Yes indeed, today is National Watch a Squirrel Day! How does that relate to having fun as a family? Well, how about heading out as a family to do just that – watch a squirrel? We sometimes forget as adults how much pleasure there can be in slowing down and doing something as simple as observing nature. Here in London, Ontario we have TONS of squirrels. There’s a gray one and a black one that have been living in my backyard for quite some time now. Sometimes when I’m sitting in my studio, I’ll take a break by staring out the window for a while and those squirrels provide plenty of amusement. They chase each other around like they’re playing tag, sometimes scrambling behind one of the trees as if in a game of hide and seek.
Flickr, Dominic’s pics
You can turn this into an educational activity by learning a few squirrel facts to share with your child while you watch them and by encouraging them to talk about what they observe. Have a friendly contest to see who can name the most types of nuts. Some nuts will float – do a little science experiment when you get back home by testing to see which ones in your pantry float and which don’t – you can even make predictions before testing your hypothesis! Scatter some peanuts around and have each person attempt to pick up as many as they can – wearing mittens to try to simulate what it would be like to do so as a squirrel! Or simply observe them and enjoy the quiet moment with your child.
Flickr, Binary Ape
No squirrels around where you live? Celebrate Watch a Duck day instead! Take some stale bread or crackers with you and give the ducks a little treat as you observe them. Maybe you’re lucky enough to live by an ocean and you can go have Watch a Whale Day or Watch a Dolphin Day or something like that. The point is to take some time to slow down, observe the wildlife around you, and share the experience with your family.
(Now that I’ve been talking about squirrels, I have the sound of that dog from Up saying “Squirrel!” stuck in my head!)
This blog post is part of a month long series. It’s a blog hop of sorts – many different bloggers are taking part, presenting a variety of topics in a 31 day series.
To check out the other participants in this, go here:
http://www.thenester.com/2011/09/31-days-participants.html
To catch up on the previous posts in my series, 31 Days of Family Fun, go here:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/31-days-of-family-fun-the-basics/
While you’re here, if you like what you see, I’d love for you to become a follower/subscriber of my blog!
thesimpleessentials (@sweetnenn) says
I did not know that this type of day of celebration existed. I think it’s nice to take time to appreciate nature. Maybe we should have a national bird watching day where people came to the parks and took photographs of birds.