Play Animal Detectives

Even if you don’t see animals on your walk, kids can look for clues to show them what critters have been on the path before you got there.

If you are walking in nature, it can be frustrating and disappointing for children (and adults) to not see any animals roaming about the woods. Of course, I should clarify that statement by saying that we might not notice animals as opposed to saying that we might not see animals on our walk.

One, many people don’t count birds and insects as animals. They move too fast, they don’t travel in straight lines, and oftentimes we hear them but we don’t get a good look at them. Two, many animals are active between dusk and dawn when the lighting allows for them to be seen. Noon is when the day is brightest and hottest. However, you can still look for signs of the animals that have recently moved through the area you are walking at the moment.

Although we call them ‘signs’ they are anything but as obvious as the signs that people make. Animal signs can include holes in the ground and in trees, droppings, tracks, nests, chewed twigs, bent twigs, and scratched up areas of ground or leaves. You don’t need to identify the sources of these signs of animal activity but it can be fun to guess. Avoid spending a lot of time analyzing the source of each sign, as children will tire of the activity. For older children who desire some competition, award one point to the first person to notice each sign.

If children really want to learn what animals are moving around in nature, look for a tracking field guide that shows more than footprint patterns.

Experience the Outdoors, Don’t Just Read about It - Part One

School starts and kids get new textbooks. They sit in the classroom on the first day and look at the neat piles of books, gathering clues as to what they will be learning about during the school year. Chances are they will make regular trips to the school library, each week to get a new book. The ‘readers’ probably didn’t get to read as many books as they would have liked over the summer (“We just went to the library a few days ago; you’ll just have to wait until I have time to take you back,” says mom/dad/babysitter.) These kids will be ecstatic to roam the shelves at school. For the kids who dread reading and do so because it is an assigned chore, the weekly library visits hold less appeal.

Some of these kids, both the kids with lots of enthusiasm as well as those who are less so, pick up books about nature. Sometimes it’s a kid who loves to read everything, but more likely it is a kid who reads into a single subject and becomes an ‘expert.’ Who wouldn’t love reading about nature? The books have lots of pictures and you learn facts that are guaranteed to gross out a few adults at the dinner table.

My problem with these books is that kids tend not to pay attention to some important facts, such as where an animal is from. I’ve had third graders on field trips ask if the sanctuary they are visiting – in New England – has black mamba snakes, jaguars, primates, and a whole host of other animals. At first, I thought kids were joking, I mean, when was the last time they saw a spider monkey hanging from the backyard bird feeder?

But, no, because they had read about these animals and how they lived in wild places and our 2000-acre suburban sanctuary seems wild to the kids, so, well, we must have Wild Animals. I remember one ten year old boy that adored snakes and was a fount of information about snakes. He would recite facts about snakes (to the point that he annoyed and bored his classmates) in a superior fashion – that I didn’t know about all of these snakes he saw as a down falling in both my intelligence and training.

However, he would run off into the shrub and come back saying that he just saw snake X – a snake that could not live in New England. At one point I saw the common garter snake he was chasing after, but he identified it as something more exotic. His classmates looked at me with some anxiety as I explained the identity of the snake; all while their fellow student argued.

I named the snakes that lived in Massachusetts and told this boy that those were the animals that he could choose from when trying to determine which animal he saw. Oh, but he had read about these other snakes and he knew I must be wrong …. (continued)

Getting Ready for Fall

I know, autumn is a couple of weeks away, but Back-to-School sales and Halloween candy filling a corner of the grocery store has me focusing on this seasonal transition. Go for a walk with your kids (you might be able to do this in your backyard) and look for ten signs that the season is changing. You’ll find the single red leaf, the yellowing grass, and the birds gathering in flocks as they prepare for their southward journey.

Although it is too early to start hunting for favorite fallen leaves, kids can start going through the backyard gathering the toys strewn about from the summer. Box up one summer toy each day, a small ritual acknowledging the quick trip toward autumn. Make summer special with things devoted to that season. And, make autumn special by bringing in things for this season – you and your children can think of what those things can be (bringing the sweaters down from the attic, putting an apple picking trip on the calendar, etc).

