Getting into Nature

Today I borrowed my Aunts minivan and packed my teens off to the river. I had my son, his girlfriend, her little brother, my sons best friend and his girlfriend. I also had my two dogs, a 1.5 year old German Shepherd and a 4 month old dachshund, as well as my son's Girlfriend's dog (a 1 yr old small poodle).

While at the river, they caught a crawdad, swam all day, shot my son's pellet gun at bottles, explored the river and played in the strong current. They created all kinds of entertainment together, played with the dogs, they learned about a lot of things, had conversations both funny and serious, ate sandy food and shared a water bottle. They laughed a LOT!

What they did not do--look at their phones all day, get on the internet or facebook, try to act cool for other kids, judge anyone, hang out eating bad food, or watching tv, or do any drugs of any kind.

This is why it is so important for us to UNPLUG and get outside. They created a whole day together, have a wonderful memory of time spent together, and they will someday share that with their own children.

Here is another blog post from Alison Portis. Children and Nature: raising a nature conscious child.

Many Blessings

felt board pictures

I was in a early Head Start Classroom and saw an really fun idea. The teacher had taken pictures of her children, cut them out, laminated them and put velcro on the back and added them to the felt board for your children to manipulate.


of course my brain went on over drive thinking about all the ways this could be used:
Individualized schedule for a child with an IEP: The child could move their picture from activity to activity.
Children can us them as a way to solve problems.
Teachers could use them to tell stories and encourage language.
They could be used to match names to students.
In place of name tags.
Used for graphing
And of course for free play

We have such clever teachers where I now work as an Education, Disability, Mental Health Implementation Specialist (EDM specialist).