Seal Bay Nature Park Beach Trail

There are a few special spots in our collection of adventures that spark imagination and make the tiny person buzz uncontrollably at the mere mention of a potential day spent.

Seal Bay Nature Park and its winding, lush, bit of a butt-kicker wander down the Main Beach (Don Apps) Trail to one of the most beautiful [...]

Summer NeighbourWood Walk No. 4 – Fanny Bay

Note to self: wine with the girlfriends after a long day on the trail is excellent fun at 9 p.m., not so excellent fun at 6 a.m.:)

A small group of super intrepid walkers made it out to our fourth NeighbourWood Walk yesterday, which took us to the far south end of the Valley and a [...]

Paradise Meadows

With the wet, cold, L-O-N-G Winters we’ve had the last couple of years, we can only hope that Summer lingers a bit longer than usual.
Personally, I hope the sunshine puts in some overtime this year so we can spend some long days wandering the forest of Strathcona Provincial Park taking in the absolute magic that [...]

Book Review – Running Through The Meadow

Since I finished reading Food Not Lawns by H.C. Flores I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the changing face of yards.
When I was a kid, a big yard, perfectly mowed and glistening green was the envy of every parent in the neighbourhood. But, it wasn’t the manicured lawn I loved.
I spent most of [...]

Announcing the Summer NeighbourWood Walk Series

It’s with some serious excitement that I announce our Summer NeighbourWood Walk series.
After such a fantastic response to our first series and some disappointment about our time choice, we knew we were going to have to plan for two walks this Summer.
So, here’s the scoop.
Our NeighbourWood Walk series will run for eight Wednesdays this Summer [...]

Discovering Living Books

When we first started talking about homeschooling our daughter, I started to read.
I researched nearly every homeschooling philosophy out there, scanned blogs, subscribed to newsletters, checked out and pored through a huge pile of books from the library and realized pretty darn quickly that we are an eclectic secular homeschooling family.
There are bits and pieces [...]

Bee-Free Backyard BBQ

* Fact: Most flowering plants require pollination in order to reproduce.
* Fact: The relationship between plants and their pollinators dates back 140 million years. Dinosaurs, bees and butterflies once lived together.
* Fact: Pollinators bring the pollen from one plant to another and in return get food in the form of nectar that the plants [...]

The Birds and the Bees Pollinate Please

The rather frigid nature of our Spring this year may have you thinking twice about the season (although the shot above from local mom Krista gives me hope). But, even as we continue to scrape the occasional frost off of our windshields in the mornings, Mother Nature is waking her kiddos up from their long [...]

Spots to Watch Spring Migration

Today’s comment challenge: Where are some of your favourite wildlife watching spots on Vancouver Island and other places around the world?
Did you check out the great thread about food and your family yesterday? Thanks to everyone who jumped in. And the winner of a cool dino puzzle is…Stacey. Wahoo. Boynton books up for grabs today.

There [...]

The Parents Primer for North Island Birthday Party Locales

If there was ever one day that makes kiddos screech with excitement and parents cringe just a bit with knowing the work that will go into it all, it has got to be your tiny person’s birthdays and the ensuing parties that make childhood sweet.
Finding the perfect locale to celebrate that special day can be [...]

Geography Awareness Week

What is the capital of Nepal? (Kathmandu)
Where are the Farallon Islands? (just off the coast California near San Francisco)
What is the tallest waterfall in the world? (Angel Falls in Venezuela)
If you are like me, it’s a good thing the Internet exists. Otherwise, world geography – as fascinated as I am by it – would be [...]

The Snack-O-Lantern

OK, so my guilt got the best of me (easy to do really). So, even though I attempted to skip out today, I decided to wow you with a super cool eco-minded idea from one of my very favourite family-friendly get-your-kiddos-outside sites Green Hour.
We carved five pumpkins this year. They kept showing up around our [...]

Making Bats for Spooky Learning

When I sent away for the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s free Wild About Bats package a few months ago, I sincerely wondered what I would ever do with it.
The tiny person was not in any way interested in flying spooky creatures at that point and, much like the snake one I also sent away for, the [...]

Halloween Spookytacular – Taking A Break

We have a mantra around this house – When the sun is out, so are we.
It’s especially true as the gray of the rainy season starts to set in. I begin each day this time of year with a check of the skyline from our back deck to see if the sun is peeking out [...]

Nine Fall Comox Valley Family Walks (Rain or Shine)

This may seem like a silly topic on such a GEEEEEEEOOOOOOOORRRRRRGeous day.
But, I’ve had a whack of requests lately to pull together a single list of family-friendly walks that are do-able in all sorts of weather.
So, here it is.
9. The Courtenay Riverwalk including the Courtenay Estuary Loop: This is by far one of the most [...]

Get Away – Butterfly World

Butterflies hold an honoured place in our house.
As the story goes, my grandfather who passed away more than 20 years ago, returns to everyone in the family from time to time in the form of a beautiful butterfly.
I’m a firm believer in his visitation policy as on my wedding day, just moments before my dad [...]

It’s All About Dad – Learn to Fish

You don’t need to be a sportsman to love what a fishing pole does for a family.
As a kid, some of the daddy-daughter moments I remember best are the fishing trips, sitting along mountain rivers, simply not worried at all about whether or not we got a single bite. Every time my pop dug out [...]