"Nature Buddies" Audubon Camp with Claire

Audubon has a "Nature Buddies" program that 2- and 3-year-olds can do with their parents, so this summer I decided it wasn't a bad idea to try that with Claire, as a way to ease her into preschool. While I'm sure Claire will do fine at preschool, one big worry I've had are the hikes! Claire's not the trooper that Elsa was at this age, that's for sure. She complains bitterly about having to walk further than 10 steps at the zoo, at the mall, etc. So I thought this would be a good way to give it a trial run.

The program is every morning for one week, Monday through Thursday, from 9 until 11:30, so it's not unlike preschool—I just got to be there along with her for the whole thing. She was super excited about it, and just went from one project to another in the classroom and in the playspaces. Painting, playdough, the discovery table, bubbles, and "planting flowers" (putting fake flowers into the sandbox) were all favorite activities for her.

On the first day's hike, she kept asking me when we were "going to go back there," and asking when the hike would be done. But by the second day, she had already stopped complaining, and by the third day, she was actually excited to line up and head out for the hike! I couldn't have been prouder of her.

During the course of the week, we hiked on the prairie, to Mystery Pond, and we even went up the tower. Here's a giant frog the teacher caught in her net at Mystery Pond.

Another very exciting project was that Claire got to "paint" a t-shirt with spray bottles. She loved it!

Although she ended up with more paint on her than on the shirt, I think.

So "Nature Buddies" was a great first Audubon experience for Claire, and it really eased my mind about her starting preschool in the fall. She's going to do wonderfully, I know it! And for what it's worth, it also gave me a lot more respect for what the teachers do. It's kind of exhausting being in a class full of 3-year-olds, every day for a week!