My Backyard!

Summer's here... well, it is almost here, it's actually trying to snow in Saint Sauveur, Quebec where I'm writing this Blog Post from. But yesterday it was beautiful and the bees were buzzing, the birds were singing and the leaves are bursting forth on the trees! Life is emerging. My grandsons came to visit yesterday and we had fun digging in the soft earth, discovering ants and worms and all kind of interesting critters.
My song, My Backyard mentions seventeen different creatures that can be found in most North American backyards. You can play the song HERE, (click on the button About Me and the Song button will come up) and you will see the lyrics. Listen to the song with your kids, then see how many of the creatures you can spot in a week. I didn't see the two in the photo below, but I did see five others that are mentioned in the song - within an hour!

                  

                                                                 Photo Credit: Piepie
Simply the best way to nurture a love of nature in kids is by taking them outdoors and getting them interested in the critters that are there. Within minutes my grandsons (aged 5 and 18 months) were imitating crow's "cawk-cawk", they quickly learned blue jay's raucous cry and were fascinated when I called the chickadees in. Magic happens when we take kids outside. Have fun exploring your backyard, or the park, or any neighborhood place where there's a tree and a bit of grass. Life is everywhere!

What Is A Watershed?

                             

What watershed do you live in?  That's my new question when I first meet someone.  It might sound strange, but when you learn how important a watershed is to EVERYTHING then really it's not so weird.  Kind of like asking.. "Do you like clean air, healthy food, clean ocean, clean rivers, pretty parks and gardens, healthy vegetables..."  You get the picture.  But before I knew what a watershed was, I didn't really get it.  The Curious Kids had a fun time learning all about their watershed in Southwest Florida.  Check out the video and then look up the name of your watershed...find out how large it is...and where does it flow into the ocean!  Have fun!
PS - sorry it's been so long since the last post - I was writing a novel! Stay tuned, I'll be sharing some more fun videos, songs and tips for caring for our beautiful planet Earth! Rosie

Vacation Recycling!

I’ve been travelling lately and noticed how much “junk” can pile up when we travel! Most airports have recycling bins available and many of the transportation hubs do too, so it’s definitely possible to recycle any plastic bottles, cans, glass and paper products while on the road for summer vacations! If there isn’t any recycling available I do my best to clean out plastic vessels or cans and take them with me to the next place that does offer recycling (this may be home!) This takes a commitment and when a family is travelling there are certainly many things to think about. Sing the Recycling Boogie to get you going!


Plastic is everywhere, so the more we can reduce, reuse or recycle, the better it will be. If you have any doubts about where all that plastic ends up (that isn't recycled), check out the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And as if the Pacific vortex wasn’t bad enough, they’ve recently discovered a huge Atlantic garbage patch as well! Time to clean up our act! There’s really no need for us to waste as much plastic. I’m just one person, but I’ve managed to reduce my use of plastic in a variety of ways such as:

• I use a reusable steel bottle for water – even when I travel.
• I carry a reusable cloth shopping bag in my purse at all times – you can get really cute ones now.  Mine rolls into a ball.
• Use reusable containers for picnics and traveling.

Check out some Eco-friendly tips for traveling with kids. When you're out and about, see what kinds of art projects you can make with some of the natural objects you find. Recycle Artist Brad Hermann in Fort Myers, Florida showed the Curious Kids some of his amazing pieces of art – all made from recycled materials.


The Little Earth Charter, Principal Number Five is Earth, check it out and pledge to live a little lighter on the planet.  Let’s work together to reduce our plastic footprint! Have fun on your summer vacations!

Mosquitoes!

They’re back!! Those pesky, inordinately annoying insects! Buzzing and whining, biting and stinging! Cover up, cover up! Face, arms, hands, legs and feet!  Sigh! Mosquitoes are ubiquitous and sadly, often synonymous with summer outdoors! They're the one creature to garner little enthusiasm when I chant my “We’re All Interconnected” mantra!

Oh well! (yes, those of you who know me, know what I’m going to say.) Mosquitoes contribute to the diets of numerous birds, bats and amphibians. So, before I go any further, shake off the mosquito blues with the Mosquito Song!


A recent visit to the Lee County Mosquito Control District in Florida, gave the Curious Kids some insights into mosquito life and what Florida was like before mosquito control began.


This National Geographic page has some good facts about mosquitoes plus some cool videos on other types of insects. Since mosquito larvae grow in standing water, invite your kids to check around the yard to see where water’s pooled – you might be surprised at how many places there are. If you have bromeliads growing, that’s a likely place – or how about a birdbath that’s got stagnant water in it?

