forest bathing for kids Archives - Forest Bathing Central

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I was just reading some Aldo Leopold, as any good nature literature lover, as he describes history through the ring-span of a tree.

In A Sand County Almanac, Leopold describes cutting down a dead oak.

He explains, in detail, the events that happened in the surrounding land, that even indirectly affected the tree. He also describes the conditions through which the little acorn had to survive in order to take hold.

It’s really a beautiful few pages. He begins with this excerpt:

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.

To avoid the second, he should lay split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.

I feel like right now, during this quarantine, no words have rung truer.

We all feel right now how fragile our entire world is. We have never felt so vulnerable or acutely aware of the processes that must happen in order for toilet paper to get to your toilet paper holder.

Spiritual dangers, indeed.

But then, he describes the saw cutting through layers of history, one year or decade at a time:

…and then on a crisp winter’s day, we laid a newly filed saw to its bastion base.

Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer.

We sensed that these two piles of sawdust were something more than wood, that they were the integrated transect of a century, that our saw was biting its way, stroke by stroke, decade by decade, into the chronology of a lifetime written in concentric annual rings of good oak.

If you want to hear the whole story, here, let me read it to you…

I just love this idea of keeping a ring-span record, a chronology in concentric rings, so I put together a nature chronicling exercise below in honor of this beautiful concept.

Tree Ring-Span Journaling Exercise:

Grab your nature journal and locate a tree in your own yard. (This is especially ideal when you plant a new tree.)

If you’re using an existing tree, guess how old your tree is. You don’t need to be precise. Any guess is okay.

If you want to be particular, or give your kids an interesting science project, you can measure the girth and make an estimation from there based on this guide.

Then, draw the same number of rings on a new sheet or use our free tree ring printable.

Draw an arrow to the outermost rings and describe what the tree has witnessed in the last year or two.

Then, make your way inward and describe what history the tree holds from years and decades past.

You could look through your local department of natural resource’s records for relevant events that have happened in your area and plot them on your ring map.

Otherwise, you can scrapbook the major events that have happened in your life through the tree rings.

In honor of this exercise, I started a page in my nature journal for a tree we planted just 2 years ago with a quick Instax picture. It already holds a few stories in its tiny little trunk.

The tree was a gift for my husband. He asked for a red maple. I got him a red maple. He told me that wasn’t right. He wanted a type of maple that carries red leaves. Hehe.

This year, of course, our tree stands undeterred by the great COVID-19 quarantine of 2020 that will end up in history books and in the spaces between the tree rings.

Wouldn’t this be a really neat surprise to leave the next homeowners of the house?

Many of us leave behind the notches on the wall showing our kids’ growth, swatches for the paint we used on the walls, and a list of numbers for contractors. How special would it be for a new homeowner to receive a sweet little tree diary like this? A reminder of all the stories the place holds.

Homeschool Tree Ring Science

Just a note about homeschooling, since most of the world is encountering that right now…

You can tie all of this into a fun little tree ring unit of study for kids of any age.

You can incorporate the tree ring printable from here, the February passage from Sand County Almanac I read above, a sketchbook, and a few trips outside in your curriculum.

For the younger crowd, just keep it simple and teach them about the basic concept of tree rings. Find a stump or a slab of wood and count the rings. You can also make bark rubbings with the side of a crayon in your sketchbook.

Elementary age kids can use the tree ring printable to study the parts of a tree trunk. They can also try the tree aging exercise I mentioned earlier.

High schoolers can study the literature and more about Aldo Leopold. They can also do a more in-depth tree science study and keep a more advanced nature journal.

You can easily encapsulate math, art, science, and literature with this unit. Fun stuff!

Final thoughts

I hope this short literature study has your mind buzzing with thoughts and ideas. I hope you never look at tree rings the same after this!

Please stop back here and let me know how you’re using this exercise (otherwise I’ll never know!) and ask any question you have. I love hearing from you!

From my roots to yours,

Jess

Weaving wilderness traditions into your family’s story

When I was younger, my parents took us every year to Uncle Bud’s cabin.

The cabin was tucked deep into the woods of northern Wisconsin.

A place where the maintained highways we started on gradually faded into dirt roads and the tended farmlands faded into untamed wilderness.

The get-togethers at Uncle Bud’s were sort of an extended family reunion on my dad’s side.

