Family Wilds

Urban Outdoors: Sunset Walks

We recently completed a fun (and very well received - thanks for that!) series on playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks.  Here's another idea that builds on the post we wrote about city greenways. 

Taking sunset walks on our local greenway in Shelby Bottoms Park is one of our favorite family activities.  We like to walk the greenway whenever we can, but sunset offers a vastly different experience than other times of the day.  First of all, it's beautiful.  The rich colors in the sky and the hyperbolic shadows and silhouettes cast across the landscape make the whole world look completely different.  Second, there's a burst of life that you can only really see this time of day - deer in search of family dinner, frogs croaking extra loud and long, owls arousing and the ever quieting sounds of other people as they slip from the trailhead as the sun sets lower and lower.  All these wonderful sensory experiences bring about an entirely unique and fresh set of teaching and learning opportunities.  Here are just a few examples of opportunities that arose during our most recent Saturday evening sunset walk. 

Colors - The colors of the sky were vivid, varied and provided us with plenty of chances to work on identifying those colors.

Sun - We talked a little bit about the sun and what it provides for us.  Our daughter is two, so the conversation was basic and short, but there is definitely an understanding  that the sun is important.

Storms - An extremely strong (and scary) storm swept across this part of the country Friday evening, leaving plenty of debris all over and around the greenway.  It gave us the chance to talk about strong wind and to see how it affected the trees and plants.

Locating Sounds - The frogs were croaking loudly, but we couldn't find any to actually look at.  We were able to work on locating the direction of the sounds, though.

Respecting Nature - We saw several deer foraging for food.  We worked on staying quiet and just watching.  All of our conversation while close to deer was done in a whisper.  We were in their home and needed to be respectful of that.  She responded to this really well.  Just as we were about to leave the greenway, two middle-school aged boys began running after some deer in an open field.  The deer responded by leaping and running away.  We used this as an opportunity to expand on the idea of respecting animals in their homes.

Size - The deer were really nice models for size comparison.  We would ask her if the deer were bigger or smaller and longer or shorter than our dog.  She was right on about both of these.

These were just a few basic concepts we were able to begin working on or expanding on during a short 1.5-mile walk on our local greenway.  These aren't all unique to sunset, but the world at sunset is remarkably different and provides some remarkably unique opportunities. 

This was great night cap on Saturday.  Sunday afternoon we went back to Shelby Bottoms Park to meet some new friends at the natural playground.  We sure love that place, and it's all right there minutes from our house in the middle of the city.

What are some of your favorite things to do outdoors at sunset, and what kinds of teaching and learning opportunities do they bring about?

Thanks for reading!

Pablo

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: More Fun Ideas!

This is our last of six posts about playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 1 was an introduction to urban outdoors, followed by University Campuses, Natural Playgrounds,  Greenways and Downtown. We couldn't leave it at 6, so here's a bonus post - Sunset Walks.

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Urban Outdoors: More Fun Ideas!

Historic Sites - In most cities you’ll be able to locate historical sites that will provide opportunities to connect with nature.  Some of these will be very big an open, others will be very small and limited.  To experience the urban outdoors to it’s fullest, these are often some of the most educational and influential places to start.

Farmer’s Markets and Nurseries – We buy food from a CSA program (community supported agriculture) and buy goat’s milk produced at a middle TN goat farm.  As much as we would love to go out and visit the farms our food and milk come from, we haven’t been able to make it out yet.  Both farms are about 2-hours from our house.  However, when we go to farmer’s markets for our pick-ups and purchases we still have the opportunity to meet the farmers.  Not only that, but we’re surrounded by nature…and it’s nature we get to take home and eat or plant!

Festivals and Special Events – Many cities will host festivals and special events (sometimes geared toward getting kids outside!) several times a year.  Nashville certainly has quite a few.  We could always use more though!  We’ve found these to be a lot of fun, and typically easy to connect with nature, because they are usually held on grassed areas of the city.

