Hiking with Kids

Discovery Trail circles the campground with kid-friendly kiosks and steel insect sculptures.

We recently went camping at Diamond Campground in Utah with my sister and the kids. Despite the borrowed 10-man tent that took us an hour and a half to put up, storms constantly threatening, and raindrops that had us convinced someone was pacing around our tent all night--it was a great trip!

The trail around the campground led us to a tee pee, beaver's work, and a river just right for playing in.

Our host was very friendly to his only campers that night and in less than 24 hours he swung by our site on his little golf-cart, roller bladed past listening to Hotel California, yellow-bicycled by, and later under pretense of walking his dog.The next morning we packed up everything, leaving our tent to dry in the sun and made our way to a picnic spot, where our host incidentally, drove by honking his horn and waving...

En route to the trail head we took a wrong turn and encountered  a hairy marmot (a first!) and two trucks full of kenneled hounds about to go bear hunting (hopefully a last).

Fortunately, the trail is largely shaded, if not a bit precarious in spots.

In preparation for the first long hike our family had done in awhile forever, I visited Just Jeff's Hiking Page, a wealth of helpful information not typically found on hiking with kids. The hike was 4 miles round trip and I wanted our 10, 7, 4, and 2y/o to have a nice time and reach our destination--for once!

I secretly brought along some chocolate covered raisins, and at one of our breaks (we stopped about every 20-30 min) I threw them in a pile near the trail and, per Just Jeff's instructions, tried my best to casually point them out.

"Look at that scat! You know, you can tell a lot about an animal by the way its scat looks, its size, and...how it tastes."

But before I could amaze them all by eating it--Bowery Bird (10) with arms crossed 6 feet away looked down her nose at me and said, "I saw you touch it, it looks like chocolate covered raisins."
 I was crushed.
So perhaps our Nature Study has gone a little too well for fun and games of that sort...but while Mockingbird (7) scarfed it down, Kingfisher (5) still wouldn't touch it. "No. way."

A wall of one of the hot spring pools--complete with algae.

Eventually, after an hour and a half packing a 2 1/2 year old, we reached the end; hot springs! We stayed to splash in the lower springs that had been contained in several walled-off, surprisingly deep pools. There were several adults nearer the falls who were clothed (for now), but I didn't want to risk anything. My sister, who was looking forward to seeing me "explain that one" was sorely disappointed, I'm sure. The wind picked up and more rain seemed soon inevitable, so we prepared to leave sooner than expected.Then we looked up, and our host was waving hello as he hiked past...(still clothed).
"Wow, that's service." my sister joked, waiting for him to tell us our tent was dry.

 The return trip is when I took another cue from Just Jeff, I pulled out a scavenger hunt to do. The deal was, a prize would come out once every one's was finished. The older girls and Auntie worked together on questions like:

• Find every color of the rainbow (lots of flowers out made that possible--whew!)

• Name 3 stages of the water cycle around you.




• Find something becoming food for something else. (This one proved a challenge, but not for long. Mocking bird pulled out some animal crackers and we all watched as she theatrically consumed.)

Although the beautifully eaten guard rails would have sufficed.

 

• Something in the wild you can eat.
• Something living in it's habitat.
• A baby, a teenager, an adult organism.
• Find something poisonous.



Poison Ivy-past experience gives me the shivers just looking at it



The younger scavenger hunt I helped Kingfisher with had us find:

• A dark place and a sunshiny place. What lives there?
• Something camouflaged. (Spider) Why do you think it is camouflage.
• Something shiny.(The sun.)
• Something that reminds you of something else (A rock like a bird head & driftwood like a Pirate Ship.)
• A baby something--where might its parent be? (we saw robin eggs in a nest earlier)
• Something that was once alive, what happened to it? (a brown leaf and we talked about the seasons)
• Water in 3 places (Rain, waterfall, stream)
• Something camouflaged, why is it hiding? (spider--to get eaten)
• An insect, what is it doing? (ant--looking for food)

This started out as merely a way to kill time. But it was such a great conversation starter, it helped us open our eyes to things that might have gone overlooked, and was an effective way to gage what they really understood about the natural world and how it works. It was a fun common goal that we helped each other with.  The reward? More chocolate covered raisins  scat.

And as if we needed consolation for having to quickly leave the hot springs--or maybe just to prepare us for a doubly drenched tent in our absence, a double rainbow came into view as we pulled back into our campsite.

Wasatch Mountains in the background.

* I was honestly surprised at how little "extra" things we needed to entertain us or keep us motivated. I had forgotten how stimulating and gorgeous and rich a simple hike, in the right location (read: with a cool destination) can be.

Outdoor Time

This week we've done more outside than usual. It's as though we have crossed that bridge and are done tentatively welcoming spring, and now accepting his warm companionship without guard.

We did Geography outside, visited a new splash pad in Springville, Homeschool Field Day at a park, and today instead of Saturday morning cartoons (gag me) I successfully swept them up the Provo canyon to Big Springs trailhead (we never do the full hike the first time--it takes us a good four attempts to really discover the reason for a trail's name...)

Everyday we were out I felt so good about just being out and feeling alive and having my children enjoy real life--and then one of them will say something like "hey, the water cylcle-like on Bill Nye the Science Guy--remember 'hey, where'd you go guys? Oh very funny!' " or  "this Centipede is like the one in James and the Giant Peach."

 OK the latter was actually me and the former an educational program, but that's all I can remember. Lately, it makes me cringe to repeatedly hear real life compared something on a screen.
I remember my first trip to NYC was like that though. Everything was compared to what I had seen on Sesame Street as a child; the subway driving away with a number 3 on it, brownstone steps, yellow taxicabs with numbers, etc.

More often I wish we were reading and comparing things in film to our real life.
Which came first-the chicken or the egg?
I guess I am just feeling that my children will see the world as an example of something they've seen on a screen, when really it's the opposite.

I want them to have experiences that build them with all the senses, not detached observations of another's creating. I know I'm over-reacting, we do compare a lot of real life to books we read etc. That seems to be the time I see that conversation happening more, but if I hear one more Plants vs. Zombies level described with the enthusiasm of an Olympic gold medlist--I just may pull a Winter of Our Disconnect on everyone...just kidding. Not really.

Annual Fairy Tea Party

 

Our local library holds an annual Fairy Tea Party in their ballroom upstairs in the old BYU Academy. This year they had a display of fairy houses and photographer there with woodland backdrop. As usual there was a fairy promenade for all the little girls to go and courtesy to the Fairy King in front of his throne and show off their outfits. Each girl got a wand, charm, and fairy feast. 

 

 

Four ballerinas came in and performed also. It's a fun formal event for little girls and LOTS of grandmas. At $5 a ticket- I didn't mind waiting in line for an hour (and it was sold out soon after ).My favorite was overhearing one of them saying "Grandma is fery silly today?" A cute event my friend re-created in her home when she moved out of state, she enjoyed it so much :)

 

 

 

I am a Paleontolgist, That's What I Am

BYU Museum of Paleontology

This song by They Might Be Giants kept filtering in and out of conversation during our visit to the BYU Museum of Paleontology. I had forgotten about this little fossil of a jewel museum on campus until one rainy day when we had some time on our hands.
For not being very big space-wise (but far better than their original home under the football stadium), the collection is amazing. The museum houses mineral specimens, full size replicas, petrified plants (petrified wood seen right, against wall), and many child-friendly "touch-tables."

Ammonite touch-table

In this museum, more than any other like it, the sheer size of ancient life hits me, and I think it's because the rooms are small and displays don't leave a lot of space between you and them. Any one under 3 years old usually ends up being held most of the visit for this same reason...

This isn't a great picture, but shows a replica and the viewing window into the lab where they process the specimens collected from the field. If you look at the workers non-threateningly, one of the volunteers may come out and give you a tour. Luckily, that's just what happened to us.
I love behind-the-scene tours, especially of workshops so this was a real treat.

