An exciting development this month – Nature Tots is officially online at www.naturetots.com! While it is still a work in progress, we’re thrilled to have an online presence and thank you again to Dennis Derammelaere of Session Creative for setting it up.

We’re also getting ready to do what will probably be our last session of the year, “The Senses”, which starts October 7th. We will learn each week how we can use all of our five senses in the outdoors to learn about nature. Children will discover how we can learn much more about our environment besides just looking at it, in this hands-on session that will focus on hearing, smelling, and feeling the world around us.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the “Bees” class last month in conjunction with Cotati Creek Critters! We had so much fun learning about pollination and taking a nature walk around the Laguna de Santa Rosa trail that we’re considering doing a session there to make it easier for local Rohnert Park/Cotati residents to participate. If you would be interested in this location, please call or send an email to stephanie@naturetots.com.

See you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere

As the weather starts turning colder, help the non-migrating birds stay fed by making a bird feeder! You don’t need a fancy store-bought birdfeeder, and your children will have more fun making one. Try spreading peanut butter on pinecones, roll in birdseed, and hang on a tree, or string peanuts on wire or heavy string. You can also recycle all sorts of containers into birdfeeders. For example, hang a glass jar horizontally and fill with bird seed, fill empty pie plates with seed, or wash out an empty paper milk container, make an opening towards the bottom, poke a bamboo skewer, dowel or chopstick through the bottom so the birds have somewhere to perch and fill with seed.

Then, all you have to do is wait to see what birds come and eat. Try to see which birds eat what foods, and which birds might be winter newcomers. Also, this is a good time of year to watch migrating birds fly South for the Winter. 

“If we all give up one napkin a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper waste from going to landfills each year.” This quote by Elizabeth Rogers, co-author of The Green Book, the Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time, is a great reminder of how a small act can make a big difference. This month, teach your children how they can help reduce waste by using cloth napkins. Make it special by letting them pick out their own color. Assign each family member their own color napkin and reuse them until they need to be washed. You can even incorporate cloth napkins into school lunches. Check out www.fabkins.com, a company started by local Marin Moms for some adorable napkins your kid’s will love and can even help them teach their peers about reducing waste!