Inseparable
We got new neighbors, about a year ago. They have a little girl close to Calvin in age. Last year the two kids eyed each other with interest across the lawns, but they crossed the property lines only once or twice. Even this summer there was very little mingling going on, until this week. This week, on Sunday, the neighbors had their inflatable pool set up and asked Calvin to join them. It was a fun afternoon, and the next day the girl came over and asked if we'd like to go to the park. Since then, they've played every day. They usually play in our front yard, riding bikes (it was thanks to her encouragement that Calvin took off the training wheels), drawing with chalk, and playing some totally imaginative, totally absorbing game. They've been inseparable. Her parents have started calling her Hobbes.
Junior naturalist
Our county parks program is wonderful. I've bragged about it before, but I'll brag again. I think one of the best things about the program, if it's not the fact that it's free or offers so many enriching opportunities, is that the naturalists who lead the events don't talk down to the kids. Instead, they expect great things from the little ones, and most often they are right on the mark. Kids are little sponges, something we all know, but as much as they absorb every little conversation that we didn't want them to hear in the first place (and then proceed to repeat them at inopportune times), they seem especially in tune with the natural world. Naturally.
Yesterday was the final Junior Naturalists summer class. It was an exploration of Michigan habitats—forests, prairies, wetlands. We walked through examples of each, identifying critters and plants. Calvin came home with a piece of paper certifying his abilities as a junior naturalist, but I think he was actually more excited about the hours we spent at the splash park afterwards than he was about the piece of paper. Or the splash park after, and the frog we found during the program.
county parks, nature, wildflowers, wildlife