Playing in the Dark

A life is made of moments. My greatest joy these days is watching my children truly engaged in play.  As a teacher and a mother I love to set up opportunities, but of course the magic is how children run take something and play run with it in unexpected ways.  

This weekend just as the sun was setting we made a small fire in the chimenea next to the little play house.  The boys had decorated it for the holidays with chalk and moss and other greens from the garden and it seemed to add to the festivity to start a fire.  

There was joy and excitement trying to help start the fire. Then a bit of fireside banter and even a song before the boys said, "lets go camping."  They took their fold-up camp chairs under their arms and hiked the 50 ft to the corner of the yard under the big holly tree and made a campsite with a campfire of their own (only it was not lit).   They found pots and pans and were fully cooking their own meal when I came over and interrupted them and then they asked," can we have a flashlight or candle or lantern?"  

Papa found a candle votive in a lantern and brought it to them.  Next thing they said, "lets go on a hike" and they were off walking through the small native plantings that we have in our yard (just taller than they are).  It was a great reminder that a yard does not need to be big, especially when playing in the  dark can be so magical.  

As the evening wrapped up.  The boy came to the door as I had went in to warm dinner.  They asked for water, " a few drips of water."  

I said, "Is it to put out your fire?"  They replied yes.  The boys put out their one candle fire.  Papa put out the chimenea fire.  The two hour early evening  adventures ended and it was only 5:30pm.  A reminder of how dark it is this time of the year.  

The Rain is Coming Down

It has been a while since my last post, perhaps I have just been waiting for the weather to change.  In any case, this fall has been glorious.  The leaves have only just now shed the trees.   The low sun accompanied by long shadows has been present each day and the boys have played in leaves, rode their bikes and taken long walks throughout the neighborhood almost every day.

Now the rain has come:  The grey sky a cloak.  The air full of water.   

Nevertheless, the boys are happily playing.  Their mud pit comes alive when the water falls.  Water soaks the soil.  It streams from gutters.  The boys are thrilled.  For the past two hours they have not wanted to come in even though it feels wet and cold to me.  Instead they are happily singing and busily rushing around.  They are creating inventions with string and an old cook pot.  They are floating the wooden boats they made from scrap lumber in the puddle they filling with water from the gutters.

 One moment the mud is asphalt and they are stirring it up.  They have grand visions in mind.  Perhaps,  these visions are informed by the diggers and dump trucks we have been watching excavate the land for a new apartment building that will be dressing the skyline of our neighborhood. In any case the boys are having a great day of play.     

The light of Fall: September

The month of the September is filled with clouds, sunshine and a golden-pink bright, crisp, light that I am so glad to be out in.  Each day the boys and I spend many hours puttering in the yard, walking the neighborhood, playing and conversing with neighbors and family on patios and in parks.  Although the leaves don't change in the glorious shades of pinks and oranges and yellows that one can find out on the east coast or even the midwest- there is still a sense of fall.  It is in the taste of fresh picked apples,  the orange-colored pumpkins and importantly the light.

I want my children to learn fall by the light of it.  We look out in the morning before we are even dressed.  We eat a hot breakfast outside in the crisp cold morning and we play outside until the sunset.  We walk to market through the wild gusts that blow clouds and occasional storms overhead.  The leaves and seed pods twirl down from trees.  We watch squirrels gathering seeds, the chickadees and sparrows flocking to feeders, and the crows heading home to roost at the end of day.

Fall is child sized.  Days can truly be experienced by children from sunset to sundown.  This month my boys were even able to stay up and watch the waxing of the moon as each night we checked where it was at eight o'clock in the evening- changing in size from a sliver creeping towards being full, Venus keeping on the horizon.  

September feels grand.  I imagine it must feel amazing to my boys.  I remember being fascinated as a child at new and crazy weather patterns, light, hail and wind.  My friends and I would dream up wild stories of what was causing the magical weather as we would run in delight and investigation through backyards and neighborhoods. 

The other day during a thunderstorm-- one that was not right overhead but still echoed loudly in our valley-- I let the boys continue to play in the yard, dashing in and out of their playhouse when they saw lightening- letting them listen to the rumble of thunder.  The looks on their faces showed that they were fascinated and thrilled.  My job was to make sure they were safe, but to give them as much exposure to the wonderful weather.  The next storm, when it was closer, the boys sat on the couch with their father watching the sky light up, counting seconds until the rumble of thunder, noticing there were two storms; one close (only three or four seconds between flash and boom) one farther ( twelve seconds).  The boys and their dad hypothesized where the storm might be.  We later read the story Thundercake by Patricia Polocco.

As I went to bed last night I remembered that there must be poem about this amazing month. I am not sure if this poem by W.S. Merwin is what I had in mind, but it is fitting and beautiful.  

Camping

This past weekend we made it to Lake Wenatchee State Park and despite the challenge of setting the tent up in the rain on Friday evening we had a lovely time.  The boys especially enjoyed themselves.  It seemed like even when mom and dad were the most stressed like trying to get the tent up properly and the sleeping bags in while staying dry; the boys were just excited.   When us parents would worry that bouncing against the side of the tent would let in water; they were just curious to see how the walls moved and how water would pool up inside with just a touch.   They didn't think about wetness or coldness.  In fact they only thought this was great fun since we all had to cuddle together to stay cozy.

In the end we found the proper balance of play and work and we all survived the first raining night.  When the rain was coming down the next morning the boys just happily donned their rain gear and challenged each other to bike through the puddles.  They also worked diligently on making a dam where there was a clear river heading towards our tent.  Luckily by afternoon the rain cleared and we did not have to test the dam's strength.

We also did a great deal of hiking since it was a good way to keep warm.  First by trail where we ran into the early morning horse back riders.  The boys got to experience stepping through horse poop and also watching the horses as they stood in the rain; flexing and twitching as they shed flies and raindrops.

I feel lucky that the boys are able to have this type of experience: to see horses up close, to see the gear and resources that it takes to maintain them.   Horses are a part of history and story- everything becomes more vivid as the boys experience more and more things first hand.

Later when we discovered that our campsite was on what we would call Chipmunk Mountain the boys got another opportunity to witness animals living in their homes, in the wild.  They got to see the chipmunks dodge in and out of holes.  The boys found the holes and started to understand that their was a whole other world beneath their feet.  The also noticed how the chipmunks and the squirrels would chatter.  We wondered what they were saying.