We saw lizard-like dinosaur bones being removed from sandstone, rare because there were 3 together in their natural arrangement and in an easily removable rock. We saw gar fish scales still shining in the stone, and vertebrate the size of a mini refrigerators lined up to be processed. Then our guide took us back to peek in the warehouse where fossilized bones dusted with a release agent were awaiting the dunk into vats of liquid silicon to become molds.

 

Life Story, by Virginia Lee Burton, is one of those books that leaves you feeling different about not only your place on the planet, but in time itself. Presented as a play, it starts with the scientific creation of our earth, takes the reader through each phase of ancient life, and eventually culminates with spreads of generation, year, day, hour, and your next few minutes.

I didn't really plan it this way, but we are studying the life cycle this week. So after seeing what happens when the life cycle stops, we went full circle and visited the pet store where they had two-month old puppies and baby tarantulas. Awwww...

The Man Who Planted Trees

We recently went to a unique play done by the Puppet State Theater Company of Scotland.

The Man Who Planted Trees is based on a children's book of the same title, and while not a true tale, you wish it was. Essentially, it is the biography of a man whose mission is to reforest an area by personally planting each seed, with no other motive than just doing what needs to be done.

This 2-man (and minimal puppets) show masterfully and repeatedly broke through the fourth wall at the onset continuing intermittently throughout the performance to an audience of 307 school children & chaperons. An adept actor took us unnoticeably from a witty repartee with Dog his real name), to the subtle narration of his hut's host, then bridge to the next scene. With the aid of Dog playing the straight man, each participant was immediately drawn in by not only the punch lines, but also the expert timing as we all awaited what we delightfully knew was coming.

With muted palette for both background and costumes, a tone was immediately set for this thought-provoking and unconventional hero's story. By its  contrast, the colorful birds swinging above, wafting scents of a lavender field, and actual spritzing of a forest's rain left all us literally reaching for more.

Plant, Animal, Story -First Field Trips of the Year

Three days of school and 3 days of field trips within the last 2 weeks! What a way to start the year! It's kind of a tradition now to go to Thanksgiving Point on their $2 Tuesdays (vs. $8) as soon as school's in session. This is into the Secret Garden-where inevidtably someone starts looking for the swing-eveery year, and it still hasn't shown up.

The Goldfish Pond.

 

Then the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival where we, with other school groups, heard Don Davis and his terrible thing that happened on a Sunday... Outside was another tent displaying quilts and even one by Don Davis who feels the two are closely tied. There was an example of a quilt with symbols from the Underground Railroad, and a fun quilt with shelves of characters representing fairy tails that we had to fairly drag ourselves away from.

    

And then the Hogle Zoo-this was the an animal that would stand still for me.

This one wouldn't--but we had a great view of him in the new Cannery Row exhibit of polar bear, seal and black bears. They look much happier than the animals there before. We paused for a few minutes to watch a giraffe bend all-ll the way down, a foot or two from a squirrel who sat frozen holding a walnut. I honestly thought he was just a statue when my kids first pointed him out. Neither was blinking--then suddenly he scampered down the rock wall with his loot. A wonderful trip.

B.Y.U. M.O.A. is F.U.N.

I love Brigham Young University's Museum of Art. But I think I really fell in love with it the night my mom and I went and laughed till we cried at the book Unlikely Pairs in the reading room with Minerva Tiechart's murals.
But wait, it gets better. We were admiring a crackled painting of an angel and my mom wondered outloud if it was really crackled-or just looked like it. "Just touch it mom-you can tell then" (I am wicked)
--AND SHE DID!! (she is wicked-er!)
Instantly there was a security guard behind us telling her to keep "20" away from the artwork Ma'am."
"Geez, I'd think you don't know anything about art" I mumbled--getting the incredulous mom face as she feined innocence then burst out laughing at my mocking. (she is an artist)
And the security guard followed us untill they closed...
Good times, good times.

