Nature Investigators - 3 Tips to Get Your Children Out Exploring

I love exploring nature with my sons, but I know it is not everyone's cup of tea. When you have children, sometimes you need to forget your own wants, leave your comfort zone and go all outdoorsy. I'm not saying you have to pack up and go camping. There are infintite chances to explore nature with your children. I won't accept excuses like "We live in an apartment with no balcony" or "There are no forests or beaches near us". You just need to open your eyes to what is around you can you can discover so much. You can even leave your heels on or have a coffee as you do it. 

 The main idea here is to suggest to your children that they act as nature investigators and keep an eye out for natural materials with certain qualities. You give them a topic as a starting point. Here are some tips to get even the most nature-averse parents and children among you started. 

1. Investigating Texture

A good place to begin is with textures. There is so much to discover.

Rough: bark, dried soil, rock, shells of nuts...

Prickly: chestnut shells, kiwis, rose stems, brambles,...

Smooth: leaves, peppers, apples, petals... 

Brittle: dry leaves in Autumn, dry twigs, ...

Depending on the age of your children, you may get asked questions like "But why is a kiwi prickly?". Ask the children for their opinions and follow up later at home by looking up the answers. Obviously, if you know the answer to the questions, you can tell the children, but it can be so interesting to hear their views.

 2. Investigating Shapes

Shapes work well really well too, even with very small children. And I'm not just talking circles and squares here. You'll be surprised the fantastic shapes that can be found in the simplest of places. For example, if you slice an apple or pear in half horizontally you often find a star shape. A walnut, carefully cracked can result in a heart shape. 

We recently spent 15 minutes in the front garden observing snails that had climbed up the garden wall. The patterns on their shells and the different shapes and sizes of shells had us all enthralled. 

3. Investigating Sound and Smell

When I think of sounds in nature I generally think of animal noises, the rustling of leaves or wind blowing. But there are so many subtle sounds to dicover. Set your little nature investigators the task of finding sounds and see what they come up with. Seed pods are really interesting, like little rattles. They can often be found on the roadside on weeds. Banging sticks or stones together, knocking on hollow wood, crumbling dry leaves in your hand all make sounds. 

Scents are great too, but it can be tricky for children to put words to scents. I use plants with a stong scent like sage or lavender for sensory play with my baby and he loves it. 

With sounds and scents there is plenty of scope for discussion. Ask the children about the differnce in sound of hard and soft materials or what the scents remind them of. The best thing is that there are no wrong answers and your children's imaginations can have a field day coming up with conclusions and suggestions.

My Week That Was: Captured (June14th-20th)

This week as a another busy one with lots of drop offs and pick ups and a baby that didn't want to nap. That said, it was relatively stress-free and the weather was kind to me. The heat dropped from around thirty degrees to sixteen. We even got rain, which was really good for our parched garden.

Sunday

It was another scorcher of a day and terribly humid too, so The Bavarian and the boys headed to the pool for a few hours. Number Three and I went to pick up the Stokke high chair I'd bought online. I didn't bother to tell the boys it was pink. As soon as we came home I gave it a fresh coat of blue paint and it turned out glossy and as good as new.

Monday

Our plans for the morning had to be changed suddenly when we couldn't get out of the village. There was a seven-car pile-up on the local motorway and the traffic was backed up throughout the whole village. On the plus side, instead of going to Aldi we shopped at the local little supermarket, got everything we needed and still got Number 2 to Kindergarten on time.

Tuesday

I got a bit of blog catch up done and ended up joining linkies on time, something I am not very good at usually. I also spotted that my article in the Irish Times was at no. 8 of the ten most read articles in that week's Life & Style section and had been shared over 1000 times on Facebook. That certainly brought a smile to my face! 

Wednesday

When I got up at 6.30am to make coffee the sunlight in the garden was stunning and I had to pop out and take a photo, barefoot and in my nightie. The photo doesn't do it justice. The sun was still low in the sky and was beautiful as it bounced off the walnut tree and the top of the pink rosebush.
Later on I cleared out the fridge and whipped up a loaf of banana bread and a minestrone soup with all the bits and pieces of fruit, veg and open jars and tins that were in there. It was all delicious and the fridge looks the better for it.

Thursday

It rained a lot, which brought out all the snails. Number 1 and I watched them for a good ten minutes in the garden. There was a very large one that was moving quickly, for a snail, and several tiny little ones too. We were able to get really close to them and they didn't hide away in their shells. We were fascinated.

That evening Number One tried out a dessert recipe he had got from his teacher. He read it all himself and only needed help from me with whipping the cream. The rest he did himself. Then he popped on his wellies and raincoat and delivered dessert to three neighbouring families just before 7pm. 

Friday

Number 2 has been making great progress with Lego and enjoys building all sorts of robots. He asked me to take some photos of his latest creation. I really enjoyed seeing his face light up when I praised his work. 

Saturday

I got some cooking done in the early afternoon - tomato and red pepper soup and some aubergine and black olive ratatouille for serving with fried halloumi cheese. That left me time to take the kids out to town and meeet a friend for coffee. The boys got a spin in a rickshaw and I got to catch up with a friend I hadn't seen in way too long. And when we came home, dinner was already made.