Fishing, Fairs and Fairy Tales: Letter F Preschool Activities and Printable!

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My son’s favorite letter up to now has been B because it is the beginning of his name and the first letter he learned to recognize, but this week’s letter might become his new favorite. What is so special about the letter F? It is the first letter of his favorite activity: fishing! And to make it even better it is the first letter of our field trip for this week: the fair!

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We will be attending our State Fair this week and we are excited to be able to include that in our letter study! In addition to talking about the fair and how it starts with F, I created a scavenger hunt at the fair for things that begin with the letter F. You can download your copy of the scavenger hunt below. There are also some yummy treats at the fair that start with F. We always enjoy splitting a funnel cake and French fries are one of my son’s favorites.

Letter F Nature Study

Our nature study is going to focus on fish. While we may not be able to study those up close this week due to the weather we are going to look at his fish books, color pictures of fish, and hopefully find a few fish at the Marine Fisheries exhibit at the fair.

We will also cover the season of fall in our nature study. While fall officially started several weeks ago, this is the first week that we are slated to have fall weather! With the cooler temperatures it will be fun to go outside and look for changing leaves and other signs of fall. I also have a collection of fall books that I want to incorporate into our days.

Letter F Sensory Activities

My sons loves finger painting and I think that will be a fun sensory activity to help learn the letter F. We are a big fan of finger painting because it encourages fine motor skills, it is easy to clean up, and of course lots of fun. If it feels too messy you can choose a different activity or check out my post on making it easier to say yes to the messy activities.

My son’s favorite number at the moment is the number four. I think it may be a rule when you are a small child that your favorite number matches your age. He wants to eat four of everything, do things for four minutes or four days, and put everything into groups of four. This is a great week to reinforce that number through counting, activities, and possibly add drawing the number 4 in finger paint to our letter activities.

Letter F Literature

Finally what better way to enjoy the letter F than with a few good fairy tales! There are so many great ways to enjoy fairy tales. We can read them in some of our favorite books, listen to them, watch a movie, or even make up our own fairy tales.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter F. Please share your ideas for letter F in the comments below!

Letter F Snack Ideas:

Figs

Fig Newtons

Fish (gold fish)

Fruit Salad (This is a fun one for them to help make. They can use a lettuce knife to help cut and then mix it all together.)

Funnel Cake

French Fries

Fruit (and veggie) Flower Snacks

Extra Resources:

Letter F Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter f Lower Case Craft Freebie

Letter F Optional Activities:

Fishing

Float/Sink experiment

Nature study on fish or ferns or fall

Finger Games

Fair (this one is seasonal but times out perfectly for us)

Fairy Tales (This 5 minute fairy tale book is free if you have kindle unlimited).

Letter F Fair Day Scavenger Hunt (FREE PRINTABLE)

Don’t forget to download your free letter F sensory bin pictures to use this week!

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When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

Brinkman Adventures (Review and a Discount!)

Many of you know that we recently went through a devastating hurricane in our town. We were without power at our home for about five days, with other folks faring much worse. We were expecting the power to be out for at least that long and before the storm I set about preparing not only for our safety but for a little fun and comfort along the way. We charged up the kindles and as a fun surprise I downloaded our newest review product Season 6: Underground Rising from the Brinkman Adventures.

I had not told the children about the review but knew that they would be excited and the episodes would bring a welcome break during a stressful time. I was so glad that I had them downloaded. As we sat around in the evenings and spent time together as a family and during hot afternoons with no air conditioner the episodes were a welcome reprieve. My children were already familiar with the Brinkman Adventures from our normal Saturday morning routine of listening to an episode on the radio as we ride around going to yard sales as a family. They love listening to them and always wish they could hear more, so having a chance to own a season was a real blessing. Now we can listen to them whenever we want and not just during that one time frame on Saturday mornings. My son enjoyed sitting on the couch and playing Legos while he listened and my daughter could work on her crafts.

Brinkman Pic — Building with Legos while listening to the Brinkman Adventures!

If you are not familiar with the Brinkman Adventures, they follow the fun adventures of the Brinkman family and incorporate stories of real life missionaries and Christian heroes. As a parent, I make it a priority to surround my children with good role models and and heroes both in person and through stories. The Brinkman Adventures is an excellent way to introduce your children to some wonderful missionaries and Season 6: Underground Rising is no exception.