So we've been going to the BYU MOA  Adventures in Art Workshop since the beginning. It is really perfect. Geared to 4-12y/o children are led on a 30 minute guided tour of one of their new exhibits. The programs really speak to their audience by asking questions and having lots of search-and-find experiences, usually with manipulatives involved.

My kids have learned about  texture in paintings then done a rubbings of an elephant's foot, tried on an indian headdress like the portrait behind them, and made clay genie lamps after a tour all about Islam.

I love to recommend it to others but find myself looking sideways to see who's nearby first, because-while it's really great-I don't want that many people going. I mean-then there might not be space for my kids.

2012 Field Trips

Field Trips in 2011-2012 school year

 

Martin Luther King Walk; BYU

Princess and the Goblin; UVU play

Natural History Museum of Utah; SLC

The Hundred Dresses; BYU Children's play

How I Became a Pirate ;SCERA play

Tall Tales; SCERA play

Two Merchants of Venice; BYU Children's play

Christmas Concert in (only!)German; BYU & area German clubs

Utah Symphony Pictures at an Exhibition; Covey Center

Many BYU MoA workshops

Authors Panel Discussion; Provo Lib

Bean Museum ; BYU (incl. basement!)

Illustrators Panel Discussion; Provo Lib

Fancy Nancy play

The Field Trips Log

How we remember the amazing places we get to experience together.
Ideally, within 24 hours of a fieldtrip we sit down write about it.
Each person will record:

•  their name
• date
• where we went
• maybe a picture drawn or cut out from brochure
• what they experiences with their 5 senses ("I smelled mischief in the school group there that day...I tasted lunch as my children brought insects to me....I felt Henry run into me 100 times... ")
• what they liked ("I liked...)

 I may write for them to copy (Y1), write for them (PreK), or patiently allow them to phone it in (Y3). 30min is about right time wise, with time just after to take turns reading theirs for everyone to hear. Ticket stubs or brochure maps go in a clear plastic sleeve (finally a place for it all!), and each person's page goes behind with 3 holes punched.

Interpretive Natural History Museum Visit

We recently visited the new Museum of Natural History. It's architecture slips right into it's surroundings and sustains them with thousands of solar panels, has both sophisticated and simple displays with layers of learning, and an interior of cement, steel, and glass with angles that mimic the slot canyons nearby--not to mention MC Echer. Our visit to such a fascinating and futuristic building left me feeling like I had been to a place completely new yet it's whole focus is the place where I live.

Even before we entered we had to pull Bowery Bird away from her wildflower coloring book, see Mockingbird and Kingfisher's pet insects they caught, admire some magpies, and hear from Henry, "hey-it's a--oh, it's just another man, I though it was a turkey..." as bicyclists came down the trail. So we were all  honing in on the natural even before we entered the museum.

We each had our own bit of fun here;
Mr. Owl informed the museum that his Iroquois tribe's Five Nation wampum belt was displayed upside-down (Oops!).

On the top floor we were about to enter an exhibit except 5 boys from the big school group were wrestling all over the benches and blocking the way. I don't know what possessed me, but I leaned in close to their faces with "WHERE. ARE YOUR PARENTS!" ...it wasn't quite a scream. They froze with arms and legs in every direction, looked up, and fell over each other backing around the next corner. The effect was great. My family however,  nervously turned to look at me. "I was just kidding!" and I burst out laughing. It was hilarious, and soon was quickly misinterpreted and replayed many times by Mockingbird and Kingfisher as "WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS! ha ha ha".

Later Bowery Bird was sitting on a bench when a chaperon came up and asked her "Is this clipboard yours?"
"No."
"Well, is this your school group?"
"No. I don't go to school." to which the women gave her a "whatever" look, took the clipboard, and left. Abigail finished her story with "But I don't go to school, mom--school comes to me." So typical, Abigail's dry sincerity is read as apathetic snobbery by the uninitiated.

