Mommy Nature: Earth Day, Every Day!

Enjoying the Great Outdoors

Today is Earth Day! It’s a day to celebrate the Earth and promise to take care of it. I’m glad we have a reminder every year, but shouldn’t we be doing these things every day? So for Earth Day, this week, next week, next month, and throughout the year, take time to enjoy our Earth. Smell the sweet honeysuckle flower, listen to a mockingbird sing, feel the grass between your fingers and toes, watch a honeybee collect pollen, and discover something new in the great outdoors! Only then will we understand how invaluable our planet is so we will take care of it.

Limpkin Crossing Our Path

My daughter and I did talk about Earth Day. We took a walk around a pond to try to discover something new. We watched ducks and smelled flowers, but our find of the day was a limpkin (Aramus guarauna) crossing our path. This bird is listed as a Species of Special Concern in Florida, and they’re somewhat rare. It used to be common; however because its main food source (the Florida apple snail, Pomacea paludosa) has become scarce, the limpkin likewise has become an unusual sight. The limpkin was the ideal discovery for Earth Day, I think. My daughter learned that we need to protect the Earth by reducing, reusing, and recycling and keeping our natural areas natural in order to support the perfect habitat for the apple snails and so also protect limpkins.

Since my daughter has been enjoying the decorations of recent past holidays, we decided to decorate for Earth Day too! Unfortunately, Earth Day decorations are not very common, so we made our own. We used coffee filters and washable markers (Crayola has recycled plastic markers made with solar energy!) My daughter and I colored the filters to look like the Earth, or at least we used mainly green and blue markers. Then we took a spray bottle filled with water and sprayed the filters just enough to let the colors run. Each decoration turned out beautiful and unique. I wrote, “Earth Day, Every Day!” on one of them. We taped them to our lanai door, which is our entrance to the great outdoors! They are a little stronger than paper, so we can use them year after year for our Earth Day decorations. You can too! This is a simple craft that looks great no matter what your child’s coloring skills are. Enjoy your Earth Day!