Exploring the outdoors with Children. Archives

DON’T WORRY CAUSE EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT

Day two of darkness hiking at Avalon! We set out with our flashlights into the night… really it was only 5:00 when we started. Once again the moon lit the sky … the rainbow rings surrounding it.

Sophia told me that she heard a story that all the snakes will come alive when the moon has that circle around it…… no snakes on this walk!

As we set out, with flashlights at the ready, we crossed the road as usual and headed into the woods. It is amazing how dark it gets with just a few lights to lead the way.

Tonight I had two experiments in my pocket. Simple as can be but fun.

I talked about our vision and our pupils and how in the dark we are basically color blind. We turned out our lights and I took out two markers (pink and green).

I drew a line of each color on their hands and asked them to guess what color they were. Most were close with their guess…. I had blues, reds, greens….. The truth would be revealed when we went back to the barn.

The second experiment involved the good ole winter green lifesavers! We sat on the leaves in a circle and crunched on these rings watching sparks pop in our mouths! It certainly was a lot of laughs.

I think it was the first time any of them had done it!!! Chemistry come to life!

Best part of the evening for me is when they all starting singing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”….. Don’t worry about a thing…. cause everything’s gonna be alright.

Those were the only words they knew and they sang it again and again….. I think it was soothing to them as we were on our 35th minute of the hike!

Love these kids!!!!

Here’s the music if you want to play it at home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPZbIezChI

Tree Climbing 101 part 2 !

After Erik put away all his equipment, with the help of the kids, they were treated to a short ride in the bucket of his truck. I know many of them wanted to go the full 60 feet in the air but they had to settle for the 7 feet up approach with Erick at the controls. I would think that most of them never did this before so it was a thrill none the less!!! The whole day was a great success and I feel like the kids will look at people who cut down trees and take care of them with a new view. Not sure how I could ever top the bucket truck ride!

After everyone got their ride Erik decided it was time to put Miss Sue in the bucket…. of course I was willing… of course he decided to put me all the way up – 60 feet!!! It was the most spectacular view of Avalon! Sophia took a video of me (which I won’t share with all of you) and you could hear one of the kids in the background say, “You can touch the clouds!” It almost seemed that way! Thanks again to Erik and Buzz for coming to Avalon to share your love of what you do!!!

A Place in the Leaves

October 29, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

This beautiful photo was taken by Amelie, one of the hikers in the group!

On our hike to today we had a contest to see who could collect the most nuts. I called them my nutty bunch! They have a great deal of energy and it is always a challenge to get them to notice the things around them. I love that they get to run, but exploring can be part of the adventure too! After our hike the kids returned to the barn with their stash of nuts to see who was the winner. Of course we all knew that Matt would be the winner because his pockets were practically hanging down to his knees. But then something happened…. some of the kids decided to add to Matt’s pile…. so I think then they all decided they were winners!! Matt was okay with that and which made me sigh with relief!

Wiggly worm find!

Love my nutty bunch…. it was a fun day!!! xoxox

TREE CLIMBING 101

October 29, 2013/in Children and the outdoors, Outdoor education for children /by natasha commander

I am lucky enough to have a friend who is an arborist and is enthusiastic about his job after doing it for 20 years. I told the kids that we would have a surpirse visitor this week and we did! I like the idea of exposing kids to different jobs that people do related to nature. As a kid growing up I never knew about the wonderful world of hiking and camping, It wasn’t til I was old enough to go out on my own and discover it!!! Lucky kids!

Erik pulled up in his amazing bucket truck with all his gear and his dog Buzz ready to talk to the kids about what he does and the tools he uses.

Erik shows them his chainsaw and explains that he attaches it to his belt and climbs the tree with it. He gave the kids an opportunity to feel the weight of the saw.

After he explained all his tools it was time to put on the belt and climb some trees!!! The kids were so excited to test it out! Everyone was successful and of course wanted to do it again! But we had to move on….. Bucket truck next…….. Thanks Erik!!!

