i love dirt! (a little book review)

Hurray for summer!  My family and I live in a big city in Canada and there is nothing more exciting to us than watching our trees and flower beds come to life after a long snowy winter.  Our city is blessed with many green spaces, lots of great paths thru ravines, creeks and rivers.  

When I first saw this book I thought, "I don't need a book to tell me how to enjoy the outdoors with my kids."  That's the beauty of it right?  Simple, uncomplicated nature.  And while one may not need a book to tell you how to get outside and enjoy nature with the kids, this book does have a lot of great ideas and prompts to fall back on while your out there.

It lists over 32 activities to do with your kids and organizes by season.  There are lots of open ended questions and activities to do with the wee ones.  I liked the chapter on worms which I know my kids love, and provided me with useful information about worms that I forgot from grade 4 science class.  As much as I like to think I'm this ever creative mom, my sleep deprived brain does appreciate some fresh ideas.

I do find the activities to be more for younger kids but there are lots of good ideas there to build on for older kids.  Even for the younger kids, there is loads of room to expand on themes they show a particular interest in.  Over all I found it to be a sweet little book and was happy to have found it in the library.

My kids have been showing a keen interest in seeds so I'll pull out some little planting trays and we'll start some seed from inside.  We did this last year with mostly herbs, we found cat grass to be the most satisfying!  While the weather holds out we will spend as much time outside, exploring the amazing outdoors, examining rocks, tree roots, buds, imitating birds, running from imaginary 'pumas', finding the perfect spot for a snack...

How do you enjoy nature?  Are there any special activities you do with the kids outside?