Fall into Beginning

Fall is a time to wrap things up. Woodchucks snatch the last mouthfuls of green grass before heading into hibernation. Squirrels and chipmunks continue their wild run to store food for colder weather. Gardeners and farmers start thinking of final harvests.

Yet while some things are winding down, autumn is also a season for starting things. Kids start a new grade. No matter what month their birthdays, fall is like another birthday; instead of announcing a new age, they get to announce their new grade. September or October is also Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Unlike the secular New Year, there are no drinking binges and party hats. However, there is some introspection – what mistakes have been made in the past year and what changes will be incorporated into the New Year?

Even if you aren’t Jewish, you can use the changes of the season, not to mention the start of the school year, as an opportunity to plan some ‘fall cleaning.’ You can connect this contemplation to the environment – Is the lunchbox filled with plastic bags that get tossed each night? How could you change that? Maybe you don’t spend much time outside; consider how you and your children can get outdoors more often.

This doesn’t have to be a parent-directed edict, one more thing that you tell your children they can change. Instead talk together about what you observe in nature and consider how you can incorporate change into your lives. Unlike the January 1st resolution, try to make a promise to include something in your life instead of merely trying to eliminate things and make this a more positive experience.

Do You Close Your Eyes in Nature?

It is all too easy while walking to get caught up in one’s thoughts or in a conversation with whomever you are walking with. If you’ve ever had that heart-leaping feeling when you suddenly become aware of your surroundings but can’t remember how you got there then you know what I mean. This isn’t something that only adults do.

I remember one time at work allowing a group of homeschoolers to lead a walk. I didn’t tell them that they were leading the walk. I didn’t really plan this; we were walking and exploring, so it didn’t really matter where we went. They stopped at the edge of the nature center’s front yard and looked both ways before crossing the street. Some of the kids who were walking next to me asked, “Is that the direction we’re going?” I said, “It is now.”

I was the sole adult with ten or so kids, many who’d taken my science and nature classes for a year or two. We ended up dividing into two groups. The group to the front was deep in a conversation. Although they acknowledged diverging paths by stopping, someone in that group would inevitably select the route to take, glance back to see that I and the rest of the group was following and continue ahead.

Of course, the kids walking with me thought that this was hilarious. Although the kids in the lead were familiar with the trails, it was winter and the few inches of snow on the ground had obliterated this less traveled path. At one point, I commented to the group close to me that we were no longer on the trail. They were, of course, a bit concerned that we were lost; but, I knew that we were between two parallel trails and would come upon one of them soon.

The group near me started wondering when the chatting students in the forward group would notice that we were no longer on a trail. The fact that they had been walking for 30 minutes without a destination hadn’t bothered them, but wouldn’t the lack of a trail.

Twenty minutes later, the lead group stopped. We were just 20 or 25 feet behind them so we caught up in a few steps. One student proclaimed, “I think we’re lost. Where are we going by the way?” The kids walking with me broke up laughing. Within five minutes we found the trail. The walk was a bit longer than ‘planned’ but it taught an interesting lesson.

Know where you are going. Whether you are walking in a city or a suburban neighborhood, you’ll get directions so you can go from one place to the next. The number of people who head out without a map into a forest is astounding. When they call on their cell phone they are usually left fumbling as they try to describe their location and get directions back to the parking lot.

So, a couple of things when you set out on a walk, one, know where you are going – will you encounter steep hills, uneven footing, seasonal flooding? Two, pay attention to your surroundings. Don’t get so caught up in thoughts or conversations that you miss trail or street signs.

Glance around and see where you are. Get kids in the habit of stopping and playing observation games. They aren’t just to slow the pace but to train kids (and adults) to notice where they are. At one level, your walks will be safer. On another level, they will be more enjoyable as you notice where you are.

Restoring One’s Spirit in Nature

Okay, I’m a big proponent for getting kids outside. I don’t have children but I’ve worked in environmental education for 14 years. This summer has been about my father being diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies, dealing with hospital – nursing home – assisted living, cleaning out his house, testing/pre op/surgery/post op for his cataract surgery, and more paperwork than I could ever imagine. Every phone call that should complete a task only adds another task (or two or three).