A Flurry of Color

October 22, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

Perfect Fall day!

We wandered around the trail on a color hunt! Looking for reds, yellows, oranges, greens, browns and blues. It was a fun way to get the kids and moms and grand moms to work together. Along the way we stopped and talked and I punch their color cards with my “smelly feet” hole punch. They were all working towards getting all the colors identified and receiving an acorn necklace and beads for their hard work!

Here are some fun pics. Love to see the moms smiling along with the kids!

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OH NUTS!!!! (and seeds)

October 18, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

Today was a glorious day for taking a look at some of our trees at Avalon. Most notably the Black Walnut and the Hickory Tree!

Both produce these interesting multilayered nuts. But most of all they are exciting to SMASH open. That’s exactly what we did. Each of my enthusiatic outdoor-kids were ready to take a turn breaking open these nuts. How do those squirrels do it????

We tasted the black walnut which Shannon said had a strawberry flavor in it!! They were yummy. These odd looking nuts are hidden undercover on the trees inside these lime colored looking fruits. When they are ready, they drop to the ground and proceed to rot and turn black. Before you can get to the nutty insides you have to peel away a messy dirty layer….. yuck… then there is the treasure!

But first how do we get to the inside. Well luckily Miss Sue did some research beforehand and she brought the wrench for holding the nut (also to protect her hands from getting smashed) and a hammer. Before long they were cracked open! Everyone was eager to try it.

We were less successful with the hickory nuts, of which are all over the place but dried out inside… what a disappointment. But lot’s of fun to collect!

We continued our walk along the wildflower fields which are slowly turning brown… with seeds all ready to fall to the ground for next year’s blooms. The milkweed plants are in their glory with all of their pods popping open to reveal the amazing layers of seeds attached to little “wish” machines which will help the seeds float away to their new homes!

Amazing milkweed, amazing smile!

Happy Trails

Sue

FAIRIES, FROGS AND RASPBERRIES

July 26, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

THE END RESULT OF A GREAT WEEK OF EXPLORING! CAMPERS WHO WERE FULL OF SILLINESS AND RASPBERRIES.

This week we had Emily, Emily, Michael, Lukas and Lorenzo to help with our energetic group of campers. Couldn’t have done without you guys leading the pack and bringing up the tail of the hikers.

It was slow going on the trail because the campers were distracted by all the yummy wild raspberries growing. Eating and walking, eating and walking…. always another bush around the corner. I think they were all fascinated by the free food! I was impressed with their willingness to sample them. One of the campers even went back and collected more with his mom and incorporated them into his healthy yogurt snack the next day…. kudos to that mom!!

We took an extra long hike along the yellow trail in search of the elusive fairy house of Avalon. When we finally got there we realized it was destroyed. Yikes! Who or what could have done this? I will go with a heavy rain that washed it away instead of blaming someone. But because they are great campers who care, they got to work and fixed it up!!

The fairies thank you, guys!

Inspired by the creation in the woods the campers created their own back at the barn… after collecting materials on the trail. Here are some of the amazing outcomes!!!!!

Pond Exploration a team favorite!!!: This week we were able to capture a frog, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, water striders, water beetles. Lots of laughs and screeches of excitement when something was caught. I’m sure the parents appreciated that we told the campers it was important to release everything we captured! They would have brought all the creatures home if we allowed it!

As adults it is our responsibility to teach all of the children respect for all things natural. It is not always about teaching scientific facts (which is important) but more about teaching the little humans how to carry on the love of the outdoors into their future lives which will have a real impact on our future as a people and a planet!!

Peaceful travels along the trail…..

Sue

AVALON EXPLORERS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH NATURE!!!

July 18, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

Week one of camp is complete. Although we were in the midst of one of summer’s famous heat-waves we made the very best of our adventures. All of our Kindergarten through Grade three campers came to camp ready to hike and explore.