There were no restrictions on who was welcome. The cabin home was open to extended family and whoever they brought with. I love that feeling of invitation.

And Uncle Bud’s kitchen was always bursting with as much food as anyone’s heart contented.

When you walked in, you were enveloped into an aroma and inviting atmosphere like none other.

My parents tell me they had every meat available from duck to pork, but I’m sure I just grabbed a burger and ran off.

I remember a screened-in porch where all the kids tended to gather and play like we’d always been best friends. We were all probably related somehow, but had no idea how and it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t long before we made our way outside for long walks through the color-changing forest. There were trails everywhere and I just remember the smell of fall leaves and the colors and the expanse.

We often accompanied grandma through the woods, where we came across several abandoned cabins and trailers.

We always peeked inside and wondered at the stories there and the previous inhabitants.

I remember peering through open windows to cabin floors littered with fall leaves and a random fork here and exposed bedspring there.

Places you could definitely plot a horror story in.

Have you ever come across abandoned houses and wondered what was inside?

Yeah, we got to explore those.

I remember coming to a pond with a canoe where our dad once rowed us out to a little island and explored that too. Apparently, the island was a boy scout camping destination.

A few times, I brought my best friend along on the trip.

She and I spent hours exploring and pretending and hiding and seeking.

One time we were sure we spotted a ghost. We can both tell you the details of that to this day.

Another time, my grandma offered to stay overnight with us at the cabin, but someone’s mention of coyotes and bears gave me too much of a scare to stay.

A few years later, I hear, Uncle Bud got very sick and his kids took over the cabin and the reunions stopped.

The longing for the wilderness

But my memories of that place tugged harder and harder at my heart every year.

That experience and those memories were major contributors to developing my love of nature.

An integral lead-up to Forest Bathing Central itself!

Now, I don’t normally get swept into the longings of nostalgia, but my memories of Uncle Bud’s had me so tightly gripped by the heart, that I couldn’t just let those memories die.

Once my own son came along, I started to really think about how our everyday and special activities formulate the basis of his own memories.

I started to think: What fond memories do I want my own children to remember when they grow up?

Ah, one of a parent’s greatest responsibilities and opportunities. Helping formulate a child’s memories.

I know for sure I want nature to be an integral part of those memories.

How we created our own wilderness traditions

So, I started thinking about how I could recreate some of the elements of those October traditions from Uncle Bud’s with my own children.

So, I started to plan yearly cabin trips for our own family.

First, I hopped on HomeAway and AirBnB to find a cabin in the woods.

We found one amazing place a short half-hour ride from home, but once our second baby came along, the steep ladder loft became a bit too dangerous.

So, we found another place a bit further from home, 1 full mile off the road, with modern amenities, a trout stream, giant picture windows, woods everywhere, trails and some very kindred hosts.

This is where my own family’s memories begin.

It’s perfection.

We’ve taken a weekend every October for the past three years to stay there.

I try to fill the cabin with the smells of good food.

And wrap us all in comfy blankets and slippers.

And we all tuck in the well-heated cabin at night to watch movies with tea and popcorn.

During the day, we often step outside the door and take lots of walks on the trails and down to the stream.

We build campfires and gather bits of nature.

When we head home on Sunday after languishing over breakfast and a slow morning, we feel fully slowed and filled with fresh autumn air.

Other wilderness tradition ideas:

I’ve also built a few other traditions for my children around nature and the wilderness:

Every year, we go to a friend’s huge bonfire with tons of food and people and a kids Halloween scavenger hunt through the dark woods.
In August, we always have a Perseid picnic. It’s a fun reason to stay up late, witness the natural wonder of a meteor shower, and experience all the unexpected details.
We also just started having a fun full moon party in the summer. My daughter talks about this every time she sees a full moon now. I made a moon playlist on Spotify that we danced to under the light of the moon. We explored different ways to catch moonbeams and read moon-themed library books.

It was magical!

{Here’s a video version of my story}

I take these traditions very seriously.

These are the types of experiences that define our childhood and who we are!

I’m actively instilling this nature devotion into my children with our wilderness traditions.

I’m curious,

Does this inspire you to create new wilderness traditions with your own kids?

Does your family already have some wilderness traditions you could share?

I’d love to hear about them in the comments;)

Tag: forest bathing for kids

Tree Ring-Span Storytelling