Nothing needed

A nasty illness kept us cooped up in the house for nearly a week as it struck down 3/4 of the family. That was followed by a spell of windy, chilly rain. When the skies cleared we were absolutely itching to get outside and breathe in the fresh spring air. We may have big plans for the backyard with so many natural play spaces, but it's important to remember that the only things you really need to have fun outside are already there: mud, flowers, wind, sticks, water. You know...NATURE! The only missing ingredient is imagination. 

So many of the spring wildflowers appreciated the rain followed by the sun. The dandelions are painting the yard a cheerful yellow, and the spring beauties and trout lilies have bloomed! We also found some green leafy lichens and what the kids called "saltine mushrooms"- some sort of fungus (maybe?) growing on the log that looked like little bits of crackers. 

The rain replenished the vernal pool which has nearly doubled in size. The sticky beast of mud underlying it threatened to claim both of Ladybug's boots as she tromped through it. She found a tiny, but thrilling, waterfall in the stream of water overflowing from the pool. 

Taking a break from running and splashing and jumping doesn't have to mean an end to the fun. Sometimes it's the quiet moments that kicks the imagination into overdrive. Here they were riding on the piggy-train to find some faraway land with all kinds of exotic creatures.

Little things for a big, big earth

Earth Day is upon us and it's a cool, rainy day. Great for the earth and the plants, but not so great for playing outside without rain jackets and mud boots. That's ok because we've been celebrating all week!

I believe in, and adhere to, the place-based pedagogy that focuses on the here-and-now before the long-ago-and-far-away.  As David Sobel said in Beyond Ecophobia:  "What's important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds." The best way to bond with that world is to connect with the small patch of it outside their own door, in their schoolyard, and in the local parks. So we do just that, not only to celebrate Earth Day, but as a part of our daily life.

Yesterday we went to one of our favorite local parks with our preschool nature club. We brought a bag and filled it (along with a couple more bags that others brought) with garbage along the trail. The fallen trees and huge boulders along the trail are an outdoor jungle gym. The long, shallow "cave" with its mud floor and dripping ceiling is mysterious. The crevasse with the inexplicable brick wall is cold and spider-ific. The steep drop-off into the gorge is dizzyingly beautiful.

At home we built a birdfeeder out of popsicle sticks, filled all of the birdfeeders, scrubbed out the bird bath, and put scraps of sisal rope in the suet feeder for birds to use in their nests. Then we took a walk through our own woods and picked up all the trash we found. 

While we were out there the kids decided to play the food web game (that they learned on Wild Kratts).  They found a patch of soft green moss and decided to start the game there. Now we needed to find something that would eat them as moss. After a bit of a search we found a slug under the rocks of our fire pit. So slugs they became! They decided to hunt for a robin to eat them next, which we found on the hill of the back yard. Higher order predators are difficult to come by, so they decided to call it a day and go in the house to let our cats eat them. 

I'd call that a successful Earth Day.

Signs of life

Today while Ladybug was at school, Waterbug and I went exploring the yard. He was playing "Wild Kratts" and was on the creature-trail looking for the elusive (and very imaginary) black-footed fox. I was looking for any of the signs of life that come with spring.  His hunt was unsuccessful, aside from some tracks in the mud that he was sure belonged to the creature. My search turned up quite a bit, and together we found some beautiful, springy shades of green. 

  My lilac is starting to leaf out, and my despised lenten roses are blooming.

The kids' strawberry plant is growing, and the mottled leaves of our trout lily patch blanket the ground under the big oaks.

 There are tulips budding in the fairy garden, and hostas popping through the soil.

 I even found some rogue daffodils under the baby pines.  I didn't plant them that I can remember, so I was surprised to see them there. 

We always take the time to stop at each large rock and flip it over to see who is living in the cool, dark dampness underneath. Today we saw worms, ants, and centipedes. 

Play is easy. It is natural. It doesn't need any planning or equipment. It is as simple as flipping rocks and searching for made-up animals. And it is fun!

Our nature loom!

I am starting with the easiest projects first, so the loom was at the top of the list. Luckily my husband had recently pruned some trees in the way back so I had nice, healthy branches to choose from. I used two maple branches and two from a hawthorn. I didn't realize I grabbed hawthorn branches until I got stabbed. So my project began with snipping the thorns off. 

 Then I screwed the branches together at the corners. I realized that pilot holes were necessary when screwing into green wood.  I also drilled pilot holes for all 40 eye screws that would line two sides of the frame and screwed those in. That was a tedious task, and hard on the fingers.

 Finally, I threaded the twine through the eye screws. Ladybug helped me with that, then she helped weave in some twigs and sprigs we found in the yard- white pine and spruce needles, dry ornamental grasses and sedum flowers, and flowers from the awful hellebore that I am in the process of pulling out. I'm loving the end result! Eventually the loom will attach to the end of a privacy fence that will partially enclose the new patio. I love that it will bring constantly changing art to the yard.