Bouldering – Basically, all you need for your kids to properly boulder in the urban outdoors are safe things to climb on.  We’ve been able to find some great spots for bouldering just minutes form downtown.  Our daughter has even found spots at the zoo (not animal habitats, don’t worry!).  We tend to not carry a crash pad with us, so these spots definitely have to allow for low climbing and leave plenty of space for adult support and spotting.

Hiking and Camping - Wait...what?  This is about being in the urban outdoors, right?  Well, yes, but there are many cities around the country that maintain beautiful and natural park systems.  We asked our friends on Twitter for ideas of other things to do in the urban outdoors and Traci Lehman and Jayson Cardwell both came back with hiking.  Traci lives in Orange County, CA and Jayson lives in the St. Paul, MN. Both are really pleased with their natural hiking options within the city limits.  As we've stated before, we think Nashville has a well-developed and well-maintained park system.  Some of our favorite moderate to difficult natural hikes are within the city limits.  Urban park systems like these often maintain parks that are ideal for hiking, and sometimes even camping.  In many cases, you can even take the bus there!  

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Nature Rocks, Even In The City.

Well, there you have it.  That wraps up our series of posts on the learning and playing in the Urban Outdoors for Nature Rocks!  We've really enjoyed sharing some of our ideas, thoughts and images with you over the past week.  More than anything, we hope that you are all able to find fun in nature right outside your day in one way or another.  You don't have to go out to the middle of a national or state park to find nature.  Don't get us wong, we love doing that, but we can't do it all the time.  So just step outside and find a little natural fun.  Nature rocks, even in the city.

What have been some of your favorite ways to experience the urban outdoors? 

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Featured Bloggers

There is an amazing (and growing) community of family outdoor/nature bloggers, and we want to introduce you to a few.  Although we've never met them in person, we count on them as resources and friends. 

Debi Huang is a Nature Rocks ambassador and the woman behind Go Explore Nature.  The tag line on her website is "Where connecting kids with nature is what it's all about," and that really is what it's all about! We visit regularly and feel like we're always learning something new.  Please show check out Debi on Facebook and Twitter, and make sure to see her fun post, "How To Plan A Nature Date With Kids."

Our other featured bloggers for this series have been:

Michael Barton of Exploring Portland's Natural Areas (Twitter)

Melissa and Bret Edge of Adventure Tykes (Facebook and Twitter)

Lindsey Wilson of OutsideMom.com (Facebook and Twitter)

Traci Lehman of Walk Simply (Facebook and Twitter)

To find more inspiration for outdoor family fun, please check out these wonderful people and resources.  Feel free to comment with names and links of others that should be on this list.  We're happy to add all apporpiate resources!

• NATURE ROCKS
• A Little Campy
• ActiveKidsClub.com
• Adventeroo
• Adventure Parents
• Adventurous Moms
• Backcountry Parenting
• The Bionic Chronicles
• Be Out There
• The Brave Ski Mom
  
• Bring The Kids
• Cage Free Kids
  
• Cragmama
• The Family Adventure Project
• Family Adventures in the Canadian Rockies
• Greening Sam & Avery
• Head Start Body Start
• Hike. Blog. Love.
• The Kid Project
  
• Nature For Kids
• Outdoor Afro
• Skedaddle Kids
  
• Tales of a Mountain Mama
• Trish, Alex and Sage
• Your Outdoor Family

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Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: Downtown

This is our 5th of 6 posts about playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 1 was an introduction to urban outdoors, followed by University Campuses, Natural Playgrounds, and Greenways.

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Urban Outdoors: Downtown

Let us just go ahead and admit that just as with some synthetic playgrounds, downtown areas are not always ideal areas for connecting with nature.  However, even in the most concrete ridden city, you are bound to be able to find something natural.   For example, in the Nashville downtown area we have the capitol grounds, the bicentennial park, courthouse lawn, the Cumberland river, riverfront park and the new Cumberland Park being developed just on the other side of the river (across from downtown).

