Spring is approaching over here in our neck of the woods. It is arriving with much anticipation as we are ready to enjoy a little warm sun on our faces and some trips to the beach. More importantly, spring offers a rebirth of all Mother Nature's creations; baby birds in nests, spiders webs glistening from the morning dew, baby blue tongue lizards trying to find a place to live. The is a lot of curious things going on in our backyard!
Over the last few weekends my husband and I have been making us of the good weather to prep our garden beds for their spring plantings. Since our trip to Europe, quite a few weeds decided to make an appearance so we had quite a bit of work cut out for us. Lachlan enjoyed his time running around the yard playing with our dog Max and watching me pull weeds. While pulling weeds, I discovered a gardeners night mare: snails. They are a pesk to the garden, but very interesting for a child...an even me! I was labeled a 'tomboy' as a child and still live up to the name. I brought the snail over to Lachlan. It was all curled up in the shell so I think he just thought it was a seashell and began to say, 'shell.' I told him, "That's right. It is a shell but something lives inside of it. Watch and see." Slowly the snail began to uncurl itself out of the shell. Lachlan stared with much curiosity. He looked at me with a face that said, "What in the world?"
"It is a snail." I told him. "I'm going to put it down and we can watch it crawl." Together we watched the snail slowly slug its way across the patio, shooing Maxwell away who was just as curious as Lachlan. We watched the snail retract itself when Max tried to touch it with its snout. We saw how gracefully it would uncurl and push out its little eyes. "See those little black dots? Those are his eyes! They really stick out don't they?" When Lachlan was comfortable he picked up the snail and examined it closer. It was nice to see him up and close with nature and at an age where he can explore more freely. The experience really got me excited about all the nature experiences that are in store for us this spring and summer. It also inspired me collect some nature items on our family walk that afternoon. In the evening I set up Lachlan's table with some interesting things to explore; a few seashells of various sizes and textures, a pine cone and a leaf found on our walk and also a magpie and a cockatoo feather. I provided a magnified glass for Lachlan and showed him how to use it. First we had fun looking at one another through the glass, then we began to explore the objects. He particularly like feeling the different textures. I even encouraged him to try a little experiment with me by blowing on the objects. We blew on the shells but they wouldn't move. The pine cone shook a bit when mommy blew on it. The feather flew off the table when Lachlan blew on it. What a surprise it was for him! We each grabbed a feather and practiced blowing them off the table laughing the whole time.
Hopefully our little experience has inspired you to go out into nature this week and find a few things to get curious about! Until next time...Happy Parenting!
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