At the lake we saw a hawk circle and dive for a fish.  It had to try several times but then it flew off right over our heads with a fish dangling in its talons.

Camping at a state park can be whatever you make of it.  Some families chose to stay with many of the comforts of home and ride the paved roads versus going off on the trails or even into the woods.   We choose a rustic comfort and then get off the main pathways to soft dirt trails.  In each case people were able to experience the elements, see and hear something different from their own homes.

 It makes you appreciate the world and the universe as you look up at the stars and wonder how it is that they can glow so hot and for so long...and  you notice how we are just so small.

Visiting Our Sapling

Grandma doesn't live in town, however she joined us last February at a neighborhood work party in a local urban green-space. She reminded the boys that one of the hemlock trees we planted was nine steps off them main trail. So over the sword fern they climbed and said hello to the young tree. It is growing well. They boys are proud off all their work... and they love the new trails that they have been a part of creating.

A Place for Zoos

I am deeply influenced by a respect for place based education and I am thankful that our children are able to experience the Pacific Northwest through many parks with native habitats.   However our city has a wonderful zoo a within it and it has great tree canopy coverage and beautiful native plants along with the other  plants from around the world, making it a fabulous place to visit.   Even though it is across town we go many times each year- as a membership to the zoo is the incredible gift that the boys' aunt gives them.  

It is only now, after several years of visiting do I feel like my boys are really fully engaging in the experience of the zoo and getting the full educational value out of them.  However, I can't ignore that every time we have gone has helped build a terrific scaffold on which to place their experiences.
 
Why I say it is such a successful experience for them now is that the Woodland Park Zoo does a fabulous job of creating play spaces and wandering areas that allow children to reflect and synthesize what it is that they are observing.  While looking at a meerkat is nice; getting to act like a meerkat in a burrow and search for bugs to eat while also watching for predators is amazing.  This is how each exhibit is framed: observe and then perhaps climb around a statue of the same animal or wander a path contemplating what you just saw and wondering what will be around the next bend.

Our approach to the zoo is to usually only focus on one main area- or even one main animal.  If we observe other interesting animals then fabulous-- if we see just the one we are looking for that is great too!   As the children go through different  developmental phases different animals stand out.  At first we just enjoyed the farm animals and the petting area- with plenty of time to ride a tractor, pretend they are milking a cow, and trying to pump water.   Most recently our main goal was to see the baby giraffe.  It took two visits before we saw her, but en route to finding her we discovered the lions and hippotamuses.

Coming to the zoo regularly should be an experience every child gets to enjoy. It prepares them for the world and starts them asking questions about how animals and plants are connected to one another.  It teaches them about adaptations and other great vocabulary like nocturnal.  Ten years ago I remember teaching fourth grade and a very smart student of mine who was an ELL student asked me a vocabulary question during a standardized test.  I could not tell her the answer, but I knew that had she been exposed to many outdoor and environmental education experiences including regular visits to zoos and opportunities to go to camp that she surely would have know the word.  My four year old boys know it.   This memory drives me, to write, to reflect, and to act to help children and families have the access they need to real life outdoor/ nature experiences.

Age Four: Big Play, Imaginative Play

My boys are now almost 4 1/2.  They have crossed into the threshold of being preschoolers with this their play has developed.  Where once they just wanted to try new experiences, now they want to try new games, make up their own games, play with rules, make their own rules, and imagine!  It is a beautiful time.  I try to make sure that each day they get unstructured play time that lets them create their own worlds and their own play.  Lately much of their play happens on their balance bikes as they zoom around our hilly yard.  It is not so big, but there is room for loops, boards and hoses to ride over, and dirt and woodchips to land in- creating giant dust storms and practicing dramatic falls.  The boys have a neighbor friend who often comes over and adds chants and song to their rides which they echo with glee.  And today they started to have a more cohesive storyline to their bike loops.   Their bike train has turned into firetrucks.   They put out fires and fight dragons.

The "In between Times"

Today was the fifth Family Nature Playgroup that I run at our local library.  The community support and appreciation has been wonderful.  It has been a tremendous amount of work to plan the curriculum, prepare, and now facilitate the sessions. Luckily my children have been willing helpers to test activities and make art examples.  They even put up with the fact that their mom is not able to give them her full attention: Attendance has been nearly 50 at each session.  Thank goodness I work with tremendous volunteers with years and years of experience helping to work with  children and one staff person who speaks Somali fluently and has provided fabulous family support and community outreach.

 In some ways each week gets a little easier, but in other ways it remains challenging as I raise my expectations to differentiate the learning activities in more minute ways.  Since the station activities are now more or less self running,  I have been able to work on the field activities with the preschool aged children.   For the first few sessions it was only a small 15 minutes of the entire 90 minutes.  Today it ran in shifts, but included activities for large motor skills and hands on nature investigation for almost 50 minutes.   Today we did the "run and find activity" around the topic of birds.  The kids ran and found a tree they would want to make a nest in, a source of water, a cliff, and a meadow.  They also learned how to use binoculars, even though in the bright morning light and open parkland there were not too many birds to focus in on.  We played a game called "owl and mouse" and did parachute games focusing on attributes of birds and also incorporating bird calls.  At story time we shared The Fox and Crane fable in English and Somali and then I shared some of the materials from the Burke Box on Birds with the children.

All of this effort leads to great background experience for my children, but it is not nearly as magical as the play that happens when my children just have unstructured time.  It is the "in between times" when my boys have their most amazing growth.  It is when they come most into their own.  Everything they have learned from life and story and experience comes out --along with their fullest personality.

My boys, who are often quiet and contained, wrestle and chase each other and the neighbor through the yard on bicycle.  They take turns narrating their adventure yelling out challenges: " lets go through the bricks, down this trail into the garden bed, zooming around this tree.  Oh wait! A bear, drop the bikes, climb the tree.  Hungry now into the play house- make some dinner back to the bikes."

It is beautiful to watch the full exuberance of the boys' play.  The challenge is to learn to not over schedule or even get too involved but rather quietly let the play happen while I tend to something: the garden, my flat tire on my bike, or even just sit and do a few simple stretches.

I hope that all the families who attend playgroup go home and let the stories and activities from class take new shape in their youngsters. The "in between times" are as important as all the activities.

Picking Blueberries

  We are lucky that only a short drive from the city is a wonderful U-Pick Blueberry Field.  The boys and I started picking berries in the wide and maintained areas of the patch and then headed deeper into the field where we had to duck and dodge stray blackberry vines but were able to find a plethora of delightful berries.  We had a wonderful time.  

Furthermore, since we started going years ago we have built a tradition that includes grandparents and family recipes.   A favorite book about berry picking is Blueberries for Sal.

Toddlers and Preschoolers

Today I assisted with two groups of youngsters leading a local Toddler Tales and Trails.  The first session was for 0-3 and the second session was for 4-5.   It was beneficial to observe the ways in which the different age children were able to engage in activities.

The youngest children just wanted to engage fully, tactically, and with their own choices guiding them in their experiences.  They were more impulsive but definitely enthusiastic.  They wanted lots of personal connection with the teacher and their parents.  They could engage in a short story, they enjoyed the counting rhyme but were mostly into exploration.

Several parents felt bad that their child wasn't able to stay focused, but this early age is not a time for focus.  It is a time to be generating a background landscape and just by walking in the woods they were creating a scaffold that will last them far into the future.


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Children and Gardens are Magical

Last weekend my boys accompanied me as I visited two of the urban garden's from the Seattle Tilth's annual Garden and Chicken Coop tour.  Last night a neighbor invited us to explore her yard.  Each of of these gardens were amazing.  Small pathways through the residential landscapes make marvelous places to explore.

The boys are careful as they have grown up planting their own little patches.  Even so- they skip with glee and leapfrog from stone to stone whenever they can.  It is clearly a wonderful experience to follow a path and see to what treasure it will emerge from raspberry patch to pea vine.

As I am researching for next week's Nature Playgroup with a focus on Seeds,  I found the Magnuson Garden's Website.  It sounds wonderful.  It is outside our typical radius, but I hope to visit it.  It is near one of the most magnificent community gardens ever! Just the description of it inspires me to add to our own family garden.

Dancing Beside the Street

Most recently I have been reading  Biophillic Design and The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life edited Stephen R. Kellert, Judith H. Heerwagen, and Marting L. Mador.
It is inspiring to think of how we can build communities with nature in mind.  It is also important to consider how we have community in mind.  I feel thankful to our neighborhood's efforts at both of these aspects of life.

Last night was Beatwalk.  This event began many years ago in hopes to revitalize the neighborhood businesses.  It had great success and we now have a thriving business area.  We also have great community.  As a child I have a strong memory of going to a street dance in a small South Dakota community.  It is one of my favorite childhood memories to remember seeing so many generations of people dancing in the street and the local bar. Yesterday, my neighborhood of Columbia City Seattle had the same event--only the music was different and the crowd not only diverse in ages but also culture.  My children and I danced alongside the street (as Rainier Avenue is busy).   We met up with neighbors.  We heard old school dj music along with marimba, folk and cajun.

Dancing and making  together seems to go hand in hand with hiking together.  There is room for both and in the city.  The challenge is finding the balance of each.

Naturalized Playspaces and Biophilic Design

Today the door is open.  My children are freely wandering inside and outside.  I can tell that they are having a good time by the melodic tones of their voices, even small arguments are resolved as they practicing the art of negotiation with one another.  I feel lucky that we have a yard, a haven for the boys to play and safely learn about the world.  

Mom come here "look at the pollen!" says S. I wander out and see T playing with a small figure, dancing her in the pollen of a newly opened flower.  The wildflower seeds we planted in late spring have just come into bloom.  The boys are enchanted; as am I.  Each time we walk outside we notice something new, something familiar and something of interest.

My most current reading has been a chapter called "Healthy Planet, Healthy Children: Designing Nature into the Daily Spaces of Childhood" by Robin C. Moore and Clare Cooper Marcus. It is part of a book called The Theory Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life: Biophilic Design by Stephen R Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin L Mador.  I am inspired to be reading about urban planning with a deep respect for children and nature.  This chapter gives great suggestions of how to get children exposed to nature in natural ways, especially by thinking about schoolyard designs and neighborhood parks.  I hope to share this resource with my own community as we go through the design process of re-imagining our own play-field.  It also reminds me that part of the reason behind our efforts of creating great playspaces for children is to create safe places for them to play independently.  It must be connected to larger efforts of improving the walkability of our neighborhoods so that children can get there on their own and have their own play.

Summer Solstice

It is not how much you do in a day, but how you savor it.  Today was a day full of rich moments.  We started the day looking out the window, noticing that there wasn't a lot of sunshine for this longest day of the year.  We sang the song Mr Sun and read the children's book  The Way to Start the Day by Byrd Baylor and illustrated by Peter Parnall. Then after a bit of playtime we went to a Fiddleheads program at the Arboretum.  As always it was a lovely walk filled with engaging activities for the boys.  They especially enjoyed becoming beavers and turtles and acting out their behaviors.  This activity really helped at a dinner time activity where the boys told Papa clues/ riddles of what animals we had learned about.  Dad had to guess.  "One of the animals had teeth." said T  "Cut down trees." Said S "Made dams."  Said T...."an Engineer?" said dad.

At dinner we also celebrated the solstice.  For the last several days I had asked the boys what they wanted to do to celebrate the solstice.  They had strong memories of lighting candles at the winter solstice and they suggest today that we light six candles.  I said "wow" that's interesting since it is the six month of the year and so we agreed to do it.  As we lit each candle we said what we remembered from each month of the year.  When Papa said January, Theo said, Cold.  We were off and the boys quickly came up with things for each month.  It isn't a traditional way to mark this day of the year, but it worked for our family especially since we enjoyed a summertime meal with corn on the cob.   We also know that it is now summer!

Last weekend  Grandpa Mac said it is certainly a good idea to live with the light and to pay attention to it.  We may not quite rise with the first rays and since the boys are only four and they definitely go to bed before the sun has set, however with our time spent outside the boys understand the passing of the year and even the hours of the day.  As we went to bed we noted that this morning we were dressed in winter clothes and by evening we were in summer clothes: such is summer in Seattle.

Developing a Sense of Place

Our closest natural urban park is Seward Park in Seattle.  The Audubon runs the Environmental Learning Center which offers a lovely Toddler Tales and Trails program.  It wasn't until I mentioned to my boys that the lead early education teacher Cadi was leaving that I realized what an influence this park program had had on my family.  Even though we did not attend weekly; we went regularly over the years.  They were sad about Cadi's departure and wanted to go to her last class and say goodbye even though they had aged out of the 0-3 year old Wednesday class.  I am glad we went.

There is something very special about having been to the same place for years, walking the same trails, and seeing the same people.   As soon as we got to the center the boys were ready to run up the stairs even while I paid the $2 per child fee.  There is a comfort in going to a class whose routine is the same: from opening to closing.  The boys knew what to expect, some songs, some stories, a bit of counting and a hike.  The class didn't let them down.  We even went home with a new song to sing about fish.  

The nature walk is where I am most thankful that we have gone to one place again and again.  The boys know where to look for the "squirrel log" with its telltale sign of douglas fir scales scattered about  and the lightening tree which although burned out is still hosting young branches of big leaf maple.  They hug their friend a newly planted Cedar tree and notice the differences a season makes along the trail.  T even picked up two Douglas Fir cones and noted, "mama look one is open and one is closed.  This one feels pointy."  Although T may not know it he is developing scientific reasoning and skills that will be a scaffold to future learning about cones.  

My children's deep understanding of this single path behind the education center gives my children confidence that they take with them when we go a little farther into the NW wilderness. When my boys feel the soft leaves of the thimbleberry plant or notice the pokey leaves of the oregon grape plant they feel a connection to home.  David Orr writes about Place and Pedagogy in the book Ecological Literacy:Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World.  He references the work of Paul Shepard who writes that writes about "terrain structure" and how it shapes how we learn and who we become.  I  am confident that by giving young children deep knowledge of place it offers grounding in a world that is often filled with dislocation.  

Community mural

Yesterday was market day and free playtime went great. At first the boys ran around with friends kicking a ball, rolling down hills and just hugging. Then a community mural took shape: kids drawing their world.
As some friends left; others arrived. The best thing about a chalk mural is that you can even dance and run around it... But please not while someone is still working on it requested the boys.

Stayed Awake to Finish this book

I just finished reading In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids' Inner Wilderness by Chris Mercogliano.  It seems as the author has been influenced by almost all of the same researchers that I have been inspired by in these last few years of studying the benefits of nature, what schooling should look like, and the dangers of a society that is too plugged into electronic media.  Although, my own personal conclusions may not always be the same as the authors.  I do agree that we can do a much better job giving children a childhood that prepares them for adolescence and then adulthood as separate stages in life.  It all begins in the basis of unstructured play, letting children follow their "inner voice" - which he calls wildness, and more time outside.

Something that really resonated with me was were when he described some of the memories he had of biking through huge piles of leaves with his friends, seeing who could get the farthest through them.  It reminded me of how my children have recently taken to riding their bikes into the bushes at the bottom of our hillside.  I feel so lucky that my children have the opportunity to play: that they have a safe yard. That they have balance bikes in good safe condition, and that they have adults around them who are able to find time to be with them.

Chris Mercogliano also has a chapter on the importance of solitude.  This is something I value and yet have not always given my children.  They are so often the direct focus of my attention that it is a practice to give them that space.  I am trying more and more often to leave my children to have their own experiences, often in the peace of our own yard.  I must admit that I still watch from behind the bushes or I leave the door open enough so that I can hear their banter while I wash dishes inside the house- but I try to leave them in peace so they can find their own passions and imagine without interruption.

In all I highly recommend this book.  He has wonderful research.  He writes in an honest way that shows he has been working with youth most of his life.

Kids Learning to Play

The twins are four years old and it seems like there is less time for writing and more time of doing.  It also seems like of late we have been doing more urban outdoor adventures than "natural" settings.  We live in a neighborhood with a great walk score.  It means that within a mile the boys and I can do most everything we want and not even need to get in the car.

My contemplations these days are: how to make great unstructured play for kids work.  Lately one place we have been going to for unstructured play is the neighborhood farmer's market.  I have noticed that many young children are either in school group clusters already or they are kids who are hoping to connect with others, but may not have great social skills or know how to have appropriate play on their own.

For example, some children I have noticed will immediately use sword play and play fighting as their way to connect.  Although, I applaud the outreach of those children I really think that it has often been influenced by too much tv/ possibly video game violence and it is not creative or even friendly.  It is certainly not appropriate around young children which the market is full of or my children who have not yet had screen time.

So far my antidote to troublesome play has been to start some creative play.  Last week I taught the kids a game of "everybody's it" and then a variation of "hospital" tag.  It worked for a while and in fact there were probably fifteen children running around playing at once, but for the youngest children they didn't necessarily understand when to stop or when to go. "It" is still a new concept & more appropriate for slightly older children.

Play then gravitated to playing in our wagon, which was fine until the child pulling the others decided to "let go" while passengers were on a hill.  We may be "helicopter" parents in that we are very attentive, but it was a good thing as my husband was able to run and "catch" the wagon.  This is when I helped coordinate the play by being the train engineer.  I would let two children on at a time and the rest would follow behind.  When we would get to the next stop- which the kids named as California, and Chicago, Seattle and China, the two riders would get off and two more would board the train.  Meanwhile all the rest of the line of kids was pushing the wagon or holding onto each others' waists as freight trains.

I realize that allowing children their own space and voice is very important.  As a parent I want to give my children tools to find their independence successfully.  I want them to know it is great to meet all sorts of friends, but that they make their own choices about what types of play they do and that  they feel heard and valued when they have ideas.   My boys' preschool practices this on a daily basis as the kids learn to play together.  Larger public spheres are harder to maneuver, but my children are learning- and so am I about what role we each have in making unstructured play work.

As the boys fell asleep last night T was explaining a game he wished he could have played with the kids at the park the other day.  It was a game involving a couple of wildflowers that he had gathered from the field.  In the game he would give the flowers to someone and then they would hide holding the flowers.  He would find them.  They were not supposed to crush the flowers.

His game sounds simple and sweet.  I hope that he can find friends with whom to play it!

What are the best experiences for children?

All children learn differently. My boys like to observe before jumping in.  Sometimes the first time they see an activity they do not want to take part.  However, they are learning by observing.  I realize this by the way they bring things up over the dinner table.  For example tonight T said, "Rot is good.  It is good for the plants because it shows that there a bugs breaking things down."

