Celebrating Mud

 Guest Post by Julie Hoel, KVR Instructor and Enthusiastic Mud Loving Grandparent

I was just out of college and visiting a friend who had three children. We were chatting when her five-year-old son came bursting in the door full of boyish exuberance and covered with splotches of mud from head to foot. She took one look at him, put on her sternest mom face, whipped out her you’re-in-big-trouble-now voice and said, “JAY MEYER, HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING IN THAT CREEK?” The smile fell from his face, he rolled his big brown eyes upward and said, “No.” The two older sisters and I tried our best contain our laughter as his mom began peeling off the muddy clothes and throwing them directly into the washer. To her credit, she did not shame him for being a muddy mess but continued with her harangue, “You know you’re not supposed to be playing in that creek!” Clearly, her concern was the danger of water play rather than dirty clothes. 

In these parts, we cannot escape the mud of the March thaw and April showers that follow. We can save ourselves irritation and frustration by just embracing and celebrating the wonders of mud. In that spirit, I would like to share my favorite holiday photo of all time. It was refreshingly different from the typical family photo of the kids clean and pressed. These parents were secure enough to celebrate their kids in all their mischievous muddiness in the deep green of a summer day.  When I recently asked their dad if I could share this image, he said, you’re “welcome to use that pic if it’s to promote kids being kids!” He added, “I think based on where we lived our kids naturally got real dirty experiencing being a kid in nature. We had 50 acres and a half mile of river frontage…what a place to be a kid!” He pointed out the nice clean laundry hanging on the line behind them. I also noticed that they are both wearing glasses that somehow remained relatively clear. Definitely experienced mudballs with some self-control!

In these two vignettes, the children sought and located the mud on their own. A quick google search will bring up many benefits of mud play including development of fine and gross motor skills, increasing cognitive skills and enhancing creativity. It also is good for the immune system and decreases stress levels. We would therefore be wise and wonderful caretakers to seek out opportunities for our children’s mud exploration. My favorite resource, Pinterest, has limitless schemes to bring mud play to every location. There are recipes for mud paint, fizzing mud and mud soup. The design suggestions for mud kitchens are endless.

But the fun of mud play is not just for children. Back in ’93, I experienced mud as art with adults during a volunteer week at Dr. Patch Adams’ Gesundheit! Institute in West Virginia. His model of good health includes humor and art as healing. Once a week, volunteers were encouraged to experience community in the mud pit. After the mud bath, there were photo sessions of numerous statuesque poses. It was a truly memorable experience!

So when you encounter the inevitable mud of the season, I encourage you remember your own fondest muddy memory and smile.  And if a mud-covered child comes bursting in your doorway, greet them with that smile and make throwing those dirty clothes into the washer a celebration.

P.S. All the above references to mud exclude flood mud.  That nasty stuff is a nightmare.

For some more muddy inspiration, check out these books and links:

 Mud by Mary Lyn Ray, Illustrated by Lauren Stringer

This beautiful book celebrates the beginning of the mud season in simple text and gorgeous illustrations. 

Mudplay for Kids: Why It's Worth the Mess - Healthline This article provides details about why messy play is so beneficial for children.

Mud, Marvelous Mud - Community Playthings With the benefits clearly outlined, this article provides ideas and considerations for embracing mud play with your child.

Summer Camp 2021

Was summer camp part of your experience growing up?  Do you have memories of the friends you made, the skills your learned, the food you ate?  Maybe as an adult you have perspective now on the personal growth that happened for you at summer camp? You aren't alone. So many of us had wonderful and affecting camp experiences in our youth, and now KVR works to provide those same experiences for the children in your life. Whether as the youngest of our day campers or the seasoned teens hitting the KVR trails for several nights, there is summer camp magic waiting for all.

