Super-Saturated Learning Solution: Unschool at the Nature Center

The first day with a chill in the morning air, a hint of my favorite season coming around the bend, we decided to scrap our day's lesson plans for a visit to our local nature center. 

We could  have spent the whole day there.  In a way, it felt like we did. 


We sat in a canoe and talked about the Muskogee/Creek Indians.  We pretended to be Muskogee and fished in an imaginary river, teaching the children of our tribe all about each imaginary fish we caught.

We went on a scavenger hunt to find ten activities we could do to get outdoors, then went on another scavenger hunt to find items in nature that started with each letter of the alphabet.  We only found 10 letters, but had a great time gaining an understanding of everything that can be counted as part of "nature."

T: Tarantula

B: Bumblebee

We looked at Starfish under heavy-duty magnification and talked about the fascinating way they feed, discussed invertebrates with shells while observing a thorny oyster, and even delved into the Fibonacci Sequence while peering at a Cat Eye shell.

We sat by a marsh and used everyday objects to make the mating calls of four different species of frog in the hopes of attracting some to where we were sitting.  Later, we thought we heard the call of one of them - even if it was only our imagination, it was a unique opportunity to put our new-found knowledge to use.

reading about frog mating calls

We played with models of frogs at different stages in their life cycle and talked about why amphibians like frogs might prefer to hide in the mud on a hot bright afternoon like the one we were experiencing.

We discovered the river that used to be the natural boundary between the Muskogee/Creek and Cherokee Nations in Georgia and ate our lunch in a shaded pavilion by the water.

Finally, we rounded out our day with some math as the J-Rex chose and paid for an item from the gift shop with the coins she's been receiving as an allowance.

On the way home, we talked about our adventure, recalling all the fun new facts we'd learned.  We only spent a few hours, but we learned like it had been twice as long: We created our very own, super-saturated learning solution, the knowledge precipitating out of us as we shared our day with the rest of the family that night.

The lesson plans may be there to keep our learning on track, but the Nature Center is there to keep our learning alive.