Today I've been working on topics to discuss. I'm excited to blog about different things that you can do outdoors with kids- a lot of these things are projects that my mother did with my sister and me, and some are new ones I've been finding. Eventually I hope to try most of them to give detailed reports on the blog about my tips and how they work, but obviously that won't be possible for all of them... here's a sneak preview of activities:
1. Gardening (of course!)
2. Learning about xylem and phloem by dying celery, Queen Anne's Lace, etc...
3. Making a solar system to scale in the backyard/ball field/wherever.
4. Making your own compass with only what you could find in the woods. (Dirt & sticks)
5. Camping, including kid-friendly backpacking food & gear.
6. Field identification.
7. Studying pond scum.
I'm aiming to provide lots of details to make these & other ideas as user-friendly as possible. Tips, criticism, and suggestions appreciated!
4 comments:
These all sound very cool, Anne. I'd like to dye some celery myself.
Because it's monsoon season, the trips up and down the sidewalks reminded me of the times when my older boy would rush frantically around on the driveway in the rain, saving earth worms from certain doom and drowning.
Then you said "studying pond scum", which made me think, those worms need to be saved and studied! Maybe the new kids in the woods could do it.
I got nothing, besides that.
I noticed the worms on the sidewalks, too. Aren't they there b/c their "homes" fill with water during a rain shower and they can't breathe so they come to the surface?
Actually, it's not. Worms can live a long time in the water, absorbing the oxygen in it through their skin. From what I've heard, researchers aren't sure why they come out, but it's theorized that they do because it is safe to- normally they would die pretty quickly on the surface. I also hear that worms tend to move upward in response to changes in barometric pressure, such as what often happens in storms, but no one is really sure why.
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