Summer camp provides children with so many important experiences and skills. We sure missed it in 2020. Summer camp at the KVR in 2021 will look much the same as it always has. We'll play in the water, and in the mud; we'll take long hikes, see incredible landscapes, and spot wild animals; we'll teambuild together and laugh together. We'll scrape some knees and high-five each other. We'll build resilience and self-respect while getting dirty and wet. We'll learn responsibility, communication, and leadership skills. We'll make new friends and gain new perspectives, all while being nurtured by a community of caring adults who are skilled in experiential education.

Summer 2021 will also bring increased Covid-19 safety precautions, like spending even more time outside, using masks when in proximity of each other, and extra hand-washing, to name few. We are getting the hang of these new measures and we know that being outdoors is a low risk environment for transmission, so that makes camp this year an easier yes.

This year's KVR summer camp roster is as full as ever! We have many of the old favorites and lots of new camps as well. Check out our new two-day mountain bike camps, a new Artdoors camp for ages 11-14, and a fun-filled week of Junior Ranger Camp where children will get a sampling of many of the treasured KVR activities that make favorite memories.

Camp registration is now open. You can see the full 2021 camp roster and register here. For more information about the KVR summer camp program, visit the Kickapoo Valley Reserve website page. We hope to see old friends and new faces this year at summer camp! 

Weatherproofing Children (and Their Adults!) for Winter

Last week we posted about great local options folks have for winter activities. Part of getting geared up for winter is shifting our mindsets and being prepared. Norwegians have a term that's useful in considering weather-hardiness. It's friluftsliv, which means "free outdoor life." In Norway, there's a saying about there not being any bad weather...only bad clothes! 

So as the temperature drops and snowflakes begin to fly, we have some tips and ideas for not only getting your children ready to embrace winter's wonders, but for you, too.

Kickapoo Valley Forest School Leadership Team members Julia Buckingham and Ximena Puig recently led a virtual roundtable focused on winter and weather resiliency. Their presentation included the following great tips we'd like to share. Forest school students and their families will gain lots of experience in embracing all kinds of weather, and the guidelines we have for them work for everyone.

Embrace wonder.

Children absorb adults' energy and attitudes toward just about everything, and the weather is no exception. Be aware of how you talk about the weather and consider being open to the beauty of cold, the way the landscape changes, and the challenge of getting out to explore. Your excitement and wonder can spark the same enthusiasm in children, and this is an important aspect of developing winter resilience.

Dress in layers.

We can't stress this enough. Trapping heat in a base layer and middle layer can make a huge difference in comfort. Selecting an outer layer that repels water and wind is essential. You can always remove a layer, but adding one is difficult once you are out and about. Dressing appropriately helps children really explore without worry over getting wet and cold, and it can help you stay out longer if you've brought along snacks and a bottle of water. 

Wool is your friend.

Naturally moisture-absorbing and lightweight for it's warmth, wool is a great layer. For those who are allergic to wool, there are many alternatives made of synthetic materials or silk. 

Create systems for caring for outdoor gear.

Be sure to make a plan for drying your outdoor gear, hanging it for next time, and dealing with the puddles, mud, and mess that is an inevitable part of coming in from the outdoors. Involving your children by having reachable hooks and spots for muddy boots makes learning to take care of our gear part of the whole process of enjoying the outdoors. 

Julia and Ximena also shared great ideas for some activities you can do outdoors this winter including gathering treasure for ice suncatchers, making pinecone bird feeders, and telling stories based on animal tracks. 

There was a great recent feature on NPR about weatherizing ourselves for winter. Interspersed with fantastic cartoons by LA Johnson about dressing like an onion and eating snacks rich in fat, calories, and protein (yay!), this article and accompanying audio has some excellent tips for adults as we embrace this new season. 

When you come inside, don't forget to read books together about winter life and adventures to inspire your next outdoor day. Here's a list of 100 picture books to read with children. 

Wishing you a wonderful winter season!

