This month has seen a flurry of media activity, with Nature Tots being mentioned in the August issue of North Bay Biz magazine (www.northbaybiz.com), this Sunday’s Press Democrat (www.pressdemocrat.com), and in the August issue of Sonoma County Family Life Magazine (www.sonomafamilylife.com)!

We have one of our first free classes coming up, thanks to a donation from Novato-based Circle Bank! The session, called “Our Feathered Friends” will be held Thursdays at Ladybug Park in Rohnert Park from 10:00 to 11:00, starting 9/24 through 10/15. In this class, children will learn all about birds, including attracting and feeding birds in your own backyard, and life cycles and seasonal patterns of birds. Class size is limited, and is on a first come first served basis (with pre-registration) so if you’re interested in signing up, please contact me at 707-333-1331.

We’re also starting a new class on 8/19 called “Web of Life” in which children will learn about the relationships between plants and animals along the food chain. We’ll learn about various animal species, and how they (and us!) are all connected.

Lastly, I wanted to pass on some information about an organization called Kids for Peace, mentioned to me by Shirley Weyker, a mother of one of my recent students. Their mission is to cultivate every child’s innate ability to foster peace through cross-cultural experiences and arts, service and environmental projects. I especially loved their ideas about how to care for our earth, found here: caring for earth ideas. A great time to check out the organization and get involved is on their Great Kindness Challenge on August 8th. (for more information see www.greatkindnesschallenge.org). The event will start at 10:00am at the Howarth Park boat ramp. For more information or to sign up, please contact Shirley at shirlthewhirl@hotmail.com.

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere

Well, summer is officially in full-swing and we’ve been having a lot of fun in our current “pebbles and plants” session at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa!

Painting pots for our bean sprouts!

The pebbles and plants session was a new one I recently developed, and whenever I put together a new class I research various books that would be both age-appropriate and of course fit into the theme of that particular class. Often I find more than I need and have to narrow the list down to the four I end up using in a session. I found more than expected for this session, and wanted to share three that I did not have a chance to read in the session, but really liked. The first is called Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor which goes through the “rules” for finding the perfect rock for you. The second one is If you Find a Rock by Peggy Christian which goes through the different “types” of rocks (i.e., skipping rock, wishing rock, hiding rock, etc.) and includes great photographs. The third is The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle which follows a seed’s journey on becoming a flower. This book’s theme was very appropriate for the class, but I felt the text was a bit long to hold the attention of all the children in the class. However, if read one-on-one it should be fine, and the other two books are also great for preschool aged-children. All three are available through the Sonoma County library system.

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere 

Happy (almost) Summer! We are currently in the middle of our “Creepy Crawlies” class in Rohnert Park (see picture below) and have had fun exploring the Laguna de Santa Rosa, looking for spiders, spittlebugs, bees, butterflies and other things that buzz around us. We released about 1,500 (literally!) ladybugs, and even got lucky with seeing a few baby frogs and some tadpoles! 

Making Caterpillars!

Our next session is starting up on June 17^th at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa and is called “Pebbles and Plants”. In this session, covering both rocks and various vegetation, children will be encouraged to stop and look at different types of rocks and plants species, while learning about how rocks are formed, how plants grow, and how to identify different types of plant life! (Please note, this class is full – if interested, please call to be on the waiting list).

On the business-side of things, we just completed our first grant application and are also happy to report a generous donation by Circle Bank which will enable us to offer a free session in the fall (stay-tuned for upcoming details). It is obviously a challenging year to attempt to get funding for a new non-profit and if anyone has any ideas, would like to donate, or know someone who does, please contact me!

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere