Day 365: a whole year

A few vacation pictures for you to enjoy while I ramble on about this one year mark!

A whole year.

 
Of learning, crafting, exploring, attempting and being outdoors.

 

A year of challenging my skills and knowledge as an environmental educator.  

I have learned so much about what it takes to get little ones interested in and excited about nature.  

But I still have learned enough or taught enough.  

Raising responsible environmental citizens is a process that takes longer than just one year.  

People have asked me since I started this blog what will happen when I hit the one year mark and I have never had an answer. Until today... 

It occurred to me that their learning and my teaching does not stop today. I HAVE to keep going!  

Will I keep posting everyday? I think so. But maybe involve more guest posts and more links to resources.  
 

I am hoping that I still have something to offer all the moms and educators out there that read this little blog. And I know I have more to learn about early environmental education.
 

So, thats it. The journey continues. With more adventures, more learning, more reading, more exploring and discovering to come. I hope that our family continues to get "greener" everyday!

Now, for the winner! Dawn! Thanks for being a follower. Please email me within 24 hours with your mailing address to acknowledge the win, otherwise I will be forced to choose another winner!

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The Nitty Gritty!

So, some of the things that I learned on this camping trip....

1. Lifejackets are a MUST! We actually saw quite a few little kids that weren't wearing them which really surprised me. Not only is it SO much safer for the girls but since there was almost no current to the river where we were swimming I really didn't have to worry about them. I could sit on the side of the river, play in the rocks with Avery and not have to worry that Sam was in water up to her chest. It took a HUGE load of stress off of me and made the water play time so much more enjoyable.

2. The clamp on highchair is a must for all camping trips. It was so easy to plop Avery in that chair while I made meals, waited for meals to be ready or just to keep her occupied for a few minutes. I could not imagine having to eat all of those meals with Avery on my lap and the clamp on chair was super easy to pack.

3. Inside toys are worth packing. Sometimes they just need some quiet inside time before bed or early in the morning. Packing a few puzzles, markers, books and coloring books was a huge help for us several times throughout the trip.

4. If you have a hang-up about your kids going to bathroom outside GET OVER IT! When the bathroom is 100 yards away sometimes it is just easier to let them go behind a tree. Make sure they understand when it is appropriate to do this and help them so that they don't make a big mess of it but otherwise I don't see the harm.

5. Let go of the schedule. I went on the trip thinking the girls would still go to bed on time and would still get naps. Some of that happened, but not everyday all the time. Yes, they were a little extra crabby but not too bad and they have certainly caught up now. I think letting go of the stress of keeping to the schedule would have really helped me.

Any other thoughts on camping with kids?

Comments

[Debi]

Congratulations, mama! I'm so proud of you! We've been getting our "green time" every day now for some 4+ months & I'm learning a ton - just like you said. But with each day, there are new things to learn. After all, the kiddos are changing, too!

As for the question about changing your titles, I say go for it. This next year of blogging is a new adventure, so you needn't do things the same way.

Looking forward to the next phase of your bloggy growth! :)

[Virginia]

Congrats, Abbie! What an amazing accomplishment and commitment! You rock, mama!

[welcome to our wonderland]

congrats on the 1 year mark. :)

looks like you had a blast camping!

I say either way would be good you could just keep up the numbers or there was a blog that did this and after wards labeled each post year 2 day 1.

then I've seen blogs that just drop the year thing and just title post afterwards

I'm all for what ever is easiest on the blog author :)

I'll read either way

[Mama Pea Pod]

Congratulations, Abbie, what a wonderful accomplishment! You should feel so proud of yourself and of your girls!

Keep it coming!

[Tiffany's Toy Box]

DAY 365 -- Wow, I remember reading your blog posts at day 50! Amazing, really amazing, congratulations!! Now start Yr 2 Day 1!! Can't wait to keep reading!! xoxo

[Bruce mackay]

Go for it we camped almost every time we could when the children were small. They still talk about that as one of the best times of there lives.