Nature Study - Mary Jo Peckham Park

We joined our local Ambleside Online users this morning for a nature walk at Mary Jo Peckham Park.  Since I have boys, nature walk really means a race around the pond to see how many ducks and vultures we can scatter, how many baby ducks we can catch and of course, how muddy and wet we can get without actually getting into the pond.  With boys*, it is all about pushing boundaries.  Nature study with boys is about getting wet and rolling around in the grass.  They are such physical creatures!    

The race around the pond was fun and they saw several different birds.  Cooper did catch a baby duck and soon found out that this was not a petting zoo.  The momma duck came after him and I was secretly hoping she would peck him.  I really liked that he saw the natural consequence of touching a baby thing in the wild.  I hope he remembers that his strength always needs to be tempered when dealing with baby things.  Also, I hope he knows his momma would snap at anybody who tried to take him away from me! 

*When I refer to attributes of boys it is not a swipe at girls or to say that girls don't posses some of the same qualities.  I believe little girls should get dirty and build things too.  This blog is about my observations as a mother of four boys and what I have observed in real life. 

 The beginning of the walk.  In about two seconds both of them walk right out into the water.  Good thing we put on our nature walk shoes.

The dud egg.  After reminding them about the dud egg from Charlotte's Web Cooper turns around and throws it.  And I quote "So we can smell the horrible sulfur gas!"

Graham was saying "momma duck" over and over again.  I finally went and looked at what he was pointing at and sure enough there she was.  An entire herd of older kids ran past without seeing her. 

No eggs were disturbed or touched.

Marshall always picks flowers for me.  Even tiny little ones like this.  Boys can be incredibly sweet and thoughtful.

Marshall found a clam or what I think is a clam.  Quick to the nature handbook!

Nature sketching time. 

Graham joined in too.  He drew a rock. I was happy to see him join in the sketching without me telling him what we were doing. 

The smelly egg.

Hands still dripping with pond water.  He actually rubbed some in on his picture to make it more real.  We'll call that adding texture.

Keeping it real moment - Barrett cried for about twenty minutes walking around the pond because he wanted water (he has just had some before we set out).  Upon leaving, Graham pitched one of the worst fits I have seen, including hitting Cooper as he was buckling his seat belt in the car because he was not done riding the pelican and did not want to leave.