Mockingbird was as costumes became available; a fox, a sparrow, a butterfly, a safari explorer, a cave guide, and a terrified dinosaur escaper.

Kingfisher was reminded not to hit the tanks of snakes, or barrel into mom at full blast while she's holding Beatrice, and quizzed dad on his scat in the Naturalist Lab. (I didn't mean to write it like that--or did I?...)

Canary ended up soaked and loving it as she was released from the stroller into the pint-size explorers room complete with water play, cave, and aforementioned dress-ups.
A good time was had by all.

You Can't Pass Up a State Parks Pass

Utah has set up a great incentive with the Department of Natural Resources. From your library (or sister library, I believe) you can reserve a Parks Pass that gets you in free to any Utah State Park. Coordinate it with a State Park event and you've got a great outing.

But you'll want to call early and find out their policy, and popularity.

(Several other states have similar programs set up.)

ACM. You know--For Kids.

Once my sister & I went to the Discovery Museum with our 4 kids. I know she likes to shop so I said, "You go ahead and peruse the mall--I'll just stay in this Kid Village part with the kids till you get back."

I really should have know better.
Over 2 hours later she came breezing in.
I realized then she had no watch on. (Not that it would have made a difference anyway.)
But just in case you were wondering, kids can be pretty easily entertained there for long durations of time...

Discovery is part of the ACM, and a good deal if you are traveling with children. The Association of Children's Museums is an organization that provides advocacy and research for play directed learning in childhood.

In Utah this only applies to the Discovery Gateway of SLC, and the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.

All of the museums in their database are listed alphabetically, which means you must search state by state for participators. They don't list stipulations, so contact each museum about their policy.

But a multi-state road trip would make your rest stops much more appealing with this tucked in your wallet.

Wazza AZA you say?

We went with my fun-loving friend Cockatoo and her children to the Hogle Zoo.
 Just getting there involved a death-defying U-turn immediatley followed up with the suburban jumping not one, but two curbs. "No extra charge!" Cockatoo called out as Bowery Bird tried to stabilize the speaker in the back her head had knocked out.

We got in with her wonderful membership allowing friends of family to visit.
Of further interest;

The Association of Zoos & Aquariums allows you to get a membership to one and thus visit others with their participators. The purpose of AZA is to create a standard of quality for creatures in captivity so visitors can rest assured they are being properly cared for.

Click "Find Zoo or Aquarium" at the top right and enter your state.

If you are in Utah you have, of course, only 2 options; the Hogle Zoo or the Tracy Aviary. (Living Planet Aquarium is not on the list).
But if you live anywhere else your options are probably going to open up.

Their restrictions aren't easily displayed, but appear few.  I would again, call first to find out.

NARM Yourself with the Museum Facts

NARM, or the North American Reciprocal Museum Program, is a good option if you are into art and history and travel a bit. Get a membership card from one, and flash it to get into others around country.

The above link lists all particpators alphabetically, but you must call each one to find out their policy.

 I think it clever of the Springville Utah Art Museum, which has free admission, to list themselves.

Salt Lake City lets you ZAP it up

Salt Lake City has a regular free day to several fun family destinations.
It can be will be crowded, but you can't beat the price, and it can be a good time to determine the value of a repeat visit or membership.

The Zoo, Arts, and Parks program in Salt Lake City sponsors these scheduled free days at places such as:

• Tracy Aviary
• Utah Museum of Fine Arts
• Red Butte Garden and Arboretum
• Hogle Zoo
• Living Planet Aquarium
• (the new) Natural History Museum of Utah
• Discovery Gateway (children's museum)
• and Sundance Film Institute does some outdoor shows

Community Exploration cards, free through the SLC library system, is another tempting program.

Tracy Aviary reciprocity

Agreements change every year, but Tracy Aviary of  SLC gives you two great deals for your membership- national AZA reciprocity and local reciprocity.

