After visiting our favorite used bookstore, we stopped at one of Gerrick's favorite parks and spent several hours. We like it because it's not just a fenced in area with playground equipment; the main structure is designed like a pirate ship and there is also sand, large trees, and lots of open green space right next to the lake.
First we explored the edge of the lake, and he decided to "build a fire under a shelter".
Then we tried to climb a tree.
Eventually he wanted to play on the playground, and he played with lots of different kids that came and went while we were there.
I knew he was sitting at the top of the slide, but after about 10 minutes of not being able to see him from where I was sitting & reading, I figured I should get up and check on him. He was watching a caterpillar.
I asked him if he wanted to draw it in his nature journal, and he said he did and asked me to bring it to him.
After he drew it and two other caterpillars he had seen before, he came to the table and asked me how to spell the word
caterpillars and the names he had given each one. He also wanted to know how to spell
woolly bear and whatever the other two kinds he'd drawn were. (This is when an iPod Touch may have been handy. Clearly I didn't have a clue what the caterpillars were or how to spell
woolly or
crawly. Surely there are apps for that so that we could have pulled up the information without having to carry around a dictionary and every field guide known to man? Regardless, I did tell him I wasn't sure of the spellings and that if we were home I would have checked in a dictionary. If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, how have you used it in nature?)
Play along with us during the month of April for
Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors. (You can join in anytime!) Share your link at
5 Orange Potatoes and see what others are doing. Also, be sure to check out the virtual
Family Nature Club over at
Ordinary Life Magic (Too.).
