Our weekly spring nature walks with local moms, and sometimes a city naturalist, at the city's reservoir resumed today and it was great to be outside exploring, climbing, and getting muddy.
You would think that I am a Charlotte Mason follower for all the times I quote her, but really I just love her view on children and the outdoors:
"Children should be made early intimate with the trees, too; should pick out half a dozen trees, oak, elm, ash, beech, in their winter nakedness, and take these to be their year-long friends." (Home Education, Vol 1, II, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children, p.52)
Just as Mason proselytizes in her early-20th century prose, we make it a priority for the kids to have loads of unstructured outside nature time which, while perhaps requiring a bit more searching and creativity for city homeschoolers than our country counterparts, is well worth the effort.
And if anyone has suggestions for removing sap from little hands, I'd love to hear them!
