Nature Lovers

We love being outdoors among the trees, flowers, birds, and bugs! Early this morning, Nicholas and I did one of our most favorite activities - spending time exploring outdoors. We took a nature walk through a wooded creek bed near our home. I've been letting him play at this spot since he was barely able to walk. We used to sit on the edge of the creek while Nicholas threw rocks into the water. Now he is able to navigate over the rocks and walks through the creek bed on his own.


But of course, he still likes to throw rocks into the water. The bigger the splash, the better!!

We always find such wonderful things when we are out in nature. Here Nicholas is looking at some interesting rocks that he found.

Here's a cool hole in the base of the tree. Notice the hole continues through to the other side of the tree! Nicholas was just fascinated with this. He looked all around inside the hole, poked a stick in it, and asked a lot of questions about it including what kind of animals might like to live in there.

Nicholas also found a stick that was longer than he is. He enjoyed carrying it around with him as it had many purposes. It was good for drawing on the dirt, moving rocks around, poking into holes, and even served as a nice sword. I love his imagination!

We also saw many cool bugs on our trip. There were lots of roly poly bugs, ants, worms, and even some minnows in the creek. We saw some beautiful blue dragonflys as well as some red dragonflys that I've never seen before. When Nicholas saw the red dragonflys, he asked me what kind of dragonfly they were. Unfortunately I missed a teachable moment because I didn't know the name for the neat little guys. I sadly just told him that they were called "Red Dragonflys"! However, my next purchase at Amazon.com will include a book on bug identification!

Nicholas also discovered a dead yellow jacket on the sidewalk. He tried to pick it up with a stick but then he remembered that we had brought along his "bug house", tweezers, and magnifying glass for just such an occasion. Mommy helped him pick up the yellow jacket and we looked at it more closely with the magnifying glass. We discussed the antennaes, head, thorax, abdomen, legs, wings, and, of course, the stinger. Nicholas insisted on putting him in the bug house and bringing him home with us. He has a great collection of wonderful finds from our many nature walks!


I can't stress enough the importance of children spending time outdoors. If you are not familiar with it, check out the book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. My mom sent this book to me when Nicholas was first born. She is a nature-lover so she couldn't help but read it herself before mailing it to me. I love that she did because she made lots of wonderful notes and suggestions in it for me. It's really a great book and it's is all the buzz in the nature and education industries. I've heard it recommended four times in the last three months which says a lot for a book that is several years old. Louv says many problems with children today are due to a lack of play in nature, and he sites some great research to back up his findings. Unfortunately, television, computer games, organized activites, etc. have replaced fort building, bug chasing, and mud pies. So let children get muddy, climb trees, play in the rain, and explore the world around them while they are young. Mud washes off, scrapes heal, and wet clothes will dry!