Yesterday my daughter pulled me out of photo taking doldrums. I have sorely missed using my dear camera and when I discovered my daughter camped out in her favorite tree again, I had a reason to grab it. There just isn't much to inspire me in winter and that is rough on someone who feels like taking pictures is as vital as oxygen. But spring is returning and I am getting a second wind.

Check out my Squidoo lens on Taking Great Pictures of Your Children and my review of the Nikon D60.

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See there… I am already keeping my New Year's goals! Two of them of in fact:

1. Up our winter activities with winter hikes, sledding, ice skating, snow tubing, and evening walks.

2. Get more involved with our metro parks and our city parks and recreation offerings… nature hikes, educational classes, etc.

Yesterday we hiked the first in a series of 13 Winter Hikes hosted by the parks system in our area. I LOVE our metro parks!!! All year long they organize activities that are perfect for families and this was no exception. I keep telling my husband and my parents that the metro parks in Central Ohio are reason alone NOT to move back to Arizona. Frankly the parks in Phoenix kinda suck in comparison. A couple acres of grass and a playground and they call it a park. In the Columbus area we have 15 gorgeous parks representing 23,500 acres of unspoiled beauty… woods, rivers, ponds, waterfalls, caves, marshes, and TONS of organized activities. Some you pay for but many are free. You can take a photography class, go on a guided moonlight hike, listen to a lecture on winter wilderness survival or rain barrel water collection, and even attend a preschooler nature crafts groups for FREE.. and that it just the very tip of the iceberg. Since there are 15 parks that offer a range of things each week you could be overloaded with fun stuff to do.

Anyway, today marked the beginning of their 37th annual winter hike series and it kicked off with a 2 or 4 mile hike in Blacklick Woods.

I would guesstimate that a couple hundred people attended, including my brood.

We almost didn't go since we all stayed up past 11:00 PM the previous night playing Uno. We woke up with only 20 minutes to get ready and in a flurry found our gloves, hats, snow boots, snow pants, etc. and headed to the park. We didn't even eat or drink anything before taking off which was probably not the best of ideas. We need to plan better next time.

We decided to do the red trail (2 miles) since we hadn't eaten and my kids haven't done much winter hiking. Is was about 15 degrees so it was fairly cold!! If you took your gloves off for more than 5 minutes your hands felt like they were on fire. If you count the hike from one of the secondary parking lots (since the primary was full) it was about 2.5 miles in all.

At the halfway point the park people pretty much demanded we stop at the Nature Center to warm up (since they saw we had kids) and we were thankful. We spent 10 minutes warming up and looking at the animals they had in there and then we were off again. My oldest picked up a park magazine at the Nature Center so he could perfect his reading/hiking technique.

Three quarters of the way through the kidlets started getting cranky. I have almost no smiling face pictures beyond this point, hehe. They were cold, they hadn't eaten, and they had walked 2 miles in heavy boots on ice and snow.

This is my daughter's thumbs up that accompanied her triumphant "Victory is Mine!!" when we reached the lodge and concluded the hike (minus the hike back to the car).

Luckily the wonderful parks people… have I mentioned how I love our parks… greeted us with hot cocoa and vegetarian minestrone soup with crackers. Delicious!

See that cranky, hungry, wind whipped face? After the brief rest and the arduous hike back to our car, during which our toddler had a full on melt down and had to be carried, we all collapsed for the ride home. Their exhaustion was quickly forgotten 5 minutes after we got home. All in all it was a great way to start the morning. My husband agreed and that stinker had hemmed and hawed about going. ROFL! He's all about water sports, not winter sports.

Looking forward to next week!  

Just one day after I posted about wanting snow… we welcomed our first snow and we celebrated the day by going sledding of course. We got our toboggan ready and away we went. And boy am I glad I scooped one of them up for $20 at a yard sale!

At first I tried to get out of a long drive by going to a cemetary nearby that has decent hills but alas they were not steep/fast enough for my brood. So we went to a park that has some very steep hills that relatively tree free. 

My oldest boy did a little running while pulling the sled and his younger brother. 

They stopped to check out the resting place of President Harding and his wife, which makes this an educational outing too I guess. 

Back on the slopes… these hills are MUCH better and they even found some people to race. Our wooden toboggan kicks plastic sled booty.

Looking forward to more snow days!

Remember when you were young and played outside all day long?  I do. I used to come home from school and put on my roller skates and I would not come back until dinner time and then after dinner I would go out again. If I wasn’t roller skating I was riding my bike. I had an ugly old bike with a banana seat and curved handlebars but I loved that thing. Many children don’t do that anymore and they are missing out.  Not just on exercise and fresh air but a true appreciation for being outisde. 

Nowadays I have some parents emailing me that insist their kids HATE to play outside. It is a sad thing and as a parent I would be addressing it pronto. Here are six fun and green outdoor activities to encourage more time outdoors.

#1  Host a scavenger nature hunt.  Give children a digital camera and send them on a hunt for all things nature.  For example, your list can contain items like dandelions, worms, a maple leaf, and a ladybug and so on.  You can adjust the list of items to hunt for to the age of your children.  If digital camera skills are beyond your little ones, then give them a pad of paper and a pencil so they can check off the items they find.

#2  Bird watching or stargazing.  Looking up at the sky can fill hours of time and when you make it active, by looking for specific birds, bird habitats, constellations or planets, children learn and have fun.  Both activities can be enhanced with a telescope or binoculars, but they can also be accomplished with the naked eye.  Head to the library to pick up a book on birds or constellations and watch the fun.

