Springwater Provincial Park Homeschool play day

Today we went to Springwater Provincial Park as part of a home school group event. The park has been removed from Ontario Parks website but you can read up a bit about why HERE. The park became non-operational in March of 2013. We had our first and only other visit here two weeks before it became non-operational and loved all the animals it housed at the time. It was a shame to see them removed. In it's non-operational status the public is welcome to use the park, you just must park outside the gate at the old gates and walk in on foot. Also there is only one operational outhouse at this point in time near the main entrance gates.

As it turned out only Barbara, who runs a Forest Kindergarten at the park a few days a week, and us showed up today. It was actually nice being just us so we could chat and get to know each other. You can check out her blog Child on Ground to find out more about her Forest Kindergarten program. It sounds absolutely wonderful to me!

We had a wonderful time exploring and discovering. First stop was the river of course...Aayla was straight in and her boots over flowed in no time as she sunk in the mud. Not a big deal we just removed them and she played the remainder of the day in bare feet.

From here the kids all wanted to go to the playground so we did. However within about 10 minutes they had enough and they wanted to explore again. We headed over the the base of the pond.

We spent most of our day below this pond by the main playgrounds.

Sierra collected some water and created a mini ecosystem in a jar.

Then it was time to explore the stream.

Sierra loved the fallen tree that she could walk across the stream without getting wet and actually asked for a photo while sitting on it! Usually she runs from the camera but today she asked twice...my lucky day!

Surprise, surprise...Aayla was the first to venture down the stream.

Curious about Sierras jar of water

 Everyone had a great time exploring the stream...hands on learning at it's best.

It was truly a beautiful day filled with discovery, wonder, exploration, meeting new friends and natural beauty all around. I love the Red Trilliums which were in bloom around the park.

A  second trip is already in the works for May 26th...and I am looking forward to it already (will you join us?). I hope to explore more of the trails next time but we will leave that up to where the kids all feel like exploring. What better classroom can you ask for?