March 25, 2022 – At only our second nature club adventure, it felt like a natural addition to our days. The kids ran together like life-long friends and quickly found their way to the playground. The new age merry-go-round has become a fast favorite. They all pile on, while a few of the older kiddos push it around as fast as they can before jumping on themselves. It looks like wonderful dizzying fun!
Once all of our friends arrived, we walked down to our favorite creek spot. We gave the kids a loose idea of the theme, to build a boat/raft from natural items they found on the ground. The only thing we supplied was biodegradable twine and a picture book of ideas. The twine was used by a few and the pictures by even less. I loved that they took the idea of boat/raft building and ran with it, making it their own.
Some of the kiddos (and parents) made intricate rafts; some even had leaf sails. Others asked for help tying knots and wrapping twine around their sticks. The older kids worked together, making larger rafts. No matter what or how they made their creations, they were all excited to see them successfully float down the stream.
Since this is a child-led club, some of the kids decided to not even build a raft/boat. They were happy just running through the creek barefoot or balance walking along the outside of the little bridge. One small group of littles was jubilantly surprised to find a colony of ants under an overturned rock. They spent half an hour just watching the scurrying ants.
Again, no one was ready to wrap up and was actually surprised that club time was over. Thankfully, most of us have the freedom to hang out a bit longer to enjoy a picnic lunch together. We spend this time discussing how we thought the morning went, plans for our next club day and watching the kids simply play. This is always a beautiful sight to see.
