Nature at the Ball Field

I'm very grateful that our two older boys are on the same time. Don't get me wrong, a baseball game is great to watch, but it does reduce the hectic days of our lives during ball season. We also have two little ones as well. The youngest likes to eat mulch (much to the panic of other nearby moms) and the older one has been "playing" with nature. A few weeks ago, he just had some sticks for play. This week, after talking about Environmental Art at Nurturing Acorns, he started making his own creations with no prompts from his momma!

There was another girl nearby and she had made a tiny campfire, complete with log benches for the ants. I loved the tiny scale and that she was thinking about summer campfires! 

The creations morphed a little the longer we were there. While I know in my mind this is a person of some sorts, it really reminds me of Kanji (Japanese characters)! I loved learning about these while living in Japan and seeing the natural elements present in the symbols. The symbol for river truly looks like a river in my mind. Can't wait to make some with sticks now!

I love seeing what the kids come up with at the ball field! I think I'm ready to cozy up to make some s'mores!

Hoosier River Watch

Today, I went to Hoosier Riverwatch Training at Bonneyville Mill park. What a training! It is geared for adults--people 18 and over that are interested in water quality in the area. Do you like to drink water or use it for recreational or other uses? This could be a great FREE workshop for you! While the workshop trains volunteers to perform citizen scientist tests to monitor water quality, there are no requirements to do all the tests or any of the tests after the workshop. However, the data collected is very important to monitor the quality of the water in the area. Which reminds me, I worked quality control at a large bakery many moons ago while home from college summer. I did several similar tests to make sure the bakery items were up to standards.

We looked at the many uses and possible pollutants of water. This small scale model let us see how normal life might affect water quality.

The training included workbooks with clear examples and good step-by-step examples of how to monitor the quality of the water. The illustrations are great in the book and helped me understand healthy water in our communities. Pollutants and other mistreatments of water were addressed, yet there was no agenda to single out any source. We all make choices that might affect our water sources. We can all help make good choices as communities to lessen the impacts.

I felt like I was in Chemistry class in high school again! It was kind of fun to perform the tests. I will say that having the guided practice with an instructor was very important. I am sure I will have more questions the next time I do this; however, talking about the various tests and then actually DOING the tests helped me understand the process more. We performed several tests on tap water to get a feel for the tests. I'd recently done science kit explorations with my 4-year-old. It really is neat to see the reaction!

In the afternoon, we walked down to the Little Elkhart River. We went through the various types of testing we can do on the water. One includes making observations on the physical surroundings--the vegetation on the banks of the water, the width of the river in various spots, the velocity, and more.

Then we got out the testing kits for chemical tests. We measured the ph, dissolvable oxygen, and more. While we practiced the mathematical equations to go with the tests, all that is needed is to understand the process enough to enter the data on the Hoosier Riverwatch website. It will do all the mathematical processing that is needed. Krista Daniels, the instructor, mentioned the chemistry and math is what often scares participants, but she walked us through the process and reassured us it was easy to do. 

Later, we started scooping for macroinvertabrates. There is a specific procedure to do this--the consistency helps have more accurate results in this citizen scientist project. I think for many of us, this was the funnest part--finding all these squirming and wiggling things in the water! Different macroinvertabrates have varying tolerance levels for pollutants in the water. The water in this section is VERY good, with several sensitive macroinvertabrates present.

So, who is Hoosier Riverwatch for? If you care about water, it could be for you! There were a couple of teachers in our group who will use this with their students, a grandmother who lives on a river and might do activities with her grandchildren, a couple with a ditch on their family farm, and others from Woodlawn Nature Center exploring the resources around them. I'd like to do this with my older children as a family affair and will use the information in sharing about our valuable resource, water!

Nature Club: Environmental Art

While the theme for Nature Club was Environmental Art, I switched things up a little for the "older" crowd.  We had rocks and water beads for patterns and even tried them out on the light table.

I wondered what the older children would think of the water beads--they were a hit! The kids started making their own designs with the different materials. I loved hearing the oohs and aahs as we looked at Andy Goldsworthy's environmental art. I love his book: Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature He does such neat things! Simple concepts, such as circles, color variations, etc., are used to make stunning natural images tweaked by man.

Outside, we each found "precious" items once again, making a connection with nature and being observant as we focus on nature around us. We used our frames to find pieces of art in the details of nature. These flowers actually were little pieces of art on their own--almost like little runways welcoming the pollinators. The petals fell from these other blossoms. As a whole, the tree was not looking as nice; however, the parts left behind were stunning. I need to work on my photography skills!

The each created nature faces with found elements and explained them to us. It was interesting to see the unique details, like "lipstick" and proportions in this age group. Toward the end, they started seeing what others were doing and used some ideas; however, I liked what I was seeing as they worked on their own. Still, each natural face was quite unique!

We explored rubbings, looking at colors from different natural colors. We were surprised with some of the rubbings as they didn't always match the color we saw on the petal or leaf. 

We went on a color walk--love how they use the full name of the hue rather than just calling out pink at this age.

We took a break for hugging a tree. The "studies" really report positive health benefits from hugging trees!

We made snack with some "loose" parts, making patterns with our small edible pieces.

Then we got to know to know the trees in a little more detail, looking for unique aspects. The children used clay to build caricatures in

I loved the flower in the eyebrow in this one!

Another fun day!