Wild Experience and the Wild Animal Park

Nature Study

We happened to eat dinner a bit early so I had a few minutes to sit down and identify a few of the creatures we saw on our nature hike today.  My favorite two spottings were some blue damselflies that would sit and rest on rocks.  They were the most beautiful iridescent blue color.  The other was a pretty black/brown, white and orange butterfly.  When I can't find these on the simple fold up guides we carry with us I really enjoy finding them in books and on the internet once were home.  Today it seems we saw a Lorquin's Admiral Butterfly and a Vivid Dancer Damselfly.  Mara was also so cute sitting down to mark in her "nature journal". She wanted to write all about the scat we saw and the various sizes of rocks!

 

Vivid Dancer Damselfly (Male)

Photograph: Jack Wolf
(Creative Commons license)

Girls' First Camping Trip

Friends told us about a family campout about 10 miles from our house.  So we planned the cookout packed our bags and off we went.  Mara's reactions: "We're going to sleep in the park?  That's funny mommy" and "Can we do that again some time!"




Friends. Row boats. Glow sticks. S'mores. A tent. Bagels and cream cheese. Ice cream cone. Cookies. Lemonade. Camping has to be about any kids dream come true. (And this was a short trip we didn't even get in any water or dirt).

Adventure should be this one's middle name.

Roly-poly

This is the way you want to go to bed at night.

"Honey, why is the camera in the bathroom."
"Oh, I don't know.  Mara brought to me while I was showering to show me her photos of a roly-poly."

Having a look.

Laughing out loud we discover these (we thought they were still shots at the time).








And are even more. And we went to bed smiling.

Books

Forecast was rain, storytime is on Thursday and I had holds waiting to be picked up so we headed to the library today.  Unfortunately we arrived after storytime, but we did get some good books.  The two I have to tell you about today were random choices (i.e. not from a list of great books I was consulting).

Mabel Dancing by Amy Hest was sitting on top of one of the shelves and looked like it would interest Mara since she has been into dancing lately.  It's a cute story and we enjoyed it at naptime today.

The second book is by Aliki and I was actually looking for another book by this author that wasn't there, but this one was and it is excellent.  As I was reading it to Mara before naptime I was thinking how I needed to come post a reminder to myself because it would go with another book I had posted about before.  Quiet in the Garden is about going outside into the garden and really listening to see what you observe.  It would be a perfect companion to The Listening Walk.

ETA: I was right about this one being a hit.  I think we have read it everytime we have sat down to read library books in the last day and she even wanted to come home in the middle of our nature hike to read it.  Silly kid, even if it is a good book, the real thing is still better, especially the butterflies we were watching today!

The lesson for me in this experience was to go off-plan sometimes.  There are plenty of good books my family will enjoy that aren't on someone else's list, and really whats the risk when you're just borrowing it from the library.

We finished up the trip with a few books from the used book shop in the library and a visit to the duck pond outside where we saw a gorgeous redwinged blackbird and turtles swimming.

Wordless Wednesday

La Jolla Cove

As Tom said this morning, we feel so yuppy and ridiculous saying "which" beach are you going to, nonetheless we are having fun exploring.  Today we checked out La Jolla Cove which had been recommended to us as very kid friendly and beautiful but hard to access on the weekend.  Well I can imagine as it was busy on a weekday.  We saw the seals on the beach.  There were lots of babies (one had even been born this morning).  That lasted for a little bit but Mara was really itching to get down on the sand and play with her sand toys.  The new ones were kind of a bust today as all the sand was wet but we built some castles, buried treasures and feet and watched the waves (and some seals swimming around and climbing up on the rocks).  It was indeed beautiful and peaceful.

Baby Steps

I have a Lenten resolution that I am working on and I failed at it miserably this weekend; but, I put my finger on something about myself today and I'm not giving up.  You see, I like changes to be quick and easy.  Painless, or at least a short lived effort with lasting results; but that isn't how life works, that's not how toddlers and preschoolers learn and grow.  Really all of us require baby steps and perseverance (I didn't I just write that about 15 times in the Valentines I just sent you all, guess that message was for me).

In my head this post started about a picture book, The Listening Walk.  We have been attempting to get out in nature more and have thus joined a local hiking group for preschoolers.  The first week we had fun for most of it until we HAD to leave.  Last week our outings were less successful with a whiny "hungry" kiddo.  I even contemplated throwing in the towel.  Last Friday after naps and right before closing time we stopped by the library and picked up a big stack of books we had on hold and a few more besides.  One such book was The Listening Walk about a girl who goes for a silent walk and notices the noises around her. Well Mara has gotten into this book and asked to go for a listening walk.  Now are walk today was far from silent but we had ourselves a great time.  We looked at flowers and took photos and looked under some rocks and used our magnifying glass and saw some birds and ate a snack (one we would usually turn our nose up at).  But not once did I hear "I'm hungry" or even an "XYZ hurts (insert meltdown)", and when we got back she even had an honest to goodness scrape on her arm that she calmly told me about.  This folks feels like a gigantic leap but I am choosing to see it as a baby step because our next hike may go great and it may not, but if we can string a few together (hopefully with more positive experiences than negative) then we will be making real change that can last and that is the attitude that I need to cultivate.  Anyway, I highly recommend the book.  I think it could be good no matter where your kid falls on the nature walk continuum.  It can take a whiny like mine and get them excited to get out there or a loud adventurer and hopefully get them to quiet down and use a new sense to explore nature (maybe we can try that lesson with the book next year).

So from picture book recommendation to spiritual and parenting lesson I am recommitting to looking at life as baby steps to help me make progress towards my goals.  Attitudes and boxes here I come.

Gratuitous cute kid pictures: