Noah has always loved to be outdoors, but what we have been realizing more and more now that he is walking and a bit more independent is just how much he loves nature. Specifically, how in awe of trees he is! When we go on little hikes with Noah in the carrier, he spends the whole walks looking up into the trees and exclaiming ‘ooooooooooooh!’
Recently, my husband and I took him to the playground near Spencer school. We haven’t been to this park since the summer when they had the water on, but the last time we were there Noah seemed to really enjoy both the water and the play equipment. It’s a good playground form him because it is especially made for toddlers and has smaller equipment that he can easily get on and off of. However, this time, Noah barely spent 5 minutes on the playground. All he wanted to do was walk around the grassy part of the park and look up at the trees.
He was perfectly happy to just walk around, look up at the trees, listen to the leaves rustle in the wind and touch the bark. It didn’t matter how much we tried to coax him back over to the playground, he just kept going back to the trees. This has lead me to the conclusion that having a nature section on Noah’s busy board would be really interesting for him. Luckly, my mother has some extra tree branch cuts in her classroom that I could quite easily glue on. I could even put some of the smaller cuts on with a bolt so that Noah could turn them around and they would be a little bit more interactive.
Noah at the park with his dad looking at trees and avoiding the playground
Noah looking up into the trees and saying ‘oooooooooh!’
Keeping in the theme of nature, it might also work to glue some rocks or polished stones onto the board near the magnifying glass I have already decided to include. This could be like a little science center. Things are starting to come together!
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