Beautiful Day

Last week, during my home visit with the H. family, we went on a nature walk around what initially seemed like a very urban, concrete laden, apartment complex. The family was very excited to take an opportunity to go outside to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather, and get a little exercise. The two brothers, J.- age 33 months and D.- age 15 months, walked slowly down the sidewalk looking through the homemade binoculars that we made, peering through the magnifying glass, and picking up small samples of their discoveries to put in the egg carton that we brought for our specimens. Mom used lots of great descriptive words to describe everything that her boys were seeing, and also practiced stretch and parallel talk to expand the boys’ vocabulary. The boys were able to discover so many interesting things, and their mom was so surprised at the amount of "nature" they found. Mom said that she did not expect to find much besides a little grass and a couple of rocks, but instead we found pinecones, leaves, cicada shells, small flowers, bark, feathers, and the remnants of a birds nest up in a tree. It was such a beautiful day, and Mom said that she couldn't wait to go on another walk to find new, fun, things to talk about.

JT