Outdoor Learning Highlight: La Farge Schools

Outdoor Learning Highlight: La Farge Schools 

This fall our current context has highlighted the benefits of outdoor learning in new ways. For La Farge Schools students and teachers, incorporating the natural world into academic pursuits is nothing new. Inspired by our beautiful surroundings, LFS teachers frequently make opportunities for students to apply new concepts within our local context. 

Learning outside spans a variety of different content areas within our 4K - 12th grade school. We've shared some highlights here in the spirit of getting outdoors to build context and experiential learning for students.

Early Literacy (4K - K) One of the primary components of becoming a reader is learning letter names and sounds. LFS early childhood teachers often embed these skills within outdoor learning. Attention to shapes and the differences among them is a great introduction to the alphabet and helps children learn how to distinguish between letters. La Farge Schools’ early literacy teachers have embedded these skills within outdoor learning experiences in several ways. Teachers take young children outside to look for letter shapes in natural items, such as forked stick shaped like a Y, or a smooth rock reminiscent of an O.

Recently, our preschool teacher, Mrs. Greenwood, took young learners outside to collect leaves, which they glued onto a line-drawn L. These “L is for Leaf” pages will be combined with other letter/contextual item pages to make a real-world alphabet book for each child.

High School Agricultural Education: Natural Resources

Mr. Fowell regularly visits the La Farge School Garden to plant and harvest with his agricultural science students, as well as to identify weeds. Additionally, he and his classes often travel to the nearby Kickapoo Valley Reserve for class-embedded activities such as bird identification, duck house maintenance, pheasant release, tree identification, and more. 

High School Social Studies

History teacher Amy Lund regularly has her students practice outdoor surveying, and her classes go on walking tours of the town. As a part of her Local and/or Wisconsin History courses, she takes students on walking field trips of the local cemeteries and frequently relies on the expertise of local historian Brad Steinmetz pictured below with students this week on a visit to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve dam site.

Middle School Math

Mr. Chroninger often takes his students on "fraction walks" where they look for collections of items with the natural world around them to practice mathematical concepts. For example, he may ask students to find the ratio of oak trees to pine trees in a particular section of the park adjacent to our school. Taking students outside to collect, measure, compare, and graph gives students real-world applications.

The Buzz on Outdoor Education in the COVID Era

This time of year wasps, bees, and flies seem extra active. Their busyness speaks to the ramp up before winter as bees seek more carbohydrates to boost energy stores for the long cold season ahead. Wasps shift from earlier season work of eating insects and collecting them for the young colony to consuming carbohydrates for easy energy in late summer. It's as if wasps, like us, also desire respite from toil and work. 

We long to be outdoors in these waning days of summer, soaking as much as we can of sun and warm air, and these insects' presence in our outdoor adventures can be difficult to navigate. An afternoon in the yard can be easily derailed by a bee sting. Trail rides are complicated when flies are bothering the horses. Cookouts and picnics are hotspots for attracting them. And why is the flyswatter never where we need it? Still, these insects in this season bring to mind the concepts of tolerating discomfort and challenge in order to continue our outdoor pursuits.

Bees, flies, and wasps aren't necessarily what we think about in relation to outdoor education and more specifically, education in the outdoors, but there are parallels to be drawn. As schools head back amidst the pandemic here in the upper Midwest, there has been lots of increased buzz around the role of time outdoors in mediating the risk of spreading COVID19. Today's post is dedicated to sharing some resources, considering barriers and possibilities, and inviting you to do the same in your community. 

Why Outdoors? Why Now?

Epidemiologists have shared that respiratory viruses are most easily transmitted in closed indoor enviroments where people gather, especially over extended periods of time. Traditional schools are closed indoor environments, and many of us are familiar with how the return to school in the fall means an uptick in colds followed by flu and respiratory infection season of the long winter months. 

