Seasonal Adventures: Spring and Soaking in Nature

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Spring is such a reset button. I don’t feel that any of the other seasons have quite the same effect. It seems that with the arrival of spring all my creative juices start flowing again. The desire to beautify the world is intense and very present. And I know that I am not the only one, my children display the same tendencies. Therefore we will be making it a family affair to help Mother Nature do her best. Through picture books, nature walks and curiosity we are embarking in a new and magical spring.

Picture Books

Our spring picture books came out last week and we are deep in them! It is all about new life: from eggs expected to hatch to bunnies due to have babies any day, both in books and in real life, spring is bursting at the seams. We have some very favorite picture books that are being read over and over, it’s tradition! Here is a partial list of our favorites.

Birds:

• Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey (an ultimate favorite!)
• Nesting by Henry Cole (another favorite)
• An Egg is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
• A Nest is Noisy by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
• Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi (Swallows are my favorite birds and they return on the feast of Saint Joseph! The best!)
• The Burgess Book of Birds by Thornton Burgess

Botanicals:

• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
• A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
• Botanicum, by Kathy Willis, illustrated by Katie Scott
• What is Inside a Flower? by Rachel Ignotofsky
• Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations, by Vincenzina Krymow
• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart (it’s such a fascinating book!)

Baby Animals

• The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers
• The Little Rabbit, by Judy Dunn, photographed by Phoebe Dunn
• Little Lamb, by Piers Harper
• The Little Fellow by Marguerite Henry
• The Quiet Little Farm, Janet Kerr

Poetry

• The Springs of Joy by Tasha Tudor

A feast of words and pictures

What a feast! All these beautiful books are such a delight to plunge into. They ignite wonder and curiosity and take us on the road to discovering a whole new world,  just waking up. Sorted by themes in different baskets they quickly take over the living room and our minds. We read them during Morning Time, we read them at bedtime, we read them at any time. They are such a treasure trove of beauty and charm. Our curiosity is tickled to see them coming to life outside, in their true element. They unlock the door to wonder and imagination, to curiosity and contemplation. And so, now it is time to head out the door and into nature, to admire Mother Nature doing what she does best: beauty.

Heading outside

The weather is so very fickle this time of year. Here, in the Colorado Plains, we do not fear rain, unfortunately, but wind. This year it is already warm but the wind has been so fierce, and there is not much to protect you from it… This makes it hard to plan outings, therefore we have learned to be more spontaneous (which is really hard for me) and to enjoy any minute we can have outside with wind under 15 miles an hour! But no matter the weather, we try to spend at least 30 minutes outside everyday, hunting for signs of spring. We really want to do 1000 hours outside but it really is a challenge for me. The kids have been better at it than I am, but I would love to be able to reach that goal! Heading outside is the most important step, so even if it is not for 1000 hours, I feel that we win with any time that we spend out there.

Once outside

Armed with our Nature Journals, or empty handed, we go for walks around our property or our favorite parks and look for signs of spring. With being spontaneous we do not venture very far and we can therefore follow the progress of a specific plant or tree. We’ve even found nests, in the past, where we have been able to see the progress from sitting to hatching and fledglings, very cool! It is so amazing what nature does to our brains! Everyone is so much more pleasant and so much more peaceful after some time outside. I call it “the nature-drug”. It resets and refocuses our brains, our emotions and grounds us (pun intended). And there is no sign of overdosing on it, lol! Therefore I am challenging myself, and my family, to restart 1000 hours outside and see how far we go this time! We each chose our own tracker and we are going to do this! Will you join us? Share your tracker on Instagram and tag me @adailypicturebook.

Gathering

I’m sure I am not the only mom who comes back from a nature walk, or really any time outside, with hands and pockets full of nature treasures. What do you do with all these once you are home? The flowers will, of course, go in water, but what about the rocks, the dead butterfly or the eggshell? Create a Nature Table! Nature Table is a loose term for any surface that you have available to display your nature treasures. For us it is a shelf in our schoolroom, not for all of them, but for the best ones. The others find their way to each child’s bookshelf in their room or, if it’s something gross, to their locker in the garage. Our rocks are extremely boring, so they stay outside, lol! You could use anything to display these treasures inside or outside your home.

Nature Table

A Nature Table starts very organically, treasures will be gathered while outside, it’s a guarantee, lol! Now it’s just a question of making space for it and finding what will work for your home. A small space on a shelf, a windowsill out of baby’s reach, a rickety table in the breezeway or the porch. Anything will do. I have started to build a Pinterest board to inspire and there are some very creative people out there. It is fantastic. Talk about getting my creative sap flowing!
Once you have your space, you need to establish a very few rules on how the space will be treated. And then it is time to get started! Go on a Nature Walk and see what you bring home.

The “rules”

The main objective of a Nature Table is to be a depository of the nature treasures collected by all. In an ideal situation we would have more space to dedicate to it but for now this is what we have and therefore we are pretty selective of what goes on the shelf. I usually take it down once a year to dust it and we sort through the treasures that should remain, the ones that should be discarded and the ones that can move on and live in a thread box on another shelf. One year my husband encased in a baseball box a beautifully preserved dragonfly that had died in a storm, we still have it. But the very few rules are that it is children’s territory, that everyone has to agree on what stays and what goes and that we respect other people’s treasures.

Display

If I had a larger space, I would love to add books on the theme of what we have been finding the most of recently. Adding open Nature Journals with beautiful illustrations and descriptions. Displaying my children’s hard work is always a plus. It encourages them and validates their efforts. Field guides are also a great addition. All of our nature books and field guides live on the same shelf, making them easy to access, even if they are not right by our nature shelf. In a sense I am glad that I don’t have too much more space or I would probably get sucked into creating a “perfect” Nature Table and take the creativity away from my children. As it is now, they are free to have their own Nature Shelves in their room that Mom cannot invade, lol!

The important thing

At the end of the day, what really matters? The most important objective of a Nature Table is for my children to have a space to display their nature treasures. Enabling access to materials and books that allows them to make connections between what they have found and what they have learned. Encouraging curiosity and inquiry, as well as autonomy in learning and discovery. A Nature Table is a simple tool that can reap great rewards if I let my children’s natural curiosity about the world around them guide their search for knowledge. Sometimes I have to remember to give them the tools and then to get out of the way.
So this spring let’s explore, wonder and gather! Let’s learn new things and rediscover old ones alongside our children. Let’s soak in nature and find treasures. 
And now, I am heading outside!
Love,
Mattie