Take a Nature Walk

Today was a perfect day to take a nature walk! Just cool enough for a jacket, but warm enough to saunter the streets of our neighborhood looking for things that we know are around daily, but don’t really pay enough attention to. It was also a great reason to break away from gardening and get a brisk walk in to meet my steps quota of the day! See? I know how to multitask like a BOSS! 

I found these great Nature Walk checklists browsing Pinterest today, and ended up in Ms. Makinson’s store on Teachers pay Teachers, printed them out and got out of the house. Working from home and homeschooling can become a bit constrictive during the cold months, so I end up getting out as soon as we can when the weather is warm enough to do so. 

Related Post: Homeschool on the Go

As you can see, there were plenty of animals, and items that we needed to check out, and we discussed if they were all living things. The kids took great care in finding each and every item on the list, and discussing its place in nature. We also saw the circle of life with a robin eating a delectable lunch of juicy worms. The ladybug wasn’t too happy about that since she is one of the main caretakers of our vermicompost bin. She’s a bleeding heart for the animals y’all. Just remember the tomato hornworms from last year. 

We were able to cross off squirrels, mushrooms, and even a bee! 

Can anyone tell me what the big deal with dandelions is? We walked past these today, and I had to give a strong warning to Sir Twizzler NOT to run through them as if they were catnip and his name was Garfield. They are edible, I know this, but they are invasive, and they just don’t look very pretty. I’m sure that I have a teachable moment in there somewhere, but I’m not looking for it right this minute. Seriously though, you should have seen how large his eyes got, and the almost inaudible gasp that he let out when he saw ALL OF THOSE SOFT SEEDS ready to be blown into the wind to cause some poor gardener turmoil. 

Related Post: Dandelion Blowin’

The joy of being a kid, right? Now he’s requesting another nature walk so he can find more dandelions to pick. If you don’t remember his joy, maybe you should check out this post.

Since homeschool is coming to an end, I know that we’ll be enjoying more time out of the house, with a bit more structured unstructured time. I find that activities like a nature walk opens the minds of the littles, and breathing fresh air is just a necessity. Are any of my homeschool mamas winding down, or are you just getting geared up for the summer? Tell me about it! 

By the way, I blew my steps count out of the water by more than 2500+ steps! BOOYAH!