the great outdoors

ok, i have a confession to make. i DO NOT like being cold. secretly, i'd love to hibernate all winter in my warm cozy house. but over the years i have had to adapt due to the ever so obvious need for our children to get outside more and as much as possible. getting them outdoors gets increasingly difficult in the winter months. my grade schooler only gets about an hour after school before it gets dark! so i am constantly looking for outdoor activities and ideas to do daily. soon snow and ice will cover the sidewalks which lends to some fun times but even just taking a nice walk around the neighborhood can be enough to keep us connected to nature during these cold months.

i purchased the book, i love dirt, by jennifer ward a few months ago in hopes for some interesting ideas and it didn't disappoint. i love the basis of this book which i believe is: to be present in this moment and to fully feel and observe. it is through these real moments that we truly learn. 

the activities are categorized by season and each activity poses a question that relates to science in some way. for example, in the spring section, there is a rain activity where you simply go outside in the rain and observe all that is happening— the raindrops falling off or pooling on your umbrella, the streams of water flowing to lower ground, the rain being absorbed into the ground, the animals or insects enjoying the rain, the cool rain on your face— then toward the end of the chapter, ward helps you to spark a scientific conversation: why does it rain? this can lead to a better understanding of our water cycle and hopefully leads to more questions which then leads to having fun outside! i immediately flipped to the fall and winter section first. some activites that caught my eye included looking for objects affected by gravity, zooming into nature, and looking for and identifying tracks and trails in the snow. overall, i think this book was a great reminder of the vast learning possibilities in nature as well as a nifty guide for parents looking to get their kids to like being outside after the swimming pools are closed and the slides are a sheet of ice.