Learning With My Children

Learning is so much fun. I don't want to forget some of the neat things we've been doing as a family, so I just want to list some of our adventures the past few months. You may notice a naturalistic theme because I feel that being outside and exploring nature, especially when young, inspires a natural curiosity and desire to learn about the beautiful world around us that is so important. And, I just love sharing my love of nature with my children!

• Richardson's Urban Naturalist Program This little section comes in part from an article I wrote for our local Neighborhood Association Newsletter. "I decided to register and take my kids to Breckinridge Park at 8:30 AM August 29th for the first fall Urban Naturalist Program guided walk “Geology Tells the Story, Past and Present.” Adults are $5, but kids 18 and under are free with a paid adult to chaperon.  I was a little nervous bringing my little ones, but we had a “rockin’” good time!  It was a pleasure meeting and visiting with other nature enthusiasts, and I learned so much just listening to the questions they asked our guide. The walk and talk was fascinating, and though we went off trail just a bit, the trek wasn’t too difficult for either the youngest or oldest members of our group.  My kids enjoyed learning about the white layers of fossil ridden limestone that line Rowlett Creek. Those layers are called the “Austin Chalk” and are 85 million years old!  The fossils in the layers tell the story of when this entire area was covered by the sea. My five year old found a bivalve fossil to keep, and we took some pictures of inoceramus (pictured above) embedded in the rock.  Later some members of the party uncovered some iron disulfide. . . pyrite!  We enjoyed checking out the “fools gold” together.  I can tell you this will not be our last walk with the Urban Naturalist Program!"  End formal newsletter portion... 

I soon discovered during our Geology walk, that the many knowledgeable folks we had with us were kind and willing to answer all our questions about ALL the different plants we were seeing. Seriously, someone in our group could ID anything we asked, and it was so much fun.  Pictured at the left is frostweed which has neat "fins" along the stems, and which will split open during a hard sudden freeze because the sap will expand and essentially explode the plant.  I learned something new! Awesome!! 

 Pictured to the right is a rain lily, so named because it only blooms after a soaking rain.  We were so lucky to see it as we had a very cooling rain the night before after a dry spell, and it was still damp and misty during our hike which was a blessing. Otherwise my kids and I would not have enjoyed this end of August hike in Texas nearly so much! I had no idea that rain lilies existed in this small patch of blackland prairie here in our city (or at all...)  How sweet!   It was such a pleasure to enjoy the company of so many people willing to share their passions and expertise about the beautiful world we live in.  I love learning the names of the plants and animals that I see around me. I feel more connected to the earth, more one with nature.  We'll be back to enjoy more from our urban naturalist program here in the city!

Sampling of some low point value shells you can
trade for at the Nature Exchange in the Dallas Zoo.
My son recently picked out a jingle shell
for his growing collection.

• Nature Exchange at the Dallas Zoo  I think I love this more than my kids.  In the children's zoo is a fabulous little building filled with displays and boxes of rocks, shells, bones, teeth, fossils, pressed leaves, nuts, owl pellets, pinned insects, etc. etc. etc. all things natural (except anything having to do with birds... as many are protected), and each of these items have point values attached to them. Participants can come in and trade up to five nature items (found outside the zoo) per visit for points which they can exchange to take home something from the zoo's ample collection. You can save up your points in their system for a large ticket item (say, a polished geode or full animal skeleton), or exchange points immediately for something more common, as you wish. There are also free item boxes, from which you can take one specimen per visit, often filled with things that other people have brought in to trade that they have a surplus of.  The act of exchanging is SO EXCITING because we get to sit down with a professional during our exchange to learn about the items we brought it. My kids and I really enjoy telling about where we find our items, how we found them, and then the naturalist will teach us something about our item.  At our last exchange we cut open a gall my son found (at this point, I didn't even know what a gall was... which is why we brought it in to find out). Inside, we found wasp larvae which we got to check out under their SWEET microscope that projects onto a flat screen TV.  We've also brought in seeds, rocks, bones, and fossils that we've been unable to identify and we've had a blast learning about these items with the helpers at the zoo.  The room also has a wall of books to peruse to help identify objects we've found and learn more about the world around us. (Nerd alert) Yes, I take my children to the zoo and we go sit in this room and read books...and it's hard to peel them away.  We love it!

Some of the contents of my daughter's pockets from a recent hiking expedition. . .found in the wash. Just the kind of things we like to take to the Nature Exchange to trade and learn about. In my palm is a Texigryphaea mucronata (Devil's Toenail) which is a common fossilized oyster found here in Texas and is anywhere from 200 to 150 million years old. In the center is a periwinkle shell, and up top is an unidentified bone probably from a small rodent.

•  Local hikes (Yes, Dallas has some natural wonders left around town!) are some of our favorite activities. These pictures are from a hike we took in Erwin Park in McKinney. We saw gorgeous wildflowers, and we spent a lot of time trying to catch large tadpoles in the pond there. I didn't get a picture, but we also observed a tree full of wild bees on this hike. So fascinating! 

If you can identify these flowers from our Erwin Park hike,
you will win points in my book. (And I'm cool, so my points count... ;-)

• Backyard Explorations   One of my favorite things to do with the kids is say, "Let's go find some bugs. And we just go outside and search.  We had a lot of rain in the spring, so we had a lot more snails than we usually do.  This little guy was just chilling on our driveway. We've caught and observed many insects, spiders, arthropods, and mollusks all from our tiny yard. Good times...  These butterflies were actually at the Dallas Zoo along the Wild's of Africa trail... three in one picture, how cool!!

• Family Gardening  Something wonderful I learned growing up with my parents that I'm passing on to my kids.  A natural way to learn work ethic, learn about patience, learn to prepare a plan and execute it, learn to love eating green things, learn discipline in daily chores, and in all, learn gratitude for the hard workers who produce the rest of what we consume every day. Most of us sure have it easy getting food here in the United States!  Gardening for me is also relaxing, a peaceful way to connect to the earth, a time where I mediate and ponder on spiritual things (yeah, while I weed.) It's a fine way to watch the wonders of nature as a seed grows and eventually produces a bountiful harvest.  Here are two pictures of our yield this year.  We had enough cucumbers to put up several quarts of dill pickles, and (not pictured) plenty of beets for beet pickles, too! 

I have more pictures of more things we've learned about and done in our home school recently, including some indoor stuff, ha! But I'm getting tired and I think some of them really deserve their own blog postings. But here's to having a great time finding joy in the journey every day. Outside, inside, with friends, or alone, learning and doing things we are interested in and passionate about. Inspiring children to learn by being excited about learning ourselves. 

And, P.S. we read like crazy, do math, music, learn about history and say the Pledge of Allegiance, etc... too. I'm just sharing some of the learning that's MINE... which is how I best inspire.