The summer months I longed to arrive for early morning or early evening walks have fallen to the wayside in ‘favor’ of doctors’ appointments and picking through the remnants of my parents’, two hoarders, lives. My meager teaching schedule has involved indoor presentations to toddlers and preschoolers in day care centers. And, although I say that parents should make time for their kids to spend at least 10-15 minutes outdoors, no matter how busy the schedule, I am sad to say that I couldn’t take that advice for myself.

Two days this week I’ve tried to get myself back into the habit of walking at the cemetery, ‘memorial park’ that I favor. I check out the trees and branches downed by Hurricane Irene while my mind runs through to do lists and ‘I don’t wanna’ lists. I smell the fresh cut red oak and listen to the crows complain about my presence as they fly from tree-to-tree following me.

Nature reminds me that everything changes – sometimes in small steps, as with daily adjustments from one season to the next; and other times in great leaps, as with the hurricane. Everything transforms. My father is not the same person he was at the start of the summer and neither am I. My walks in nature have reminded me of this.

Keep a Nature Notebook

With school supplies hitting the stores, often at lower prices than you’ll find the rest of the year, consider purchasing an extra notebook or two for nature notes.

A nature notebook can be as detailed or as simple as desired. The age of the child, their writing skills, and their overall schedule are factors that determine how much time the child can give to a nature journal. But, why keep a nature journal? It makes you more aware of nature – if kids know that they’ll be writing or drawing something that they saw during the day, they will make a point of paying attention during the day to things that they can include in the notebook.

Keep the notebook beside the child’s bed along with a pencil, pen, or favorite drawing supplies. Use the five or ten minutes before lights out to encouraging your child to list one-to-five things they observed in nature that day, draw a picture of something they saw, or write a story about what they saw. This calming activity can become a habit the child looks forward to after just a few days of practice.

Write the day, date, and year at the top of the page, everyday.

Make each day’s entry on a new piece of paper. If the child writes small, then they can use a page to hold a few entries, just be certain to start each entry with the date.

If desired, include information about the weather, what the child did during the day, etc. that sets the stage for the observations.

Use words or images or both to describe something the child observed in nature. Younger children can get an adult’s assistance while older children can fill the page on their own.

Keeping a nature journal encourages observation, writing and spelling skills, and a connection to nature with an awareness of the seasons.

Getting Ready for Winter in June

For the past month, as spring has been working its way toward summer, I’ve been watching chipmunks zipping around the park where I walk. Their cheek pouches are so enlarged with seeds that their bodies don’t seem to be large enough to support their distended heads.

It is amazing to think that it is barely June and these small creatures are already in full-force winter survival mode. Humans are pulling on their shorts, slathering on the sunscreen, and talking about trips to the beach, meanwhile animals the size of chicken nuggets are planning to deal with three feet of snow on the ground.

So, start gathering seeds now for the winter. Collect leaves and flowers; press them between the pages of a dictionary until they’re dried. Take photos of the flowers blooming now. Take walks with your kids and when you go home, list three details of the season that you’ll forget about by the time November rolls around. Chances are you still have a bank calendar in your desk drawer that you didn’t use this year – turn it into a nature diary.

Collect memories and images of the season so you can pull them out when nature is gray and brown and white and nourish your and your children’s spirits the way the busy chipmunk nourishes its belly.

Observation Loop – Get Kids to Focus Small

A common naturalist’s tool for getting children to focus on a small area is to intentionally or randomly set a Hula hoop on the ground. Kids then use this boundary for their close-up investigation. See, if you just point to a grassy area in a yard or a leaf-strewn area in the forest kids will glance at the area (maybe, but not likely, crouching to do so), and tell you they see nothing. Define the area and now it’s easier for kids to center their attention.

