About Families in Nature

Families in Nature encourages families to experience the natural world together by examining the beauty and complexity of our local habitat. It is offered by Martha Webber, owner of 'Look and Listen', a small business that teaches natural interpretation by observing the wonderful variety of seasonal changes in Eastern Ontario plants and animals. Click here to visit 'Dandelion Jam', Martha's website.

In our walks we use awareness games such as "predator-prey camouflage" and other group exercises. Comfort and survival techniques are discussed, as well things to avoid (such as poison ivy, with or without its leaves). Survival nibbles are available but so are dangerous plants -- eat nothing you can't identify as edible.

Many uneasy eyes will be on us as we explore trails, so it is important to move quietly (stalk), talk softly to birds and squirrels, and be accepted by them as polite visitors. Remember, we are guests in their home. Individuals are encouraged to observe and share their discoveries.

Monthly Schedule:
First Sunday of the month, Carp Ridge Learning Centre
2386 Thomas Dolan Parkway, Carp, Ontario
Time: 1:30 pm Cost: $10 per family of four ($2 for each additional person)
Pre-registration is recommended. See our weather policy at bottom of page.

For further info call 613-839-1179 or email: forestpreschool@ecowellness.com

November 1: Introduction to the woods walk.
How not to get lost and what to do if it happens. Focus on fall colors, animals preparing for winter, middens where squirrels have feasted on acorns, storage of winter food, dry leaves to use in the camouflage game where the prey (kids) watch and wait, always keeping an eye on the predator (another volunteer). Basics on woods walking, how not to get lost and what to do if it happens. Wintergreen leaves for chewing and tea. Galls, a neat way to survive the winter from egg to winged adult. Animals preparing for hibernation, or migrating, or just keeping their trails open. Start a collection of leaf rubbings so that all trees are represented for identification in an album.

December 6: Prepare a Christmas Tree for the birds.
Bring strings of popcorn and cranberries, suet balls, etc. (no greasy doughnuts -- but how they like them). If any snow, look for tracks to learn what and where animals live in the woods. General discovery games. Build a debris shelter modeled on nests in trees that keep squirrels dry and warm in the coldest weather.

January 3: Tracking animals in the snow.
We figure out what they are doing, what they find too eat. Holes in a snowbank, or a bird dropping under an evergreen tree where grouse or twild turkeys spent the night. Twigs chewed by deer or rabbit are chewed differently, and the trails are different, easy to tell apart. Porcupines may be gnawing on tree branches. We look everywhere for clues to winter residents, dens are easy to find by trails in the snow.

February 7: Snowshoes for tracking, let's explore the winter woods.
Find out what the wildlife is up to, bring sunfower seeds for winter birds, do a wolf howl and listen for an answer, watch for wild turkey tracks or roosting birds who live there. Survival nibbles like basswood buds.

March 7: Signs of spring.
Chickadees calling "spring's here" regardless of how cold and stormy it is. Tap a maple tree, taste the sweet sap. Listen to the sound of fluids moving up inside a tree with (or without ) a stethoscope. Watch for herons returning -- they nest early on Carp Ridge. Beaver break the ice to come out from their lodges and in search of food (Lots of beaver ponds on the Ridge). Look under leaf cover and find green shoots, and invertebrates in various stage of development. Games such as 'build your own tree.' (Fun homework: watch the eastern sky for the bright star Arcturus, the first real promise of spring. It's in the Herdsman constellation, near the Big Dipper)

April 11: Nature alive!
Pussywillows and other tree flowers, birds return, animals well out of hibernation and hungry. Listen to a tape of frog calls, and identify the real calls that fill the air. Birds will be mating and nesting. Ducks and geese on the ponds. Bear are active and hungry -- find overturned rocks where they search for insects to eat. Beaver very active in all the ponds. Games: Bird Chorus, Bat Moth.

May 2: Spring flowers, survival nibbles, birds nesting.
Herons feeding their noisy young -- there are several heronrys on the Ridge. Lots of wild edibles around to sample (blueberry flowers are good eating). Many birds, including the whip-poor-will which calls at dusk. Games: Feeding Frenzy, Bird Bingo, and Nest Building: Birds find local materials and build secure, symmetrical nests using only their bills. Kids and parents are challenged, using all ten fingers, to gather materials and create a nest. Both May and June programs include identification of plants by structure and habitat, leaf exercises, and plant families. There will be different plants to observe each month.

June 6: Wild orchids, ladies's slippers, ponds full of activity. Birds are everywhere. We do a water study with nets and magnifiers. Identify what is found from reference cards and books. Activity is everywhere. We teach the "niche" exercise and see how much there is to discover in one little corner of the forest (it's pretty incredible). Make a food chain. Play a survival game. Play "owls & crows", a true- false game to find out what you remember from the winter trips.

Weather policy & cancellation: Families in Nature will be cancelled if the following environmental conditions are present; electrical storms, heavy rainfall, heavy snowfall, or temperatures below -20 degrees.

Please check Martha's website for info on whether the program will be cancelled that day or not. If we cancel for bad weather, Families in Nature will run the following Sunday at the same time.