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!

NEW at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve: Education Packs for Outdoor Adventures

KVR instructors Barb Sydnor and Julie Hoel have been hard at work creating adventure backpacks for children and families. We encourage you to check one out on your next visit to the Reserve. These education packs offer opportunities for deeper engagement with natural features and experiences, and they've been created with fun and learning in mind.

There are 3 preschool activity packs and one water critters pack for older children (4th-5th grade). The water critters pack is also suitable for younger children with adult help.

Packs will be available outside the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Visitor Center on weekdays from 8 am until 4:30 pm. Please use the sign out sheet provided by the packs.

Let us know how you are using the packs with photos and comments.

The Forest School

We have some really exciting news to share!  The Kickapoo Valley Reserve and the La Farge School District have received a Department of Public Instruction charter school grant to plan and implement the Kickapoo Valley Forest School (KVFS)!  More information is available in the official press release here.

Years of developing the dream of offering nature immersion learning to our community's youngest students has paid off.  We are so excited to open the doors to a school where a world of hands-on, play-based education will help children develop their sense of place while honing the multidisciplinary skills that prepare them for a life of learning.

This week's guest post is from Ximena Puig, KVR Instructor and Kickapoo Valley Forest School founding member.  She writes of the conscious effort she takes in guiding her children to explore eagerly and wisely in the woods and how that pays off for them in huge developmental ways!

My mother, two young sons and I walk down into the woods, on a spring day. Along the way we see Jack-in-the-pulpit, and when we reach the valley we cross a shallow stream where water spiders dance, small watery shadows dart, and rocks await our admiration. There is the smell of rotting leaves, damp wood and new spring growth. These are the woods I played in every day as a child, picking berries, walking across fallen logs and creating worlds with my sister and any friend who might be visiting. Now my little boys are pushing through the briars and splashing through the creek.

We come to a place where a great big oak tree has fallen. Her root end is still up on the taller of the two creek banks, though now her roots fan out towards the sky, and her branches lie on the forest floor on the other lower side, while her thick trunk makes a wonderful, tall bridge. Right away the boys start climbing, each finding just the place to test and practice his skills. The three year old climbs up and down a thick branch over and over, narrating his every move: “Now I put my foot over here. Now I grab this branch. Now I am going down again.” The five year old goes right for the main trunk, walking as far as he feels comfortable, then expressing his fear and wanting a hand to retrace his steps. On his first attempt he cries a little as he climbs back down, but no sooner are his feet on the ground, then he is going up again, and this time he makes it all the way to the middle of the trunk reaching over the creek before he turns around. On his third try he crosses the whole bridge, some 10 ft. above the creek and climbs down on the upper bank radiant with accomplishment. It is all his. My job was to believe that he could, to stand near by and give him the space to do it, without admonishing him to be careful or telling him not to be scared, all while pretending to not pay much attention. He had to make his own way to meet the challenge, and the challenge and thrill of stretching his skills was what kept him going back even when he was a little scared.

This is what children are supposed to do. This is how they grow and learn. When you think about the long history of human development, schooling and scheduled activities as we know them today, are a really small sliver of what childhood has been about. Evolutionarily, children have been programmed to learn through observation and imitation of their parents doing meaningful tasks and through exploration and play in natural environments. Stretching their skills and challenging themselves physically is in their genes. It is how a baby is motivated to learn to crawl and then walk and then run. The multi-sensory nature of the natural world, and the inner drive to explore it, is the teacher your young child needs. My five year old boy was feeling the rough bark of the oak under his fingers, the wind and black flies on face and neck. He was listening to the birds singing and noting the commotion the dog made crashing around in the ferns. He was using his legs to defy gravity as he climbed the slope of the trunk and his inner ears to balance himself. His young elastic brain was organizing and balancing all this sensory stimulation as he worked to stay focused on his desire to cross the tree trunk bridge. On the way back up the hill for lunch there was an extra spring in his step and pride in his shoulders.  And stored deep inside him was the experience and thrill of meeting a challenge and the connections and passages his brain made to allow him to do it. The forest had proved a good teacher and he a willing and excited student. All I needed to do was take him to the woods and be near by.

Something I hope will come of this time when so many scheduled activities have been canceled is more time for undirected, outdoor exploration. Open, unscheduled time, even boredom, can lead children deep into themselves, to experiences and challenges and fun that will make lasting impressions and teach deep lessons. When surveyed about moments and places where they felt at home and held, almost all adults cite a secret outdoor place that they went as children. I hope that this summer there will be more children in the woods, listening to the birds and the wind and their hearts and bodies, and making lasting passageways in their brains that lead them to know themselves and their outdoor spaces better.

New Rhythms

A Guest Post by Susana Ruder, KVR Instructor and Parent

Things have changed for all of us, inwardly and outwardly. Our familiar rhythms and routines, our interactions with friends and loved ones, our commitments and time-pressing events. Around us too, mother nature is changing constantly: spring ephemerals are blooming, frogs have begun singing in ponds and watersheds, bird songs are clear and vibrant, ticks are awake after their winter sleep, nettles are poking their heads, and maple syrup season is coming to an end.

As a mother of three young children, I wonder daily, what do I want for my kids in these strange times? I want hope for them. Hope so they can continue to believe in the good around us. Hope so they can anchor themselves in what is beautiful, and so they can turn in dark times and find it, shining and guiding their steps. I find nature to be a friend I can always trust, and I turn to her arms continually for help. She has gently helped me find answers to my questions and has embraced my children as well with her soft ways. Nature is where my kids and I go to be ourselves. We play, we sing, we discover new things, and we come back home rejuvenated and alive.

Some fun things we did this week include a hike in our backyard to “The Rock,” a beautiful sandstone rock formation where the kids love to dig in the colorful sand. My youngest collects birch for his armor, my oldest likes to climb to the outcrop and carve rock, while my little girl makes little sand cakes below. The kids built a little home with sticks and moss this time as well. On our way back, they found a beautiful hollow log that had little cavities and brought it home to make more “fairy houses.” They are really hoping the fairies will leave a little present for them, even just fairy dust.

Another highlight has been our 6 new bantam chickens. They live in our living room for now, cozied up under a warm light. The kids want to handle them all the time. They even put them on our season table by the window to decorate it.

We’ve also spent some time planting bulbs, checking on the spinach that has began to grow in our garden, observing sprouted acorns by the river and planting them to see if a little oak tree will grow, and canning the last of our maple syrup.

As the days go by, I too feel myself changing slowly and silently. Adapting, grieving, tending. Forever grateful to the constant gifts of the natural world.

***

It's National Wildlife Week. Children and families can access the beloved Ranger Rick magazine online free during this time. This resource, created and maintained by the National Wildlife Foundation, has been a trusted companion for learning about wild things for decades. They've created and curated parent reading guides to help expand the learning and connection around so many great topics. Many of us remember waiting for Ranger Rick magazines to arrive in our mailboxes as kids. Times have changed, and the format is certainly different, but the content is still fantastic.