Of course, a Hula hoop is an awkward item to carry on a walk, so you can carry a piece of rope. Tie two sliding knots and you can adjust the size of your loop. To do this, take a twelve foot piece of rope and cross the two ends over one another so they extend approximately a foot beyond the point where they cross. Now, knot one end to the loop and the knot the other end to the loop. You should be able to slide the knots along the loop, making the circle larger or smaller.

Go for a walk and find a spot to set the loop. Don’t worry if you don’t see anything obvious about that location, the key to the observation loop is that it helps to reveal things that you’d overlook. You and the kids may have to squat or kneel around the loop to get closer. Move the leaf litter (gently), push aside the blades of grass as you and your children look for insects, worm castings (little piles of soil), seeds, rocks, holes or trails worn into the soil, and whatever else you might find.

You don’t need magnifying glasses, although kids may enjoy using them as they are thinking small. The object of the activity is to learn that you just can’t give something in nature (and beyond) a quick glance and think that you’ve seen and learned everything that you need to. This activity encourages patience and if your child isn’t patient then when you set down the observation loop you can challenge them to find the five or ten secret or hidden things. You don’t have to know what these five or ten things are, but a random number makes this observation more task-oriented.

You can bring this loop of rope anywhere – forest, field, backyard, etc – and learn to see the tiny worlds that you normally walk past.

Sensory Walks with Kids

Don’t relegate sensory explorations of nature to preschoolers. Sensory activities are fantastic observation actions that go beyond noticing nature with our eyes alone. Becoming aware of the world around us with our senses is a mindfulness technique that even adults can use to reduce stress. So much information from our surroundings enters our brains that it is forced to filter out or push aside many details. By aligning with our senses, we are directing our brain’s focus toward what is important to us.

Single Sense Exploration – Focus your walk, or part of your walk, on investigating the area with emphasis on one sense. Pay more attention to the odors you walk past. Notice the different sounds and try to individualize each noise so it is more than just background chatter. Run your hand over the dew on the grass, the bark of trees, the delicate-looking flower petals. Give your child a challenge to notice 10 or 25 different smells, sounds, textures, colors, or interesting things to look at.

Notice 5 – During a walk, stop and call out, “Notice 5 smells/textures/sounds/colors (you, as leader, will select one).” Each individual, or everyone as a group, plants their feet in place and calls out five things they notice connected to the sensory mode you selected. Doing this once during a walk is sufficient to avoid haranguing those with you. Adults should play along with children.

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – Once during a walk, do a sensory countdown. Ask for five sounds, four colors, three smells, two textures, one interesting thing that you are looking at. You can shuffle around the senses so each time you play this, children and adults are focusing on different senses.

Select one of these activities to do on a walk, even if it just up the street to school. You can also try some Listening to Nature Activities. Your walk will seem richer as you notice things that you may have walked by dozens of times in the past. This may become such a part of you outdoor routine, that you children will lead the activities or you (and they) will find yourselves doing them on their own.

Kids and Collecting in Nature

On this morning’s walk, I feel as if I am wading through maple samaras, those little propellers that, when broken open, stick nicely to your nose or fingertips. But we’ve had rain forever and these seeds are plastered to the road. They probably didn’t even pirouette out of the trees.

I pick up one, thinking to take a picture of it at home. Well, I can’t just take a picture of one maple seed and I come upon some more that instead of being bright green are tinged red. Then there are small keys with the propellers going in the same direction instead of leaning off in different directions. And then there were the keys with plump instead of flat seeds. Well, you get the idea.

Many kids are natural collectors. Even if they don’t bring their treasures home, chances are they are inclined to at least pick up a leaf, rock, acorn, stick … something. You can direct that energy – gathering is a great observation activity and can be focusing and calming. This does require a bit of observation on your part; look for something profuse in the area. If you notice a lot of acorns, challenge your children to collect as many acorns as they can in 30 seconds.

After collecting, you can ask your kids to sort what they’ve collected from smallest to largest, lightest to darkest, or whatever pattern the child can think up. If you don’t want your child picking up a handful of pink rocks or a pocketful of maple samaras, but you that he or she is inclined toward picking up something, challenge them to find the biggest and smallest __________ in the space between two trees, logs, rocks, or other markers of a defined space.