Yesterday we did a Fiddleheads session at the Arboretum: the theme was decomposition.   Teacher Sarah always plans wonderful activities and today she had set out stations at the start of class and at one of them were some books.  The boys saw a "Magic School Bus" book and that was what they wanted to read.  Today part of what the boys were talking about came from that book.  They actually retold the story.  Yet, I know that it was also the hands on experiences in the aboretum that they took into their explorations in the yard. I know I certainly did-- gardening today was filled with more attention to all the bugs, millipedes, and centipedes

A few of the activities from the class were:

• make a worm tunnel: the adults stood with their legs apart and the kids all faced them and then crawled through their legs.
• dig in the dirt off the main paths looking for bugs, place them in a white bowl to observe then set them free 
• making a segmented worm out of a hosiery stocking, cotton filler, and rubber bands for the segments

As always it was just getting out to a regularly visited place that caused the most excitement for my boys.  They were especially thrilled when they found how the skunk flower had changed next to the stream.  

I enjoyed seeing how the winter garden had transformed into azeala way.  It was a bright pathway.  The boys wondered if their paths that they had taken in the winter were still there. They were there, just narrower. 

I wonder what learning will stick.  All these outdoor experiences that my boys experience.  Some structured- as in the arboretum classes, some unstructured- just play in the backyard with the neighbors, some laden with vocabulary- while they walk the gardens with mama, and other experiences just filled with wonder.  Some experiences mediated by story, folklore, and silly songs, and other just their own imaginary play.  

My guess is: whenever there are smiles and true awe- there will be a deep bodily memory.

Nature Inspiration for Young Children

I have been creating lists of books that our my favorite at the public library.
Hope you and your young children enjoy them as much as I do.

Nature Inspiration for Young Children | The Seattle Public Library | BiblioCommons
Nature Inspiration for Young Children 2 | The Seattle Public Library | BiblioCommons

An Appreciation

Just wanted to write an appreciation to the Growing up Wild curriculum. It will be taught in a class at the Tacoma Nature Center in July and I highly recommend it.

Today I shared a song from the Bird Beak Adaptation lesson with the naturalist at our local park.   It was about birds and their specials skills and is sung to the tune of all around the mulberry bush.  She incorporated it into her lesson and it was a nice success at the Toddler Tales and Trails session.

The Growing Up Wild curriculum is also helping in developing a Family Nature Program to be hosted at the local library.    Hope to be able to post more details as this develops.  We are focusing our outreach to the ELL community and we will be integrating Somalli tales and activities into the playtime.  

Family Hike

Yesterday we went on a Family Hike.  It was a joy to see so many mothers and children heading into the woods on a cloudy day.  It was an experience to get to be with  many children who are so comfortable in the woods.  Many of them have been a part of the Vashon Wilderness School and have a nature connection due to spending days weekly in the woods at Camp Long.  These children headed immediately off trail and found challenges and adventures throughout the forest.  This program is one of several that aims to teach children about nature from safety, to exploring, to honoring and respecting.   It is an organization inspired by Wilderness Awareness and the children who attend it definitely feel comfortable in the wilderness.

  

I realize however that all families do not always have the same background or comfort in this "off trail" exploration.  I also realize that different parks have a different tolerance of off trail exploration.  So in leading a family nature hike I realize that in general it is particularly important to set ground rules that everyone can follow and feel good about that journey.

When I was at a camp in Minnesota leading teenagers into the woods, the counselors followed the belief that you had to respect the boundaries of the leader most restrictive.  Therefore, if one counselor said, "these rapids are too dangerous" then the whole group would go around the rapids.   This motto existed after a few particularly scary runs down rivers: when canoes capsized, luggage was lost, and boats needed to be repaired.   No one had been hurt, but the lesson had been learned to respect the wild river and the skills and comfort level of the counselors.

Yesterday I had inspired this group of families to get out into the woods, but I realized that I did not fully understand my role.  For the future it made me realize I need to clarify what role I am to have when I plan future hikes so I know whether it is  just an informal event where everyone does sort of their own thing or if it is something that I am guiding, leading and therefore setting parameters and expectations.  The Children and Nature Network has a Family Nature Hike program that has somewhat formalized this role of facilitating Family Nature Hikes and while I never felt it necessary to use it, I can see its place especially when you are getting groups of people together who you may not know.

I plan to lead many more groups into nature.  Each experience I have gives me new insight and reminds me to feel confident in my own gift of teaching nature.  I have a unique perspective as a mother of twin boys and over 20 years as an educator and urban naturalist.  I have much to learn and much to share.

A few activities that I did do on this hike was at the start of the hike get us prepared for animals we may see by having children pull stuffed animal puppets out of a bag.
An group art project where we looked for different colors of green.
A group game of imaginary ball toss where you pass a ball to one another...1st it might be a tennis ball, then a watermelon, a feather ecetera....

Bedtime story: What we do

The other day has become a bedtime story that was repeated by both T and his dad for the past couple of nights.  

There were once four boys who played outside for a long time.  They biked.  They dug out a road.  They played pirates.  When it was dinner both families ate outside.  You could hear the happy voices from each yard.  Our family ate really good food.  After dinner S and T went fishing with sticks and string over the pond (which is just our hillside).  They caught lots of salmon and S cooked them.  Their friends joined them.

Then a big black cloud came overhead.  It got suddenly cold.  The wind began to blow and snow began to fall (really flower petals from the cherry and plum trees). The boys chased the flakes and tried to catch them.  J and T caught the most.  They were fast. Everyone laughed and smiled.  Then it was time to go into the house.  It had started to rain big cold wet drops.  We watched out the door as rain and hail fell down.

After it rained T went out to investigate the cold soaking grass the hail that had lingered and where water had collected.   A crow called then mom called, "time for bed."  Everyone put on pajamas and snuggled up for bed.

Investigating cones

Today the boys and I went to the Arboretum for the fiddleheads program. Teacher Sarah does a great job balancing play, games and explorations  during the two hour sessions.  The boys enjoyed looking at the cones and noticing their different colors and shapes.  They also enjoyed playing the game where they had to "run and find"…."a stem"…"a flower"..."a leaf"….and "a root. " S was always particular proud of his discoveries and would run back to Teacher Sarah to tell what he had seen.

Later this afternoon we played this game in our own yard taking turns calling out what to find: "something red and wet," a yellow leaf, "something dry"...a tulip..a laurel tree leaf.. a hidden spot under the wheelbarrow.  This game can be played with older kids and the added element of something chasing you and the only safe place is "a huckleberry bush" or "a rock" or anything that can be found in the environment.

