Did you know that the full moon is the only moon that comes up at sunset and goes down at sunrise? That’s precisely what makes it so perfect for night hiking. What could possibly spice a hiking up like walking in the dark of night with no need for a headlamp and your shadow trailing behind you.

Here are a few other kid friendly facts I’ve learned about full moons.

1. Is the moon really perfectly round? The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

2. Why is the moon bigger as it’s coming up over the horizon? Well, it’s not. Scientists have long battled to explain the “moon illusion”. The phenomenon is understood to be caused by human perception rather than the magnifying effect of the earth’s atmosphere.

3. How often do we see a full moon? The full moon occurs every 29.5 days – the duration of one complete lunar cycle.

4. What’s the ‘Flower Moon’ all about? The full moon has many names. The Algonquian people had a different name for each full moon, depending on the month. Each name is linked to the season and nature. My favorite is September’s Harvest Moon, but did you know the Strawberry Moon is the name for the full moon in June? This is because strawberries are ready for picking. Here’s a list of moon names and meanings.

5. How long does it take to travel to the moon? The moon is about 238,855 miles from earth. Traveling by car that would take 130 days. If you took a rocket it would take 13 hours. And should you choose to travel at the speed of light, you could get there in a meer 1.52 seconds.

6. How fast does the moon actually move? The moon travels around the earth at an average speed of 2,288 miles per hour. Sure doesn’t look that fast! Why do you think that is…? I have a few theories.

7. Why is the moon so bright? It’s actually not, well, not really. The moon is not a light source, it doesn’t make its own light, it reflects light from the sun. We can see the moon because light from the sun bounces off it back to the earth. If the sun wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be able to see the moon.

8. Why does the moon change shapes, then sometimes disappears entirely? The moon appears to change shape but what we are actually seeing is the moon lit up by the light from the sun in different ways on different days. Check out this graphic from red-roko (to the right). It shows this perfectly.

9. Where does the phrase “once in a Blue Moon” come from? The second full moon occurring within a calendar month is called a Blue Moon. The latest was seen on 31st May 2007. And just to put this phrase into context, his phenomenon occurs once every three years on average. 

10. Why does the moon follow me? If you’re driving down your street at night, it may look like the moon is chasing you, zooming behind the treetops to keep up with you. The moon isn’t actually following you, though. It’s just an optical illusion. The moon appears to follow you because it’s so far away. As you walk or drive along, things much closer to you, like trees and houses, appear to move between you and the moon making it look like it’s the moon that’s actually moving.

Capture the Flag. The best place I’ve ever played this game was in a sandy wash with sorta steep sides. In this beloved game, each team hides a flag on their side of the wash, or field, or dirt road. Team members strategize to sneak over steal the other team’s flag without getting caught while also guarding their own flag against capture. More info on Capture the Flags rules here.

Hide and Go Beep. If it’s to dark to play hide and seek, this game makes fora nice post-sunset substitute. To play, simply locate one another by sound having hidden players “beep” every 30 seconds or so.

Flashlight Tag. One person is “it” and holds a flashlight, unlit. When he sees another player, he quickly turns on the flashlight and shines his light on them. The rest of the players do their best to avoid being spotted with the flashlight. If the “it” player shines his flashlight on you, you take the flashlight from him and are now “it.”

Signals. Players should pair off and create a flashlight signal (one short and one long flash, three short flashes and so on). Partners must then separate and go to opposite ends of a large, open playing area. Players are given one minute to scatter before they begin flashing their signals. Each pair tries to reunite as quickly as possible by sending flashlight signals to partners. The first pair to reunite is the winner.

Glow-in-the-dark Ring Toss. It’s sorta like horse shoes, but with glow-in-the-dark bracelets as rings. Set up a stick, stand back, and take turns trying to toss your ring onto the stick. Good game for little kids.

Glow-in-the-dark Kickball. Make a daytime favorite night friendly by using a glow in the dark ball as your kickball. Use glow in the dark frisbees for bases. Players can wear glow sticks to avoid collisions.

Firefly. Select one player to be the firefly. He or she puts colored plastic wrap around their light (or uses the red light setting if they have one) and moves away from the rest of the players while they count to 20. They then start looking for the firefly who is constantly moving around. Every minute or so, the firefly flashes his flashlight on and off a few times. When the firefly is finally caught by another player, everyone is called in. A new firefly is chosen, and the game continues.