To (try to) convince your child to leave their treasures in nature, stop shortly before the end of your walk (when home or the car isn’t in sight) and ask your child to make a picture or pattern with what they’ve collected so other people can see the child’s wonderful finds. If the child knows or is learning her letters, she could write a word with what she’s collected, such as, “Hi,” “Peace,” “Walk,” or whatever short word strikes the child’s fancy.

By collecting, the child is noticing what is out there in nature. Don’t worry that they won’t see everything, the experience, and memory, of the time they collected 107 acorns on a walk will be enough.

Nature on the Edge

Finding animals in nature is not like walking around the zoo. When kids visit the wildlife sanctuary where I work and they ask what animals they will see, I usually start off by telling them that large animals like deer and coyote aren’t often active at ten in the morning, nor would they tolerate the large and noisy group of children stomping through their home.

However, if they pay attention, they will see lots of insects, see and hear birds, and see (and perhaps hear) frogs. Quite often we get to see red and gray squirrels as well as chipmunks. On occasion, deer (usually yearlings or mothers with fawns) hang out alongside the trails. Sometimes a mother turkey (once with eleven poults) will claim the fields along the most traveled trail for her territory.

Sometimes, it is a matter of looking carefully. Children will often see snakes that I just walked by. My movements probably cause the snake to move, so those children behind me get to see its response. I once saw a ribbon snake clinging to the side of a yellow birch, sunning. I wouldn’t have expected to catch a snake there, I’m glad that it caught my eye.

Where I live, the backyard doesn’t go back ten feet before turning into an edge habitat - tangles of shrubs and weeds, rocks and fill. Beyond that is the neighbor’s backyard from the next street over. A narrow wooded area runs between the backyards from the two streets.

Here I have watched gray squirrels, rabbits, and a groundhog. Last year I was highly surprised to watch a long-tailed weasel dash from my front yard across the street. Earlier this spring I watched a hawk land on a branch and stare at the scruffy edge at the end of the lawn. Within minutes, the hawk swooped and returned to the branch with a shrew. This past weekend I saw a deer meandering in the woods.

What I’m saying, is that you have to be willing to see what you see. You can’t expect a certain animal to appear when you want it to. Whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area, take the time to look out the window throughout the day. If you and your children are outside, you may disturb the animals, so this is an odd case where you need to be indoors to see what is outdoors. Look outside before the sun is up, when it first rises, mid-morning, afternoon, mid-afternoon, dusk, night. Don’t just glance outside, gaze.

You can encourage children to look out their bedroom window throughout the day. Set a journal beside the window so the child can record what they see and when they see it. This requires some patience, days and days could go by without spotting a squirrel. But, the day the child notices a hawk in the tree in the front yard, it will be worth the wait.

Seasonal Color Wheel

What are the colors of spring? Summer? Autumn? Winter? Each season offers a unique color palette. If an interior decorator selected colors for four rooms in the colors of each season, chances are that you’d have no difficulty telling what season was represented in each room. Once children become old enough to be aware that they’ve experienced a season in their past, they too would recognize the colors of the seasons.

You can do these activities during any season; you could even do them each month of the year. The activities go beyond simple color recognition to noticing the variations within colors. Try these as art projects, even if you don’t feel that you yourself are artistically inclined. Do the activities along with your children, students, scouts, or campers.

Color Match
Go to the hardware store and collect an assortment of paint chip samples (start with greens, browns, and grays). If you have the time and inclination, cut the strips apart into individual colors and toss them in a bag or envelope. Now, go outside with the kids and give everyone at least one of the paint samples and encourage them to explore the area looking for as close a match in nature as they can possibly find.

Players can switch to different colors if they can’t find what they are trying to match, or they can hold onto a color in the hopes of matching it elsewhere along their walk. Try this activity in natural settings as well as urban or suburban settings to contrast the colors of not just seasons but environments.

Color Wheel
This activity is a bit more complex because instead of matching colors the participants are creating color matches. Each player will need some paper and either colored pencils or watercolors. Although the manufacture is providing a range of colors, point out those colors can be mixed or layered to create other colors.

