Haven't seen much of me lately, have you? Neither have many of my friends, or the instructors at my gym (I swear I'm going back!) This past month I've been the blur running from real estate appointments to showings, to appraisals, to inspections, to letting in the carpet guys, to meeting the movers....the insanity of the Spring real estate market has me working until almost 8pm, then collapsing in a heap while my iPhone continues to buzz with other Realtors calling me as late as 10:30pm. (Btw, I don't take calls that late.) I've felt like the subject of a British documentary (naturally British because the narrator in my head has an accent) on the "elusive and rarely seen in her own habitat" GREEN CT Realtor.
In this month of crazy, I did manage to carve out a half-day a week of quality family time. I signed up my family, Team Minnick aka The Minnick Adventure Squad, to participate in the CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection's
No Child Left Inside activity called
The Great Park Pursuit. Briefly, the idea of No Child Left Inside is to fight nature-deficit disorder. Get the kids outside instead of in front of a TV/computer/video game. The Great Park Pursuit started maybe 6 years ago and has evolved to the program it was this year, which was 4 Saturdays of environmentally-themed days in a secret state park location revealed through clues to solve. For completing enough of the events or educational stations each Saturday, the kids earned a patch and if we completed all 4 weeks we earned a season pass to all the Connecticut state parks. When I mentioned to friends on Facebook that we were committing to doing it, another family decided to join us and each Saturday we'd pack picnics (which got progressively better each week!) head out early, and meet up in places far & near. From week to week we'd see the same friendly volunteers working the events and 3 of the 4 parks we visited were new to me. Overall a really positive experience for us!
Week I - Goodwin State Forest - Theme: Forestry - Kids Highlight: Canoeing
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| Learning forestry techniques, taking tree inventory for logging and measurements |
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If you're thinking my daughter is wearing "war paint" you'd be correct. Turns out my children thought this was a competition and came downstairs that morning with blue paint they applied together!
Week II - Sherwood Island State Park - Theme: Birding - Kids Highlight: Climbing Rocks on Beach |
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| Bird banding demonstration |
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| C releases a just-banded American Robin |
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Sherwood Island has a really nice beach, birding areas, nature center and Sept. 11th memorial.
Week III - Day Pond State Park - Theme: Fishing - Kids Highlight: Fishing & Trout Stocking
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| Making fish prints. Like stamping, with fish. |
Week IV - Dinosaur State Park - Theme: Energy - Kids Highlight: Solar-Powered Blender & Smart Energy Game
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| CT Clean Energy Fund serving up smoothies made in 2 solar-powered blenders and served in reusable water bottles for the kids. We are big fans of the CTCEF and used them for our solar panel project. They tell me the program will be up and running again for grants in 3-4 months for all of you who have asked me about that. |
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This game is a great visual of the comparison of how much energy traditional appliances use versus Energy Star appliances. The two biggest differences I saw were the refrigerator and the cfl lightbulbs. The kids loved it too!
I'm going to say this about the Great Park Pursuit: we loved it. Macy's sponsored the season passes and it was run by volunteers who seemed to know what they were talking about: foresters, fishermen, birding experts from the Audubon Society, etc., and it was obvious how much work went into it. I feel like we got a lot out of it - they made it very educational and active (did I mention the relay-type events each week?) and interesting for all of us. It was a great family experience, and my children have already asked if we can do it again next year.
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