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It’s hard finding a reliable map of the recreation facilities around Lake Sidney Lanier, which spans Forsyth and Hall Counties north of metro Atlanta. The lake isn’t part of the Georgia State Park system (although the new Don Carter State Park is on its shores in Gainesville) or a National Recreation Area like areas along the Chattahoochee River. Instead, it’s managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, as are Allatoona Lake, Carters Lake, Westpoint Lake, and Walter F. George Lake.

But once I did track down a wonderful, interactive map on their site, it even included the ability to embed it on my website, so that’s what I’m doing now!

When you explore the map, you’ll see there are opportunities for picnicking, fishing, hiking, swimming (including sandy beaches), and even camping all around Lake Lanier — it’s not just for the boaters! And there are multiple parks all along the shores to make it easy to enjoy it (most do charge a few dollars to park, so stash a little cash in your glove box to be ready for impromptu adventures). And yes, if you’re into geocaching, there are lots of treasures to uncover!

Personally, I love to hike the Laurel Ridge trail, a 4(ish) mile loop with just the right amount of elevation change to feel like an accomplishment, accessible from the Lower Overlook parking area off Buford Dam Road. Just down the road from there, the West Bank Park has nice paved trails and easy spots for fishing (grownups, bring your license). Mary Alice Park in Cumming has a great sandy beach if you want to pretend we’re closer to the ocean. (Note: just to make things a little more confusing, this park is actually managed by the City of Cumming, so if you have an annual pass to the lake it won’t cover parking here.) We have even rented a campsite at Shady Grove on July 4th to try and take advantage of the fireworks at Lake Lanier Islands, but a thunderstorm meant we wound up sweating in our car with the windows rolled up anyway.

Whenever I go with friends to Lake Lanier, which is all of 10 minutes from my home, we always ask each other why we don’t take better advantage of this beautiful (and enormous) resource right in our backyard. Hopefully knowing how to access this spot for year-round fun will help you avoid making the same mistake we do.

Now that we have our new calendar up and running on our event page, we’ve been able to start adding more events. Here are just a few of the options happening this weekend, and check back on Friday as we hope to have even more for you. If you like what you see, subscribe to our blog – there are tons of great programs coming in March with the start of spring that you won’t want to miss!

Two night-time options for Friday Night:

• Star-gazing at Red Top Mountain State Park (this is offered weekly through the end of March if you can’t make it this weekend)
• Owl Prowl at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens

Two scouting programs this weekend:

• Boy Scout Advance-A-Rama at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry
• Girl Scout Overnight at the Chattahoochee Nature Center (yes, it’s probably a bit late to plan a troop outing for this weekend, but definitely take a look ahead at March to see other CNC Scout programs)

Also at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell this weekend:

• Trail hikes
• Creature Features
• Wildlife Feeding
• Animal Encounters

Finally, Sweetwater Creek State Park has two events to appeal to “special interests”:

• Fans of the Hunger Games will want to join the guided history hike to Manchester Mill, where part of Mockingjay was filmed.
• The “Snakes Alive” program features live, non-venomous snakes.

At last, we have found the right calendar for our site, and are proud to unveil the result at http://georgiakidsoutdoors.com/events/. This is a state-wide collection of kid-focused, family-friendly outdoor events. Some are free, and the rest are mostly nominal charges (aside from camps, which we may list in another area anyway as summer approaches).

The new calendar will allow you to put in search terms and display events for a certain timeframe. You can even import events to your own Google or iCal calendar! We’ve also been trying to tag the events by region and type (homeschool, geocaching, hiking, etc.).

Now that the framework is set up, look for lots more events to appear on the calendar! We are also starting a weekly weekend preview, highlighting some of our favorites every Thursday. Subscribe to our blog to be sure you don’t miss these roundups and get stuck inside all weekend!

In Phase 2, we will add even more advanced search functionality to help you sort through the expanded listings, and only display the ones in your area or that fit your interests.

Lots of different types of activities all across the state this weekend, including:

• Watch a dug out canoe being made following authentic Native American techniques at Etowah Indian Mounds, Cartersville.
• Learn bird nesting basics and build your own bluebird house at the Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center. Pre-registration is required.   Call 770.784.3059 for more information or to register.
• Get into Geocaching with this introductory lesson at Chattahoochee Bend State Park.
• Head to Fernbank Museum of Natural History for Ranger Day and check out the new IMAX film, National Park Adventure, get a Camping 101 lesson from a State Park ranger, and bring your teddy for a photo op with Teddy Roosevelt.

