Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

We spent a lovely day with friends at our favorite state park. Oh, the things we saw: cicadas emerging from their shells, minnows, lizards, spiders, frogs, deer families.


We spent a good bit of time watching the cicada. He slowly wriggled his way out of his shell, stretching his feet and unfurling his wings. It was pretty amazing. Even more amazing was the kids' (mostly) patient observation.

They used those same observation skills to find treasures like acorns, walnuts, snail shells, frogs. The trail runs by a little pond where all the frogs and turtles like to hang out. As we walked along, you could hear the frogs skitter across the leaves and plop into the water. When she wasn't busy scaring them into the water, she was trying to catch them.

It was a day that really reinforced my belief in what we're trying to do: educate our daughter about the world around her. Unconventionally.