Throughout the year we love to pack a bag and take a walk. A nearby forest is our favourite destination, we also enjoy going further afield, or even just exploring our neighbourhood. It is not unusual for us to get lost. In fact on a recent walk through a forest we walked and walked and walked and ended up walking for 3 hours before we found the car park again. It was worth it though. We stopped to look at trees, flowers and fairy tables (mushrooms), listen to the birds and we found a great bridge. My 4 year old asked the name of a flower, which was Forget-Me-Not. Every time she saw one after that she would bend down and say to the flower “I will never forget you, forget-me-not”.
Our closer to home walks are usually rather spontaneous. Heading out the door the famous last words are “Lets just go on a short walk”. An hour later we can see our house but have no idea how to cross the ditches that run through our land to the ocean, or how to get out of the field where the grass suddenly towers over my children’s heads. But we always have fun and learn plenty on these walks.
No matter the weather we are ready.
This bridge over the forest floor is so much fun. It twists and turns, there are big gaps in places and steep declines along the way. A great way to develop children’s balancing and motor skills as well as their sense of danger. 
Big rocks are great for climbing and jumping. In Iceland many people believe that so called Hidden People live in rocks like these. We didn’t see any this day and we hope we didn’t disturb them to much.
When the path becomes a struggle, help each other.
According to my children this is a delicacy is known as Hundasúra in Icelandic or Sheep’s Sorrel in English. These children who would not dream of putting a green “leaf” in their mouth at the dinner table, have no problem eating this. I have tried it and will stick to spinach.
My eldest daughter (6 at the time) found a stick, she said that we could use the stick to find a good place to have our picnic. She said there are some sticks that can find water, but her stick would lead us to the right place. Well, her stick did a great job because it led us here. To a sunny spot, hidden among the trees, with a few rocks that we could use for seats and tables. Later she left the stick for others to use.
Now that is a big rock. No matter how hard we pushed we could not get it to move. But we did talk about how a glacier must have left it here for us to find.
The next set of photos are from the same area, but instead of walking through the forest we decided to climb a hill.
Using a Buttercup to find out who likes butter.
We had no idea this was here, so we stopped to drink from it and even found a few blueberries to pick.
We made it to the top.
Look at the next page Nature walks 2 for more…….
Outdoor learning in the early years 