The Country Life

So much education just...happens. Today was a good example of a science lesson that just happened & was a lot of fun. We took our mail out to the mailbox. In warm weather, it is a 5 minute walk to get to our mailbox and back. In snow, towing 2 little girls on an unplowed driveway, it takes about 10 minutes, LOL. On the way, we stopped to look at tracks. I couldn't believe how many creatures had paid a visit the night before! We found dog prints, of course (from our big goofy standard poodle). And we found deer prints. We saw prints from a rather large bird (not sure what). We also found some prints that looked like small cat prints (a neighbor's cat?) Some prints had five distinct little claw-like fingers that left 4 sets and ended at a tree. I have a lot to learn about wildlife, so I can only guess, but I'm thinking it was a raccoon. DDs also enjoyed watching themselves make tracks in the snow. It would be a fun project to research tracks and see if we can match some of them to what we find in our yard. Today we read the Night Tree by Eve Bunting. In it, a family decorates a tree in the woods with food for the wildlife. Here in the country, we could actually do that! At our house in the city, I'm sure we would've just fed neighbor cats, a few birds, and the occasional stray dog.