Simple Summer Fun – Enjoying Nature

We love being outdoors. From playing in the snow in the winter, to the leaves in fall, puddles in spring and nature walks year round, there is much to be explored and seen and enjoyed in God’s creation! We’re reading through Genesis as a family and I always love hearing the creation account, picturing it how it must have been as God created each thing, individual, beautiful, unique. And now we get to see and observe and be blessed by so much of it!

There are many easy ways to enjoy your summer outdoors. HEAPS and HEAPS of fun, simple ideas are available. We love to camp as a family and enjoy seeing many different kinds of wildlife (including bears!) on our sites and walks.

Nature walks in nearby forests are always a great way to take in the beauty of creation – many different kinds of flowers (and ones that I would probably call weeds if they were on my own lawn :D) crowd the sides of the paths and crown the forest with beauty.

Find a trail nearby or just go walking through a field or forest – there’s lots to see and observe!

If you can find a creek, even better! We always enjoy throwing sticks and rocks into the water, as well as spotting ducks and if we’re lucky, frogs!

Last year we were so very fortunate to find a monarch butterfly egg on a leaf at our nearby pond.

We stood and watched in awe as over a number of days the egg hatched and that tiny little thing grew into a huge caterpillar – who we named Cat R. Pillar :0)

After a couple weeks he made his chrysalis.

And then we watched with even more wonder, awe and excitement as the butterfly, now named Lightning, emerged from his chrysalis. Just stunning.

We learned he was a male because he had two black dots on the back of his wings.

And then we had to let him go. But oh the learning experience we had from this brush close to the hand of God.

Yesterday I took the kids strawberry picking – yes, in the intense heat! I think we’re paying for it today, but it was worth it to get our hands on those juicy, delicious berries.

It’s important for them to know where our food comes from, how it grows, and that people have farms where they grow food and sell it for a living. The Boy asked why strawberry seeds are on the outside of the berry?

So we did some research to find out! Turns out that each seed is actually the FRUIT, not the red part! It’s quite complicated and interesting, you can learn more about it here.

Whatever you do, make the most of the time that you have to be outdoors and enjoying the creation that God has created for our enjoyment. Do a simple nature study – I love Charlotte Mason’s approach to it and you can find a great study called Hours in the Out of Doors if you want to look into it some more. Get out there and marvel in God’s creation!

Tagged as: family connections summer, fun summer, hearts 4 home, homemaking linkup, thrifty thursday, thrive at home