All Early Years

Landmark 3 (Exercise Senses Daily)

Together as a family we carved a pumpkin outside for Halloween! Our toddler was very engaged putting his hands inside the pumpkin and finding all the seeds. We then roasted them in the oven and had a great snack.

Carey Family – October 30, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

While playing in the front yard our toddler came over to me holding something saying “Pom Pom!” I was curious to see what he found and was surprised he had found a fuzzy caterpillar. We talked about being gentle and how the caterpillar’s home was outside. We put it in a bucket with some leaves and grass and watched it crawl around. We then returned it to where we found it.
Carey Family – October 15, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

We visited Ottawa and while playing at a park our toddler noticed a seagull walking around. He was excited to see the bird and tried running after it. The seagull was pretty brave and our toddler wasn’t quite fast enough to catch up so he and the bird spent about 20 minutes running around together.

Carey Family – October 1, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

We went on a leaf hunt around our neighbourhood exploring all the different colours we could find. We brought them inside and made a turkey placemat to go on our Thanksgiving table!

Carey Family – October 8, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

Together as a family we have been very surprised to see that we seem to be having a visitor at our doorstep. We have guessed that we have some very hungry squirrels that have been eating away at our pumpkin! Each morning we go outside our toddler checks on his pumpkin and sees the whole getting bigger and bigger. We can even see inside to the seeds. “Squirrels, don’t eat my pumpkin!”

Carey Family – October 14, 2022

Landmark 9 (Special Outdoor Place 2X/Month)

Today we went for a hike near Stoney Lake. We hadn’t been to this trail in a few months so it was eye-opening to see how much destruction was created in the forest from the derecho in May. A lot of work has been done to clear the trails but it was sad to see how different some of our favourite spots along the trail looked with so many fallen trees. We will continue to visit this trail as it’s one of our favourites and know that nature will regrow with time.

The Nature Nuts – October 1, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

The Pacific Ocean had some incredible animal critters to observe. We were treated to some lovely tide pools on one of our family hikes where we spent quite some time in awe of all of the living creatures underwater. We did lots of observing and watching how they moved, and what they looked like and we came away amazed at the intricacy of each creature.

We saw sea urchins – we loved how spikey they were!
We saw hermit crabs – we loved how fast they moved!
We saw a starfish (not pictured) – we loved how vibrant in color it was!
We saw barnacles and clams – we were blown away by the quantity!

Friesen – July 8, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Adventure 8 – We looked for milkweed while on a hike in the Trent Nature Area. We found a lot on the northeast side but alas no eggs, caterpillars or monarchs around. Norrie wasn’t interested in making a map but he enjoyed looking at the trail map at the start of the hike. We also enjoyed watching the videos about monarchs together. Thanks for inspiring another adventure!

Endicott Family – September 5, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Norrie has built and rebuilt this fort many times in the backyard. Lately, he added the straw left over from the garlic patch to make it more comfortable. It’s made of branches and fencing that has fallen down as a result of all the storms!

Endicott Family – September 4, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

Adventure Quest 4 – We walked to our nearby community garden and park. We found flowers and leaves that were all the colours of the rainbow plus white. We came home and used the flowers, leaves and sticks we collected as well as paint to make some art.

Endicott Family – September 4, 2022

Landmark 12 (Nearby Plants and Animals)

Today we went to a nearby meadow filled with milkweed in search of monarch caterpillars. We found lots of creatures living on the milkweed such as spiders, earwigs, beetles, grasshoppers, and tussock moth caterpillars, but sadly no monarch caterpillars. We are still determined to find some and will keep searching!

The Nature Nuts – September 3, 2022

Landmark 5 (Garden/Care for Animal)

Adventure #6: We saw different kinds of turtles, fish, frogs, and mussels. We took one picture of a wetland where we saw a painted turtle but we didn’t catch it. My parents are biologists and told me what species we found and showed me how to handle them carefully.

The Parna Family – August 29, 2022

Landmark 19 (Explore Biodiversity)

Adventure #6: There’s always an adventure ahead when you have a net. On a visit to Inglis Falls where most people go to hike and view the waterfall, the boys were happy to have brought their nets. This is an activity we have lots of experience with, and one of the most important lessons we try to teach is how sensitive the creatures can be. The boys reflected afterwards that they found mostly crayfish and small fish, but not a lot else. This is a good initial observation in understanding biodiversity.

The Walmsley Five – August 26, 2022

Landmark 12 (Nearby Plants and Animals)

Adventure #5: So many trees to find! The boys enjoyed hunting for all of the different trees. They were quite good at using the photos to search out the trees, which was difficult because often the trees looked the same. It took lots of references to the original photos to figure which was the right one. They were especially impressed with the Bur Oak. It took all four of us to stretch our arms around it. It took us a few days to get to all of the trees because at each spot there were always other things to do and explore. It was a great adventure and our favourite quest yet!

The Walmsley Five – August 24, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

Adventure #4: On the walk from the beach there were lots of different colours. Some were hard to find, hiding out in ditches (blue flowers), and some came from the same plant at different stages of life (cedar that was alive = green + cedar that was dead = orange). The boys enjoyed finding all of the main colours in the rainbow, they weren’t as keen at making a craft. “We just like finding colours!” – Marcus, age 3

The Walmsley Five – August 27, 2022

Landmark 4 (Favourite Place Weekly)

Adventure #5: On a camping trip at a familiar camp site, we took pictures of 10 trees and challenged the kids to determine where they were. As they found the trees, we used the iNaturalist app to find out the names of the trees. At home, our kids carefully drew a map of the campsite and recorded the locations and names of the trees they found. They were excited to share a map of one of their favourite places!

Hipgrave Family – August 24, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

Adventure #1: Walking through the fields close to the Peterborough Lift lock we found faces in the grass, in the mud, and on the sidewalk. It’s amazing how many we found when we were looking very carefully. The boys had a lot of fun being the ones taking the pictures!

The Walmsley Five – August 23, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

Adventure #4: We went on a colour wheel scavenger hunt/hike and made a nature craft out of materials we found on the ground. The kids turned the materials into colourful nests and we talked about how nests are created for warmth and protection. They brought Easter eggs outside and spent the afternoon “caring for the eggs”

Hipgrave Family – August 17, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

Adventure #4: We took a family hike through a forest and meadow habitat in a search for as many colours as we could. While we found lots of examples for green and brown, we even managed to find harder colours like red, purple, pink, and yellow.

The Nature Nuts – August 6, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Adventure #3: While on vacation in a rural area, away from city lights, we took advantage of the dark night skies to go star gazing. We took blankets and headlamps with us to a nearby field and lay out under the huge open sky. We saw the milky way, different constellations, and even some shooting stars!
The Nature Nuts – August 13, 2022

Landmark 3 (Exercise Senses Daily)

Adventure Quest #3 – We played outside in the woods in the dark and went for a walk – we saw some “flashing bugs” (fireflies) and looked at the stars in the sky and we heard some Mourning Doves. We hope you can see some fireflies sparkling in the photo.

The Parna Family – July 30, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

Adventure Quest # 2 – We went on a family backcountry canoe trip to Algonquin Park. We ate all our meals outside and traveled by canoe. We heard squirrels and birds like White-throated Sparrows and Chickadees. We also found a baby oak tree, blueberry bush (with berries yumm!) and red pines, wintergreen, bracket fern and a cool yellow flower, and mosquitos, a moth and a damselfly.

The Parna Family – August 21, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Adventure Quest 1 – We explored around our neighborhood to find faces – we found 5.
1 – Hedgehog face on the back of a walnut
2 – A face inside the walnut shell
3- A face in the clouds
4 – A face in sticks in the woods
5 – A face in the Brown-Eyed Susan flowers!

The Parna Family – July 17, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

We went for a beautiful hike this morning – looking at the beautiful colours all around! While walking, the kiddos were dreaming of how they might turn the nature items they found into pieces of art. One of the favourite creative ideas was to have the maple key be a bird in their art. Love watching my kiddos be outside exploring and creating. ☀️
Friesen – August 4, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

We discovered these beautiful cairns/stone piles and a few inukshuks on the beach and just had to build one ourselves. This collective art looked stunning as the sun set!

Hipgrave Family – July 21, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

One of our favourite parts of summer is visiting and caring for our animal friends. We fed these farm animals a treat of carrots and lettuce and enjoyed having them eat from our hands.

Hipgrave Family – July 21, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

When driving to the east coast in July, one of our favourite ways to pass the time was to look for faces, animals, and shapes in the clouds. Whenever we stopped to stretch our legs we looked to the sky to see what we could find. The kids thought this cloud looked particularly grumpy!

Hipgrave Family – July 13, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

While we were on a walk to the library, we were ready to find faces in nature. It was amazing once we intentionally started looking, it didn’t take look for us to point them out all around! A very fun project on a beautiful sunny days ☀️

Friesen – July 12, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Adventure Quest 1: We found two tree faces in Jackson Park on a rainy day walk. We made one face in the mud of the creek with a stick but forgot to take a picture.

Endicott Family – July 13, 2022

Landmark 8 ( Nature Art Weekly)

We looked for faces in nature during our camping trip and around our neighbourhood. This is activity 1 of the adventure quest.

The Maschke Family – July 12, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

Wow! We weren’t around the home to complete this activity but we were in a beautiful part of Canada! The trees on Vancouver Island are incredible! We came across SO many different (and huge) trees that absolutely blew us away. Different varieties with all varying leaf shapes, bark texture, and SIZE! The Douglas Fir and the Western Red Cedar were two new species for us to discover and learn about. We named the biggest one we found Betsy 🙂

Friesen – July 12, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

We have spent this past weekend exploring outside as much as possible. No matter where we go, the kids are always looking for the perfect balance beam to play on. Fallen logs are the top favourite!

The Nature Nuts – April 16, 2022

Landmark 4 (Favourite Place Weekly)

We went to the zoo to visit the Polar bears. The polar bears were quite excited to see us and we’re very active while we were there. We sat and observed them for 45 minutes, watching them swim, eat and play. We read about their fur and talked about their habitat. It started to get a little cold out so we sought some warmth at the indoor exhibit where we saw fish, turtles, and many animals from Australia. What a great day.

O’Neill Family – February 27, 2022

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

We got the idea from a social media post and thought we would try it ourselves. The snow was not the best for “baking” but we used our imagination and made a snow mountain instead. We talked about what animals we wanted to leave special treats for, there are cranberries for the chipp2y aka chipmunks, carrots for the squirrels, and seeds for the birds. We hope the animals find our cake delicious and nutritious.

O’Neill Family – February 13, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

The weather was set for a perfect day for sledding. We dug out the sleds and set off to the hills. Lots of giggles and screams of laughter were heard as we sped fast down the hill.

O’Neill Family – February 6, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

We were lucky to be able to experience the Lakefield speed skating oval at night. We laced up our skates, admired the moon and gazed at the stars while we skated along a candlelight ice rink. It was a great night to spend outdoors.

O’Neill Family – February 5, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

We wondered what the park would be like now that it was covered in snow. We set out to discover. We found the slide was super slippery and that the snow was all the way up to the bottom of the slides so you could just keep going when you got to the bottom. The swings were almost unusable from the snow being so high, but we tried and made it work for us anyway. There was a little hill of piled-up snow we used to slide down using just our snow pants to go fast. What a great day.

O’Neill Family – February 12, 2022

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

We enjoyed a 5km snowshoe. Our 3-year-old did a combo of snowshoeing, playing in the snow, and riding in the sled.

Endicott Family – February 3, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly) We participated in the family night walk at Camp Kawartha. We learned about a few hunting birds (ravens and owls) the sounds of flight and some of their bird calls. We enjoyed a stroll along a pathway glowing from the light from the ice lanterns. We got to enjoy the beautiful night sky filled with stars and then the kids convinced our educator and guide Nancy you get in some igloos and tell them stories. No parents allowed 😀 I would never have been brave or experienced enough to attempt all that on my own on a winter night. We appreciate the opportunity that the team gave us to explore and have such a great adventure. Campfire and hot chocolate was a nice way to end the evening.

O’Neill Family – January 29, 2022

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

We dehydrated these orange and grapefruit slices and used them as Christmas decorations indoors; this week, we brought them outside to hang in the trees for beauty and so the birds can have a snack!

Casa Crouthers – January 19, 2022

Landmark 1 (Explore Together Weekly)

My son has been reading the book camp 30, which is about the German war and the book takes place at a prisoner of war camp in Bowmanville. With some research my son located where the POW camp was in Bowmanville and we visited it today. The buildings are very run down but we were able to find a map that we tried to follow and identify what each building was used for. It was a very interesting spot to visit!

Crazyfornature – December 11, 2021

Landmark 2 (Animal Friends Monthly)

We were so excited to finally visit the Riverview Zoo again! Pre-Covid, we used to visit the zoo on a regular basis so everyone was very happy to get to see the animals again after so long. The kids eagerly raced to each enclosure to greet each of the animals and can’t wait to head back again for another visit.

The Nature Nuts – November 27, 2021

Landmark 8 (Nature Art Weekly)

We found a rock pile covered in Inuksuk!

Trent Childcare Campus – November 16, 2021

Landmark 5 (Garden/Care for Animal)

We started an indoor greenhouse! our hard work is growing quickly!

Trent Childcare Campus – November 13, 2021

Landmark 6 (Play in Nature a Full Hour)

Just as it got dark outside we took our flashlights to the nearby schoolyard and played flashlight hide and go seek. To ensure the safety of everyone we hid and seeked in partners. Boys against girls!

Crazyfornature – November 13, 2021

Landmark 10 (Grow and Eat Food)

Last weekend we dug up the potatoes that have been growing in our garden all summer. We’ve grown potatoes for years but this year they were HUGE. The kids were screaming with excitement every time they found a potato. It was the best kind of treasure hunt! Next up we will be pulling out our carrots and beets for a big Thanksgiving feast on the weekend!

The Nature Nuts – October 2, 2021

Landmark 5 (Garden/Care for Animal)

Over the past few weeks we have been caring for two monarch caterpillars at our house. It has been fascinating to watch the caterpillars move through their lifecycle. We even got to watch one emerge from its chrysalis. Finally, the day came when we said our goodbyes and watched them happily fly away.

The Nature Nuts – Sept 14, 2021

Landmark 21 (Grow and Eat Food)

In our backyard and with the Peterborough BIPOC growing collective, Jack and I have been gardening a lot. He is in a picky phase but i have noticed that he is super interested in the veggies he helped grow – he was even on my back as we prepped the garden beds at the start of the season! I feel like this is a relationship he’ll carry with him forever.

Casa Crouthers – July 18, 2021