It makes sense that experts are talking about getting schoolchildren and their teachers outside as much as possible since we are dealing with a novel coronavirus this year. Families are longing for normalcy so that children are continuing to learn, grow, socialize in safe places. Adult caregivers are struggling to balance work with schooling at home and constant or near-constant childcare supervision and demands. Educators are concerned about spending most of their days indoors in contact with many people. The complications and challenges of schooling in a virtual landscape are formidable. Wearing a mask all day can be challenging for young people, too. These factors and more have brought the outdoors into the conversation about what to do with school in a relevant and urgent way.

Many schools are exploring the option of expanding learning to the outdoors.

Green Schoolyards America has convened a consortium of working groups around utilizing outdoor resources to mediate the impacts of COVID. They've issued a brief resource outlining why outdoor options may be effective in reopening schools during the pandemic. This group has focused on sharing issues of equity, case studies, ideas, plans, and other resources for educators and school communities.

The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) has issued eeGuidance for Reopening Schools which provides guidance for steps schools can take to incorporate the principles and framework of environmental education in this challenging time. 

More locally, here in Wisconsin, several schools and teachers have been exploring and expanding their outdoor learning spaces and options. The community around this public Montessori school rallied to build some outdoor spaces in the span of just about 2 weeks. In another story, one teacher's determination to create an outdoor space also led to support from her community to get the work done. 

Outside the Box Thinking

For many schools, typical recess activities will be restricted due to the need for social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID. This has caused some educators to think creatively about how they might take learning outside and maintain safe distances between students. Ideas include:

• Collaborating with local parks to use greenspace
• Working with local law enforcement to close down local streets surrounding schools temporarily for access to outdoor spaces
• Partnering with local rental centers for tents and temporary shade structures
• Connecting with local and regional environmental education and outdoor education providers for guidance

Barriers

All the buzz around moving learning outside or exploring outdoor options for the upcoming school year does not ignore the challenges. These include:

• Site limitations. 

Many school campuses may not have access to much space beyond their building footprint. 

• Teacher readiness. 

Educators have plenty to deal with this year in addition to considering moving their groups outside.

• Family awareness. 

Parents and caregivers may have questions and concerns about outdoor learning. Some families may not have access to gear and supplies for outdoor learning or may be stressed to consider adding onto school supply lists to include things like sunscreen, hats, water bottles, and sturdy shoes. 

• Planning time. 

Getting outside involves deliberate and purposeful advance planning, communication with coworkers and administration, and in some schools, filling out paperwork for permission.

• Group management. 

Being in the outdoors often brings out exuberant movement, voice levels, and playfulness in young people...as it should! While these are things we hope to encourage and support in all children, the focus of schooling can bring a need for supporting children to find focus and attention to topics, directions, safety considerations, and respect for others. 

• Weather, Wasps, Wherewithall. 

Weather is often the number one concern for educators and school districts when it comes to getting outdoors. There are few remaining months of seasonable temps and sunshine before the cold sets in here in Wisconsin. Rain and wind can be challenging. Many schools do not have the option of open air pavilion-type spaces, and we wonder about how these types of structures may become more common as we consider the lessons of this pandemic. 

All educators receive mandatory training in EpiPen use and first aid for stings. This consideration may become more important as more groups head outside. 

In a recent article in Slate about learning outdoors, Laura White, an educator from New Hampshire stated, "I feel like the question of logistics is a little bit of a misconception” in the conversation about taking classes outside. I feel like the biggest obstacle is just a paradigm shift, a change in attitude.”

Possibilities: Local Support is Available

Here in the Driftless Region of southwest Wisconsin, the Kickapoo Valley Reserve's Education Program has offered nearly two decades of providing outdoor experiences for visiting school groups, summer campers, and adult learners. As we embark on an uncertain school year season, we encourage area educators and school districts to reach out for support in moving learning outside. Our Outdoor Education Outreach program can connect you with resources, instructors, staff training, and other supports for getting your students outside. For more information about how your school or classroom can be supported with outdoor education this year, please reach out to kickapoo.reserve@gmail.com