Park Hill Adventure

Adventure

 

Mud, shovels, bugs. Roly-polys discovered under a rock. A "forest fire lookout". Lake Louise, the perfect climbing tree and a stream bed with a bridge to cross. A covered bridge just made for picnics, or a favorite reading spot. A loft that can be transformed into a plane ---- this is Park Hill Adventure. This is a time to become a paleontologist, an archeologist, a meteorologist, or a botanist. It is a time to construct a weather station from which to read the clouds, or predict and graph the current weather. To become aware of habitats and ecosystems by observing our fresh water aquarium and its inhabitants. To learn the importance of writing down those observations. As children, we explore this incredible world in which we all live ----- "how many eyes does a butterfly have?"; "is the sun as hot as lava?"; "how high is the highest cloud?"; "how can we make a running bird feeder that squirrels can't catch?"; "why is the upside-down catfish not upside-down?"; "how can a butterfly breathe through it's tummy?"; "can we do the tornado dance again?". What a privilege it is to share a child's view of our planet, from Denver, Colorado to Peru, Ethiopia, Ireland, England, Sri Lanka, China and beyond. The clock says the school day has passed, but it seems only a moment since the childern posed questions that took us to distant places in search of answers. The simplest ah-ha moments: "Look Weezie, look, I built this house"!; "It's a baby daddy long legs"; "It was hard work, but I did it by myself"; "I wish I was a fish, I would breathe in the water"; "Do we steal honey from the bees? I think we do"; "I hiked 4 miles with my dad!" ----- awaken within us a teacher's delight in the "awesome" as seen through a child's eyes.