We’ve had another rainy May, with afternoon thunderstorms, hail and tornado warnings. I learned last year and have yet to put any of my tomatoes in the ground. While I’m not complaining, I do have to admit that we got a little tired of looking at each other in the dreary basement.
So last week, when we woke up to SUNSHINE!!!, a friend and I took our kids to the lake and called it school. Last year, we saw five bull snakes at this time of year, and we were hopeful. I can’t claim to have directed any actual nature study, but we were outside. The kids got their stick-whacking fix. SweetP had to be carried for most of the walk until I could convince her that the snakes weren’t out yet. (They weren’t, though I think she’s right that she would have counted as a small mammal, a.k.a. lunch.)
The boys built a bridge to the far log. Then they promptly “slipped” off it into the water. Those Canadian geese had three fuzzy goslings. They swam in a perfect line: parent-gosling-gosling-gosling-parent. The cottonwoods had fat, green seedpods hanging in bunches like grapes. The girls spotted three different great blue herons overhead.
Learning As We Go 