My children’s favorite episodes from this season featured a Green Beret who became a missionary in Burma. He founded the Free Burma Rangers and is helping many people to escape from the Burmese army. It tells of his time in college and some mistakes he made and how he got his life back on track. I love how it highlighted how God used his military service to train him for his later missionary service. While they take some liberties with the story to make it work for the audio drama it is the real story of missionary David Eubanks. The website has a section that shares more of the real story of the person featured in the episode as well as explaining which parts were adapted for the sake of story and which parts were true.

Other episodes in this season included a two part series on the Dutch Underground, a fun story about a family who worked with an orphanage in India, and a funny episode about the Brinkman family and the time one of them swallowed a fly! These episodes will make you laugh, cry, and most importantly they will remind you of God’s power and his provision. Our family truly enjoyed Season 6: Underground Rising and I encourage you to check out the website and try these fun and meaningful adventures with your family. As an added bonus I get the privilege of offering you an additional 10% off if you use the code FALL10 now through October 31st! To find out what adventures the other Review Crew members loved make sure to click below to read the other reviews.

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CashCrunch Careers (review)

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While I sometimes look at my twelve year old and see just a little boy, I know that time is moving fast and the years until he is out on his own will fly by. We don’t pressure him to make any decisions about his future career at this point but it is something we have discussed with him. There are so many options for both careers and educational opportunities and we want him to take the time to know and understand what his options are and then seek the Lord’s will for his life. When we were given the opportunity to review CashCrunch Careers by CashCrunch Games I asked my son if it was something he was interested in and he requested to give it a try.

CashCrunch Careers creates a career report for you based on your answers to the assessment. The assessment is a series of questions in which you choose which word best describes you between the two options you are given. If the person taking the test is not sure about the meaning of the word you can hover over the word with your mouse and get an explanation. This was a feature that my son used several times to help him in choosing the best answer.

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Once you have completed the survey the program creates a career report that helps analyze which careers might be a good fit. This report includes motivators and de-motivators, career attributes, and career match.

The career information is where I think this program becomes most beneficial. Honestly, I felt like the test picked up some great insight into my son’s personality but it also does not take into account skills and interests. However, the career information and data base was full of some really great information and the career options that it listed were not bad choices for my son. He had never really thought about a career as a manager but most of his options were some type of managerial role. Once he read the report he felt like some of those roles might be of interest to him. A few days after he had taken the test and looked over the report an older gentleman who was on a volunteer work crew at our church took my son aside to tell him how hard he was working and that he had done a great job that day. In the conversation he told him that if had not yet chosen a career he should really look into a management position because he thought he would do well.

We enjoyed looking at the various careers and the being able to find colleges that matched those careers as well as projected information about the future of those careers. I think that as my son gets older this will be a great data base of information that he can use as he explores various career paths. There were also some videos about the careers but they were older videos that would be more useful if they were updated based on today’s technology.

Overall, while this program did not provide the in depth career assessment that I was hoping for (taking into account talents and interests and not just personality traits), I do think that it provided us with valuable information. I believe that we will continue to use the career data base as we move forward and my son gets more serious about deciding on an educational and vocational path. I encourage you to check out CashCrunch Careers over at the CashCrunch Games and while you are there check out their other educational games that help teach economics. Also, check our the other Review Crew reviews to see how the program worked with a variety of different ages and personalities.

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Printable Books of the Bible “Summary Sheets” (Review)

Bible study is a core part of our homeschool and family life and we enjoy using a variety of tools to help us as we study the Bible together. We have recently had the opportunity to review some really helpful Printable Books of the Bible “Summary Sheets” by Teach Sunday School. This was a simple tool to assist our Bible study.

The Printable Books of the Bible “Summary Sheets” are one page sheet information sheets about each book of the Bible. The sheets include background information on each book, including the author, when it was written and where it is in the Bible. It also includes the ‘claims to fame’ which is something unique or spectacular about that book. For example, for the book of Ruth, ” Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David after a good deed of refusing to desert her mother-in-law, who was from Israel. Her story takes place mostly in Bethlehem, the future birthplace of Jesus.”

