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Courtney
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I've been tracking my order on Amazon and it's supposed to arrive today (along with Moonjellies!). I'm ready as soon as it comes!
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Courtney in Texas
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Mom to Candace 10/97 ,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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Chari
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MacBeth wrote:
I think Kelly's correct about us being the choir, but I think the rest of the board is the congregation!  |
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MacBeth, How necessary IS this book for the CHOIR? As usual, I am tempted.....but as you know......my children are not afraid of nature.......and as soon as this rain stops!!!..........they will be out in it all day.......I have limited funds and limited time to read (don't we all??) I do have a gift cert for the local book store
so, do you REALLY like the book? anyone else REALLY like it, who has received it already? do I REALLY need it???? 
tempted,
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Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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Kelly
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I've only just started reading it so I'm not sure whether I can recommend this being a "must-read". It looks good, so far, but the jury's out.
Kelly in FL
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Courtney
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Got it today and have started reading it. So far, so good!
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Courtney in Texas
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Mom to Candace 10/97,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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MacBeth
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Chari wrote:
MacBeth, How necessary IS this book for the CHOIR? As usual, I am tempted.....but as you know......my children are not afraid of nature.......and as soon as this rain stops!!!..........they will be out in it all day.......I have limited funds and limited time to read (don't we all??) I do have a gift cert for the local book store
so, do you REALLY like the book? anyone else REALLY like it, who has received it already? do I REALLY need it????
tempted, |
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I don't really know, Chari! I like to have a book in hand if I am doing the study, but I will post quotes and questions for the group. I suppose you can even get the book later if you feel you need it. I am enjoying it, both because the author describes his meetings with other nature-minded people and their insights, and for the observations of the kids he interviews. I keep finding my self saying, "Yes! That happened to us, too." It is definitely a good book for launching discussions, and sharing ideas. I am so greatful for a place to have this chat among friends...I only wish you were all in my living room, by my fireplace, sipping tea, wine, or some fine MacBethy-margaritas! 
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
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MEBarrett
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MacBeth wrote:
| I am so greatful for a place to have this chat among friends...I only wish you were all in my living room, by my fireplace, sipping tea, wine, or some fine MacBethy-margaritas! |
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Me too!! 
I have begun the book and will take it with me on our trip tomorrow. I will be checking email whenver I can so I hope to keep up. I love what I have read so far. Very thought provoking.
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Blessings,
Mary Ellen
Mom to seven beautiful kids
Tales from the Bonny Blue House
O Night Divine
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julia s.
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I'll be late in getting the book. Our funds are low right now with first holy communion and many birthdays in June. But as soon as I can I'll order it. I'll enjoy reading the discussions after I get the book so have fun and I'll catch up when I can.
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julia
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with ds12 ds8 ds3 and ds1
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MacBeth
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Julia, you may not need to hurry. I think I'll get started with a question brought about by my reading of the first chapter. If anyone else has something she'd like to discuss in the first chapter, please bring it up.
Here's the first question:
What are the things you did outside as a kid?
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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Kelly
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A. Tree-climbing (in a large, closely-grouped clump of sweet-gums, which enabled us to go very high, and leap brazenly from tree to tree  ...we called them the "Tarzan Trees");
B. lots of tree-house activities (in different trees);
C. fort-building (we specialized in the underground-type described in the Beard "Shanties" book!) with "wars" and Lord-of-the-Flies-esque raids being launched between the various forts (just kidding about the Lord of the Flies part)
D. turtle and snake hunting/building of habitats, cages and turtle pens
E. entire summers at our deserted beach, setting up salt-water aquariums and catching animals for the tanks, playing for hours on the sandbars. Wandering the palmetto plateau around the beach house and building forts. My brothers used to take inner-tubes and float down the gator-infested creek, REALLY!
F. sandbox and play-house play;
G. playing "school".
If the next question is: do your children enjoy these same activities, my answer would be:
A. yes, but on smaller trees
B. big yes
C. a little, but no underground forts for some reason. The raids continue.
D. hardly (tho we do have a turtle pen)
E. yes, but encapsulated into a few weeks, not the whole summer. Less the palmetto forest walkabout and gator-tubing.
F. yes
G. hysterical laughter...
We also did quite a lot of aimless, unsupervised rambling around the neighborhood and in the woods---this is something my kids just don't do, unless they are on our own property, for all the obvious reasons, sadly.
