Children and Nature Awareness Month

Good morning! I would love to say it is a beautiful one and the sun is shining but alas, it is a beautiful one with rains and grey skies. But that is ok, it is a good day for puddle jumping in bright yellow boots!

I know that I usually bring you a tutorial on Tuesdays (at least I have been trying to keep up that pace) but today I wanted to talk to you about something super important. Children and more importantly, children in nature. In today's hustle and bustling society with dance classes, homework and family dinner time it is hard to squeeze in that outdoors time. Doubly hard in colder, wetter climates like ours here in South Eastern Ontario. But it is so important! And to help us realize the importance, and to motivate us to get out more it is Children and Nature Awareness Month.



Who does not love honeybees?



We love to be outside. Waterfront, swamp front, green grass, brown dried up hay fields, we like to be outside. I know that as soon as the weather warmed just a bit you found us outside more and more. These past two weeks, not one day has gone by that we have not been outside. Sometimes we make it to a provincial park like Presqu'ile and sometimes just to a local one like Hannah. and sometimes, we just go outside to a playground for the sake of fresh air and sunshine. But always we go out.

The more we go, the more Wednesday learns. She is smaller with a shorter attention span but her hearing and sight is bang on and it is she who asks us "Whats that sound?" "What is those things?" And we give her everything we know about the fuzzy caterpillars and red winged black birds. But sometimes, she just learns playground physics like yesterday, she learned that you don't down a wet slide very fast at all, but when it is dry you can climb it backwards to the top! When she had to pee, she told me "I want to pee in the grass!" which is awesome because there will be less port-a-potties and more bushes in her future. :)

So, when Lisa of 5 Orange Potatoes issued a challenge too her blogger/twitter friends and followers to go outside EVERY SINGLE DAY in April and photograph it I was like sure, we have been playing for two weeks and didn't even know it!

It also just so happens, that I have a book called Let's Go Outside by Jennifer Ward coming in the mail (Hopefully tomorrow!) which I am excited about. Now, do not get me wrong I do not need a book to teach me how to go outside or why to go outside. I would like to connect with Wednesday better when we are out there though. I am hoping this book gives me more ideas for when we are out there and helps us have even more fun! I'll review it when it comes.

There is one more book I have been dying to read and I think after I read Let's Go Outside I'll be ordering it. It is called Last Child in The Woods by Richard Louv and it seems very important in its message. Kids need to be outside getting dirty, learning about their surrounding with all five senses, not just by looking at pictures.

And speaking of pictures, here is our submissions for the month of April!


Climbing the ladder BY HERSELF for the first time! (Yesterday)

Playing peek-a-boo in Brighton. (Sunday)

Smiling big @ Hannah Park.  (Saturday)

Looking for Easter Eggs @ Bain Park (Friday).


So we are challenging you to the same! Go outside EVERY SINGLE day this month and take just one photo. Weather permitting is not an option. That is what slicks, bots and umbrellas are for!Post it on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr...wherever you normally share your daily life! But most importantly, GO OUTSIDE!

P.S. If you need some direction/inspiration head over to 5 Orange Potatoes and let Fauna and Araina guide you. Lisa also has some great nature inspired activities already ready for you to explore from her site menu. I urge you to check them out!

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