Nature Study Outing :: Mud! (And a Carnival Announcement)

First: a bit of housekeeping...

Next week I'll be hosting the Charlotte Mason blog carnival here at Joyous Lessons!  

If you have a post (new or old) that you would like to submit, please send it to charlottemasonblogs at gmail dot com by Monday (January 27th) and I'll very happily include it.  

The topic can be anything regarding Charlotte Mason homeschooling, though there's an optional reading/writing assignment if you're so inclined: Volume 3, Chapter 10, "Some Unconsidered Aspects of Physical Training."

Hope to hear from you!

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Now on to our outing from this week!  We revisited a favorite walk, this time with friends.  Our first stop was a big bay laurel tree perfect for climbing.  The girls set up house in   its lower branches and served tea to each other with acorn cups.  I'm pretty sure they could have stayed there all day.

But the baby started fussing, so we kept moving along.  The path is usually covered in poison oak, but luckily it's dormant this time of year so we were able to hike freely through the little woods there.

The main goal for the morning was to reach the creek line at this crossing spot.  The children spent a very happy hour wading up and down the creek and playing in the muddy banks.  And somehow everyone managed to leave fairly clean despite their messy adventures!  I was envisioning hosing little people off in the backyard upon arriving home, given the gleam in my three-year-old's eye when he saw all that MUD! :)  But he kept his balance and trudged through to his heart's content alongside the "big kids" and their friends while the baby girls stayed with me.

After our walk back, we stopped in at the nature center.  It's not usually open, but this morning it was, so we took a quick look around.  I'm pretty sure we overwhelmed the nice elderly gentleman who was playing docent--they don't get all that many visitors. ;)  They have a small selection of pelts and stuffed birds there that are always interesting to take a peek at.  I was especially taken this time by how irridescent the wild turkey feathers were, and the kids were in awe of a small white-tailed kite that was mounted there.  And happily, I saw a flyer posted for a lichen walk happening at the center monthly this winter--definitely going on my calendar!  What can I say?  We live an exciting life!  ;)