Explore

My kids love playing outside but it takes some effort to get them there. We don’t have the best backyard. It’s been known to have a pretty bad mosquito infestation on occasion (although this year isn’t so horrible) therefore we don’t like spending a lot of time there. So we spend a lot of our outdoor time elsewhere.

I love taking the boys on adventures. Almost daily I take them somewhere outdoors so they can play, no matter the weather. We started this routine during winter when we would bundle up and try to plan our outing during the warmest part of the day. Now that it’s summer we make sure to pack plenty of water and try to get out early in the day before the heat is too dangerous.

We don’t always have a plan the kids know when I say we’re going to explore that means “get in the car, we’re going to a park”. We try to visit as many different parks as possible. Thankfully, Raleigh and the surrounding area has a lot of parks. We visit a new place almost every week and still haven’t even scratched the surface. I find that it’s good to explore new parks regularly because they boys get bored going to the same park every day. Although they do have their favorites.

We find new bits of nature everywhere we go. And every exploration lends itself to new discoveries and learning opportunities.