4.07.2013

field guide

We spent Easter weekend at a cabin in White Pines Forest State Park, where we knew there would be some good hiking.  I grew up going on these kind of small trips and I love to continue the tradition with our kids.  And they really just love being outdoors.  Before we left for the trip I made each of the kids (except Lola) a Field Guide.  I thought it would be like a nature scavenger hunt.  It says, "Exploring White Pines Forest State Park, what will we find from dawn to dark?"
The animal watercolors are from a set of cards I bought from Susan Windsor.  Aren't they great?  I really wanted the animals to look realistic, and the guides are just for our personal use.  I did find some clip art animals that could have worked as well.  

I included the genus and species of each animal, plus what they eat, what their babies are called, and a little space to circle whether we saw that animal or not.  I drew the tracks myself.  Not perfect, but they worked.
I taped little pencils to the back to they could make notes in the book.  I forgot to take a photo of the last page- it was blank with a "my notes" header.  This came in handy because we saw a lot that wasn't in the book- like a woodpecker, mushrooms, etc.
A lot of times I make things for Max and he likes it at first, but never really uses it.  The kids really got into these though!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Owen's after the hike.  He was really making some notes!  The twine strap was a great add on so the kids didn't have to carry them.
Woo!  Found one!
So much fun.

2 comments:

  1. Wow that is such a cute idea with the books!! I'm going to have to definitely pin that :)
    You have such cute kids too!

    ReplyDelete

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