Death in the Meadows

This Wednesday we went for a hike with the Nature Tribe group at a natural area in the city.  Before we started out I found this dead vole with her still living babies suckling from her lifeless body.  

Caveboy wasn't interested in learning about it.  His favorite book these days is Who Pooped in the Park so I thought he would be excited to actually see an animal up close, but the tall grass was making it hard for him to walk and he just wanted to get back to the trail so he could run.

I didn't try to press the issue too much because I could see that he wasn't going to be able to pay attention.  We found plenty of tracks and scat later on the hike to talk about.  We saw some horses too.

He wasn't ready to focus on this little animal in the grass, but the older children were (ages 3-9 or so). They looked at the scene and discussed the meaning of it with each other.  One mentioned that he wished an owl would just take it.

That is part of the fun and the purpose of these hike: to build my children's village with people who take an interest in nature are willing to think about these things.

Kids: there are more interesting things in the ditch than on the trail

Later in the hike Caveboy did his best to keep up with the big kids.  Part of raising a conscious child is having the right big kids to try to keep up with.  Thank you to the NoCo Nature Tribe for letting us be part of the tribe.