The Forest

The kids have been enjoying playing in the woods behind our house lately. They haul shovels, rakes, and buckets out of the shed and dig for worms, rocks, and "dinosaur bones" all the live long day. The problem is that up until recently they were doing all of their digging in our neighbors yard. His wooded area is a lot more cleared out and the kids preferred to play there rather than in our woods.

So, this weekend John and I decided to clear out an area in the woods for the kids to play and dig that was officially on our property. We used all of our cutting tools and made a clearing and then a path back into the woods. We gave them a tour and gave them some ground rules and cut them loose.
They were in the woods for 5 hours today! They didn't even come in for lunch or naps! It was amazing. After an hour or so I went back to check on them and they had dug up huge rocks, put them in a circle, and built a fire pit. Then they broke up sticks and put them inside the fire ring in a perfect boy scout pyramid! (They rearranged things in between my first visit and when I snapped this picture with my cell phone) They told me that everyone had a job and they were using teamwork to get it all done!


After I picked my chin up off the ground I made my way back to the house and got a ton of housework done! I am loving the way that the kids are learning to play outside by themselves and I don't have to be worried about them getting hit by cars all of the time! I can not believe that we are at that point now! A few years ago it felt like I would be trapped in kid playland forever! "Watch me Mom!" "Look at ME!" "Mom, Why aren't you watching me?" "Hey here I am!"

Now I can get some stuff done while they are awake! Holy cow we have turned a corner! We are in good shape as long as the kids don't find some matches.....