The Green Family: Rest and Regroup

As any actual runner will tell you, after a significant race you always take some time off to recover. Last month took some effort, and might have been new for you. So this month, let's have some (environmentally-minded) fun. Let's get to know where we are a little better.

It's spring now, or will be soon. How about the following?

Plan a garden with native or heritage plants. Look into local sources for gardening supplies that are organic and low-impact (compost, mulches, containers, etc.). Or plan a butterfly garden.

Get a field guide for local plants, wildflowers, birds, small animals, or mushrooms in your area. Find somewhere you can go for a walk or a hike to track them down (if not now, if it's still too cold and wet, then when the weather cooperates).

Look through a book like this one* to get some ideas of fun environmental activities to do with kids.

Look through a book like ReadyMade to get ideas for fun things to make out of things you already have. (Reuse crafts can go beyond the egg-carton-caterpillar and the toilet-paper-tube-birdfeeder.)

Find a community garden near you.

Get a book about astronomy out of the library and learn to identify a few constellations.

Pick a native plant species to follow through its growth cycle.

If you are planning on doing some landscaping this year, think about edible forest gardens.

Learn about a few edible wild plants in your area (though unless you are very confident in your identification skills I would not advocate eating them. If you want to be able to do this, there may be a course in your area).

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* I have not read this particular book, but I have read similar other books like Sharing Nature with Children and Hands-On Nature, all of which have good stuff in them and are good introductions if you are absolutely clueless about what to do in the outdoors except walk, run, bike, camp and picnic. Some of them are fairly detailed and will give you background information on a particular natural topic so that you can structure a lesson and activity around learning something, others are more recreational. Pick whatever suits you and your progeny.

Posted by Andrea at May 8, 2008 10:02 AM under The Green Family

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