Bay View - birds and beachcombing

After a lovely morning of investigating the tidal flats and Padilla
Bay Interpretive Center the boys are either napping or playing soccer.
I am thoroughly enjoying a quiet moment with new field guide, The
Beachcomber's Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest.

Friday Pictures: Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

 

  

Photo credit to my lovely sister, Anastasia Andrews

Family campout at Magnuson Park

The city of Seattle is offering an activity filled overnight urban campout at Magnuson Park this weekend.  Families need to bring a tent, sleeping bags and $7 each and the city provides dinner, breakfast, smores and naturalist led activities at dusk and dawn.  Another campout is being held August 7.

Preregistration is required. Calll 206.684.7522 to get more info or click here to Register Online

If we weren’t actually going camping those weekends I would love to go.  I think it would have been a great ‘just mom and me’ night with the 4 year old. 

Are you going?  Let me know!  I’d love to hear what you think.

Campsite activities for preschoolers: Fairy Houses

I found during our last trip that there were a number of occasions that required my attentions to be somewhere other than directly on the kids, while cooking or preparing the backpack for the days adventures. Of course I try to keep the time spent on these administrative duties to a minimum, but what do you do with the little ones to keep them occupied at the campsite?

Build a Fairy House

On this trip I got the kids searching the campsite for a perfect fairy house location. I then sent them off collecting twigs, moss, rocks, and leaves. I instructed them to take stuff from the ground, no picking off of live plants! The collection was placed at the preferred location and dad helped with the actual structure when he had a minute.

This activity turned out to be a running theme for the weekend (my sister, who is studying to be a teacher, tells me this is a good example of project based learning). When we were on a hike berries from the ash berries became fairy food and salal leaves were turned into fairy guardians.

A big hit (and excellent post-beach, pre-dinner time occupier) was decorating the day’s collection of rocks, shells and driftwood. I brought some paints, brushes and just let them go at it. In case you didn’t know, painted shells make excellent fairy beds :)

Hiking with Kids Workshop at REI

REI is hosting a free seminar by Joan Burton, author of Best Hikes with Kids: Western Washington. It at the flagship store in Seattle on 6/23/2009 at 7:00 PM. I think it’s a bring the kids event too! Love that.

I’ve got the book and although I haven’t yet done any of the hikes yet I’m really looking forward to tackling some soon.

Hiking with Kids Workshop at REI

Rainy day camping activities

Well it’s been typically spring in the northwest today– rain, sun, drizzle, rain. While I usually don’t mind the rain (especially spring rain, spring rain is warmish and smells nice) a camping trip could well be ruined if you don’t plan ahead. First when planning your trip scope out the local museum offerings in case you really need to escape the confines of the campsite/tent but don’t want to completely throw in the towel. Second put together a special rainy day kit, store it in a big ziploc and stash it with your camping gear – don’t let the kids see it so it will be a surprise for your ‘special’ rain day

Rainy day kit: sidewalk chalk; playing cards; special markers (glitter, glow in the dark); new activity books; camping coloring pages, balloons

Here are some other ideas I've collected:

Outside activities (make sure you have a way to dry off and get warm after!)

• River / dam building
• Measure rainfall with buckets, cups
• Float flowers in the puddles.
• Dig for worms in the mud at night using a flashlight.
• Draw with sidewalk chalk on damp paved surfaces to create very bright chalk drawings.
• water balloons

Inside activities

• card games: War and Go fish are the current favorites of my 4 year old, Snap
• read books – i.e. Curious George Goes Camping
• Print out some camping related coloring pages
• Shadow play with flashlights
• I spy

Read more: "Rainy Day Camping Activities: Crafts and Games to Keep Preschoolers Busy When it Rains Suite101.com"

Technorati Tags: kids,camping,activities,rain

Outdoor activities for the web generation

Just discovered this way awesome website AndyCamper.com It's got print out activity cards, videos, info on geo-caching (which I have no clue about but it appears to have something to do with the outdoors and electronic gadgets – so obviously worth investigating).

I'm going to spend some time poking around but it looks awfully promising...i'll report back soon.

What's your favorite Andycamper activity?

Hiking with kids workshop

Over the past few months I've been doing a bunch of research while planning our summer adventures. I've been trawling the net, asking friends, posting on listserves, and I've hopefully some of the advice I've collected is good. Time will tell - and I will spill the dirt here!

I'm expecting the dirt spilling it to be somewhat cathartic. My husband is likely hoping it will mean less time spent de-briefing him on my latest foray into the wilds of REI.

I really hope to provide something of use in most posts but we'll see how that goes. I do have one for today though. The Washington Trails Association is holding a workshop about hiking with children in some Everett and Seattle libraries in May. Considering my 4 year old complains about walking the 10 minutes it takes to get to school I need all the help i can get.

http://www.wta.org/trail-news/events/hiking-with-children-workshop