I started out my summer completing some long over due landscaping around our house. I took the kids to a dried up creek bed on my parent's farm land to collect rocks and then used the rocks in our landscaping project, setting up a garden around the house. The kids planted flowers in their garden and then learned the impact of water, or the lack thereof as a drought settled on the Midwest and all their flowers died. We built a playground and put in a pool, creating a perfect backyard for my kids. And, my kids helped, they did not sit and watch us or watch TV while I did the work. They got involved in the project, made decisions about where things would go, and celebrated the beautiful end results.
Then in preparation for our vacation to Hannibal, Missouri, we started reading Tom Sawyer and had some wonderful discussions about history, slavery, words, a life without running water and electricity, and the meaning of specific words that are no longer used today. My eight year old son, quickly related to Tom and his shenanigans. The book then came alive for them as we toured the caves and the city of Hannibal. We are now reading Huck Finn and they are picturing all the places we visited as they come up in the story.
We then went to Wyoming for our last big adventure of the summer. I let my kids have their electronic devices, the DS, Kindle, iPod, etc. as we traveled down the interstate, but the moment we entered Yellowstone I took the devices away and they did not get them back until we left the mountains. There were moments of grumbling, but when the first elk walked right by our camper as we were setting up our site, they no longer cared about them. We spent four glorious days in Yellowstone with no electricity, just interacting with nature. My children marveled at the geysers and the stink pots, visualized the volcano, and spotted wildlife everywhere. My son questioned everything and soaked in all the knowledge that each visual display offered. After Yellowstone we spent a couple days in the mountains at a friend's cabin that was built in the mid-1800's. The kids had to use a real outhouse for the first time....hilarious! We rode four-wheelers around the mountain and collected more rocks to finally complete the landscaping project. The kids climbed the mountains around the cabin and played in the creek next to the cabin. My son was beyond delirious when he found fossilized bones. They were not ready to leave and both decided we needed to move to the mountains. In my psychology class, I instruct a unit on Environmental Psychology. Basically, the study of the impact of nature on human behavior and vice versa. This summer, I recorded much qualitative data, proving that time spent in nature is very beneficial to the human psyche. We have to force ourselves to shut it down and disappear off the grid for a while to decompress and relax. Now that I have returned to school, getting my classroom set up and getting ready for the upcoming school year I find myself better composed, less edgy and ready for the rat race. Even if you just take an hour, a day or a weekend, I recommend finding a park, going on a walk or a hike.