Greening our patch for Earth Day

Earth Day is a great day to get our children involved in protecting, caring for, and cleaning our planet. For us though, we need to keep in mind what is developmentally appropriate for preschool-age children. At this age keeping it small-scale and keeping it very local are important. So we will be greening our own patch. This post by Fireflies and Mudpies was a helpful starting point for our plans.

• Since we have a lot of pin oaks in our yard that are always dropping branches, there are always sticks to pick up. We transfer the sticks to the woods to make new habitats there for animals who need shelter on the ground. 
• Our woods are full of invasive Autumn Olive. I'm enlisting the kids to help me identify some of these and cut them down.
• We have a half-pound of native wildflower seeds to plant, so we need to prepare some of the areas by breaking up dirt clods and pulling up existing plants. 
• Our creek carries storm water so it also tends to wash litter through our backyard. We will clean out any junk we find in it.
• We have a batbox just waiting to be hung on the perfect tree. With dad's help the kids will locate an ideal site and help put it up. 
• I would like some bluebird boxes along our woodline, so we will build a couple in hopes of getting them up in time for their nesting season. 

the kids helping in one of the beds that needs to
be cleared, aka "English Ivy should be illegal".

Paying homage

Today there is rain in the forecast so I didn't plan on going outside to start a project. Instead I will pay tribute to the people who have inspired me, and in turn my yard. Since I worked as an outdoor educator before my kiddos were born, I have read quite a few books on the subject of teaching people in and about nature. Looking back after having kids and seeing firsthand how they learn, I realized only one of the many books got it right: Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.  Thus began my mission to actively seek out books that were more in line with how children actually learn. By that I mean allowing children to pick up sticks, poke around with them, throw rocks in a stream, climb trees, pick and *gasp* eat (safe) berries, balance across fallen trees, splash in streams and mud puddles, break stems, pick flowers,  leave the trail, and explore in a free-form way that follows their curiosity. The look-but-don't-touch paradigm will not teach our children to love nature. They need to touch it, smell it, taste it, fully immerse themselves in it, and interact with it.  And THAT is why I am playscaping our yard into a wonderland where our children are free to roam, play, learn, and explore.

My realization and resulting search for more knowledge led me to Ken Finch. He is the founder of Green Hearts Institute for Nature in Childhood who has written several essays and numerous articles on the subject of how children learn and play in nature. My favorite, and maybe his most comprehensive, is his Parents' Guide To Nature Play.  Many of his "kidscaping" ideas are included in my backyard design plan.  I had the privilege of meeting him and attending a seminar he led last summer. I left feeling so hopeful and inspired. It was an amazing feeling. He guided me to another of my nature education heroes, David Sobel.  Mr. Sobel has written many books and articles on place-based education, and how children develop and play in nature. I have read several of them, but for me as a parent, the most profound and inspiring is Wild Play: Parenting Adventures In the Great Outdoors. It is beautiful, honest, heartwrenching at times, and ....well, profoundly inspiring. I was also fortunate enough to attend a discussion led by him.

some of my favorite books on
reconnecting children with nature

Those authors, along with the awesome blogs I follow (you should follow them too!), feed my desire for a constant stream of motivation and knowledge. And of course it still isn't raining, so maybe I'll go outside and find some sticks to build something out of.

The spaces that started it all

We moved to this house, with this yard, three years ago with the intention of giving our children every opportunity imaginable to play outside. As a former outdoor educator this was important to me. I had no idea how it would change my life, lead me down a new path, and mold the person I am, though. Before I learned about how nature play is developmentally appropriate I already knew that it was vitally important to me. There are a couple of spaces in the yard that inspired me to let loose, and to let my children loose to explore, dig, play, and get dirty. I'll introduce you to them.

This is the fairy garden. It is a basically unusable planter off the front porch. It gets very little sun and less water, so not much grows in it. I have some tulip bulbs coming up now, but they only grow where the dirt meets with sun and water. The kids can sit there for ages just digging in the soft, loose dirt. There is even a layer of big marble pebbles underneath the dirt, like buried treasure.

fairy garden

Meet piggy-log. It is the remnants of a tree that fell just days before we moved in. It was quite the project for my husband to clear the branches from the creek. The kids climb on it, use it as a balance beam, jump off of it, explore it for new signs of decomposition, and ride it like a train. Choo choo!

piggy log

 And last, but certainly not least, is our very own vernal pool, tucked in the corner of our woods. It's a great place with deep water and boot-sucking mud.  A walk through our woods isn't complete without splashing in muddy water. I'm sure that some frogs and salamanders like it too.

the vernal pool