And explore we did! First two days were spent collecting bugs. I was so impressed with all of the campers…. I did not hear one eeeewwww or scream as we found and captured milkweed bugs, caterpillars, long horned beetles, worms, honey bees, and more!!

We spent our first day out in the wildflower fields and the second in the woods. Marguerite, of the instructors helped the campers understand that bugs are both good and bad. We had some interesting conversations with these young minds.

Hornets nest (abandoned of course!!)

The next two days we spent at the pond. I loved how all of the campers were so engaged in pond dipping and skimming with nets. We were lucky enough to have three teenage helpers, Wendy, Julia and Luke, each of whom helped the campers dig deep into the pond and see all the creatures up close that they may have only seen in books. Frogs, pond skaters, dragon flies, dragon fly nymph, tapeless, turtles, duckweed and more! I was proud of how adventurous they all were!!!

Duckweed. Floating roots. Penelope said they looked like mini lily pads.

Resident Bull Frog!

Letting go of the tadpole.

Dragon fly nymphs
What else is in there?? Ah my little limnologists!

My hope is that each of the campers will return to Avalon with their families and talk about what they saw and also discover that there is still more to be found.

I was so proud of all of them!

Keep exploring

Miss Sue

WHERE ARE YOU GOING AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR????

May 23, 2013/in Children and the outdoors /by natasha commander

Two fun-filled classes this week!

The preschool group hunted for the mystery plant of the day….. the fern. The fiddleheads have pretty much all unfolded into beautiful fans of leaves. I had this urge to make crowns of fern for all of the kids, as I had done in the past for my daughter when she was small, but we were hunting!! Success!! After a hike up and down the hills of Avalon and through the gate we found our mystery plant. Along the way we ran, and smelled sassafras leaves, avoided poison ivy and ran!! So free, so fun!

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Our older class of energetic Kindergarten through 3rd graders were ready to take on the “long” hike to the upper pond at Avalon. Who knows what we will find? Adventure awaits. But I can tell you this that none of these kids came tired but I know they left full of fresh air, tired legs and things to dream about!

Now we know there are two snapping turtles that like to hide under the rock bridge and also lots of green frogs which are hard to catch,hiding in the iris! More to discover …. but it will have to wait!!!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend and do some exploring!!! Even if it is turning over a rock somewhere! Peace

Also, Welcome to Emily, a summer intern working at Avalon. The kids love her and she welcomes the outdoors just as I do!! Yipeeeeee!

SNAPPY HIKE!

May 15, 2013/in Children and the outdoors, Outdoor education for children /by natasha commander

Spring is teaming with life and we were lucky enough to be out in the woods of Avalon yesterday! So many things to explore, admire and look at closely. Fascinating teeny tiny inch worms, onion grass, mushrooms and of course the pond. Nestled among the trees there is this special pond which is home to all sorts of unfurling ferns, Jack in the Pulpit flowers, grasses, trickling water, frogs and …… da da daaaaaa a large snapping turtle.

Lovely pictures taken by Winnie!!!

The kids knew there was a snapping turtle in the pond and I did not. But as an educator I’ve learned that sometimes kids can teach me something. On their own they set out to catch this mysterious turtle. Their method. Tying onion grass to a long stick. They were having a blast. I however, as an adult had my doubts. Ha ha …. I thought it’s harmless fun.

Well little did I know there WAS a big snapping turtle hiding under a rock. All of a sudden Winnie shouts out there’s a turtle! We all try to fit on this rock bridge to catch a look and sure enough there was the wise old turtle hanging out. It was substantial.

Shame on me for being a non believer. They removed their bait ridden sticks and we waited for the water to still itself. There it was. How joyful!!

It’s a great thing to appreciate children’s ingenuity. Sometimes I think we overlook it because as adults we are so busy. (doing what I sometimes wonder) So the next time your kid tells you something that sound a little out there take the extra time to listen. They may teach you something.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

Jane Goodall

Peace

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