Amy Beth

April 11, 2016

My Yard in Spring

I like to think that I’m the kind of mom that takes her kids out on adventures to commune with nature. That I encourage curiosity and exploration. But the reality is that we rarely leave our backyard. (And then we only venture out on the pretty days.) Sometimes I worry that my children will miss out on all the important things nature has to teach them.

But then we spend a little time looking closely (and I might whip out my camera as well) and I realize that there’s an awful lot of nature to experience within a few feet of my backdoor.

So maybe I won’t worry that my kids aren’t getting enough nature. Maybe we’ll just pay more attention to what is happening in our own backyard.

July 1, 2013

Summer Sudsy Fun

I try to get Charlie outside to play pretty regularly—partly because he needs his vitamin D, and partly because tends to be happier outside so it’s actually a lot easier for me. Most of the time he plays with sticks and rocks and dirt, not because I don’t provide him with toys, but just because he’s a boy and he likes sticks and rocks and dirt.

Every now and then I try to be a bit more creative with our play time though. Today we had the water table out, which is fairly normal for a hot sunny day. We also had some bubbles and balls and shovels. But Charlie was starting to get tired of the same old thing. The best idea he could come up with was to take control of the bubble solution bottle. And probably drink some of it. I was not really OK with that idea. I needed to come up with something fun and distracting.

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