Puttering

Yesterday the boys and I were outside most of the day.  It went from slightly blustery and rainy in the morning to beautiful spring sunshine.   While we finished a few tasks in the yard more moving dirt, pulling weeds, and planting some patio thyme we also just played.

The boys are amazing at finding things to do and invent.  At one moment S was "riding"our upside down wheelbarrow and he had pulled his bike onto to it and said,"I am Santa fixing a bike that someone returned."  T was working diligently on his roads and mountains.

Meanhwhile the boys were also "harvesting water" from wherever they could find it in the yard and adding it to their dirt to make mud and then using various toys/ tools for funnels.

At one point the boys next door asked us "what we were doing."
I replid, "puttering."
He said, "What it that?"
I said, "it's just doing stuff."

I am not sure that definition is adequate, but it made me realize how happy I am to know that I can putter and how happy it makes me to look out and see my boys putter about, making inventions, rolling down the hill, and then moving things about.

We invited the neighbors over and the play changed from quiet puttering to active building and chasing, laughing and occasional crying...thats what happens during unstructured freeplay.    In the end the boys also built "cobblestone" roads  and this lovely campfire made of stones and flowers.

Planting Community

Thanks to  dedicated neighbors,  Green Canopy Seattle and the Washington Native Plant Society our communities have great opportunities to reclaim forest lands and greenspaces that have been taken over by invasive species such as English ivy.  My boys are particularly pleased that they get to plant trees and native plants in their own neighborhood.  It is one of our families favorite outings!

GOOD DIRT!

I've just come in from playing with the boys and renewing the garden with two yards of fresh compost and I feel good.  The research isn't that new, but I was recently sent an article on the benefits of dirt and thought I should share it, especially if by adding a little dirt to our lives we can improve our immune systems.

I realize that dirt is much more complex than I can begin to imagine & that understanding soils will be key to becoming a solid gardener and now I realize  important to becoming a healthy being.

Bird Egg Hunt

On Saturday our boys attended the preschool Tales and Trails Egg Hunt at the Seward Park Audubon.  It was a fabulous way to use something exciting for children-an egg hunt-and provide a lesson in how different birds make different nests and even lay different colored eggs.  There were stories, songs, bird calls, and opportunities to touch real nests that all led up to an activity of painting bird houses and then searching for specific eggs.  Each child was supposed to gather 6 eggs...all different colors and marked to represent true eggs even though they were plastic.  The kids had a grand time and the bird houses remind the boys of a wonderful event.  Thank you amazing Teacher Naturalists!

Inventing Games

The privilege of parenting is that you get to watch the amazing process of young people growing up.  Each stage is so delightful and especially in the early childhood years when change seems to occur daily.  On Saturday I had the delight of getting to watch just one of my four year old boys playing in the backyard with me, while his twin brother had the more urban adventure of a walk with his dad to the park.  

In anycase, S was ready to play in the peace and safety of our own backyard.  In fact as soon as we got back there he started to pick up his play from where he had left it-- Was it hours or days before? He had a plastic planting bucket that was for his fish and a stick and he was using for fishing. Soon he was giving me fresh cooked salmon. 

Minutes later after we had eaten he was ready to play some games; which he has just started to invent. In this case he used a ball, a plant carrying flat and a plastic scoop catcher's net.  He started to think about how to get the ball to land in the "flat", but first it had to bounce over a stick.  He would try it one way and then try it another way.  Then he would feel success!  He always was checking to see if I was watching- even though I was also pulling weeds.    

I was amazed at how he is refining his coordination, coming up with a system of rules,  and creatively using objects that all had a different uses than what he was using them.  

Outside Time

This weekend our family spent most of the weekend outside.   We played and puttered about in the backyard for hours and hours and hours.  The fact that the hammock was brought out meant that it was just warm enough in the afternoons to lounge, although mittens were needed in the morning and a cup of tea in midday.  We even had a small fire in our chimenea last night.

I want to make note of just a few of the things that my just four year old boys did as I always find it helpful to see or hear other children doing the same things.

They ran around with the neighbors pretending they were chipmunks and putting each other in a "den".  Then S said, " I 'm going to cook you!"

They played in the hammock "boat"...first with three other friends just giggling and swinging and even singing.  Then falling out and saying "man overboard."  Soon the kids who fell out were octopus trying to wiggle and bump the boat.

The boys made pretend beans and rice and quinoa & pumpkin bread and served it at their hotel ( which was basically a little nook next to the azaelas.)

We watched a crow holding a twig on the wire, drop it and then go and get another.

The boys dug in their mud pits and worked on making bridges with sticks & the neighbor kids (age 3 &  5).

They danced around and taunted the lawn mower, staying a safe distance away while papa mowed.

They helped plant a new garden bed.

They played with sticks and balls and invented a game where the ball had to go through a "chute" which was the legs of an upside down chair.

They played on an upside down wheelbarrow.
Climbed trees.
Fed the neighbors chickens.

On a neighborhood bike ride, they stopped and investigated some new saplings and crosscuts of stumps that had been installed to keep cars from parking on the boulevard.   Then they climbed the stumps. Lifted their bikes on the stumps.  Played for at least 20 minutes.

Toddler Tales and Trails

Being a full time parent is a wonderful way to get to experience programs and find out what they are about.  They truly teach me as well as they teach my children.   Our local Audubon offers a great activity for youngsters and their caregivers, Toddler Tales and Trails.  Usually there is a staff naturalist who leads the program.  However, she has lost her voice and since I am a trained volunteer at the park yesterday I was able to lead.    I focused on spring and also nests.  Here is a brief description of our activities.  One hour was a short amount of time to delve into all the things I had prepared, but it was the perfect amount of time for the kids who were ready for free play at the end of our hike.

Opening activities and traditional songs

Read book called Wake Up It's Spring by Lisa Campbell Ernst which the young children seemed to love.  I think it is because of how expressively the illustrator drew the pictures.  It just seemed to resonate with the youngsters.

Sang Pete Seeger's" Litte Bird Fly Through My Window" Kids each chose a stuffed bird that made a sound.  They play the sound and then we sang to their bird. 

Looked at various nests to discover what they were made out of & then I handed each child a small egg carton with play dough to make a nest.  We  searched for things to line it with as we hiked along.

Then read In my Nest by Sara gillingham and Lorena Siminovich which is just a simple board book about what goes into a nest.

