Yet another home school activity our family has been able to do is called "Adventures in Nature" and is sponsored by Wind Cave National Park which borders both Hot Springs and Buffalo Gap. Every other Tuesday kids ages 3-10 are invited to attend a 2 hour activity time where they learn more about nature, specifically related to Wind Cave.
We went last week and the theme was migration and hibernation. It was pretty fun for the little three and definitely geared to small kids. They were each asked to a draw a picture of their own home which led to talking about the different homes and habitats the park animals have. It's was bit too 'green' and 'eco-' driven for my tastes but thankfully they were not pushing the evolution agenda so we may go a few more times.
They had several different activities planned for the kids - all about animals. Here one of the park rangers read a story about a turtle to the varied (polite way of saying interesting and weird) group.
Then another one of the rangers pulled out a bin full of animal skins for the kids to look over. This part they LOVED! The animals had all been hit by a car (even a buffalo....that had to hurt), and the kids job was to feel them and determine if it was their winter coat or summer coat.
They also took them outside for a couple games that were....um, silly, to say the least.
Then we went on a small hike where the rangers pointed out things of interest and different animal tracks and dwellings of the deer, antelope, buffalo, foxes, mountain lions, rabbits, ground hogs, bats, etc. which are all animals found in Wind Cave National Park.
Most of the time the older two have several different activities geared for teens, while the younger ones don't have as many fun opportunities so it was a treat to have something just for them. Mommy is their usual entertainment=)
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