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MaryM
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This is so fun to remember! I think many activities mirror what Kelly shared. Much of the best outdoor activity was at my grandparents house in the country - they had a dairy farm.
Tree climbing and tree games - we would spend literally hours in the big, black walnut tree. Also had "secret hiding place" inside a large snowball tree.
On the farm in particular there was climbing the haystacks and making forts in them, hiding in the corn crib, and playing/swimming/floating in the ditches. They weren't alligator infested but they were fully utilized by the cows as outhouses- can't believe we spent so much time in them without even a thought.
Fort building - our particular materials were usually lawn chairs and blankets.
Sand box/mud play - we usually had factories or bakeries and made sand and mud cookies, pies, etc. utillizing all kinds of other natural "ingredients." "Yummy!"
Bike riding - there was a great hilly area near the house where we could race and jump.
Treasure hunts - hiding things and making maps to find them.
Building habitats and homes/towns in the dirt for plastic animals and driving Matchbox cars.
Summer evenings - lots of kick the can, blind man's bluff, various tag games, and hide-and-seek. We invented lots of tag type games based on inspiration from the environment - like "black widow tag" and "pig man tag" Kind of funny memories.
We played lots of "house" or adventure games outside- Can I admit this here that many times they were based on television shows like Gilligan's Island, Bonanza/Big Valley, Emergency, Star Trek.
A lot of what we did wasn't exploring the natural world per se, just being in it. I'm interested to follow this discussion.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Courtney
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We made lots of mud pies! My good friend and I had a club on the side of our house (it was in bad need of a retaining wall at the time!). As Mary said, we didn't necessarily explore nature as much as we were out in it.
One thing that seems so different to me about kids now is the desire to play outside no matter the weather. I grew up in Dallas and we played outside in the summer heat all summer!
Lots of time at the beach each summer...we made sand castles by digging into the sand deep enough to hit a little water, then we'd let the sand dribble out of our hands to make what we called "drippy castles". I could do that for hours!
Chasing fireflies in the summer evenings, playing hide-n-seek, freeze tag, climbing trees, mashing rose petals and mixing with water to make perfume.
I'm enjoying this!
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Courtney in Texas
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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Tree climbing, biking, swinging - and jumping off the swing contests, build forts, playing cowboys and indians or "Little House", making all sorts of "food" out of the things that were cast out of our garden, neighborhood games of tag, softball, soccer, capture the flag. (Just pick up games, nothing "organized".) Neighborhood snow ball fights which included building snow forts in the snowbanks along the road. One of the families in our neighborhood had a great sledding hill and the father always kept a great sledding run "groomed" for us. One of my favorite things to do is still a favorite. My family jokes about it - in the springtime when the yard is wet and the run off is looking for a place to go I spend far too much time making streams. I use the excuse of channeling the water in an effort to keep the yard from getting too muddy, but I am still out playing.
One thing I think my kids are missing growing up in this time is the freedom to roam and explore that we had - even within our neighborhood. I remember playing all over the neighborhood and as long as we were home in time for dinner and home before dark we were all set. Just a different time I know but I think the change in the world; not just being able to let kids be outside to imagine what they will is a huge problem today. We have a great yard but we don't live in a neighborhood as such, and we live on a pretty busy road so a "pick up game" of ball would never happen and little ones do not learn to ride their bikes on the road. My girls are old enough to be in the yard by themselves but when our little ones come from Haiti that will all change as the road is too busy.
Sorry I got a bit off track.
God Bless,
Wendi
in NH - where I have to get my plants in for the night as we are expecting a pretty good frost.
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julia s.
