For the last couple of weeks Logan and I have been walking to Africa each day. Ok, we’re not really walking to Africa. He thinks the block behind our house is Africa and I haven’t had the heart to tell him otherwise. It is only about a ten minute walk, unless he “rides his horse,” which tends to speed the trip up a bit, but these walks have been such a great experience for both of us. Not only does it give us a little bit of exercise, especially when we ride our horses there, but it also gives me a chance to talk to him about his day.
I love hearing stories about what he did at preschool. It also gives him a chance to talk to me about things that are bothering him. The other day as we were taking our walk he told me that he was sad because he had woken up the babies in the other room while he was at preschool that day. Something seemingly small to you, might really be bothering your child. These little walks give us the opportunity to talk about those things.
I also love to use this time together to do little life lessons. Yesterday on our way to Africa Logan saw several cigarette butts on the ground in front of one of the fields. He asked me what they were and I was able to talk about why smoking is bad for your body and other ways that we can keep our bodies healthy. The day before that we picked sunflowers in the field and counted the petals. Other times we have practiced sounding out the names of the streets or played the ABC game and looked for different letters around us. Logan also loves to play “I Spy” on these walks. This has made both of us become more observant of our surroundings. Today I think we will gather some different colored leaves and make a picture of them when we get home.
Walking to Africa is something we will both remember for the rest of our lives. It is something we both look forward to, simply because we are doing it together.