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…)

Isn’t there some saying about drinking lemonade when life throws lemons at you? Frankly, it is so cold and snowy here, I don’t think there are any lemons to be found. We are instead stuck trying to make icees out of ice. Snowmen out of snow. Fun out of cold, and wet, and slightly uncomfortable. We are stuck trying to dream up things to do outside in the snow. And guess what? We’ve found some!!!

Introducing Ten Awesome Ways You May Not Have Thought Of To Entertain the Kids in the Backyard When There Are 15 Inches (0r even 2) of Snow On The Ground! (more…)

There is an added bonus to walking in the winter that you might not think of at first–the animals that use that same trail as you every day are no longer invisible.  They leave undeniable proof of their presence.

On a winter walk once, my kids and I found a set of dog-like tracks and followed them.  They meandered into a clearing, and there we found a mess of bird tracks, some wing marks in the snow, lots more dog tracks… and a dead magpie torn to pieces  We tried to piece together a couple different theories that could explain what could have happened based on just the tracks.  And we left with a few good stories.

Not only is tracking fun, but it gets you outdoors in the winter, when finding things to do outside with your kids can be a daunting task. Even if you never get around to actually identifying any of the tracks, just knowing that you’ve come across the path of a wild creature is pretty thrilling.

It’s bonafide detective work, and what kids isn’t going to love that? (more…)

We’ve never had a real Christmas tree, as in a tree that was once living. I grew up in a house where my Mom hated to “watch something die in the living room.”

But this year we thought we’d give it a try; the whole getting a permit and chopping down your own tree bit. I broke the news to Ari today thinking he would be thrilled. Our conversation went something like this:

Ari: (disgusted tone) Mom! We can’t just go walking out into the forest and get a tree!! It would take like 30 hundred people to carry it back!

Me: Well, I was thinking we could just get a small tree…

Ari: We have a tree, it’s the tree we always use! It’s in the basement, we just need to put it together.

Me: Ya, but don’t you want to get a different tree this year?

Ari: (still disgusted) Why can’t you just be happy with what you already have?

While he does have a very good point, I still want to cut down my own Christmas tree. And I finally convinced Ari that while I am grateful for the 10 year old pathetic looking fake tree in the basement, it was still a good idea to try cutting our own, just once, to see if we’d like it.

So, while we are out in the woods focused on finding the perfect coniferous tree I thought I’d take advantage of the occasion and make a list of interesting factoids to throw in casual conversation with my children.

Here is what I came up with: (more…)

Since the month of October is one of my favorite times of year for getting outdoors, we tend to incorporate that into our Halloween festivities.  I’m not into the blood and gore of Halloween, so we try to focus on other aspects… the spiders, owls, bats, and pumpkins, along with some fall colors and crisp cool air-appreciation.

A few traditions we have enjoyed:

Halloween bike ride
After it gets dark, throw on a jacket, strap on a headlamp, and take a bike ride around the neighborhood to check out decorated Halloween houses.

Halloween tree hunting
Much like Christmas tree hunting, we use this as a good excuse to get out in the woods. We search for the perfect “spooky branch” to decorate. Note: This branch can later be recycled for a Thanksgiving thankfulness tree.

Night hike
There is always a full moon sometime around Halloween, this year it’s even really close! October 29th is the ‘Hunters Moon‘. This makes for a great night to take a Halloween hike. Look for critters out after dark. You could even take a hike in your costumes for added awesomeness.

Outdoor Halloween Party
Last year we were fortunate enough to accompany some friends on their traditional Halloween camp-out at the beach in central California. All the kids brought their costumes and participated in Halloween party, camping style. Bobbing for apples in the wash basin, doughnuts hanging from stings on the tent trailer awning and hunting for pirate treasure buried in beach sand.

Destination Trick-or-Treating
Since October is a great month to travel, consider a family vacation around this time of year. We’re rarely home for Halloween and have enjoyed trick-or-treating in some small out of the way desert towns.

Pumpkin picking
A trip to the pumpkin patch is always in order. We take the kids out and let them pick their own pumpkin to take home and carve up.  Its a half-day outing that usually includes exploring the tractors at the farm and some caramel apples.  Good times.

And of course, don’t forget these nature themed do-it-yourself costumes. I tried this year, but was vetoed in favor of Spiderman and a Clone Trooper. You can’t win em all!

Happy Halloween season!

If you have an outdoor tradition, please share!

Congratulations Erin Z! You just won a pair of Patagonia shoes compliments of onlineshoes.com! Erin’s favorite fall activity?

Ooo, I love playing in the leaves with the kids in the fall and as an outdoor ed preschool-3rd teacher this year I have really enjoyed spiders, bird watching, and soon making leaf crowns!

A woman after my own heart… I will be contacting you shortly, you’ll have 24 hours to respond to my email to claim your prize!

Now, for a roundup of your top 12 fall activities:
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I have a thing for the Harvest Moon. Maybe it’s the time of year? The air is getting crisp, the leaves are starting to change, the chaos of summer is over, I get to start wearing a jacket again… Or maybe it’s just the fact that I’m a big Neil Young fan?

Whatever the reason, the Harvest Moon has driven me to the top of a mountain peak every year for the last three years. I try to time arrival on the summit to just as the sun is starting to dip below the horizon in the west while the moon rises in the east. I sit on top of the peak, bask in the beauty, eat really good snacks, and as soon as it’s too cold to loyter any longer, I hike back down by the light of the moon.

This year I hiked Deseret Peak in Northern Utah. The view was a bit smoky (from all the fires in Idaho), but the company was great. I don’t get the chance to hike with Olivia much these days, and that’s really unfortunate, for her. Pretty sure I talked her ear off for five hours straight.

I love this tradition.

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