Each page also includes a summary of the famous stories that are included in that book. For the book of Jonah that would be, “Jonah is swallowed by the giant fish.” and “Jonah prophesies to Nineveh and the nation repents.” In the New Testament Epistles this category changes a bit and becomes, “Problems or Issues this Book is Addressing” since they were mostly penned in response to issues that the churches were having.

The next section is famous verses. This section includes two or three verses from that book that either are the most looked up verses or verses that are known to be loved by the American people. Jeremiah included one of my personal favorites, ” For I know the Plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

The pages end with important points about the book. Some of these were simple facts like the fact that Matthew was famous for including the Great Commission, but others were more background information. For example, “Matthew was writing to the Jews as opposed to Gentiles, which is why his gospel often quotes the Old Testament to show how prophecy was fulfilled.”

If I had to pick my favorite part of these sheets it would probably be that they tell what time period each book covers. I think that really helps me understand how the events in the Bible relate to the other events in history. As someone who was raised in the church and been a Christian since I was a child, I knew many of the facts on the pages but I still learned something new with each one we studied.

We chose to start at the beginning and look at one summary sheet each week during our morning time to learn more about that book of the Bible. However, I think there are many wonderful ways this tool could be used to supplement your Bible study. You could use them to get a better understanding of the background and scope of a the book of the Bible that you were currently studying or you could match them up with a memory verse or other study. Another idea that I would like to try is matching up the books timeline with our history study. For example, Esther covers the time period of 480-475 BC. When we study that time in history we could include the book of Esther in our reading and have a better understanding of what was going on throughout the world at that time, like the Greco-Persian war and the Battle of Thermopylae.

While these do not replace Bible reading, Printable Books of the Bible “Summary Sheets” are a great tool for gaining more insight into the Bible and better understanding the background of each individual book. I think these could be used with elementary age students all the way up to adults both at home and in a church or Sunday school class setting.

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Florence: The Storm That Changed Our Town

I have lived in Eastern North Carolina all of my life. I have been through so many hurricanes that I have lost count. I was in college during one of the most infamous hurricanes in North Carolina history, Hurricane Floyd. I came home for that storm to ‘weather’ it out in a place that I felt safe. None of those storms affected me quite the way Hurricane Florence did.

First, I should note that my family was extremely blessed and did not suffer significant damage in this storm. We had limbs down, a broken fence, and a few day without power. All minor inconveniences compared to what so many in our area are going through. While we saw water in our driveway (which according to the neighbors is significantly higher than it came with Floyd) many of our friends and neighbors had water in their houses. Not a few drops, not a few inches but feet of water rushing into their homes and destroying everything in its path.

I have always appreciated the day after a hurricane because typically the weather is clear and sunny. In the past, it always seemed that the storms would roll through and then leave this sunny clear day behind it. However, Florence seemed to enjoy our southern hospitality and just did not want to leave. One news channel called it a flood of Biblical proportions and while it certainly did not flood the whole Earth it was beginning to feel like 40 days and 40 nights. The wind was not nearly as bad as other hurricanes I have been through but the rain and a significant storm surge caused a great deal of flooding throughout our county and the counties around us.

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In Hurricane Floyd I was only able to stay home for a few days after the storm before flying (because the roads were closed due to flooding) back to college to continue my classes. I remember feeling like I was stuck in between two worlds. At home, everything was different but at college, not much had changed because of the storm. With this storm I have been here in my community since the storm. In the days just after the storm there were curfews and road closures, so we stayed close to home and helped out neighbors as best we could. Once the roads were opened and our electricity restored we ventured out to our church to begin helping their recovery efforts.

It has been my privilege to help feed and provide for the many teams of people that have come from various towns and even other states to help our church serve our community. I have seen both our own people and these teams work tirelessly to help people sort through flooded belongings, tear out flooded drywall and flooring, and be there to support them however we could. We have done very little formal schoolwork during this time but my children have learned so much about serving and being the hand and feet of Jesus to a hurting and devastated community.

I’m not sure what the future holds, I’m not sure how long we will go on serving and when things will start to go back to normal or at least a ‘new normal’ as our community may be forever changed by this storm. I do know that our community needs your prayers. So many people lost so much. There are thousands of people whose homes were destroyed, school and businesses destroyed, churches flooded, and lives forever changed. I have been and will continue to try to keep up with my blogging and the posts that I have scheduled, but I ask for your patience and understanding during this time. There are so many needs to be met and we feel that we should focus on helping where we can, knowing that the schoolwork will still be there when things settle down a bit.

