Nature continues in winter

When the weather gets cold it's tempting to stay indoors, but in many ways nature is more visible in winter time. Birds are easier to see when the trees are bare. Animal tracks in snow are easy to follow, and animals are easy to spot with less foliage in which to hide.

Just yesterday on my front porch I heard the distinctive tap-tap of a woodpecker. My eyes followed the sound up a nearby tree and there it was - easy as pie. It would have been much harder to find it during the summer.

We've got nature activities and resources for all seasons on the Big Learning "Nature Activities for Kids" page:

http://www.biglearning.com/treasureoutdoors.htm

Learning in the real world.

When kids learn through real-world activities, they absorb new ideas as part of a big picture. For example, they don't have to learn measurement in school before they start cooking. They can start learning to cook with someone who knows how. When measurement comes up, the chef can show them then and there how to measure one and a half cups. Right away, they know important things about measurement: how to do it, why you do it, how you know you've done it correctly, and maybe what happens if you do it incorrectly. That's why learning in the real world easier than learning things abstractly and out of context. And there's quite a bit of research that says that real-world learning is learning that sticks. You can find out more on my Big Learning website.