Into The Woods

We are back from our first camping trip with the girls and I am thankful to say it was much more successful than anticipated.  We were terrified that no one was going to sleep the whole time, and while it was harder to get them to bed at a normal bedtime, both girls slept fairly well.  I definitely recommend a big tent that allows for room to walk around and stand up fully, especially in the middle of the night.  This may be an experience we repeat in the future.

Our Mother Goose Time music came in handy on the twelve hour drive, although I have had the words to the ABC Soup song stuck on repeat in my head for nearly a week now.

We camped with my family, including my five year old nephew, who asked if we could have preschool.  I had brought up a few activities from the first week of July's "Nature Detectives" theme for that exact purpose and it turned out to be a great idea.  We read the book that came with the theme this month, "Get Close to Nature!".  Miss M was passively interested and wandered around collecting rocks while I read but my nature-loving nephew was enthralled and loved learning lots of new facts as well as connecting information he already knew about the creature or plant on each page.

Miss M enjoyed wandering around with the magnifying glass, looking at leaves, sticks and rocks.  Now that I'm thinking about it, I hope it made it back into my bag...

We  collected sticks to make huts for the numerous chipmunks in the campground and then made pinecone feeders for them with peanut butter and seeds.  They were originally supposed to be for birds but the closest branches were still 30 feet off the ground so we tied them to some shrubs.  They provided hours of entertainment for the kids and adults alike.  There were at least two regulars who were dubbed Fatty and Dasha.  We talked about how they lived in trees, what others foods they liked to eat, how they were different from squirrels and why they would run away if you got too close (although they would let you get pretty darn close if you were quiet and slow).  It was a great way to include a little science in our vacation.

An InLinkz Link-up