Going Places

Connecting with nature as well as with each other has been the focus throughout September. Now that we know each other a little better and have visited most of the areas at the farm like Pine Haven, Homestead, and Crayfish Catch, we were excited to explore some of the other places at Stoneridge Farm.

Bridge near Pine Haven Crayfish Catch The rock pile at the Outpost

At the Outpost, we read the book,  “All the Places to Love” which explains how each member of a boy’s family introduces him to their favourite nature places when he is just a baby. Why do you think this was an important book to read today?

How did we turn our hike to the Backwoods into a wellness walk? Help someone at home understand what our wellness walk looked like, sounded like, and felt like. Think about the different things you were asked to do like stopping to look up at the sky, deciding what colour you saw the most when you looked out at the field, and feeling the nature around you for rough and smooth textures. We invite you to try this at home too!

We were excited to finally arrive at the farthest destination on the farm property, The Backwoods! What surprised you the most? Would you rather spend your wander time catching critters here or at Crayfish Catch?

We took some new trails to get to our next 'new' place, Christmas Forest. When we entered the forest, we tried some ‘Forest Bathing’ also called ‘Shinrin-yoku’ in Japan. It’s an activity which uses all of our senses to help us relax and really get to experience the forest. We even practiced looking at the forest from the point of view of other creatures like a mouse, a fox, and a deer. How did these experiences make you feel? 

Were you someone who used your wander time in Christmas Forest to add more to the branch shelters there, make a pinecone family, or did you join Antman on the search for grasshoppers and praying mantises along the cropline?

What an amazing find! Can you explain what this grasshopper was doing in the field behind Christmas Forest?

The last 'new' place we visited was the hayloft in the barn. See if you can describe what it looked like and talk about what you plan to do there next time.

Use these next photos, which were taken by our talented photographer Raccoon, to talk about the rest of our very busy day.

When it came time to think about all the places we have gotten to know this month, each of you was able to pick your favourite spot and write or draw about it in your nature notebook. There were lots of different answers but the one thing we all agreed on is that every place at the farm has incredible things to offer. A BIG HOWL to that!! (from Coyote)