Today we took a daytrip to Rudesheim, Germany. We took a gondola to the top of the Niederwald to see Niederwalddenkmal monument. Sadly, the monument is under renovations, so there wasn’t much to see, but the view was breathtaking.

Riding the Gondola

The Neiderwald is surrounded by trees and hiking trails, so we set off to explore. The kid’s mission for today was to find the biggest leaf they could (we are on a bit of a leaf kick this month if you couldn’t tell!), and they immediately came back with one.

It’s as big as their head!

The best find was a little lizard which we tried to catch, but instead, the kids got a first hand lesson in caudal autonomy. The poor lizards tail flopped around for a full two minutes. Poor Bug and Mr. Man were both really upset that the lizard broke in half, but we were able to reassure them that it was just something a lizard can do to escape from a predator, and his tail would grow back. When we got home, we looked it up online, and watched a time lapse video of a gecko’s tail growing back.

Not too bad for a surprise science lesson!

This week, we took the time to learn more about one of our “adopted trees”.

We used the leaves as “clues” to figure out what kind of tree it is. This website was amazing in helping me figure it out, so I made a worksheet for Bug to help him know what to look for in the leaves using the same questions from the website. Then, we brought the worksheet and laptop outside so Bug could figure it out on his own!

Tree #2  is a Common Lime, or Tilia.

In other nature study news, meet our new class “pets”. Its been almost a week, and none of them have died yet. I’d call that a success!

They have personality- check out their faces!

Today we joined our Homeschool Group for a field trip to Barfußpfad in Bad Sobernheim, the biggest and oldest Barefoot park in Germany. I don’t know why there aren’t more of these parks, the idea of taking off your shoes and running around is GENIUS!

The park is set up so their are lots of different things for your feet to experience, and it was the perfect trip to go along with our Row of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!”

If you haven’t read it, the book is adorable. It’s one of those books where the kids start chanting it along with you. The rhyme is catchy, the story is fun, and the kids LOVE it.

We’re going on a Bear Hunt! Gonna catch a big one! We’re not scared!

Mud! Can’t go over it, Can’t go under it! Gotta go through it!

Squish Squelch!

Fields! Can’t go over it, Can’t go under it! Gotta go through it!

A river! Can’t go over it, Can’t go over it! Gotta go through it!

He’s not scared!

I’m pretty sure days like this are what childhood is supposed to be made of.

If you’d like to know more about the park, you can check it out here.