Speaking of the river, there’s also a very cool pedestrian bridge.  Pedestrian bridges are fairly easy to find in many cities with rivers, and will often provide for great views.  Bridges are fun locations to work on concepts like far/near, high/low, up/down, big/small, etc.  These are ideal spots to look for birds, discuss the water currents moving below, and feel the extra burst of wind that we don’t always get closer to the ground.    

If you live in a downtown area, or end up spending most of your time there, these types of attractions can provide a much needed connection with nature.  It won’t always be the same connection you might feel on a remote trail.  However, if your feeling deprived of that experience then taking a walk through a downtown park or on a pedestrian bridge can feel just as good, and refresh just as well.

Does your downtown provide any fun connections with nature?  What are some of your favorite nature-based downtown games and activities?

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Featured Blogger

There is an amazing (and growing) community of family outdoor/nature bloggers, and we want to introduce you to a few.  Although we've never met them in person, we count on them as resources and friends. 

Traci Lehman is the mastermind of the WalkSimply.com.  Not only are her blog posts thoughtful and inspiring, but her photography and art are quite remarkable as well.  She and her family love to be outside, and we feel lucky that they take the time to share it with us.  Please show Traci and Walk Simply a little Facebook and Twitter love (Traci always tweets great content - hers and that of others).  When you go visit her site, make sure to see Traci's post entitled, "Afternoon Walk: Downtown San Juan Capistrano," it will be a great introduction to the rest of Walk Simply.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: Greenways

This is our 4th of 6 posts about playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 1 was an introduction to urban outdoors, followed by University Campuses, and Natural Playgrounds.

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Urban Outdoors: Greenways

As we previously stated in our introduction to this series on urban outdoors, we love to go for long hikes on remote trails.  This isn’t always possible for us, but there’s another great option that is also available in many other cities – greenways.  These are often paved walkways that extend from a few to several miles around and within a city area.

They are really good options for large families, or those families that have multiple little ones and use strollers.  They’re great for people who want to walk outside, but don’t have the time or physical ability to complete a hike on uneven and inconsistent terrain.  They’re also really wonderful for families like ours, which will sometimes need a place to go quickly for some active leg movement (some days you just have get toddlers outside and moving…a lot...a whole lot).  Nashville has an extensive greenway system, and one of the trailheads is just minutes from our house.  We spend a great deal of time spotting bugs, trees, plants, birds, small furry creatures, etc.  It also runs right past the river, which is always a favorite sight to check out.

We previously suggested a scavenger hunt, checklist or bingo card with items to find in nature (sticks, trees, leaves, bushes, animals, etc.).  This same type of activity is fun on greenways or walking around your neighborhood or downtown area.  We also really like to use the nature around us to teach basic skills.  For example, “find something round” or “let’s pick up five sticks.”  One of our daughter’s recent favorites is “guess the animal.”  If she hears a noise in the brush she’ll usually ask “what is it,” and we’ll all take guesses until we can spot it for identification. 

Do you have any greenways in your area, or have you developed a favorite neighborhood or downtown walking route?  What are some of your favorite nature-based greenway games and activities?

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Featured Blogger

There is an amazing (and growing) community of family outdoor/nature bloggers, and we want to introduce you to a few.  Although we've never met them in person, we count on them as resources and friends. 

Lindsey Wilson is a Nature Rocks ambassador and an environmental educator.  Her husband is a biologists, so their family is about as nature and education oriented as you can get.  We've found her blog, OutsideMom.com, to be one of the most well written, well researched, and accessible outdoor family blogs around.  It seems that all of her posts are top-notch, and that we always leave her site having learned something we will take with us and apply.  Please give OutsideMom.com a little Facebook and Twitter love.  When you go visit her site, make sure to see Lindsey's post entitled, "Outdoor Teaching Mistakes We Make With Our Kids," it will be a great introduction to the rest of OutsideMom.com.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: Natural Playgrounds

This is our 3rd of 6 posts about playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 1 was an introduction to urban outdoors, followed by University Campuses.

