This morning we tried a new experience together. We’ve taken Theo on touristy boat trips before, but this is the first time we rented our own little canoe and paddled around alone as a family. You can read the Kids Busy Blog post and see more photos here. I wanted to share here on Kid Naturalist more specifically what the experience was, like in terms of our young child’s interaction with nature.
Our canoe trip was a brief 45 minutes before Theo grew restless. But in that period of time, he had the following experiences:
- paddling a canoe through crystal-clear water, with mossy rocks visible below
- feeling the rocking of a boat on the water
- switching seats with Mommy on a narrow, unsteady boat (a balancing act, for sure)
- watching how the action of the paddle on one side or the other steers and propels the canoe
- guessing what lives inside a giant drainage pipe (he wagered it was a chipmunk)
- peering through two drainage pipes to the sunlit openings on the other side of the levee
- hollering into the pipes to hear echoes
- seeing a large rock that had been placed inside one pipe, and a large spiderweb in the other
- throwing said rock into the water and hearing its splash
- holding a strand of the water plant elodea and tossing it back into the water
- hearing the chugging machinery sounds coming from the dam
- poking a dead seagull with a stick
- running his hands repeatedly through the chilly water
- viewing a red-tailed hawk eat a small prey animal atop a lamp post, a great egret fly overhead, and a grebe float on the water nearby
- witnessing dozens of swallows zooming in and out of mud nests affixed under a man-made walkway
After docking our boat, we cruised along the water’s edge for a while, through dried winter foliage and spring’s first blossoms. Theo then enjoyed:
- selecting and collecting rocks into his small bucket
- throwing rocks into the lake while being guided to avoid hitting the bold Canada Geese nearby
- peering at purple flowers through a magnifying lens
- climbing and jumping from a lifeguard tower
- wading into the edge of the lake in bare feet
- burning holes through dried leaves with the lens
It really doesn’t take much to give a child a rich sensory experience that connects them to the world around them. Just an hour or two in nature, and maybe a canoe.