Weymouth Woods

Last weekend, my family and I went for a walk at Weymouth Woods. You can often find us there early on a Saturday morning. I wanted to share with you all that we experienced on our one-hour walk.
1. We watched some woodpeckers, that we later identified as Red Cockaded Woodpeckers.
2. We admired humming birds flitting about in the upper branches of the pine trees.
3. We found squirrel midden, which are the remains of eaten pine cones. You find midden under the trees where squirrels nest.
4. We spotted two snakes coiled up on a little island of grass in the swamp. We spoke with the ranger and learned they were Cottonmouths.
5. We saw a centipede/millepede (didn't have time to count the legs) and that led to a conversation about survival skills: don't eat anything with more than 6 legs. Could thing to know, don't you think?
6. We watched a pecular looking spider spinning its web and wondered how they spin the threads at spans of 8 feet. We later identified the spider as a Kite Spider.
7. We especially enjoy finding different fungi--they are so colorful.
8. We always look for animal tracks and scat--we did find some deer tracks and a mystery track that might have been from a dog, but we couldn't make out the tip of the claw.
9. We saw a black bird which led to a discussion about the difference between a crow, raven, blackbird, jackdaw and rook. We researched the birds, their range and bird calls.
10. The snake spotting led to a story about a green mamba my husband saw in Africa.
11. The squirrel midden led to another survival tip: how to trap a squirrel.
12. The snakes also led to a survival tip about how to kill and prepare a snake for dinner.

Of course, we were also spending time together as a family, interacting with one another, wondering about the world around us and getting exercise.

Weymouth Woods if free and they offer free nature talks on Sunday afternoons. I've included dates and topics on my blog.

Hope to see you there.

Trying New Things

I don't happen to like seafood. I grew up in the midwest and the closest we got to seafood was beer-battered perch dipped in catsup. Oh, and Gorton's frozen fish sticks. My husband grew up in Connecticut and loves seafood. Thankfully, he has been influential in expanding our daughter's food experiences.

Tonight, I bought my daughter some sushi and it occurred to me that experiencing new things, including food, is a learning experience. It encourages open mindedness, a sense of adventure and awareness of different cultures. Where do they eat sushi? What is the word's origin? Why might people eat raw fish? Why do we cook other meats?

Try something new with your child this week. By the way, I did taste the sushi; I didn't like it.

My daughter and I were in a book club this summer, and we read four books written by Sharon Creech. After reading Granny Torelli Makes Soup, I was inspired to make cavatelli like Granny Torelli. I happen to love cavatelli, but I'd never made it from scratch. (If you have never had cavatelli, it is pasta made with flour, eggs and ricotta cheese.)

I asked my daughter to help me. She loved sifting the flour with her hands and watching the eggs ooze into the bowl. I think she would have been happy just to play in the flour. She read the recipe to me and helped me divide the dough into fourths. Then we divided each fourth into four equal parts--are you seeing the math going on here? Then we had to roll the dough into 1/4 inch thick ropes and cut the rope into one inch pieces. Math, math, math.

Then the fun part. We had to transform the one inch pieces into cavatelli. I won't attempt to describe the process, but let's just say it took plenty of practice. We had to persevere, trying over and over to get the right shape. We felt a real sense of accomplishment when the pasta started looking like cavatelli.

Is there something you would like to learn how to do? Why not do it with your child?