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Urban Outdoors: Natural Playgrounds

We’ll be the firsts to admit that there are many playgrounds that do not provide a great link to nature for kids.  Sure, they are outside, but we’ve been to more than a handful of playgrounds that are basically giant plastic boxes full of giant toys to climb on.  We want to go to playgrounds that have sandboxes, lawns to run on, areas where kids can play in the mud or simply roll down a hill.  Believe it or not, it really is possible to find this type of fun in the urban outdoors!

There’s one particular playground trend that we are very happy to see taking off in cities all around the country, including our home of Nashville, TN.  Natural playgrounds are an amazing way to foster creativity and active engagement with nature in an urban setting.  These are playgrounds that include a minimum of (if any) synthetically processed materials.  If those materials are used, then they are at least recycled or repurposed materials.

These photographs and video were taken at a natural playground at Shelby Bottoms Park just minutes from our house and just minutes from downtown.  It’s huge and sits in the shadow of a local nature center and super cool train bridge.  It has rocks and tree stumps to climb on, sand and mud pits to play in, structures made of natural material found in the park, a little creek, some real trees…wow.  Everything kids love to do at synthetic playgrounds is right here, they just do those things on natural items.

 

Build One!

This trend of moving toward more natural playground activity is awesome; we couldn't be more thrilled about it.  Fortunately, we have a really strong parks system in Nashville, and there are now a few of these playgrounds in the city.   For many cities these types of playgrounds may not be in their parks, yet.  There's really good news, though...these can be easy to build in your own backyard.  We haven't done it ourselves, but check out Nea's Pinterest board, "Natural Outdoor Play" or just search online for "Natural Playgrounds" for ideas.  We're gathering the inspiration we need to start building ours piece by piece.  

Do you have any natural playgrounds in your area, or have you ever built one?  What are some of your favorite nature-based playground games and activities?

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Featured Bloggers

There is an amazing (and growing) community of family outdoor/nature bloggers, and we want to introduce you to a few.  Although we've never met them in person, we count on them as resources and friends. 

Melissa Edge is a Nature Rocks ambassador, and the brains behind Adventure Tykes (and her husband, Bret Edge...j/k, dude).  Melissa and Bret go on some pretty epic adventures, especially epic considering they bring along their toddler son.  AdventureTykes.com is where it all gets put together into fun stories and really helpful and easy to follow tips and tricks.  You can find Adventure Tykes on Facebook and Twitter for all your outdoor family needs, and you can find Bret on Twitter for all your photography needs (seriously, he's really talented).  Check them out!

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Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: University Campuses

This is our 2nd of 6 posts about playing and learning in the urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 1 was an introduction to urban outdoors.

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Urban Outdoors: University Campuses

One of the easiest ways we’ve found to access nature in the urban outdoors is exploring college or university campuses.  We live in Nashville, TN, which is fortunate enough to have several.  There are at least five within 10-minutes of each other, so the options for us are pretty varied.  Not all college campuses have easy access to open lawns and well-cared for gardens, but if you can find one that does, then these are great places to take kids to explore. 

For example, Vanderbilt University in Nashville is listed as a natural arboretum and is home to over 300 species of trees and shrubs.  For older kiddos, this would make for part of a great scavenger hunt.  Our 2-year-old just likes to go to campus and walk around.  We typically take a climbing chalk bag with us so she can collect items that she has found.  A great way to structure a simple activity for this would be to make a picture checklist or bingo card with pictures of natural items to find (e.g., stick, leaf, acorn, spot a squirrel, spot a bird).

The best times to visit university campuses are typically evenings, weekends, and school holidays and breaks when the number of students is greatly reduced.  Having students around won’t cramp your style (and believe it or not, you won't cramp theirs), but depending on the size of the campus and the size of the student body you might find that times of high foot traffic could make exploration a little more difficult. 

What about it nature rockers, have you ever taken little ones to explore a university campus for fun?

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Featured Blogger

There is an amazing (and growing) community of family outdoor/nature bloggers, and we want to introduce you to a few.  Although we've never met them in person, we count on them as resources and friends. 

First up, Michael Barton, a Nature Rocks ambassador from Exploring Portland's Natural Areas and The Dispersal of Darwin.  Both are really great blogs, with the former being geared toward outdoor exploration and education.  You can also find him on Twitter.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  We have more content at those cyberspaces and share posts from our outdoor and parent blogger friends. 

 

 

 

Urban Outdoors: An Introduction

NatureRocks.org

We would really like to convey how happy we are to be ambassadors for Nature Rocks.  It's an amazing resource for helping families get outside and actively engaged with the natural environment.  They are now under the ever-growing umbrella of The Nature Conservancy, which will further the Nature Rocks reach.   It's a real honor to be able to contribute in a small way to their mission and growth. 

There are several really wonderful ambassadors that also contribute for Nature Rocks.  We'll highlight a few of them as we post throughout the next several days, as well as a few other family bloggers dedicated to being nature inspired families.  The following is the first post of a six-post series on playing and learning in the urban outdoors.  They will be short and sweet, and we will welcome all the conversation, ideas, and questions you can muster.

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Urban Outdoors: An Introduction

Our family loves to head out to hike remote trails as often as we can or paddle waterways in our kayaks.  There’s a great sense of connection with the planet and with each other when we’re trekking beneath canopies of trees, floating on quiet creeks, and eating lunch at the edge of a cliff or on the rocky banks of a river.  We love everything about those types of experiences.  However, those types of experiences aren’t always practical for us.

We live near downtown Nashville, TN and both work full-time, so we have to pack as much outdoor fun as possible into the weekday evenings and weekends.  We tend to save our more distal and remote adventures for weekends and vacations when we have the travel time.  The majority of our time spent connecting to nature is spent, by necessity, in more urban settings.

The urban outdoors aren’t as quiet or sparse, but they still offer a connection to the natural world, albeit in a much different way.  What we love about the urban outdoors is that we can get there just by walking out our front door and into our yard.  If we didn’t have a yard we could take a two to ten minute drive or bus ride to access a lot of really good outdoor experiences like greenways, natural playgrounds, man-made playgrounds, city parks, the river, nature centers, downtown (yes, there are even opportunities to find nature in downtown areas!), university campuses and many others.

Over the next five days we will highlight a few of our favorite outdoor activities that prove nature rocks, even in the city!  The urban outdoors offer a connection to the place you live, the people you share it with and the rest of the world waiting beyond the city limits.  We hope this will help encourage you to find out how nature rocks in your urban outdoors and help encourage you to show others how much fun the urban outdoors can be.

Please feel free to comment, leave suggestions and ideas, as questions, and share experiences.  We would love to have a week-long (and more) conversation about the urban outdoors!   

How about you, do you live in an urban setting?  If so, where?

Thanks for stopping by!

Pablo and Nea

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This is our 1st of 6 posts on urban outdoors for Nature Rocks. Part 2 is University Campuses followed by Natural Playgrounds, Greenways, Dowtown and More Fun Ideas.  We couldn't leave it at 6, so here's a bonus post - Sunset Walks.

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For those of you who aren't familiar with us or this little blog, here's a brief introduction. We're educators who have been together for ten years, married for seven, and parents to a beautiful daughter for two.  Now that we have a toddler we try to see everything through her eyes, because it truly does make it all new and more miraculous.  It really is a beautiful world, especially when we are able to enjoy it together.

 

 

 

 

 

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Kids Jump and Flying is Cool

We had a lot of great outdoor play while we were visiting family in Texas.  This is a quick post with pictures to show you one of the fun activities.  Our daughter was playing on a little toddler playscape in my mom's backyard.  It was clearly too small for the older kiddos that were with us, so they just kept jumping off of it.  It was 10-minutes of pure movement and joy.  Our daughter thought it was really cool, too.  They were flying through the air!  Seriously, it was cool; check this little jumper out. 

What are some of your favorite outdoor play activities to watch kids engage in?

Happy jumping and karate kicking!

-Pablo

Thanks for stopping by! You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  We have more content there and share posts from our outdoor blogger friends.

The Hermitage, Home of Andrew Jackson

The Hermitage is the Home of President Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States of America.  Before serving as President he was a lawyer, U.S. representative, U.S. Senator, judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, entrepreneur and Major general in the U.S. Army.  He famously led the defeat of the British in the Battle of New Orleans, which also served as the exclamation point on the United States' victory in the War of 1812.

He is widely known as a Military hero and a polarizing politician.  Among other unsavory historical facts, he owned up to 150 other human beings as slaves and was the catalyst for removing the Native American population from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River.  While we felt these were important points to mention, they're a digression from this specific blog post. 

Our daughter is too young to learn the complexities of history and the role of social and cultural evolution in social and political norms of various times and systems, but she can begin to grasp some very basic ideas (e.g., people used to ride in horse-drawn carriages vs. cars).  We're enjoying teaching these moments when we can, and honestly look forward to the day when we can discuss these more complex historical systems and sometimes ugly influences with her. 

The primary purpose of this post is to share about our cold, overcast, but fun morning at The Hermitage, President Jackson's home, which is well maintained and rich in historical perspective.  The Hermitage was celebrating the 197th anniversary of the victory at the Battle of New Orleans with free entrance and several planned activities.  Here's what The Hermitage website says about the Battle of New Orleans:

Taking place on January 8, 1815, on a cold, foggy battlefield at Chalmette just below New Orleans, this bold action resulting in shocking American victory was the final and pivotal battle of the War of 1812, ending the three-year war with Britain.  General Jackson defeated a British invasion on American soil even though his ragtag army was greatly outnumbered – with approximately 4,000 American soldiers versus approximately 10,000 British soldiers - forever marking Andrew Jackson as an American military hero and laying the foundation for his eventual election to the presidency. 

We came and went before the activities kicked off in the afternoon, and truth-be-told, we never even made it into the house.  In fact, we didn't even try.  The grounds of the Hermitage are immense and beautiful, so we happily spent all of our time playing and exploring outside.  We would have loved to learn more about the Battle of New Orleans while there, but the toddlers (we went with our friends, the Taylors) let us knew when it was time to go.  We were definitely able to make the most of the time we did have there, though. 

Here is a video (footage courtesy of Rob Taylor) and a few more photographs for our time at The Hermitage with the little ones.  In the video you will be able to see our friend Courtney and her son (our daughter's bff).  The highlight was hands down being able to feed Houston, the bull.  Our daughter's most lasting educational takeaway is that "horses go poopey." 

Do you take, did you take, or do you plan to take your toddlers to historical sites?  If so, what do you hope the take away from the experience?

 

Thanks for reading!

-Pablo

Thanks for stopping by! You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  We have more content there and share posts from our outdoor blogger friends.

Daddy/Daughter Date at Shelby Bottoms

Thanks for stopping by! You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  We have more content there and share posts from our outdoor blogger friends.

We had a Saturday morning full of indoor play, climbing gym fun and grocery shopping.  When we arrived back at home it was definitely time to get our daughter ready for nap and send Nea out to meet some friends.  She headed down to Memorial Gym at Vanderbilt University to watch our men's basketball team take on (and beat) Auburn.  While she was cheering on the Commodores, ourlittle one napped, woke up, snacked and asked to go outside. 

We quickly headed over to our favorite neighborhood spot, Shelby Bottoms Park in East Nashville, for a little greenway time.  It was a great one mile walk.  We stopped to look at wildlife, have snack, talk to people, pet their dogs and just generally goof around.  It was about the best date a dad could ask for.  In fact, it was so good that mom decided she needed to crash it!  We're glad she did.  This video cracks us up.  It's as if she had not seem Nea in days!

 

Any other dad's out there love outdoor dates with their little ones, even the short ones that mom's crash?

-Pablo