Glow in the Dark Bowling. Get a bunch of clear water bottles (empty or full) and put a glow stick in them. Take a ball and try to knock over the pins. Great game if you’re camped by an old dirt road.

Kick the Can. One player is designated as “it.” He or she stands with one foot on the can and closes his or her eyes while counting out loud to 50 or so. This gives players time to hide anywhere they can: behind trees, tents, rocks, washes, etc. When the “it” person reaches 50, he or she opens their eyes and begins looking for the other players attempting to kick the can. If “it” tags someone before they kick the can, that person must go to “jail” and wait. If “it” catches all the players, he or she wins.

Nighttime Scavenger Hunt. There are so many cool but seldom seen or heard things that come out at night, make a scavenger hunt and tell your kids to use their flashlights, and their eyes and ears. Look and listen for things like owls or other night birds calling or frogs and crickets. Find a salamander, moth, the north star, a blooming night flower, spider, something with glowing eyes, etc.

This weekend my husband and I headed to the local art museum.  There was a gallery featuring artwork by the local high school students.  Incredible.  Even the pieces missing symmetry or the ‘perfect’ level of shading impressed me.  The effort.  The thoughtfulness.  The unique perspective of each student manifested as creative license in each piece.  

I thought of my own daughter and wondered how in the world I would ever be able to encourage the artist in her, considering my lack of formal artistic training.  It’s one thing to teach your kid how to glue construction paper and glitter and popsicle sticks together, but it is another beast altogether to teach a child to recreate, on paper, with a pencil, the world around them.  

Naturally, I turned to my mother for guidance.  How do you teach a kid to draw when the whole idea intimidates you?  I grew up watching her draw–for fun, to earn some extra money, and with us.  She somehow managed to be encouraging even while she carefully corrected us.  She taught us to forgive ourselves when our drawings didn’t look like we thought they should.  She taught us to try again, because trying again was fun.  I remember drawing with her so clearly, but I don’t remember her technique–how did she teach us to embrace the challenge of recreating something on paper?

She agreed to write up her thoughts on the subject to share with you all…

It is a common misconception that children need to be taught to draw.  But really!  They don’t need someone to show them how to make a mark.  They love to make marks—on walls and floors and brothers and bellies.  I can’t remember a time that I didn’t have a pencil in hand, but it wasn’t until I was in my 30’s that I learned how to “draw” in spite of countless hours and a small fortune invested in lessons.  Soon after, I started teaching at my daughter’s elementary school as a volunteer.  What I discovered is this:  Teaching children to draw means first teaching them to see and teaching them to see means giving them permission to ignore the symbolic world of our educational system.  There’s nothing wrong with symbols: this post would mean nothing to you if you had not mastered symbology (i.e. letters) in school.  But when it comes to drawing, I find that spaces, lines, texture, hue, saturation and color are much more interesting than symbols. (more…)

Starting today we here at Outsidemom have joined

Frankly, we’re thrilled, and have already begun the initiation (i.e. Lindsey is on a field trip all day, and I’m headed outside for spring cleaning just as soon as I hit the Publish button!). (more…)

I recently moved down the street from a lake. A bonafide honset-to-goodness lake. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting into stand up paddleboarding (SUP). Preferable with my kids. So I knew just just the person to go to for advise. Danielle and her husband own Sweetwater Paddle Sports in Southwest Florida and run a SupMommys group, a class where Moms AND their kids come to learn the ways of the paddleboard.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom Danielle. Can’t wait to try this out.

How did you get into Stand Up Paddleboarding?  

I grew up in Naples, Fl (on the beach), then lived in the Virgin Islands with my husband for a few years. Being on the water has always been a part of who I am.

Three years ago my husband and I got the urge to try stand up paddleboarding since surfing is rare on the southwest coast of Fl. After a few times out on a board my husband and I decided we wanted to open our own stand up paddleboard shop, Sweetwater Paddle Sports. We’ve been open for 2 years, have been crazy busy and are now expanding!

What made you decide to start your SupMommys group?  (more…)

It is so close to springtime here.  The grass is mostly green.  The Fox Sparrows are back in front of the house.  Robins are perusing the lawn for tasty grubs.  The Red-tailed Hawks that live in the Cottonwood just down the road are searching the fields for voles again.  Mud Season has just about passed and I don’t have to wipe the dogs’ feet every time they come in the house.  Flowers will be unfurling their splendid banners any day now!