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For those of you that were affected by this storm, know that I am praying for you. For those of you that are not in the area I am including some links below to various pictures and news articles about the storm. If you have never been through a flood of this magnitude it is really difficult to imagine the devastation that it leaves in its wake. I ask that you pray for our area and the counties around us as we pick up the pieces and move forward.

Before and After Pictures

Flooding

The Aftermath

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Deals and Freebies!

20% off at Fit2B! We love their exercise courses as well as their course for girls!

For the Temple by GA Henty Free on Kindle (This is my son’s current book for his literature course.)

So many folks looking for homeschool options at a reasonable price during this unusual time. SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having an amazing sale. For less than $200 you get 2 years access to over 400 courses that you can use with as many students as you have in your home! We use this for several courses and I am always happy to answer questions. Just click on this link and use code: SHARK20

If you are looking for a fun way to encourage reading this summer, check out the FREE summer reading materials from Your Morning Basket with Pam Barnhill. The passport and reading bucket list are a great way to encourage reading!

Homeschool Complete is offering a special 10% off discount to my readers! Just use code: SWAG

Get a FREE Literature Kit from LitWits using Code 11READ4FUN. We are currently enjoying the Heidi kit but have also previously loved the My Side of the Mountain kit.

IEW is offering some great free resources right now.

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Historical Fiction StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

Forensic Faith For Kids ( Review)

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*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Forensic Faith for Kids by David C Cook was a fun review! We read a chapter in the book each morning during our morning time and most nights we would watch the videos on the Case Makers Academy website that go along with each chapter.

We really enjoyed this book. It had parts that were really fun and lighthearted but yet really taught valuable lessons. In the words of my twelve year old son, “I like how they include the Bible verses but it doesn’t sound like they are preaching.” The book taught some really important lessons about the Bible and faith but in an engaging format. The book was written from a second person point of view. This really resonated with my daughter who said, ” I like how it feels like you are there solving the cases.”

The main characters of the book are a group of friends in a Junior Detective Academy learning about investigations. As part of their program they were working on two cases. One involved a ‘found’ puppy and the other was the evidence for Christianity and who Jesus claimed to be. This is the third book in this series (though the first one I have had the opportunity to read). The students had a friend who was questioning whether or not Jesus even claimed to be the Son of God. The detective helped them understand how they could research and investigate to help him answer that question.

Forensic

On the sidelines of the pages were some additional components that added a lot of value to our experience in reading this book. There were ‘Dig Deep’ features which reminded you about activities and features on the website that related to the lessons learned in that chapter. There were ‘CSI Assignments’ where you went to the Bible and read a verse/s and then filled in the blanks and answered a discussion question. This was great for bringing out scriptural lessons in real life applications.

There were also ‘Detective Definitions’ where they explained some of the more technical terms used by the police detectives. For example, the words forensic and evidence. Finally, sprinkled throughout the book were sections titled, A Tool For Your Detective Bag. Those sections focused on lessons the reader could learn from the case such as “Accept Your Duty, Take Your Place, and Know and Help Your Listeners.”

The Case Makers Academy had short five to ten minute videos that discussed each chapter. In addition there were worksheets that could be printed and completed. These included crossword puzzles, drawing worksheets, a detective notebook and even a leaders guide. The leaders guide gave great question to ask about the chapter, a summary, and connected to the adult books that correlate to the series. While I used this just with two of my own children (three if you count the four year old listening to find out more about the missing dog), it would also be a great study for a youth group or middle school small group. I intend to show the book to our youth minister at church as a possible tool for working with the youth group.

Don’t forget to check out all of the other Review Crew reviews below and then purchase your own copy of Forensic Faith for Kids! be sure to tell us in the comments how you think you could use this in your home school, family, or youth group.

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October Hymn Study: A Shelter in The Time of Storm

Shelter in the time of Storm

I looked at the calendar earlier and realized how close it was to October. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity from preparing for a hurricane to helping with relief efforts. I had not decided on a hymn for this month though I had a few options. I felt in my soul that I needed a song about storms. I needed to remind myself and maybe others of you that either went through Florence or are going through a figurative life storm that God will see us through. I asked on Facebook and received multiple wonderful options of hymns related to storms. It was truly inspiring to sit and listen to each one of them and I tried to decide which one we would focus on this month. I encourage you to take a few minutes and listen to those songs that were recommended. It was such an encouragement to me.

