Bring Children Back To Nature Flower By Flower

Bring children back to nature: flower by flower; bird by bird, tree hallow by tree hallow. Curious By Nature  will be explore wildflowers, birds, and many other unique natural wonders one by one.  Just as knowing the name of a person connects you to that person, a child who  knows the name of a wildflower or bird will appreciate its importance and want to preserve it. To begin this adventure,  I will follow Frederic William Stack's book, Wildflowers Every Child Should Know published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1909. Stack organizes his book according to color. I would like to explore each species by season. So check back for the first amazing wildflower that every child will remember by its smell, if  not its other characteristics. That's right. It is one of earliest plants to appear in New England.  By January or February you should be able to find this  Skunk Cabbage popping up in a still very cold bog along the side of a country road.  I'll be back with my own photo and more interesting facts about this member of the lilly family. Join me for this new adventure, flower by flower, bird by bird.

Whose Tracks Are They?

Before you hurry to the car, take a moment to check out the tracks crossing the fresh snow next to your doorstep. One glance will intrigue even the busiest among us to stop and wonder who or what made them. Some of us will use it as a brisk reason to spend time outdoors following the mysterious steps. Even the least adventuresome might find it exciting to imagine who passed by your window when you were not looking.

What better way to tweak a child's imagination on a snowy winter day?

What is the biggest, scariest, smallest track you have seen?


Read More About It
Tracks In The Snow by Herbert Wong is a 2007 children's book about an Asian girl who follows her tracks through her neighborhood discovering they are her own from yesterday's walk.
This soft 32 page picture book is a great beginning preschoolers to second graders to connect with the wildlife walking and running on the same paths they use every day.

In Big Tracks, Little Tracks Millicent Selsam tells her 7 to 9 year old readers why a cat looks like an animal with two feet.