Then it was time to prepare for and head out on  our hike.   We stopped numerous times to listen for birds: To point what direction we were hearing them.  

We said "hello" to our friends in the forest such as the lightening tree and a baby cedar that was recently planted.  

We played games of follow the leader when we came to particularly long stretches of our hike- the leader got to choose an animal to move like & then we all moved like that animal.  

We stomped in mud.  Stopped in mud.  Spent time in mud.  

Sang a goodbye song.

Finally, this lovely hour was a full experience for me; however for my children it was just a warm up for a day of play.  The boys then had time to play in the park, read more stories at the "centers" library. Run through a spring rain.  Then home for time to work on their mud pits, which with so much water were extra inviting.  

Weekend in the Woods: Weekend in the City

This past weekend I was privileged to get to take part in a Coyote Mentoring Experience at the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA.  The experience was inspiring on many fronts. Mainly,  it was exciting to be with so many people inspired to create a world that values nature and holistic human development.   The teachers were fabulous, experienced and passionate educators.

We learned about their Natural Learning Cycle and practiced many of the core routines that they have found lead to "nature connection" outlined in their book.    While many of the activities and practices were not new to me- it was encouraging to see it so succinctly outlined.   It makes it a wonderful way to be deliberate in planning nature experiences for children.

I come away from the weekend thinking about my intentions.  I have many: to build community, to teach my children ( and hopefully other children and families) to have a deep knowledge of the place they live in and I am now considering how learning survival and wilderness skills can lead to a richer personhood and in time community.

I am not sure where I will go with the new practices that I began while attending the weekend, however I realize they are already informing how I talk to my children.   The last words of one of the instructors when we left the experience was to go home and remember that others have been living lives too, while you were gone: Ask them questions.

So when I came home to my family I really listened, with a refreshed perspective, to what my family had experienced while I was gone.  I was truly happy to hear about their urban adventure with a make-shift carseat carrier  (they needed to haul two!) that they made all so that they could walk a half mile and take a train to the car rental shop so that they could visit friends in another town.   I enjoyed how they explained that they hadn't thought about the challenge of rain as they went, but how it didn't stop them.  I heard that that they had noticed an eagle soaring over our neighborhood as they walked and it reminded them of the time that they had seen an eagle being chased by crows.  They also informed me that there is another rooster somewhere near the train station & that they could hear its crow.  I asked if they had seen neighbors: they told me yes and named them but said that conversation was quite limited as they all were watching the library truck driver unload books from his truck and deliver them to our branch.

My whole family is learning the practice of paying attention: our natural world and our community is not removed from us. It surrounds us.

Generations Walking

I recently posted an article about how in several generations a family started to walk less and less.  My family is reversing that tradition.  Talking with my father now he says that he remembers that his mother would never consider walking a mile.  These days he is walking two miles one way just to pick up my children from preschool.   My twin, just four years old, boys regularly walk two mile round trips and will walk at least part of the way home from preschool.

This ethic doesn't just happen overnight.  It is a way of living.  I remember as a child walking long distances and riding public transit whenever we were on trips.  We didn't want to spend the money on taxis. I learned it was a great way to experience new places, even though we usually walked for longer than my little sister wanted.   By the time I was in high school, I knew that I could get to and from my school (four miles from my houses) a myriad of ways: biking, riding public transit, the school bus, or on a rare occasion a ride in a car.  Now I live in an urban environment where there are many options of transport as well.  We have one car and it mostly sits.   For my family we have been changing the pattern that my dad says came after World War II, when soldiers came back from war and were ready to sit.   But, now three or four generations since then some people have forgotten what it means to walk.   Local groups are gathering together to bring walking back like the Seattle Greenways or Sound Steps for seniors.  However,  it is a slow reversal in trends.  When I recently toured the neighborhood school, the tour guide said that their are some walking school busses on Fridays and that sometimes kids bike on Fridays, but  most of that stops in the winter.  Kids are still not even able to walk to school despite it being so healthy for them.

What is the effect of the loss of roaming?

http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/571-the-great-indoors-or-childhoods-end

Outdoor Play

Perhaps it is the sense of spring, even though it remains winter; in any case playing outside for hours and hours and hours on end has been easy for my boys these past few days.  The sun has been out. It has been relatively dry.  My twin boys have worked on digging their hole.  They have followed mom and dad around as we prune trees and pull the creeping invasive ivy that comes from the neighboring apartment building.  They have climbed in the trees.  They have sat under the bushes and yesterday they turned a pile of branches into first a train and later an airplane.

 I write this in part to suggest that kids don't need a lot of toys outside- although a few digging tools can help.  They just need time.  It is this unstructured time that children have lost so much of in recent years.   My family purposely tries to reclaim it.

The other day my not quite four year old T even said, "lets not go in any cars or on any trains...lets just stay in our yard today."

The boys know that true family time & true play time is right where we are, unstructured.  The reward is the fine memories we have right here at home.  It is also a deep knowledge of our own home and community's ecosystem.    On Monday we saw a sharp shinned hawk (possibly a Coopers) dive into our neighbor's yard and then rise up to a snag in the next yard.   We wondered if it was after their chickens?    We also tracked down why so many dump trucks kept heading past and now know that soon there will be a new home in the neighborhood.  We found more free ranging chickens.  Is that why the hawk circled again yesterday?

We planted raspberry bushes.  We found the first dandelion and also the first crocus of spring in our yard.

Naturalized playgrounds

Last weekend the boys helped me knock on neighbors' doors.  A group of parents and neighbors are trying to survey the community on what they would like to see happen with the local school's playground and field.  One question asked about whether people wanted to see the playground become more naturalized.  Several people requested more information on naturalized playgrounds.  Here is an article I am working on:


Our survey asked what was your favorite outdoor/ playground memories?  Many people responded that they remember wandering  in wild areas,  playing on tree roots or next to streams.

These days many children do not get the opportunity to play in natural areas.  National park attendance is down.  Unstructured playtime for children has fallen.  “University of Maryland Researchers have found that outdoor and nature based activities- from walking to camping now comprise less than one half hour per week of a child’s time.”  (Christopher pg. 2, 2010)

A naturalized playground is a place for children to get to experience nature in their own neighborhoods and school yards.  These environments provide opportunities for child directed, complex, extended play.  They create a place for children to rehearse and refine social competencies in the the tactile and imagined worlds that the natural objects take on.  

Natural play areas also provide an area for quiet play and even curricular integration.