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Courtney wrote:
One thing that seems so different to me about kids now is the desire to play outside no matter the weather. I grew up in Dallas and we played outside in the summer heat all summer! |
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I did too. We were the last in the neighborhood to get airconditioning. My sister (a person who is always way before her time) noticed that when the people around us got their airconditioning units that everyone spent less time out doors. Even the old men who used to sit outside and listen to the baseball games during the summer months disappeared inside. At the time I thought she was just being annoying because we didn't have airconditioning and I wanted it soooo bad.
But back to the topic. I'll start by saying I grew up a mile outside city limits so I lived very urban, but my block (by God's grace) happened to have all the green thumbs on it and everyone had the most beautiful gardens. Every other block around us was dreadful, but ours was glorious. So I liked gardening, tree climbing, playing on my swingset, making mudpies, catching lightening bugs, bird watching, roller skating, bike riding, playing games like tincan alley, SPUD, It, redlight/greenlight, hide and seek. And, as I got older, the ever popular teenage thing "hang out". But I walked everywhere. Probably miles everyday.
My kids go to the park to play on the swingset (but we are getting one in a couple of weeks ), dig in the dirt, collect bugs, climb trees, bike ride (if only I can get the training wheels off), and playing in a stream at the park near here, picnic, fly kites, pick flowers. I have to say that most of these are initiated by me and I don't remember my mom prompting me that much -- except to say "Go outside". My kids like the activities, but they seem to run out of steam for them or something that I can't quite put my finger on. They don't have a lot of friends so maybe they just don't have the spark of a new idea from someone else.
Thanks MacBeth for starting us out on a question that doesn't require the book.
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julia
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with ds12 ds8 ds3 and ds1
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MacBeth
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I changed the name of the topic to the title of the book for anyone who wishes to join in at any time. I am really enjoying reading everyone's childhood activities.
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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alicegunther
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On the concrete pavements of Queens, we:
--played hopscotch
--ran in the sprinklers or sprayed each other with hoses
--played tag and other running games
--rode bikes all over the neighborhood
--roller skated without helmets or knee pads
--played "tennis" in the driveway between our houses
--played hide and seek in the front with "no backyards" as the rule
-- jumped in the dumpster of a local fork and spoon company looking for bits of metal to make things
--made go-carts and had races
--rode our sleds down the two hills at either end of the alley at the end of the street
--had epic snowball fights and built forts and mazes right in the middle of the unplowed street
--played in a huge construction site around the corner for at least a summer--running along the tops of the unfinished walls (very high up) or digging in the unfinished basement. (The building is now almost thirty years old, but my friends and I still refer to it as "the new building.")
--looked for snakes in one of the only empty lots in town
--took long, long, long walks with no particular destination
--jumped in puddles in our bathing suits during Summer storms
--ran screaming under tressles to avoid the pigeons
--chased and followed the rare (very rare) squirrel
--headed to Rockaway Beach at a moment's notice with one or two of the mothers to supervise. How they brought so many kids to the beach at once remains a mystery. This was often followed by a visit to Rockaway Playland amusement park.
--played "stoop ball" with each step worth a certain number of points
--played "Time," "Redlight Greenlight," Charades, and told ghost stories late into the evening on our front steps. (The kids would hang out in front of one house, the moms by another, and the dads by another.)
--chased down the ice cream truck for a treat at least once a day
--played jumprope and chinese jumprope
--danced Irish step or played accordion right in front of the house!
--climbed to a friend's roof to watch the stars (one or two at least)
--laid in wait to shout things to a biker who came down the block at the same time every day (just before scrambling to get out of sight)--it was always tame stuff, but we thought we were so cool!
--visited elderly neighbors just to have a chat
At our Summer cabin in upstate New York, we:
--tramped all over the woods and mountain completely unsupervised
--discovered an unknown stream in the mountain, leaving a sign with the words, "Mount Alice and Elizabeth"
--built a mountain fort overlooking the house below and played in it all Summer
--pretended to be Laura and Mary, complete with bonnets, rag dolls, and a 125 year old house
--spent hours upon hours in the stream catching minnows, crayfish, frogs and water striders
--explored the stream for well over a mile
--learned to swim in the Delaware River
--rode a canoe down the Delaware River
--rode a plastic canoe down our own stream
--caught and played with countless toads and salamanders
--chased countless woodchucks and rabbits
--met an albino skunk
--made friends with a "wild" cat
--took nightly "scary walks" down River Road with the express and sole purpose of thrilling and screaming as a million bats swooped all around us
--took frequent drives for "deer hunting"--watching the deer come out to feed at dusk and counting as many as possible
--met a black bear face to face as we walked home from town
--had a snake land on my head when I opened the attic door
--went fishing
--went swimming in lake, river, and stream
--spent hours watching a particularly successful spider's web
--spent hours trying to communicate with the birds
--sledded down the hill in winter
--sledded down the mountain on leaves in the fall
--picked blueberries
--picked our own apples
--fed the horses
--fed the birds
--waited for hummingbirds
--chased butterflies
--burned out the gypsy moths
--split our own firewood and built a huge fire down the cellar
--made "sugar on snow"
--read a book in a tree
--rode a swing in the apple tree
--used stones to scratch pictures in a huge piece of natural slate
--watched our own phoebes raise a family every year
--dug up our own crop of delicious tiny potatoes
--made scores of mudpies
--played "dacks," an Irish game with stones
--brought coffee grounds and egg shells to our compost pile
--looked for raccoons in our compost pile
--stood in the center of our bridge with one foot in NY and one in PA
--unsuccessfully attempted hopscotch and stoopball and roller skating, bitterly missing our Queens cement
AND SO MUCH MORE!
Sorry for the long post, but there is no end to all we did in those days. My father was an avid fisherman who loved water and mountains and brought us upstate for most of the Summer (and much of the Winter too!). What fun we had!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
  
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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alicegunther
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Gang, I'm embarrassed by the length of my last post. I knew it was long, but didn't realize quite how long in the tiny "post reply" window.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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MacBeth
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Things I did (city kid version):
-hang out in back alleyways/search dumpsters
-climb trees (one wonderful maple in the neighbor's yard)
-look for slamanders
-build forts from privet hedge trimmings
-explore the saplings in an empty lot
-go through parks on my way to school even when my parents told me not to 
-eat wild edibles in my yard (though I did not know what I was doing, really)
-feed birds
-dig a hole in the dirt
-watch ants
-explore the cave the dog made under the patio
-follow the street car tracks until the went underground
-walk everywhere
-cut worms in half
-try to catch herring in the Charles River
-sail on the Charles ($1 a year!!)
-head for the playground
-play hopscotch, red-rover, crack the whip, kickball, catch, tag, kill the man with the ball, frisbee, jumprope, double dutch, handgames, 7-up... (funny how games vary slightly regionally; we played red-light/green-light, but we called it "one-two-three-redlight!")
-ride bikes, rollersate, ice skate at cousins' backyard rink or Nana's creek
-camp with parents in remote parts of Canada and less-remote parts of the US.
-collect rocks (mostly blacktop and concrete)
-sell lemonade
-sit on the stoop on hot days watching the cars go by
-hang out on the roof
-visit city pool or skating rink
-hike around Walden Pond (if we could get someone to drive us)
-picnic at the old
Grist Mill (ditto)
-feed the ducks at the Marriot Hotel
-walk the Freedom Trail
-beach all summer at Grammy's house, walking to the outdoor concerts, climbing on statues, fishing off the quay with hooks mad from Christmas ornament hooks, yard for line, and sticks for poles
-weeks on the Cape, fishing and swimming every day, catching whatever we could find, whether fish or butterfly
-Jellyfish fights on George's Island (Fort Warren)
-boating in my aunt's cabin cruiser
And yet, I have fond memories of nearly every TV show that was on in my time. Like Mary, we uesd to play Star Trek (my kids still do!!), and I recall playing Thunderbirds, too! How did I fit it all in?
Oh, and we were dirt poor. My dad was in law school, and my mother was a switchboard operator, but we could sure make our own fun! Did I mention that I walked two miles to school, uphill both ways (really--there was a hill in the way)?
