Our family has a special connection with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and we try to visit at least once a year. On one of our most recent trips we were finally able to make it into Moosewood Nature Center on Presque Isle in Marquette, Michigan. We were so impressed with all their fun activities they have packed into their small space. The nature center has live animals, including a Snapping Turtle named Shelldon. There is also a cozy reading…
We have some exciting news to share! If you have noticed we’ve been a little quiet around here this summer it is because we have been working on some big plans, years in the making, and dreams are coming true around here! Lance and I both turned 30 this last spring and fresh off the wanderlust high of a ten-day Hawaii trip, we made a big decision! We are taking a FAMILY GAP YEAR!! This week we finish packing up…
Summer is here and we are ready in the mud kitchen! I have had a lot of questions about this area lately so I thought I would share a bit more about it. It changes often based on the season and our interests. Sometimes it is a kitchen or reaturant, sometimes there is painting or chalk art happening, sometimes its just plain old messy, muddy play! Currently in our summer mud kitchen: pots and utensils, old flower bouquet, chalk painted…
This month our theme for homeschooling is “Kindness”. While we patiently wait for our Kindness elves to appear we are doing what we can around our neighborhood. We have been talking a lot about animals and how they are adjusting to the shorter, colder days. After some brainstorming and window watching we decided we would like to do something kind for the birds and animals in our neighborhood. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood with lots of trees,…
As the season shifts from summer to fall here in Minnesota the air gets cooler and the trees begin to change. With so many vibrant colors starting to appear it provides the perfect time to introduce the relationship between nature and art. We recently took a trip to Lowry Nature Center within the Carver Park Reserve to join their Lowry Little Ones session on Nature Art. We love Lowry, it is one of our most regularly visited parks for hiking, home…
On a recent trip to Colorado we were invited to join Worldmind Nature Immersion School for a session of their Child-Caregiver Forest School at Chatfield Botanical Gardens in Denver. They hold child-caregiver groups for children 0-8, ecological awareness drop off classes for children 4-10, as well as family camping trips seasonally. Aside from this location they also have locations in the Denver Metro, Sand Creek, Morrison, and Boulder. All of the sessions take place in public parks, green ways, and…
I recently visited Dodge Nature Preschool in West St. Paul for the Nature-Based Preschool National Conference. As one of the oldest nature-based preschool their beautiful property was the perfect host for this conference. The preschool is a part of the 110-acre Dodge Nature Center which provides a unique landscape for the preschoolers to explore. They have 6 ponds, a 40-acre Model Farm, a bee apiary, multiple gardens, an orchard, a raptor habitat, and miles and miles of trail to explore….
A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a garage sale filled with wonderful wooden toys, fairy wands, and silk capes. As I was shopping I looked across the lush garden and saw a small cubby. As I looked closer I could also see a small sand play area and a tree draped in ropes.I had a feeling I has just stumbled upon something magical. That something magical was Sweet Waters Childcare in the heart of…
My love for fly fishing began, as a young girl, at my father’s old antique desk, picking through drawers of feathers and fur and shiny “mermaid hair”. After making my selections, my dad would show me how to use them to tie flies. Although my flies were purely artistic expression, I remember looking at the flies my dad would tie; intricate, beautiful recreations of mayflies, salmon flies, even grasshoppers. Although it may have taken me another 20 years to learn…
For our first full day in Montana we decided a dip in a nice cool lake would be the perfect cure for the road-lag of driving 1,000 miles in 24 hours. Luckily we knew the secret of Cliff and Wade Lake! After turning off the main highway and crossing Three Dollar Bridge, a popular fishing spot on the Madison River, you follow a winding dirt road through cattle land for 7 miles. The cattle fields quickly turn into tree covered peaks and as…