First Walk

Yesterday we took our first "official" nature walk of 2009! We stayed close to home because it threatened to rain, but the skies stayed clear for us. Even though the park we went to only has a paved walking trail, there were enough interesting things for the boys to collect along the way, in between running, jumping, climbing and rolling around (the joys of nature walks with boys!). Judah rode in the sling while I walked behind the boys, enjoy the light exercise and being sure to take notice of the nature around me, as well.

When we got home, while I made lunch, the boys worked on recording what they found for their nature journals. Eventually, I will encourage them to journal a bit more, such as details about the walk, the weather, and also identifying and labeling the plants they draw. But for now, just getting out for our first walk was an accomplishment in itself! ;-) Here are some samples of their journal work!

Joel's pine needles and Azalea flower:


Ezra's pine needles:
Ezra's flowers (since the flowers were white, and we had no colored paper, they used colors for the petals. But if you notice, the flowers do actually have little pink parts, so Ezra was very observant!)
Ezra also drew a Puffball mushroom (one of the few they refrained from "puffing" by stomping on them). The actual mushroom is on the table next to the paper. Again, drawing white things on white paper proves difficult (note to self: get some colored paper! What kind of homeschooling mom am I?! lol!) Oh, I think the words mean to say "Is it" near the arrow, but a few letters got transposed ;-)
Isaac's work - he has a hard time narrowing things down, so he made quite a few drawings, these are just a few: