Finding Nature in the City


Now that the weather is warming, we're back to our commitment of 5 to 6+ hours a day of pure outside air time. While we don't subscribe to any one homeschooling philosophy, I do like Charlotte Mason's focus on ensuring that kids have oodles of unstructured, outside free play time. We're back to eating some of our meals outside when the temperature cooperates, and doing craft activities on the back deck or reading at our condo building's picnic table.

Although we city-dwellers don't have access to wide open spaces in our backyard, usually we can take a quick trip to a city park, bike path, or conservation area to let our little ones explore nature more freely.

Today, for example, the temperature is in the mid-60s and we feel fortunate that homeschooling allows us to spend lots of time roaming outside, collecting rocks, observing buds and blossoms, and breathing in some warm, early spring air.