I have chosen to study A Shelter in the Time of Storm by Vernon John Charlesworth this month. I think it really speaks to what I needed to internalize. There will be times of storm both literal and figurative in our lives but Christ is our shelter and our rock. We can depend on Him.

Our plan is to listen to a variety of versions of this hymn as an enjoyable way to become familiar with the words of the hymn. I will also have the children complete the hymn study fact sheet to learn more about the background of the hymn. Each day for one week they will complete the copy work pages for the hymn. Through these activities they will internalize the hymn in just a few minutes of work each day. If your family was musically inclined there is sheet music listed below. They could learn to play the song on an instrument of their choosing.

I know many people choose to do more than one hymn per month but this allows us to really learn the hymn as we keep going back to it each week. Next month I plan to have a hymn focused on Thanksgiving. I would love to hear about your favorite activities and ways that you incorporate hymns into your home school or family time. I have included links to the background information, lyrics and sheet music. I have also included free downloadable copy work pages and a hymn study fact sheet that can be used to write down what they learn about the hymn and its background. I pray that this song brings you the same peace and comfort that it brought me as I have been listening to it while I researched and planned for our hymn study this month.

Background and Sheet Music

Background Information and Lyrics

YouTube Performance

Download Your Freebies Below!

Hymn Study Fact Sheet

A Shelter in the Time of Storm Copy Work

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Deals and Freebies!

Evan-Moor is having a special sale this week on their Teacher File Box! TeacherFileBox is a subscription to digital lessons from over 450 Evan-Moor books including ALL grade levels and ALL subjects

Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Pack with reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Letter E Preschool Activities and Printable!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

We are excited about all of the ‘E’ activities for this week! My son loves going out each morning to help his older brother collect eggs from our chickens and he has been learning how to scramble eggs so he will be thrilled to get to help make eggs for one of his ‘E’ foods. He is also working on counting and we are going to incorporate the number eight into our weekly studies. Even if your child is already comfortably counting past eight you can use numbers like eighteen or eighty.

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My four year old, like many children his age, can have trouble expressing and explaining his emotions in appropriate ways. I hope to talk about emotions this week and help him with expressing those in constructive ways. I have included a website in the resources below that has some great activities and games to help with that concept. I also love the books, The Grouchy Ladybug and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I plan to do a letter sort with all of the picture cards from the letters we have covered so far. We will lay out each letter and then have him place the pictures that start with that letter in the rows below the letter cards.

He loves animals so we may make one of these adorable elephant crafts if we have time. We will also use our craft dough to shape the letter E and maybe practice the letters that we have already covered.

Our nature study is going to focus on eggs. We are going to look at the eggs from our chickens and ducks as well as looking at books and information about other bird eggs. We can study how they are various colors, shapes, and sizes. You can also talk about how many people think about birds when you talk about eggs, but other animals such as turtles and fish also lay eggs.

Please share your ideas for letter E in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

Eggs
Enchiladas
English Muffins
Elephant Ears (no not real ones… the fried dough ones)
Eclairs (this is a great mom snack!)

Extra Resources:

Letter E Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter e Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Nature study on eggs, egrets, or eels

Work on the number 8 (jump 8 times, find 8 rocks)

Work on Emotions concept (excited/sad/mad)

Experiment with elastic

Learn about electricity

Don’t forget to download your free letter E Sensory Bin pictures to use this week!

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Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

I Know It: An Online Math Practice Site Review

Math is a skill that sometimes takes some extra practice and I Know It is an online subscription program that offers that extra practice. This review was different than some other math programs we have tried because rather than being a math program that teaches new concepts, this program reviews the concepts they are learning in other programs. The program includes levels Kindergarten through 5th grade.

I used I Know It with both my 10 and 12 year olds and they both seemed to enjoy the program overall. The program is set up where I could assign them a particular lesson to review (converting fractions to decimals for example) or I could let them choose from with-in the grade level that they were assigned. We did a mixture of both so that I could have them review concepts that they needed review and let them just play around with it a little bit. My twelve year old is beginning seventh grade but used the program to review a couple of concepts that he had forgotten to help him with his current lessons.

