After what seemed like a never ending summer of oppressive heat and humidity, it’s finally autumn! And with autumn comes one of my favorite activities- the nature walk! Of course, we spend plenty of time outside the rest of the year, but autumn is the best time for this- great weather, lots of beautiful colors, and no (well almost no) bugs! Not only is it one of our favorite weekend family activities, it also blends perfectly with homeschooling.
I like to have our oldest bring along a bag to collect any “treasures” she finds along the way. Primarily, it’s a simple way to get her to interact with the environment; she takes so much more in visually when she’s actively searching for something to add. It gets her to notice things she might otherwise walk right past even if it’s not something she can bring with her, like a fuzzy caterpillar chugging along on the ground, an intricate spider’s web, or a small hole in the ground that may or may not be some critter’s home.
The picture above contains a few of her most recent finds- various leaves, some curly bark, a walnut, woody thorns from a tree, and some seed pods that we discovered make excellent maracas! From this bag of goodies, there are many rabbit trails we could venture down.
We might open a book or scan the Internet to discover what trees our leaves came from and then put them together in a simple book that we can add to as the season goes on. We can split open the walnut and the seed pod and discover what’s inside and talk about how they can grow into big strong trees one day. I can sneak some math in easily by having her group her treasures and work on addition and subtraction. We can look at the thorns and talk about Jesus Christ and the crown of thorns that He wore for us. Or, maybe she can pick her favorite leaf and try to sketch it.
It’s amazing how much fun and learning you can find in a bag that looks like it’s just full of yard clippings!
Do you and your family enjoy nature walks? What’s your family’s favorite nature walk activity?
Katie is soaking up the autumn weather with her three fantastic daughters and can be found blogging at Just Another Catholic Mom.
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Nature walks are one of my favorite activities! We’ve been on many of them in recent weeks since my oldest (16) is doing Biology. My youngest (3) really enjoyed them and has picked up a lot of knowledge from the things the older has pointed out as we walk, and we’ve made many cute craft projects from our findings.