By Creston Kids Outside
Late fall can feel like a daunting time for getting kids outdoors, but there are many ways to make the best of this cool, wet, transitional time of year. Nature doesn’t leave or hide…it’s just different. It feels different on your face, smells different, and might even sound different. If you ask your child to use their senses when outdoors, I’m sure they’ll have some great observations to make.
Sometimes the simplest way to play outdoors at this time of year is heading out for a walk, whether down a residential street or on a forested path. You’ll probably find puddles to stomp in, and one of my favourite things to explore—ice! Children have such a great sense of wonder that they’ll probably stop to notice ice edging puddles, which can be fun to crack, touch, maybe even taste. Try turning over leaves to notice intricate patterns of frost underneath, feel frozen flower petals, or explore the edge of a creek to look for ice crystals. It can be fun to take close up pictures of the ‘ice art’ you might find.
In our house, we like to make a nighttime adventure of hauling out sleeping bags and laying on the trampoline after dark to look at the stars. You can marvel at the milky way, see the big dipper or maybe even glimpse a shooting star.
If you head out in the early morning after a dusting of snow, you might be lucky enough to see animal tracks. Kids love sharing their theories if you ask some open-ended questions. What kind of animal could it be? I wonder what it was doing here? My son’s favourite prompt from me is, ‘Let’s look around for clues!’ We once found large bird tracks all over a thin layer of snow in a residential area. We were mystified and intrigued. What could they be? What kind of big bird roams the streets early morning in late fall? We dashed home to seek out the answer—turkeys, of course!
When you’re out and about you can ponder, with your kids, on how Creston’s animals are gearing up for winter. What might the birds be doing as the weather gets colder? The bears? The frogs and the bees and the fish? Don’t worry about ‘having all the answers.’ These kinds of questions can easily be researched, and you and your child can both learn something new.
As our 3-5-year-old Nature School kids showed me last week, it’s possible (and fun) to make snow angels in even a light dusting of snow. We’ve already caught a few snowflakes on our tongues, shovelled snow into (small) piles and practiced pulling on our own mitts.
This time of year, make sure to dress in lots of layers, pack up spare mitts and maybe even extra boots if there’s a chance little feet might stray too far into a puddle. Have fun and stay warm!