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Each grade level was divided into sections like basic algebra, geometry, and place value. Then there were specific lessons under those sections. For example, place value to the millions, and comparing decimals to thousandths were two of the lessons in the 5th grade place value set. Most of the lessons had about 15 questions which was enough to get some practice but did not feel like it drug on and became busy work. The lessons varied between fill int he blank and multiple choice answers. There were also timed sections for math fact drills.

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When a child was completing a lesson if they were having difficulties with a problem they could click on the ‘hint’ button to get assistance with that problem. That would pop up a dialogue box that would give them some assistance in answering the question. There were only a certain number of questions that you could get help with for a particular lesson.

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My son thought that the responses that were given to correct answers were really funny and it helped him engage with the program.Each time he answered correctly it gave him a fun comment. Two of his favorites were “You’re the bees knees” and “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”. It is such a small thing but it seemed to motivate him to go ahead and do his best answering questions.

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As a busy parent I really appreciated the score reports that let me very easily see how they were doing and even see which problems they had missed so that I could better help them with any areas in which they had not scored well. This program is not designed to be a complete curriculum but is a great supplement to other math programs. It is a fun and simple way for children to review the math concepts that they have learned or get extra practice on concepts that they are struggling with.

If you are looking for a fun math supplement I encourage you to check out I Know It. They even offer a 60 Day Free Trial for you to try the program and see if it is a good fit for your family. Make sure to click below to see all of the other Review Crew reviews.

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Take a Child Outside Week!

The week of September 24-30 is “Take A Child Outside Week”. There are many studies and books that show the benefits of children (and adults) spending time outside in nature. Honestly, it is the anecdotal evidence that I see in my own family that has me convinced that time outside is one of the most beneficial activities that we can offer our children. While I certainly do not advocate only going outside during this week, I think this is a great chance for us to get excited and create a habit of taking our children outside.

This time outside can be structured with a nature walk or study, fishing, kayaking or it could simply be free time for them to explore outside. You could go into your own backyard, a local park or check out a state or national park near your area. There are so many options for going outside with your children. If you need some help coming up with activities you can check out this great list.

Our family loves to hike together. Sometimes it is a simple local trail and other times we travel to the mountains or another area to see a variety of locations. When we hike we have the opportunity to see wildlife, plants, and scenic views that are amazing. We can clear our minds from the busyness of life, spend quality time together, and get some great physical exercise all at the same time. There is minimal to no cost depending on where you are going. You simply need a good pair of shoes (your sneakers will work just fine), a water bottle, and a place to hike. Many areas have free hiking trails available. If you want to add a bit of nature education on your hike an inexpensive field guide can be a great tool for helping you identify plants or animals that you see on your hike.

Kayaking is an activity that takes more equipment but it is lots of fun and great exercise. We own our kayaks and enjoy paddling around in the river and seeing all of the birds and even the occasional dolphin. I was out on a kayaking ‘date’ with my husband this summer and we were blessed to have the dolphins start swimming and playing near us. It was amazing to see them so close. If you don’t’ own kayaks do not feel like you have to go out and purchase hundreds of dollars worth of equipment to give it a try. Many parks or beach shops have kayaks that you can rent for a few hours to give it a try. If you have younger children you may want to try a tandem so that they can ride with you.

We love the beach. It is truly our ‘happy place’. I enjoy hearing the waves and feeling the sand between my toes. My children love to walk along the beach and collect treasures, fish, shrimp, bird watch, look for animals in the tide pools, and just explore all that the water has to offer. They spend hours swimming and playing and just enjoying the great outdoors.

Playing outdoors does not even have to mean going away from home. You can go outside in your own back yard and explore. You can do activities in small areas like a ‘micro’ nature study where you choose a small area (like a one-foot square) an study it closely looking at any plants, animals (insects), that are in that area. Even just walking and looking to see what you can find or maybe playing games that utilize the imagination. My children have this old fallen down tree that they love to use for imaginative play. Over the years that tree has been a fort, a ship, a pirate ship,the ‘poles’ of a tent and such much more.

No matter where you live or what your favorite outdoor hobby is, I hope that you take some time this week. If you do not have a favorite outdoor activity, pick something new to try. Spending time outdoors has numerous benefits but even if it did not have all of those extra benefits it is fun and enjoyable. Share with us in the comments what you can do this week to “Take a Child Outside”.