Depending on your family size,  memberships to the Aviary and Hogle Zoo are about the same since their price increase. But Tracy Aviary allows you to visit more places within Utah, and the AZA nationally. And there are birds there.

So if you love day trips, the Tracy Aviary's local participators are

• Odgen Nature Center
• Hogle Zoo in SLC
• Dinosaur Park in Ogden
• Ogden's Union Station
• Red Butte Gardens
• Willow Park Zoo in Logan
• Thanksgiving Point Farm

ASTC Passport to Here and Beyond

 

My sister is terrified of anything taxidermy.

I did not know this until I took her to the Bean Museum of BYU which is nothing but.
She was a good sport but I was glad it was a very slow day there workers stared and she cowered inside her hoodie as my 3y/o kept saying "It's OK Auntie, they're not alive."
"I know! That's what bothers me..." my wimpered.

But if taxidermy doesn't freak you out, a membership to a ASTC participating museum is for you.

Association of Science and Technology Centers  Passport Program works for, obviously those into science. Get a membership and one and get into smilar museum for free.

This group hasa fair amount of clearly stated stipulations, so do your research. Most museums only participate when your membership museum and home are 90 miles (as the crow flies) from the new one you want to visit. The Passport Program does not apply to special exhibits, big screen shows, or store discounts.
ASTC is probably the most restrictive program, but then, these museums are some of the best.

In Utah these museums participate:

• Clarke Planetarium
• Discovery Gateway
• the Leonardo
• Natural History Museum of Utah
• Thanksgiving Point

Ghost Town and a Dry Creek Bed

 

"Sometimes her mom pretends she's sick and takes her to do fun stuff."
that was a little boy's explanation for why Mockingbird wasn't in school that day when his mother asked.  It's true, and was pretty much how we did Kindergarten.

This time it was joining Mr. Owl on a business trip to St. George, UT. The children and I ended up taking field trips of what once was.

Silver Reef ruins

 Silver Reef, a ghost town originally settled for mining, was a spot we visited twice. Once for the crumbling walls of by-gone homes, and again for the amazing personal museum tour that must have lasted well over an hour. The kids got to ring the actual mine bell, heft an iron iron, try out a hand drill and other contraptions pulled off the wall of tools. But the best was learning about the legendary  Charlie Parkhurst. He was the most colorful stagecoach driver of Wells Fargo, and his story got even better when he died and it was discovered he was a she.

Great stuff, we went home and our library kindly order a children's book for us about Charlie called Rough, Tough Charley. Written in unique, sparse verse this biography also has a map following Charlie's life and travels into the west.

Our hikes took us to Anasazi ruins and up a dry creek bed. The children had to help eachother up 5 foot dropoffs and around boulders and bushes, as I had a baby in a backpack. Besides, someone needed to take pictures.



Back down the creek bed

Anasazi food storage ruins

I wouldn't recommend this with an 8, 6, 3 year old, and 9 month old in the heat alone, with no reward but red rocks and more red rocks. But Mrs. Magpie hadn't been out in the wild in a very long time apparently. Fortunately children don't know any better, and humored my need to "just go and see what's around the next bend--I promise."

 

2010-2011 Field Trips

Field Trips in 2010-2011 school year

 

Reluctant Dragon: SCERA play

Silver Reef Mining Ghost Town Museum

Brigham Young's Summer Home; St. George

Jacob Hamblin Home; St. George

St. George Temple Visitor Center

SLC Temple Square-Christmas

BYU Chemistry Week Show

This is the Place Heritage Village; SLC

Thanksgiving Gardens & Museum of Ancient Life

Bean Museum

The Aquarium

Taming of the Shrew: BYU children's play

BYU MoA

2009-2010 Field Trips

Field Trips in 2009-2010 school year:

 

LDS Motion Picture Studio; Provo

Timpanogos storytelling festival; Orem

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Discovery Museum

UoU MoA; SLC

Aviary; SLC

Zoo; SLC

Wheeler Farm

Thanksgiving Point Corn Maze

Go Dogs Go; BYU Children's theater