Believe it or not, there’s even a Mosquito App! Whatever it takes! Getting kids to play outdoors far outweighs the downer of mosquitoes, so dance a little and have fun!

Bats, bats, bats

Yay, the evenings are getting lighter and the weather warmer, allowing us to wander outside later and later. More time for the kids to play outdoors, to mosey on over to the park, explore the woods, run out in the fields! Of course the warmer weather brings out the critters.  There are dragonflies, bees, butterflies and of course the ubiquitous mosquito!

And then there are bats! Somewhere along the way bats seem to have garnered a bit of a nasty reputation, they became the go-to creature for Halloween and other creepy- themed events or films. However, in reality the little bat (or big bat depending on where you are living!) is a masterful night hunter that helps to control insect populations, and fruit bats are invaluable as seed dispersers, helping to preserve healthy forest ecosystems. Here’s the Bat Song to get you dancing!



Introducing kids to bats, and highlighting the many benefits they bring both to our urban and agricultural communities helps to dispel the “creepy” factor and usher in respect and curiosity. Visit Bracken Cave, summer home to the world’s largest bat colony. Unfortunately many North American bat species are succumbing to White-nose syndrome, which affects hibernating bats. Building or buying a bat house to put up in your yard will help attract bats into your neighborhood and allow you to observe them safely with your kids.
The Little Earth Charter Principal Number One is Life, another fun way to explore the multiple facets of life with your kids! Bats101 has some good lesson plans and ideas for bat projects. So, enjoy the summer evenings and see how many bats you can identify!

Cooperation

Cooperation is alive and well in nature, providing some great opportunities to observe this quality with your kids. For example, take a moment to watch a colony of ants. Ants cooperate in a myriad of ways, always working for the greatest good of the whole. They work together to collect food, assist other ants that are injured and endlessly transport grains of sand and debris out of tunnels ensuring the colony is spic and span. Of course it’s a little difficult to observe ants underground so if you’re feeling adventurous why not buy an Ant Farm? Your kids will enjoy watching the ants tunnel away! The Ant Song is a fun way to celebrate ants!



The Web of Life is truly a network of interdependent and interconnected organisms and humans are intricately connected to that web. Check out Principal Number 2 of the Little Earth Charter - The Interconnected Web.  What examples of cooperation can you find in the backyard or at the park? Some might be:
1. Soil – all kinds of organisms work together to break down organic material into soil, providing fertile matter for plants to grow in.
2. Birds - Get to know your neighborhood crows – they are social birds that will often cooperate to collect nest-building materials.
3. “Smarty Plants” this AMAZING episode from David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things will blow you  away!  It's incredible how plants and insects cooperate!

Plenty of fun examples of cooperation in nature can also be seen in coral reefs. One research team found that some reefs being threatened by a plant that was disrupting their food supply, called in Goby fish to get rid of them! Here's the Cooperation Song to get you in a cooperative mind set! If you find some cool examples of cooperation in nature, please do share! Have fun!

Family

Spring continues to make its presence known here in Quebec. At the Montreal Botanical Gardens today I watched a mother fox and her cubs playing in the grass. Here, in the heart of a big city, live these beautiful wild creatures that few of us ever get to see. As I watched the cubs frolicking about under their mother’s watchful eye, a little girl with her father standing next to me said: “They’re just like me and my friends, they like to play.” I think all of us watching those foxes knew we were witnessing something precious.



Watching such intimate family moments in the animal kingdom provides an opportune moment to cultivate empathy and compassion in children towards non-human beings. But while TV Shows and videos about animal families abound, there is nothing quite like actually observing real life family moments in nature. For this, spring provides ample opportunities if we can just get kids outside into parks, onto trails and simply hanging out in the backyard!

In Florida I witnessed some bottlenose dolphins, including one or two young calves, playing in the water near Marco Island. Dolphins are very family-oriented, social mammals that travel together in groups called pods. They will often collaborate to hunt and herd shoals of fish; they play with each other, and when females give birth other females called “aunts” provide assistance. Recently a research project discovered that dolphins even recognize each other’s signature whistles long after they’d last been in touch.

 “Dolphin Teach Us To Play” is a song that celebrates the joy of life, something dolphins definitely seem to exude!



The Little Earth Charter Principle No 3 is The Family. The Principle of Family means doing everything that you can to make sure everyone in the human family is well treated. You can extend this principle to the -human family as well – check out Rosie's Heart (see sidebar) – a fun game that provides one way we can help to protect dolphins. Nurturing empathy in children helps them to not only be kinder to each other but also to all living things.