Outdoor Adventures in the Fall

Fall in North Carolina is glorious. Part of the wonder is coming out of the oppressive heat of summer into the cool, sunny clear air of Fall. Gorgeous days pass and the greens and dull browns of late summer start turning to oranges, reds and yellows. I love this time of year. Knowing that the cold grey days are coming, I just want to grab the Fall and drink it in. It's sad that our school system mandates the resumption of serious study at the same time that most people just want to be outside enjoying the cool blue skies. If I were to choose a yearly program, unhindered by outside forces, I would have the kids hunker down to schoolwork June-August and December-February and leave Spring and Fall free for play, camping and other outdoor adventures.

We are still somewhat tied to those schedules, but my family has developed a certain number of "must do's" for the Fall. One is going to the NC State Fair where we see all kinds of crafts and livestock, ride the rides and eat a ton of really bad-for-you food. 

We always have to hit a pumpkin patch to do a corn maze and get some pumpkins to carve. Part of the ritual of this for me is roasting those pumpkin seeds (yum) and also getting some pie pumpkins so I can make everything from pumpkin pie to pumpkin muffins. 

(Where's Waldo?)












This year we added another activity, which I am so glad we could find the time to do. There is a non-profit called Schoolhouse of Wonder based on the Eno River in Durham. They run summer camps, track-out camps, and weekly adventure school days. I love visiting the Eno River, but it is a bit far for us, so I was trilled to see that they are offering some Outdoor Adventure Days down in Raleigh at Schenck Forest (owned by NC State). For a reasonable fee you can drop the kids off with some really great instructors for a full day of outdoor adventure. This can involve anything from learning about edible plants and fire making skills, to group games, stream stomping and mud fights. They promise to bring the kids back dirty, tired and happy. We took advantage of one of these days this week and that is exactly how the kids came back.  It sure helped that the weather was beautiful, and the day outside was a rare treat for them.



I can't help but wish I had been given these kinds of opportunities as a kid. From middle-school on, I knew I wanted to work with animals or in the field of Biology, but I never got a chance to really explore some natural environments until I was in college. I know I'm an anomaly of your typical female, but the first time I got to go wade through a Florida swamp with my Botany instructor I thought I had died and gone to heaven! 

My kids know several ways to make a fire, they know most of the local birds, they know how to avoid nasty things like poison ivy, poisonous snakes and black widows, and they are not afraid to go tromping through the woods and make a shelter out of branches and leaves. I LOVE that they can do all of this, and I LOVE that homeschooling has opened up opportunities such as this one to them. 

Of-course the bonus selfish reason I had for signing them up was to have almost a whole day to myself... a rare treat for a homeschool mom! Part of me wishes I could have joined them though. I haven't worked in field research for years, but I'm still a biology geek at heart. 

There are other opportunities for this kind of thing around of-course (Piedmont Wildlife Center, Clapping Hands Farm), and some of them are a bit cheeper. I do like the facilitators Schoolhouse of Wonder has, and it is convenient for those living in the Raleigh/Cary/Durham/Chapel Hill area.

If you live somewhere where the weather is nice right now and haven't done so already, get out and enjoy it! Life is too short to miss seeing that red-tailed hawk or soaking up some sunshine. Get out of the man-made environments for a while. It'll be good for your body, mind and soul.