June 2012 Blog Posts (10)

“Pay attention to the birds.” That is what I say to my children, my students, and visitors who come to Barking Frog Farm. There is a lot to see if you tune in to their activity. Watch for clues. During the day birds eat, look for new food sources, build and repair nests, patrol their area for predators that need to be chased away. In the spring, they also lay and protect eggs, feed…

Well, here we are in yet another election year full of vitriolic demarcations of right from left, seemingly with little overlap. Once again, the looming dangers of global warming, failing ecosystems, and our overall unsustainabilty are lost amidst the rhetorical din of jobs and economy (as if these were somehow distinct from the aforementioned perils). Meanwhile, the chasm between humans and nature deepens.

Watching the national debates unfold, I find little to be positive…

June’s issue of Washington Parent Magazine features my lastest article on a unique opportunity for connecting kids to nature and their past. Dinosaur Park provides information on the fossil rich “Dinosaur Alley” of Maryland and the Washington DC area and opportunities for kids to discover evidence of our earliest native plants and animals. The Dinosaur Park preserves part of a geologic formation called the…

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In ecology, sustainability describes…

An essay about how one seed and one hummingbird feeder can change the world.   The two types of feeders spark the kind of observation that leads to discussions about bill adaptations, habits and foods; and can invite a child into the process of creating an ecologically-friendly…

Nevada Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights

Fourth-grade teachers at Lookout Mountain Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tenn., have implemented an informal writing program, EarthWrite, which they say encourages wonder and inspiration in the outdoors. According to teachers Susan Frankenberg and Cindy Jayne, the response of their students to EarthWrite is nothing short of remarkable...

Read more about EarthWrite at:  http://www.youroutdoorfamily.com.…

Rain, Snow, Sleet, and Cold: Why spending time in the outdoors in most conditions is important and healthy.…

The Forest Kindergarten model based on the German waldkindergartens is committed to flow learning and emergent curriculum. At Cedarsong Nature School, I make detailed notes in our nature journal about where the children's interest leads us each day and in the course of one month the curriculum emerges as follows:

Cedarsong Forest Kindergarten Newsletter - May 2012

 The sweet aroma of cottonwood infusing the forest air last month has been replaced by the delicate scent of the…

We recently established a small "nibbling garden" near our science classroom. The first through third grade children have enjoyed preparing the soil, planting the seeds, harvesting the produce, and even pulling the weeds. We call it the "nibbling garden" because we can not produce enough to food to feed the school, but we can go out to the garden and pick strawberries, lettuce, peas, radishes, broccoli, and a variety of herbs to taste or smell. This year the students planted beets. We…