Take a plate and draw a circle on the paper. Divide the circle into six, eight, or twelve pie sections. Now, go outside and select a color distinctive of the season and color in one of the pie sections. Again, the yellow of forsythia might not be the yellow of the colored pencil, so encourage exploration and experimentation with the materials as participants practice mixing or layering colors.

Fill in each pie section with a different color. Notice how not all green leaves are the same color green and try to duplicate these different hues. Label the page with the season or the month. Try to repeat throughout the year, creating a color palette for each season.

Try either of these activities with preschoolers all the way up through adults. They give you an awareness of the variety of colors around you as well as bring clarity to the distinctive qualities of each time of the year.

Snake Deer Eagle Nature Walk

This walk encourages children to look around and notice things they may otherwise not have notices as they are moving from one place to the next. You can play this game along a nature trail but you can also do this while walking along a street, playing at the park, moving through a museum, or even while in a store.

Start off by explaining to your children that they are going to take an animal-eye view of the area as they travel along the way from one place to the next. Ask them where snakes, deer, and eagles focus their attention. Snakes slither along the ground, getting their view of life from that level. Deer see things from human eye level. Eagles see things well above our heads and even look down on us.

As you walk, call out “snake,” “deer,” or “eagle.” The kids stop for ten seconds and look down, straight ahead, or up (depending on the animal that you called). They then call out something that they see from that angle. The important part is to stop walking so you don’t bump into a tree, another person, fire hydrants, etc.

If you have two or more kids with you they, along with you, can take turns calling out the names of the three animals. Although you can randomly call out and have kids stop to discover what they will notice, you can also notice something interesting, say on the floor, and call out, “snake.” If kids don’t notice what you noticed, you can again call out “snake,” prompting kids to look around a bit more.

This game shouldn’t slow your walk much, even though the kids stop for a few seconds. You can change the names of the animals to suit your child’s interests or the area you are investigating.

Storytelling and Supposition: What's Going on in Nature?

On this morning’s walk several crows (a murder of crows), were going crazy. When I saw a hawk fly up into a tree, followed by four crows, I knew I was seeing mobbing. Crows and other birds will gang up on hawks and owls as a way of pushing predators out of their territory. Now this hawk sat up in a tree, staring at a pond (musing upon frog legs for breakfast?) while the four crows continued to harangue it.

I didn’t find this strange. What was odd was that as I drew closer to the tree (50 feet?) one of the crows flew into a tree closer to the road where I was walking. This crow was silent. The other three crows, no more than ten feet from the hawk also fell silent as I passed. Once I had gone by the tree, the crows started up again and continued cawing until I could no longer hear them.

What caught my curiosity was that this group of crows, perched ten feet from something that could eat them for breakfast, fell silent as I (50 feet away) walked by. Why? What’s going on?

a) The crows thought it was likelier that I would catch one of them than the hawk that was wing’s length away

b) The crows have experienced humans who would side with the charismatic predator and throw things at them so they thought that silence was warranted

c) The crows went the same path as a group of fighting kids suddenly feigning innocence when an adult walks in the room

When you and your kids see something going on in nature, ask why and what and how. Let the kids tell stories, whether that story is a sentence long or the idea takes hold and gets the child chatting for twenty minutes. These stories don’t have to be based on book facts. However, you can encourage the children to incorporate details that they have observed.

This activity encourages creativity and imagination but also observation and curiosity – the kids have to notice something that is different than what they’ve noticed in the past, which means that they need to learn to pay attention to their surroundings on a regular basis, not just while playing games. Read more at Tell a Group Story with Children.

Also, it’s fun to make things up while trying to figure out the world. (Why did the crows fall silent?”

Secret Squirrel

Originally published 4/09/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

You can have kids do this activity in your backyard on their own. (If you live in a city, you can take them to a park.) Ask them to spy on the local wildlife. By local wildlife, I mean squirrels, birds, snakes, lizards, spiders, or whatever other non-threatening animals the kids are likely to find in at home. If neither you nor the kids are certain what animals are out there, then the kids will need to go on a scouting mission.