Find lots more upcoming events on the Georgia Kids Outdoors calendar!

Need a camp for your middle or high school student? Georgia has some great options for older kids and teens looking to enter a science or outdoor-related career, and some may even look great on a college application — or earn them a scholarship.

Billy Lancaster Forestry Youth Camp – This is an excellent opportunity for middle school students (rising 7th and 8th) graders to attend a 4-day overnight camp for only $40 – but they need to be nominated by their middle school (usually only one student per school). If your child would be interested in learning more about Georgia’s forests, with topics including wildlife, forestry, and natural resources, reach out to their guidance counselor or science teacher by March to ask if they’ve received information on nominating a student.

Exploring Environmental Sciences Camp, Summer Academy UGA – Students aged 11-14 can start making the transition from playing outside to learning about fields of study in the environmental sciences at this camp offered at the UGA Athens campus (day and overnight options available). Hands-on projects led by experts in herpetology, horticulture, conservation, botany and aquatic ecology will introduce them to careers in these areas — while still having fun and even getting wet during the aquatic sampling activity. Financial assistance available, but apply early.

Natural Resources Conservation Workshop, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural Workshop, Tifton, GA – Gives rising 10th, 11th and 12th graders a great introduction to college life, with indoor instruction led by professors in college classrooms… AND a chance to earn a portion of the $17,000 in scholarships awarded during the workshop. Outdoor activities abound, too, including fishing, archery and an introduction to conservation of Georgia’s wildlife, forestry, soil, and water resources. A bus service is also available to help bring students in from surrounding areas. Early bird rate of $150 if you register before May 1, and financial assistance may also be available.

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Camp TALON (Teen Adventures Learning Ornithology and Nature) – Camp TALON is a five-day camp, June 4-9, 2016, for teens aged 12-16 interested in birds and nature. Participants get a chance to experience birding on Little St. Simons Island, Wassaw Island NWR, Sapelo Island, Harris Neck NWR, Jekyll Island, Altamaha WMA, and St. Simons Island. Limited to 16 students. Older students may be eligible. Early registration is $300 February 16 – April 30. Registration rate May 1–16 is $350. (A nonrefundable $100 deposit must be included with registration).

Camp ACE (Adventures in Conservation Education) – An overnight middle school camp for just $100, thanks to a grant from The Environmental Resources Network! Accordingly, space is limited to 20 students, so apply early. Participants will spend five days immersed in Georgia wildlife via hands-on activities and day trips including birding in Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, canoeing in Bond Swamp, mist-netting bats at Oconee National Forest, and exploring bogs at Ohoopee Dunes. Also, they will spend time learning to shoot shotguns, hiking to a rock outcrop and studying streams with fisheries biologists. July 18-22, 2016 (Mon. 1 p.m. – Fri. 12:30 p.m.).

Not all kids’ experiences outdoors need to be great — although by “great,” although of course I’m meaning “great-big-wide-open,” not “great-awesome.” Sometimes they need their outdoor space to be very, very small, just like them.

I first got thinking about this as I was researching ideas for the new “Farm to School” garden I’m helping develop for my son’s elementary school. This will mostly be a utilitarian food-growing and lesson-teaching area, but I still wanted to throw in a little whimsy.

I had seen the idea of a living tunnel in various places, including the excellent book, How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle. It is built over a trellis formed of various materials and shapes, but a common version is a hoop of wire covered with pole beans, long and high enough that kids can walk underneath. Not only is it an easy way to harvest the veggies (or just encourage grazing as kids pass through), it creates a magical, filtered light beneath and a special entryway that makes heading out to the garden an event.

As I scoured Pinterest for building materials and creative inspiration, I found a number of other living structures, some only big enough to hold a child or two (yes, I was nice enough to create a board just for you to see some of my favorites). A cluster of sunflowers or a bamboo teepee supporting pole beans were two common and easy-to-grow options, although some involved lovely willow branch pods covered in green. You don’t even have to spend weekends building something elaborate — at my son’s birthday party, kids had a blast collecting fallen wood to build their own survivalist hut.

And that’s when I really started thinking about the role of quiet reflection and stillness in a child’s outdoor life. Yes, we are concerned about our kids being couch potatoes inside. But when they are outside, sometimes we need to let them take a break from active adventures and group outings, and just experience nature on their own, quietly, as it comes.

