands her ground even when I think she is wrong, or Ciaran finds a frog when everyone thinks there is no hope, or Sirah points out a bird she enjoys. Those are special moments that I treasure.

Sure there were some power struggles to get out the door with boots on, some tears from Sirah about walking by herself and definitely a muddy son who needed an immediate shower. But those costs are all worth the reward and the joys we had playing follow the leader, learning grandma's tidbits about different plants and animals, and just discovering nature together. Get out and enjoy God's creation with your children in simple and rewarding ways.

Peace,
Tenniel

Young Nature Explorers

We had our second meeting of our Young Nature Explorers Club and it was great! We meet at a nearby lake and walked the trail around it at a leisurely pace with the kids stopping to explore whatever interested them at the time. We had another good sized group with over 30 kids there ranging in age from infants in strollers to around 9, with a good number of moms to keep an eye on the kids.

We had perfect weather and a nice trail to walk. The kids kept different paces, some moving through quickly, others taking their time, some stopping to sketch or examine a bug that no one else was interested in. We had moms in the front and moms in the back to keep the kids together and then everyone else kind of floated in the middle answering kids questions and taking time to visit with other moms.

The kids found a lot of great things from damsel flies, dragonflies, lots of caterpillars, worms, moths, slugs, spiders, and a wide variety of bugs we were unsure of. We saw fish, ducks, birds and all the usual. One girl even found a beautiful hawk feather!

Ciaran was disappointed that we did not find any frogs at this time but seemed to enjoy himself overall as he loves being out in nature and was the insipiration for the group. Rhia was happy to spend time with her friends and very excited for the monarch caterpillar she found. Sirah was having a fussy day. Thankfully someone lent me a stroller and several moms and kids helped out with pushing her and keeping an eye on her when I was leading a group off down a dirt trail or trying to answer a question about what something was. Thank you ladies for your help!!!

This really is an easy activity to organize for a group. Just pick an outdoor location and walk around it - letting the kids do the rest. They needed very little encouragement or direction. Occasionally one of us would point something out or ask a question to get them started but for the most part they did what they naturally want to do - explore. We encouraged families to bring their own supplies and some items that were used today were magnifying glasses, butterfly nets, bug vacuum, insect cages, nature notebooks and a sea scope. I chose not to bring my binoculars and I think that was wise this group moves too fast really for bird watching which requires more patience. We forgot our bug spray but another family was kind enough to share which my girls were thankfully for. Overall the group was great about sharing and taking turns with one another.

Our family really enjoyed ourselves and it seemed like everyone who came enjoyed themselves, especially the kids. We ended our walk at a nearby playground and several families also brought lunch so the kids played together for a bit before everyone headed home in time to get younger siblings home for naps. A great way to spend a cool summer morning.

Young Nature Explorers Club

This summer I asked my kids what they wanted to do with their friends and Ciaran wanted to explore nature with them. Go to parks and catch frogs, look at bugs, walk through the woods, all that great stuff that sadly kids can no longer do on their own. So I agreed to start a Young Nature Explorers club within our homeschool support group. I posted an interest thread and was amazed at the response. So far I have over 42 kids interested! Who knows how many will make it each week but clearly this was desired by the kids and parents.

My plan is to meet at a different local park, nature center, or nature preserve each week and just have open exploring time. I made it clear it will not a drop off activity and with that many kids interested I am glad I did! We will just go through the parks together as a group taking time to observe, explore, discover and learn together. I encouraged families to bring whatever individual supplies they want. We will bring our butterfly nets, bug vacuum, magnifying glass, field guides, nature journal sketchbooks, colored pencils and some sort of bucket to collect things in. Though the rule of the club will be that we need to leave everything in the park and keep it nicer than we found it. I plan to carry a trash bag with me as well. I know one mom plans to bring a portable microscope.

It is a very easy summer acitivty to organize if you are interested. We decided on meeting every other week from the end of May through August. That is because I also organize beach days for our group and I made those alternating weeks from this nature club so we have at least one activity to look forward to each week to see our homeschool friends but we do not get overburdened with activities.

I am really looking forward to it. I am an outdoors mom in the spring, summer and fall. I love hiking, exploring nature, the beach, swimming, bike riding and taking walks with my kids. I love helping them discover God's creation and enjoy nature. This is a perfect set-up for me because one of the things that holds me back from hiking in some interesting places is not feeling safe alone in deep wooded areas with three small children in tow. Having other parents with me alleviates these concerns and opens up more new areas to explore for my family.

Our family also plans to take up geocaching as a new family hobby this summer. We are starting to investigate GPS handhelds and hope to start sometime in May or June. We love nature, hiking as a family and treasure hunting so this should be a great combination of things for us. Anyone else geocache and have a GPS they love?

Get out and enjoy nature with your kids this summer!