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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Kelly
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Mentioning the old shows, like Star Trek and Gilligan's Island, reminded me how we used to spend HOURS playing "Tarzan and the Natives". Maybe this was influenced by living in viney, subtropical Florida, but it was definitely the game of choice. We would, as a neighborhood gang, actually pick bamboo, sharpen it into pointed spears, harden the spears in campfires (a little trick we learned from the "Tarzan" movies), then divide into teams and attack one another with our spears. One time, the preacher kid impaled his little brother---went deep into his leg, the poor kid was on crutches for six months and couldn't be a "Native" again until he loosed the crutches...Can you imagine?
All this being said, my parents were considered pretty strict and watchful (for the time). But compared to how we have to operate as parents now, they seem downright neglectful by comparison!
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cathhomeschool
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Well, I haven't received the book yet (ordered it late), but I'll jump in anyway!
Tree climbing, playing in the large, crawdad-filled ditch at the back of our backyard, biking, roller skating, playing on our swings/monkey bars/etc, playing neighborhood games, like kickball, football, tag and freeze tag, red light green light, chinese freeze tag.
We spent a lot of time playing, hiking and bike riding in the woods at the end our our street. (Someone had made dirt dunes in the woods, and we used to have fun riding over the dunes and down a large, deep ditch. We used to play house in the woods too, by clearing out underbrush and letting the plants that remained act as walls and ceilings. The teenagers were the "parents" and the rest of us were "kids." Bicycles were "cars," and the teenagers sat us on the backs or on handlebars to take us places.) There was a large, murky creek that ran through the woods. We loved to scoop slime out of the creek using sticks.
We also went camping every year, mostly to a large lake, but sometimes to the beach or to a river where we'd go tubing. My father had a large inflatable rowing boat that we always took with us, and we'd rent canoes to go to Rattlesnake Island (where we found old snake skin molts). We always took our bikes, too. We chased fire flies when camping and also at my grandmother's house. She had a huge field behind her house full of fireflies, and also of a plant with very wide, round leaves that we picked and used as umbrellas.
We spent a lot of time at the beach, both in Galveston (yucky water and lots of tar, but we didn't mind) and in Florida (beautiful, clear water, full of small rays swimming by and fish sucking at our legs). In Florida, we snorkeled in the reefs close to shore too. "Drippy" sand castles! Wow! I had forgotten all about those! We made them every time we went to the beach too. What fun!
Kelly, you mentioned the gator infested waters. When I was in high school, we went camping with some friends to a lake known for gators (small, Texas gators). We were swimming in the roped off area where much of the underwater plant growth had been cleared away. My friend went under and hit something hard before touching bottom. We called my brother over to investigate, as he was wearing a mask and flippers. Something (turned out to be a baby 4ft alligator) bit his flipper and wouldn't let go. We were freaking out, but the dads standing on shore, who had seen the baby, thought it the funniest thing! The baby just wanted to be left alone, nevertheless we weren't at all amused that our fathers had failed to mention its presence before we "found" it for ourselves!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Kelly
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| nevertheless we weren't at all amused that our fathers had failed to mention its presence before we "found" it for ourselves! |
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I guess not! Even a "little" four foot alligator can take a chunk out of you! Our parents all certainly DID seem more relaxed, didn't they?
I know in our case, not one of our collective parents in the neighborhood ever even blinked an eye when, thruout the summer, we'd LEAP onto our bikes and race out "en masse" to tailgate the mosquito-spraying trucks, weaving in and out of their spewing white fumes. When the cry went up, "The Mosquito Man is here", man, it was like the Pied Piper of Hamelin had come to town... Nowdays, I don't even allow spot spraying for bugs in our house or yard, let alone tailgating the Mosquito Man  . My how times have changed.
In reading "Last Child", it strikes me that most of the interviewees spoke of childhoods very similar to those we've mentioned on this thread. Louv points out that even for "city kids", in the past, most people had a grandparent or an aunt or uncle who was still connected to the land thru farming or a similar agricultural activity. According to the author, that has changed dramatically today, they don't even take a census among farmers anymore. Among our group, how many of us still have immediate family (siblings/parents/aunts&uncles/grandparents) on farms?
Kelly in FL
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Last Child in the Woods--book study
