Nature walks in the city

“We can never have enough of Nature.  We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and Titanic features, the seacoast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which last three weeks and produces freshets…”

– Walden by Henry David Thoreau

With the dawn of spring we have begun taking long hikes.  Each time we go a little further exploring our surroundings.   The hikes are multi-purposeful because they are science and PE rolled into one.    Last week we embarked on a journey to find a tadpole.  We live in a major metropolitan area so we are surrounded by city.  But outside our house is a large park and that park has grassy areas, woodsy areas, a creek, and a marshy area.

We searched a couple ponds, areas of standing water, as well as some marshy areas.  While we didn’t find a tadpole, we did take a sample of pond/marshy water back to our house.  The water that looked as though nothing lived it it turned out to be the home of tons of tiny creatures.

We walk about an hour before turning around and heading back home.  When we first started on our hikes my boys didn’t have great endurance so we would only walk about 20 minutes.

 
The toddler comes along too.  We ditched the stroller in favor of a backpack carrier so we could go off the beaten path a little easier.  The toddler usually get out and walks for the last quarter mile.  She enjoyed the first flowers of spring.
The boys are taking a little climbing break before we head back home.  Nature has so many lessons in it for children to explore.

One thought on “Nature walks in the city

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Orton Blog by Crimson Themes.