Nature Hikes!

When I was a kid, I remember only one homeschool field trip that was a nature hike. And since homeschool field trips in that day and age were very well planned, it probably had some point like leaf observation, or birds, or trees or all of the above. I honestly can’t recall. The only thing I remember was it ended in playing kickball in a field and thinking that I could finally tell my teasing dad that we really went to a field on a field trip. 

 

To be honest, taking eight kids on some walk along a trail was probably way more work that my mom had time for. It was enough work taking three this last week! So, I don’t at all begrudge our lack of nature hikes. For one, I wouldn’t have cared. Nature? Outside? A walk? Why couldn’t I just stay home, hole myself up in my bedroom, and write? That would have been my general reaction to the mere suggestion of a nature hike had Mom brought it up. 

 

But I’m all about it now. Sort of. I’m all about being outside, getting my kids out of the house and running around with friends. The nature part I could still give and take on. Like me, I imagine my kids will know the difference between a deciduous tree and a coniferous. But that’s probably as far as it will go. I do try to tell them the names of the handful of trees I know, the few flowers I can list, and the gist of gardening. It’s just really hard to teach something you have absolutely no interest in. I could talk about the Statue of Liberty, the Founding Fathers, and even how to properly diagram a sentence all day long. To go out, gather some leaves, and try to identify them…there’s an app for that, right?

Knowing that about myself, a friend at church inviting us to a nature group she’s involved in was very exciting. My kids can learn something I know nothing about and someone else can teach them since I really have no interest in learning it myself! (Don’t tell my kids that.) Leaves, trees, and bushes aside; they also had a blast wandering about the woods with both new friends and old. Emry complained when we had to turn back (after already hiking 2.5 miles) and wanted to just continue all day! And it was a unusually lovely November day to be out, sunny and not very cold.  Best of all, we came out with all eleven kids and not one of them fell into the brook!