Due to other family happenings, I was home alone with my youngest son today. It was chilly, but sunny and I decided to drive him, our dog and myself down the road to a local nature center for a walk in the woods. In all of our previous treks (and snowshoeing hikes), our littlest has always ridden in the backpack. But he’ll be 2 next week and really doesn’t like riding around any more (“I do it!!” is a favorite refrain) so this was to be an actual walk for him. I didn’t have expectations of getting very far, I was more interested in just mucking about in the woods with him and my dog. We had a fine old time and saw some really neat stuff – some of which I managed to remember to capture on film. And what would that expression be now that most of us don’t use film, by the way? Captured on… card? Phone? Doesn’t have the same ring to it. Oh well. I still refer to music compilations as ‘albums’.
Moving on… I photographed some really cool fungus on a red pine tree. Mushrooms are one area I really haven’t studied yet; I have a hard enough time keeping up with the stuff I do know. I’m amazed at how much information I’ve either forgotten or buried away – but that’s a topic for another time. I photographed it so I could keep a record of it; goodness knows if I’ll ever get around to looking it up, but it was fun to explore. If anyone reading this post knows what it is, ignore my post on coyote teaching and tell me in the comments please. 🙂
There was a footpath over a wet area and my guy had a blast just poking a stick in the water and moving the leaves around. We sat there for a good 10 minutes on the way back; he definitely would have stayed longer but his hands were freezing and I was worried about getting him warmed up. Who needs toys when you have a stick, a puddle and wet leaves?? (I love the light in this photo)
On our way back we found this really cool tree stump covered in moss; it looked like the perfect gnome home:
I’m happy to report that my youngest was much more willing to do this walk than my oldest ever was. Hikes in the woods were like forced marches for him when he was 4 and 5 (he’s a little better now at 7, but not much). The little one just trekked along. I carried him part of the way back, but it was down a very steep hill that he had trouble going up in the first place, so that seemed pretty normal.
What do you do with your kids to get them exploring nature on their terms? I’m always looking for ideas…
