September introduced the start of a new season, one that brings color changing leaves and a cooler breeze. Unless you live in Southern California of course, where it's still pretty much summer here with the blazing heat from the sun and the raging forest fires.
September also marks back-to-school season or, in Jayce's case, would have been the start-of-school season. Our hope was to have him enrolled in pre-school by now but with Covid still going strong, we felt it best to keep him at home. I committed to "homeschooling" him as best I can and even spent hours diligently researching different teaching styles like Montessori, Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, etc. Then I realized that I'm putting way too much pressure on myself and that I should just have more fun with it and pick and choose aspects from each that I like. So we decided on sticking to a different theme each month and base his learning and activities around the chosen theme. For September, we chose The Forest.
If you're looking for forest activities and books for your little one, then you’ve come to the right place!
ACTIVITIES
FIELD TRIPS
With poor air quality due to the forest fires this month, our plans of outdoor adventures became limited. This also meant canceling our trip to Big Bear because of a strong advisory to stay away. However, we were able to squeeze in a few moments of forest-like exploration.
If you live in the Los Angeles or Orange County area, exploring El Dorado’s Nature Center in Long Beach or Carbon Canyon’s Nature Trail in Brea are great options to check out. We wandered around looking at different plants, imagined what might be living in the little holes and burrows we were finding, observed lots and lots of squirrels, and kept a sharp lookout for any rattlesnakes. Thankful we didn’t come across any.
HUNTING FOR PINE CONES
I have fond memories of hunting for pine cones to use as holiday décor with my mom when I was about Jayce’s age. I happened to share this story with him and he quickly asked if we could do the same together. Of course we can!
I took him to almost the exact same spot from my childhood and began our hunt. We spent quite a bit of time picking and choosing our favorite ones until we felt like we gathered enough. We brought them home and he proudly told my mom “We collected pine cones for you to use as Christmas ornaments!” Then I realize that I’ve come full-circle and suddenly felt old. How am I the grown up now with my own kid?!
DIY BIRD FEEDER
This is super simple. All you’ll need is the cardboard core of a toilet paper roll, peanut butter, bird seeds, strings, and voila! Jayce had so much fun with this that he now insists on keeping every single toilet paper core to continue on with this project.
We made a trip to our local pet store to grab the bird seeds. We haven’t been out in public much at all since Covid. Jayce was super excited to see all of the small animals there. He was literally running through the aisles in amusement. Once we gathered what we needed, which also included birthday treats for our dog, we headed back to the car and Jayce said to me, “It’s nice to be out again Mommy!” My heart ached knowing that we’ve lost so much time because of Covid.
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM
Jayce woke up really early one morning and wanted to play. Fighting all urges to stay in bed a bit longer, I got up and took my best shot at entertaining him. With the phrase “The early bird gets the worm” in mind, I grabbed his kinetic sand, cut up some pipe cleaners, and buried them in the sand. I grabbed his stuffed toy Hedwig, put him in a “nest”, then gave Jayce a pair of toy tweezers from his doctor bag. I told him, “Your mission is to find worms with your beak (aka the tweezer) and feed them to your baby bird.” I envisioned him using his hands for this then realized I must not have been very clear with my directions because he put the tweezers in his mouth and tried catching them that way. I guess that works too.
BEAR BREAD
This is pretty self explanatory. You can easily use peanut butter but we’re big Nutella fans in this household. According to Jayce, they’re called “patella sandwiches” and there is no convincing him otherwise.
BOOKS
We borrowed a ton of books from the library which these days consists of browsing through an online catalog and doing curb-side pickup. Of the piles we read through, these were his favorite:
Little Fox in the Forest
A wordless picture book that forces you to use your own imagination to set the scenes and create the dialogue. My husband, Jayce, and I all took turns narrating this story to each other.
The Forest
This is a beautiful book by Ricardo Bozzi (author), Violeta Lopiz (illustrator), and Valerio Vidali (illustrator) about the adventure of life. I greatly appreciated it’s artistry with its painterly style, cutouts, and embossed surfaces. I used this as a way to integrate art appreciation and asked Jayce along the way what colors he sees, what catches his eyes first, and what textures he feels.
Looking for a Moose
This quickly became one of Jayce’s favorites and mine as well. What I love about this book is that I noticed more details the second time I read it and even more the third time. So keep your eyes peeled while you read through this gem.
Bear Snores On
A fun way for Jayce to learn about different animals as they slowly show up and take over the hibernating bear's cave.
Lawrence In The Fall
A storybook about a little fox trying to find something to bring to show-and-tell for his class. We’ve been doing family show-and-tell at home because we figured it’s a good way to work on his listening and communication skills. We try to simulate a real classroom setting. We start with introductions and then showoff all the features of our item. If you have a question you must raise your hand and wait to be called on. Once we’re done, we wrap up by clapping and cheering for one another.
Tap the Magic Tree
Jayce adores this interactive book! He was extremely amused and laughed so hard throughout. Each page gives you instructions on how to see the different stages a tree goes through over the four seasons. This is definitely a top pick and one of those “again, again, again” books.
I hope you have fun exploring the forest with your family. Our experience gave Jayce the opportunity to learn more about nature, to dive into sensory play, and use fine and gross motor skills.
Adventure Is Out There,
Michelle Rosell