Depending on your children’s temperament, they can transform themselves into spies, wildlife biologists, or nature photographers. They can decide what they will need with them to complete their mission.

Encourage the kids to dress in colors that will allow them to camouflage with the natural surroundings. Many diurnal (daytime) animals can see in color since daylight allows them to determine if food, such as berries, are ripe. Kids should also take a mechanical pencil (no worries about dull points) and notepad with them and/or bring their camera.

Now, if kids have only ever paid attention to wild animals moving around in enclosures and exhibits, they may not know what to expect from the critters in their backyard. Before heading outside, ask the kids how the animals would respond to a creature or two running around the yard and making a lot of noise. If the kids agree that everything, including a few amoebas, would go into hiding, then ask them how they should behave.

Sneaking, walking on tiptoe, walking slowly, freezing in place, hiding, using peripheral vision (looking out the corner of one’s eyes), being quiet, etc. are all good behaviors for encouraging animals to behave as if those wild humans aren’t suddenly going to start snacking on chickadees.

On a scouting mission, the kids’ job is to find out what animals are moving around in their yard during the day. They should sit or stand in one corner of the yard for five-to-ten minutes; afterwards, move to another corner. Kids should repeat moving to other locations as desired. Kids can take notes, describing what they see, where they see it, and what the creatures were doing.

Kids can use these notes for another expedition, this time focusing on one of the animals. Their goal for this more specific exploration is to observe and record five different behaviors of this animal. It is a bit of a thrill to get animals that normally shy away from humans to act as if you aren’t there and go about their normal activities.

Exploring What and When in Nature

Originally published 4/08/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

If your exploration of nature is snuck into your schedule while walking your child to and from school, then you’ve both probably noticed the differences in your environment between morning and afternoon – the changes in lighting and the temperature are probably the most significant differences that you notice. It is just another small push to your awareness to notice the activity of birds, squirrels, and even insects at these two times.

On the other hand, if your children’s exploration of nature tends to be afterschool in the backyard, they likely notice the seasonal changes from month-to-month while, perhaps, missing the changes throughout the day. Try the following activity on a weekend when you don’t have a zillion things to do – or during a day when you and the kids on vacation.

Along with time, you’ll need a natural location that is close enough for you to visit three or four times throughout the day. In a pinch, this could be your backyard. These visits don’t have to take a lot of time; fifteen-or-twenty minutes tops. You will want to space out these visits to allow for some dramatic differences because of time of day.

For example, you may decide to go outside just before or just after sunrise, then at noon, followed by late afternoon, and then an hour or two after sunset. Again, lighting and temperature will be the first thing you’re likely to notice. Then focus on your senses in turn. What can you hear? What does the ground feel like when you touch it with your hands? How does the air smell? As you move throughout the day, you can compare these sensory experiences to the other times.

Give each child and adult a few minutes to explore followed by a couple of minutes to talk about what they noticed and to share their appreciation of ever-changing nature.

When I used to lead night walks for scouts, the energy level was often off-kilter. Being outside, in the woods, at night, would wind kids up. Eleven-year-old boys would refuse to turn off their flashlights even though they were less than half a mile from the nature center. Going outside much earlier or much later than normal may leave your kids acting wired because it is outside their norm. They may not be able to notice details in their environment because it will seem like so much is going on – both outside as well as in their minds.

You may need to explore these different times of day throughout the year; so, slow that dash from the car to the house to feel the night air on your cheeks and gaze at the moon. Notice not just the what of nature but also the when.

A Secret Treasure Walk

Originally published 4/05/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

This activity is a slight variation on the scavenger hunt and it can be included along with other activities the children may engage in while walking. At the beginning of your walk, tell your child or children that they want to look for a secret treasure. This treasure is not something that they will pick up. In fact, it doesn’t have to be something that someone could see or touch; it may be something that the child can hear or smell.

The key element of the secret treasure is that, whatever it is, it should be something that makes the child smile.

