17 April 2010

Great Outdoor Challenge: Day Whatever (Taking Time & Seeds)

Let's face it.  I can't blog every day.  But I'm still participating in the challenge.  And this week it really has been a challenge because of an extra busy schedule.  But I guess that's the point isn't?  To not get so caught up in the busyness that keeps us from going outside in the first place.  To take the time to enjoy the beauty of creation.   To make time to be still and to breathe. 

Yesterday we had some great outdoor time, it just took us a while to realize it.  We went to a local park, but bypassed the green grassy playgound area, for a rugged little trail off the parking lot.   A few hundred feet up the trail, the whining began.   

"I'm tired!"
"Can we have lunch now?"
"I'm hot"
"Ugh!" 

(That last one was my two-year-old pointing in the direction of the playground that we wer not heading to.)  

"Well, let's do our science experiment just up the trail a bit, and then we'll have lunch at the playground,"  I replied in my best mother voice.

Once we did get up to our experiment spot, I asked Gracie to take our supplies out of her backpack.  But she had taken the most important supply out in the van, where it still remained. 

So back to the van we went. 

When we returned with the crucial supply (more on that later), we found a little spot just off the parking lot and settled down to work.  It was just a weedy little patch, but once we sat down and took a closer look, we were amazed by all the beauty we saw:  tiny yellow flowers, ladybugs (in several stages), some edible greens, baby sunflowers, and even a hawk!  Once we slowed down, we were able to appreciate what had been around us the whole time!


And that crucial supply?  Socks! 


The girls put some of their dad's old socks over their shoes and walked through the weediest patches they could find. Today Gracie sorted through the seeds and examined them more closely.


We even found some very cool maple seeds that spin like helicopters as they fall!

Here are some great books to go along with a seed study.


The Tiny Seed (World of Eric Carle)The Carrot SeedFrom Seed to Plant (Rookie Read-About Science)A Seed Is Sleepy

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