When Orca was at the Columbia building, the few trees in the corners of the concrete pad drew a myriad of activities from running games, to imagined worlds, to quiet conversations.  The well beaten path around those trees tells the story of many children's footsteps.

Richard Louv writes that " surprisingly green play areas can be designed to survive thousands of feet.  During the past two decades, natural-play-area designers have become skilled at creating living landscapes that  use specialized soil and plants as well as irrigation technologies; they design slopes to resist erosion, and cover walls with hanging gardens." (Louv, pg. 209, 2011)


There is a company called Playcore that works on developing natural playgrounds that has summarized the benefits on their website at naturegrounds.org.  These include:

“Innovative projects generate positive press and new funding streams
    “Mixed” play environments are more attractive and comfortable for adults, encouraging caregivers to spend more time outdoors with their children
    Well-designed playgrounds are a primary attraction for families using neighborhood and community parks
    Naturalization adds visual interest, shade, and comfort — resulting in sustained repeat visits, a relaxed and playful social atmosphere, and growth of community social capital
    Users of all abilities discover a wider range of play opportunities
    Curvy pathways provide attractive, accessible, active settings for children, and social strolling by adults
  Naturalization provides new opportunities for nature-based professionals to offer rich outdoor educational and recreation programs for a wide range of children”


In a article written about the Thatcher Brook Elementary School in Vermont where the firm who designed their playground says,  "It's important for kids to physically touch the earth," says Teri Hendy, whose Cincinnati-based firm, Site Masters Inc., helps design playgrounds and evaluate their safety. "When kids play on manufactured equipment, what they do is predictable. Nature isn't. Kids will spend five times as much time playing in a natural area as they do on a traditional playground. "  

Naturalization of playgrounds also helps weave together the green spaces and parks we already have in the area.   It creates habitat for wildlife and a place for community to gather. Additionally Outdoor/ Nature based play also has been shown to reduce the effects of ADHD, myopia, and childhood obesity.   (NEEFUSA, 2009).

Check some of the following resources out:

Examples:

There are quite a few models of naturalized play areas, here in Washington you can find:
Methow Valley: http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2010/sep/16/methow-valley-playground-goes-the-natural-way/?print

Kirkland: http://kirkland.patch.com/articles/floral-final-touches-put-on-sandburg-elementary-natural-playground

There is a nature based play area that can be found in Cincinnati. http://www.cincynature.org/playscape.html

And there are organizations and private companies as well that will help develop them

The North Carolina Natural Learning Initiative links to many examples at http://www.naturalearning.org

Natural Playground Company at Landcurrent, Nature play, Discovery and learning at http://naturalplaygrounds.info/

There may also be some resources in the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and Report
http://americasgreatoutdoors.gov/

References:
Books and Online-Articles that focus on the importance of Getting Kids in Nature

Christoper, Todd, The Green Hour: A Daily Dose of Nature for Happier, Healthier, Smarter Kids , Trumpeter Books, Boston, MA,  2010

Louv, Richard, The Nature Principle, Alonguin Books, Chapel Hill, 2011

White, Randy (2004) Young Children’s Relationship with Nature: Its Importance to Children’s Development and the Earths Future, White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group  http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/childrennature.shtml

Fact Sheet Children’s Health and Nature, Health & Environment A National Environmental Education Foundation Program  the National Environmental Education Foundation, Health and Environment Program (2009).   www.neefusa.org/assets/files/NIFactSheet.pdf

Celebrating Urban Nature with a March

Playgroup has still continued to have low attendance.  However, my family continues to try to get out in nature and build community.  This past month we once again put on an Urban Nature Playgroup, this time moving it to the local library.  It just happened that the local elementary schools was going to be marching in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr to very near the library and so part of our plan was to join the march.

As we gathered at the library meeting space we began with introductory activities: I had a theme in the back of my mind that we would be focusing on trees and even had some books about Wangari Maathai.   Of course we did not get to do very many of the planned activities as the local march came past in only 30 minutes.  So basically we did an introductory activity of parachute, playing a question and observation game of:  What type of animals live in trees.  I pulled several stuffed finger puppets out of my bag and handed them to the children & adults who were in attendance.  Then I asked a few questions that made them stop and look at them.  Whose animal has four legs?  Whose animal has two.  Then they would put them onto the parachute and bounce them up and down.  We then moved into a few songs before heading to the art table to make signs that we taped to sticks that we then carried as we marched.   I had hung up a picture of Dr. King & we talked briefly about why the community marches to remember him.  Children were allowed to draw whatever they wanted on their signs.

The most joyous moment was when we turned to meet up with the parade.  The police had already stopped the traffic and the marching band led the whole school.  There were people of all ages and we just blended in.  Marching and community. Donating & collecting food for the local food bank.  It seemed a perfect way to celebrate urban nature.

Since then I have been reading the children's books on Wangari Maathai--tree planter & leader of the green belt movement in Kenya  and Nobel Peace Prize winner with my children.  They are enjoying the pictures, comparing the details of her life told by one author and then another.  We have made connections to their own tree plantings at the local green space.  Joseph Cornell writes in his books  how important it is to share stories about naturalists with youth.  The story of Wangari truly is such a story.  It was especially exciting to the boys when I told them I had been lucky enough to tree plant with  her and some of my students.  T wanted to meet her, but sadly I had to tell him that she had died.  Her vision and legacy, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s lives on.

Walking after Dark

In many parts of the world families and couples and even young people take an after dinner walk for entertainment.  It is the same in all vibrant communities : you see people walking and talking, sometimes stoping to hear music or take in a view.  In the Northwest it gets very dark and quite cold after dinner, and cultivating this culture sometimes seems challenging.  Thank goodness my family is cultivating a habit of walking.  For the past month we found ourselves walking to see the seasonal  light displays.  It was a great motivator for getting out of the house after dark.   This is a great time of the day as a family to connect and to create memories.  It is even better when you sense community and see others out on the streets as well.

Ways to make the walk the safest includes having had practice walking past driveways and across intersections as cars are often speeding home.  It is also important to choose routes that seem safe.  Our boys enjoy walking with their umbrellas when it is raining and they are always thoroughly bundled.   Things to search for in the night, is to see the phases of the moon.  Notice whether you can see stars.  See if you observe things that may or may not have been present the last time you went on the walk.   If you feel like it bring cookies to a neighbor or plan to take a walk with friends.