One of the easiest and least expensive (cheap is good) field trips is to head outside and hit the pavement or the hiking trail. Plus you can count some phys. ed. time for your school day and as a busy mom, I always say, “There’s nothing like killing two birds with one stone”. Although, I think I need to find a new saying because my kids give me the strangest looks when I say this.

Take a Hike Around Your Neighborhood or Your Downtown

1. For younger children, play “I Spy” and choose to look for things based on colors, shapes, numbers or things that begin with letters of the alphabet.

2. For older children, look for different architectural styles in the homes or buildings you pass by, discuss what types of jobs are being done in certain buildings, make up creative stories (verbally) about a place you see or about the people who might be living or working in a place you see.

3. Make a list of the nouns and verbs you observe while on your in-town hike. When you get home create sentences using the nouns and verbs you listed. Don’t forget to add adjectives and adverbs to make your sentences super fun and creative!

Take a Nature Hike

1. Create rubbings of different tree barks. Grab a field guide on trees from the library or your local bookstore and identify the rubbings you’ve made. Make a tree book when you get home.

2. Make a list of the animals you see on your hike. When you return home, younger children can play charades using the list of animals you created or they can draw a picture of their favorite animal from the list. Head to the library after your hike and have older children check out books about one of the animals from the list as a springboard for a research project.

3. Discuss the habitat you’ve just explored. Talk about why the things in the habitat are important for the animals you observed on your hike. Launch a study of a variety of animal habitats. Make a yummy worm habitat with crushed up cookies, chocolate pudding and gummy worms. The older kids will probably think this is silly, but will want to eat it anyway.

P.S. Next week will be a true Wordless Wednesday. Promise.

One of my favorite books of all time is a wonderful and hard to find book called The Little Red Flower by Paul Tripp and illustrated by Trina Hyman. The book sits on a shelf in my oldest daughter’s room and she and my son both know the “story” behind this book… I checked this book out from the library in 1976. I fell in love with the story and couldn’t bare to part with it so when it was due, I hid it and told my mom it was lost. I assume my mom paid the library for it. I don’t really remember. I just know that 36 years later it sits on the shelf in our house with its library pocket and I still read it to my kids to this day. Of course, my children think my deceitfulness was a major crime. They say, “Well, at least grandma paid for it, but why couldn’t you have just asked grandma to go buy you one?” Good question… I have no idea. I just loved the book and still do.

The Little Red Flower published in 1968 takes place in a dusty mining town where almost all the dads work in the mine, all the moms stay home, all the kids go to the same school and where nothing ever grows. Nothing ever grows that is until Mr. Greenthumb moves into town and sets his little red flower in its little flower pot on his windowsill. The flower and how Mr. Greenthumb takes care of it attracts the attention of the entire town. Everyone stops by to visit the flower daily and watch its caretaker water it and dust its delicate little flower petals. It brings pure joy to the people of the town and Mr. Greenthumb offers little red flower seeds to all the townsfolk. They however explain that no one can grow anything in their town except him and they assume it is because his name is Mr. Greenthumb and because he even actually has a green thumb. He laughs and explains that his thumb is green because he accidentally stuck it in some green paint, but they insist they aren’t able to grow anything. Then, one day Mr. Greenthumb doesn’t open his shutters to care for his little red flower and the town is distraught. They seek the help of the mayor who goes to check on Mr. Greenthumb and everyone soon discovers that he is very very ill. Mr. Greenthumb’s health is in the hands of the town’s doctor and the health of the little red flower lies in the hands of the townspeople who doubt themselves. The townspeople led by the son of the doctor who is caring for Mr. Greenthumb find the courage to trust themselves and all work together to save the little red flower. Mr. Greenthumb regains his health and in the end gives every family who now realize they are able to grow beautiful things a little red flower seed in a pot to take home and care for.

The illustrations are one of the things that make this story so very delightful. They are black pen and ink with only dashes of color. The little red flower’s petals are of course red and Mr. Greenthumb’s thumb is green in the beginning. The black line drawings emphasize the dreariness and dustiness of the little town. As the story continues and the town changes more and more color is added and in the end you see a little red flower on all the windowsills in the town.

I recommend this book to anyone that wants to share a sweet story about learning to believe in yourself, working with others and nurturing beauty in the world with the children you love.

Just as we believe our kids need time alone with us, we also believe 100% in the power of play in the lives of our children. We believe our children have learned and continue to learn much about the world through playing so we try to give them as much time as possible to do so. My daughter brought this up in our little chat last night as she wondered why so many of her friends her age don’t like to play much anymore. She’s noticed how busy many of them are trying to look and act older than they are and she doesn’t understand why they don’t want to enjoy being young. She said, “You only get to be a kid once, why would you want to waste it?” I gave her a big hug, told her she how wise I think she is and how happy I am that she enjoys her childhood so much. And I do! Kids are put under enormous pressures and I think as a society we often tell them to stop playing, to stop being kids through the various messages we send them. In fact many schools around the country have done away with recess time completely as more and more emphasis has been placed on standardized testing at most every grade level.

The one place we can reverse this message is at home. As parents we need to help carve out time for play. We need to hand our kids empty boxes, tape, crayons and paper, soccer balls and baseball equipment, Legos and Lincoln Logs, sheets and blankets to turn the basement or living room into giant forts and so on. Because as my daughter said, “You only get to be a kid once, why would you want to waste it?”

Check out these links for more information on the importance of play in our children’s lives.

Play Fact Sheet

allianceforchildhood.org

USA Affiliate of the International Play Association

For our family, the flexibility of our school schedule has always been important for us because of owning and operating the bookstore and we’ve been known to work on a more year round school schedule taking a week off here and there as needed.

Lately, the flexibility has allowed us to take guitar lessons in the early afternoon and take some time off for illness and a teething baby who didn’t allow mommy to get much sleep. Last year after the baby was born we didn’t “do” school for a few weeks to allow us all time to get to know our new little lovely and welcome her into our family. Granted every year it means juggling math, reading, science and history with beautiful summer weather, but for our family it’s worth it.