Another fundamental aspect to this activity is that when the child (or adult) notices their secret treasure, they should keep it secret and not point it out to other people. This item or experience should not be something the kids have on a scavenger hunt list. In fact, they shouldn’t be expecting to find it at all. It is this unexpected quality that makes it a treasure.

For example, on this morning’s walk the ground was wet and many earthworms were scattered over the sides of the road. I was walking along, alone, and watching that I wasn’t stomping on the still wriggling creatures (I have an odd fondness for earthworms – oftentimes, I’ll pick up worms and set them back onto soil). Then, I noticed in the sand, leftover from the icy winter weather, random curving lines that created a crackle pattern in the damp sand.

Obviously I was looking at the numerous trails of earthworms, far more tracks than even the quantity of earthworms I’d seen on the road could have made. In the warm, wet dark of the previous night the earthworms crept above ground rejoicing in the return to spring and the fact that they were no longer trapped under the frozen topsoil.

As I am sharing my secret treasure at the end of my walk, so you and your children can share your secret treasures. It doesn’t matter if more than one person treasured the same object or experience (since the item stays in nature we can share the memory). We may become jealous of another’s observations (only one person saw the hawk overhead) and it challenges us to sharpen our observation skills the next time.

What Did You See on Your Walk?

Originally published 4/04/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

Yesterday morning the sky was clear blue and the swollen buds on the maples and the beech caught the light just so, making me wish that I had my camera with me. Today the sky was a heavy gray. Cold raindrops (a few looking suspiciously like snowflakes) pelted me on and off. What the two days had in common was that I sighted an impressive flock of wild turkeys with three males on full display, their tails fanned.

On Sunday I counted 14 (or so) turkeys; I didn’t want to get too close and they were on the move. Today I saw the flock twice and both times I counted 18 turkeys. There are probably some Jakes (young males) in the crowd, but I didn’t see the fluffy starts of any beards (an odd feather that sticks out from the chest and gets longer as the male gets older and claims the more familiar moniker, a Tom turkey).

One of the hens (named Jenny, no matter her age) got spooked by my presence – I really wasn’t that close (I was chased once by two turkeys that I got too close to; I won’t make that mistake again) – and she flapped her wings a couple of times. I wasn’t certain if it was me or the other turkeys who were supposed to take warning; however, none of the other turkeys responded.

I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t take flight; watching a feathered basketball-shaped body flying (up to 30 miles an hour) is astounding and a bit nerve-wracking (particularly if it is flying overhead). However, watching the meandering crowd being directed by the Toms was worth the chill in my muscles.

And then, when I got home, I looked up and saw a Great Blue Heron, looking like a pterodactyl in flight, go overhead. Cool. Yeah Spring!

The Logistics of Exploring Nature with Kids

Originally published 4/01/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

Everything that you read and hear about kids spending more time outdoors sounds logical. In fact, you think it would be great for your family to go walking in nature during weekends. But where should you start? What do you need to bring with you? What if the kids are miserable and they refuse to go hiking a second time?

Check out How Families Can Take a Successful Nature Walk or Hike with Kids for ideas on keeping kids fed, watered, and entertained whether the walk lasts thirty minutes or two hours. At minimum, bring along water, snacks, basic first aid supplies, sunscreen, insect repellent, a map of the location’s trail system, and a cell phone – turned off, but handy in an emergency.

Which may bring up the thought, how long should you go walking with kids? If neither you nor the kids are used to hiking in the woods, start with five minutes for each year old the child is (or the average age of a few children).

When this proves successful, go with seven-to-ten minutes for each year old. Of course, this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule and it doesn’t mean uninterrupted walking time. Allow some time for snack or water breaks, exploration, and even games – like “I Spy” – or the occasional art project. Thirty minutes of walking can be broken with other activities so you may end up spending an hour or more out on your “walk.”

Remember, that “down time” is probably as important as movement – if you just want exercise, then walk quickly; but, if you really want to appreciate your time in nature, you’ll need to meander so you can actually notice your surroundings; Help Children Develop an Appreciation of Nature with Observation. If you enjoy the experience of walking in nature, chances are your children will develop an enthusiasm for exploring the outdoors.