#3  Watching bugs.  Ants, bees, fireflies and praying mantises are fantastic to watch and children, for some crazy reason, like bugs.  Children can learn about what bugs eat, how they interact and communicate with each other and how they benefit nature.  They’re the bottom and the top of the circle of life.

#4  Go fly a kite!  Flying a kite is 100% green and you can easily add a bit of a Benjamin Franklin lesson into the playtime.  It takes zero energy, other than the energy you need to keep up with the kite, and if you add making a kite from household items into the outing then it’s a super environmentally-friendly outdoor activity. Who doesn’t love to fly a kite?

#5  Remember pet rocks?  Those goofy items sold back in the 70s are actually a great outdoor activity.  Using non-toxic paint, children can paint their favorite rock to look like a dog, cow, pig, monkey or whatever their favorite animal is.  They can gather a collection of rocks and paint a whole zoo or barnyard.  To keep mess at bay, lay out a piece of newspaper on the ground and let children create their masterpieces outside where it doesn’t matter as much if they spill the paint.

Its almost Halloween time… have them paint their rocks orange and then using a black marker, draw a jack-o-lantern face on them.

#6  Nature rubbings are one way for children to combine their artistic voice and an exploration of nature.  All you need are some non-toxic crayons with the paper peeled off so children can use them sideways, paper, a hard surface and a bit of nature.  Place the item to be explored, like a leaf or a flower, under the paper and on top of the hard, smooth, surface; then rub the crayon over the top of the paper.  The image will come through.  Children can create amazing masterpieces by rubbing a number of items on one page or they can add their own personal touches. 

There are so many amazing things for children to enjoy and explore outside. It is shame that in this day and age we feel we have to help children along in this respect but it is well worth it.

Recommended: Let’s Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projets to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature

Nature Log Kids: A Kid’s Journal to Record Their Nature Experiences

Homework, soccer practice, ballet – is there time in the schedule to play outside? Here are some tips to get a Green Hour — or at least part of an hour – during a busy day:

1. Scenario: Traffic made you late, there’s no time to cook dinner, so you drive the family over to the rotisserie chicken place to get a quick meal.

Tip: Keep a picnic blanket in your car for an impromptu picnic on any spot of grass you can find!

2. Scenario: Backpack? Check. Lunch? Check. You’re ready to head to school.

Tip: Whether you drive or walk to school, or wait with your child by the bus-stop, take a moment to notice nature. Make it a game of “I Spy” — or download this nature scavenger hunt at greenhour.org/hunt .

3. Scenario: Your child is studying plants at school and, at the dinner table, recites how photosynthesis works. You, yourself, have never successfully kept a plant alive.

Tip: Start small: All you need is some bird-seed and a sponge. For sponge-garden instructions, visit greenhour.org/spongegarden. Next step: check out National Gardening Association’s parents’ primer for gardening with kids at kidsgardening.com/primer.asp .

4. Scenario: You and your youngest wait outside your older child’s school, a few minutes before the bell rings.

Tip: Look up at the sky together. “Wait, mom — is that a sheep or a donkey?” Picking out shapes in the clouds is a classic childhood activity — and needs no special equipment.

5. Scenario: Your child looks at you and says, “Mom — I’m a little old for cloud-watching!”

Tip: For older kids, combine technology with the outdoors and go geo-caching or, the lower-tech version, letterboxing. There are about 20,000 letterboxes and 250,000 geocaches hidden in North America. Visit geocaching.com  and letterboxing.org.

6. Scenario: The kids get home from school and immediately plop in front of the TV. You suggest going outside. They respond, “Indoors is more fun!”

Tip #1: Set time-limits for TV watching and video game playing. It won’t be popular, so make sure you have a back-up plan. If you have a backyard, kid-customize it with a homemade fort, dart boards, a trampoline, a craft table. Set up a bird house to keep wildlife visiting.

Tip #2: No backyard? Find your local parks using nwf.org/naturefind. For older kids, start stretching your child’s boundaries, allowing them to go for unsupervised walks in the neighborhood with groups of friends. They’ll love the feeling of independence.

7. Scenario: Outside, it’s a perfect fall day, but you look at your child’s homework assignments and realize outside play-time isn’t a reality.

Tip: Take homework outside! There’s no reason math problems can’t be done in the fresh air. Set up a clean outdoor workspace for your child on a patio table, perhaps.

8. Scenario: Your daughter comes home from school clutching new-found treasures: three crumbly leaves, two acorns and a dirt-encrusted rock.

Tip: Instead of putting them on the kitchen counter, a drawer, or — gasp — the trash, start a nature table. Set a limit of how many items they can have in the “nature museum” — so they’ll keep it to a manageable number. Other ideas: use an old tackle or sewing box, or a hanging shoe-organizer with clear plastic pockets. Have your kids decorate it!

9. Scenario: A blank piece of paper in front of her, your daughter asks you, “What should I draw?”

Tip: Have your child make a map of your neighborhood — using only natural landmarks. This will heighten his or her observation skills and can be the first step in creating a “field guide” to the nature in your neighborhood.

10. Scenario: It’s 8 p.m. Dinner’s over, but not quite time for bed.

Tip: Keep flashlights near the door, and go for a neighborhood night hike. Kids will love the novelty — and you can challenge them to identify “night sounds.” Learn how to make a moon journal at greenhour.org/moonjournal.

Bio: Anne Keisman is Be Out There Editor for the National Wildlife Federation, creating content for www.greenhour.org and www.beouthere.org. Most of her life she lived in cities – and she loves discovering nature in unusual places: from dandelions sprouting from sidewalk cracks to sparrows chirping in the rafters of Home Depot. Follow her www.twitter.com/Greenhour.