Whether that’s listening to the shift in the sound of the wind through the leaves as a rain storm approaches, or breathing in the scent of soil as they scuff it with their feet, or just watching which little critters meander in to share their shady spot, these are profound connections that will truly connect children to the outdoors and draw them back. All they need is a little space.

In an effort to figure out how to add “starting a blog” to my list of things to do in a day, I’ve been reading Laura Vanderkam’s book, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time.

I’m not sure I buy in to all of her advice (“Don’t like working 60 hour work weeks? Maybe you should get a more interesting job!” Or: “Commuting doesn’t count as work time because you could potentially stop to buy milk on the way home, and that’s shopping!”), but before I completely gave up on it, I did find one piece of advice I liked.

In the section called “Be There,” she lists the ten secrets of happier parenting. There are a number of them that jive with the mission of this blog, like “Be active together” and “Plan adventures.” But the one has potential to be used almost every day: “Think through your weekday evenings.”

For many of us, the typical weekday evening might be something we try to avoid thinking about: the rush to get dinner on the table, finishing up homework, getting to the ball field on time.

But Vanderkam’s suggestion is to spend just a little time creating an intention for your evening – with input from your other family members. By planning ahead, and visualizing what could be done with your evening time before you’re exhausted and hungry, you can see where pockets of time might exist, and mentally prepare yourself for squeezing in a little activity.

Maybe there’s time for everyone to take a walk before dinner?

Is there time to check out the veggie garden and see what can be added to the salad? How about bringing a jump rope or ball instead of the tablet to a sibling’s sports practice? Has it been a while since you had a family dance party?

Even if what you really need to do is chores, make a plan to make it fun: Crank up the music and have a race to pick up clutter. Or celebrate the end of laundry sorting with a sock snowball fight.

Without a plan, chances are everyone goes from the table to the couch – or their separate rooms. So see if you can spend just a few minutes early in the day (or even on Sunday night) thinking about what you want your evenings to really be like.

 

I’ve just been asked by my son’s elementary school to help them create a new section for their school garden. We already have a fantastic courtyard garden with lots of ornamentals and pollinator plants (and even an apple tree!), but this section would be a hands-on teaching garden that gives the students an opportunity to grow their own food. So this will be just part one of several posts documenting that project.

Today I’m going over to measure the area and draw up a plan. They want to have a planting bed for each grade, plus one for the special needs program, and hopefully one more just in case we think of something else we want to do.

I’m excited about this, because:

1. We have great support from the administration (we are even talking her in to letting us have a chicken coop!). This is so important when trying to start up a school-based gardening program.
2. The kids will be doing the work. I have warned all involved, I am happy to facilitate, but don’t need another garden to weed! I am anti-“mommy projects” when it comes to volunteer work.
3. The teachers will be working the garden into their curriculum. There are so many great lessons that can be taught in a garden, from math, to science, and even literature. I will be helping them by finding lesson plans that support Georgia standards and creating “lessons in a bookbag” that make it easy for teachers to grab and go. With all that teachers have to do, I know it’s important to make this easy for them to add in.

I’ll be adding to this list, but here are just a few of the resources I’ll be using to find lesson plans, and, more importantly at this stage, find grants:

• Environmental Education in Georgia
• Georgia Organics
• Captain Planet Foundation

 

Thanks to Every Kid in a Park, 4th graders and their families are invited to enjoy FREE access to any federal land or water for a calendar year! This just started September 1, 2015, so jump on it now to get your full value and plenty of time to visit cool places like Land Between the Lakes, Channel Islands, the St. Louis Arch, San Antonio Missions, the Frederick Douglas home, Canyon of the Ancients, and the Florida Keys. Kids can have an incredible variety of experiences, like listening to howling wolves, checking out prehistoric dinosaur tracks, paddling a river, or walking in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.

Visit the “Get Your Pass” section of Every Kid in a Park, have your child complete an online game, and download a personalized voucher for print and use at federal lands or waters locations.Visit Every Kid in a Park to learn more about how to use your pass, to obtain help in planning your trip, to locate available educational materials, and to find phone numbers and addresses. There was also a link for educators.

The pass is FREE and covers entrance and standard amenity fees at federal lands and waters for a full year beginning September 1 and ending August 31 of your 4th grade year.