They may already be blooming where you are… and if you aren’t sure, there are a number of excellent websites that can keep you up to date on the blooms occurring in your neck of the woods.  Here are my favorites, arranged by region (this list is hardly comprehensive, but is a start). (more…)

We always advocated that being outside is its own reward; that kids can be entertained with a minimum of ‘toys’ while in Nature’s Playground.  And while we still stand by that, it’s also true that a few simple props can greatly enhance any camping trip–especially ones that last a few days.

Here’s a list of our favorite camping gadgets.  If your kids are especially short on attentiveness, space these out over a few days for even greater enjoyment.

• Binoculars  Whether it’s to view the night sky or the moon, magnify a spider (turn your binoculars upside down), or check out the birds in the trees above camp, binoculars are a great addition to any bag of camping goodies.  With adult supervision, any pair will work or you can buy your kids their own pair fairly inexpensively.  Look for ones with low magnification, wide field of view, not too heavy or consider a pair specific to kids.  I’ve been drooling over these made by Bresser.  They ship from Germany.  For older kids, invest in a pair that is durable and will last awhile (but still not too expensive).  I like these Pentax binoculars.  We wrote a post a few years back on teaching a kid how to use binoculars.
• Whittling tools  Hours of fun, and with the added danger of a trip to the emergency room!  Just kidding… sort of.  Buy a thumb guard, or put a leather glove on the hand holding the carving wood to reduce the chance of injury.  If you want to splurge, get a beginner’s set of wood-carving tools.  Otherwise set them free with a pocket knife (there are many good pocket knives for young outdoorsmen, but I will forever be partial to Old Timer’s because it was my first).  A good beginner project is a marshmallow roasting stick.  Also fun are flutes.  You can also buy blocks of wood for beginners, or give your novice a bar of ivory soap and see what emerges. (more…)

Since March is typically famous for it’s windy days, I’ve been brainstorming new and exciting things for my kids to do when I throw them outside in a windstorm. Some of these ideas we’ve tried, others I greatly look forward to trying.

Build a storm proof hut
We do this activity quite often. Challenge your kids to go out and make a structure that will not blow away in the wind. Our favorite wind hut prop is our plastic swimming pool. It’s always very exciting when we fail and the pool goes flying across the yard.

Make wind chimes
Get a stick and dangle all sorts of noise making objects from the stick. Nails, jar lids, shells, beads, silverware, tin cans, bells etc. Hang them up in the wind and listen to the beautiful music you’ve created.

Conduct experiments
Get some of your clothes out of the washing machine, hang some outside and some in the house. Which one dries faster?  Make paper airplanes and fly them both outside and inside. Do they fly the same? The possibilities are endless here. (more…)

Just after Ari started back to school this last January, his teacher handed out a piece of paper outlining this year’s school wide science fair project.  I’ve talked before about what a wonderful and lasting effect the science fair had on my own life so I was excited to finally have the chance to share that joy with my own school-aged kid.

Olivia talked a few weeks ago about helping a fifth grader with his science project.  Just to help any mom’s who may still be grappling with their own fears of science, here’s another story–how Ari and I put together his project.

The real problem we (I) had was coming up with a question worth answering.  When I originally broached the subject, my ever-so-typical boy threw out the idea of farts, and testing what foods made him the fartiest.  I’ll be honest–I thought it was a pretty cool project, but I wasn’t so sure his teachers would feel as I did.  So we decided to do that one at home, and think of something else to take to school.

It took three weeks to come up with a new idea; I kept waiting for that spur-of-the-moment question; I kept listening for Ari to muse over some aspect of his daily life.  Finally, as Ari was helping me wrap a birthday gift for Joe, that special moment happened.  We were trying to wrap a box with a brown paper bag, and discovered that the tape we were using was horrible at holding it together.  I think it took us about 18 pieces. At some point Ari said “I wonder if we have any stickier tape we could use.” (more…)

It is finally warming up here.  I should be elated, but I find that warmth has turned the snow to mud.  Except for right by the front door–our main entry way is always shaded, and continues to be a slippery death trap.  The house feels cramped and boring after this cold winter.  Even the dog seems lethargic.

I have been in need of color and something creative to do, so this morning I tried ice art.  I saw something similar to this online a few weeks ago somewhere–I can’t for the life of me find the page again, but a quick search pulled up dozens of other moms and teachers who’ve done the same thing.  And I found this cool video of salt melting ice in slow motion.  Some recommend using liquid water colors which can enhance the melting, but I used just plain old food coloring.

(more…)