Learning from the Great Outdoors

When our younger one stood in front of the General Sherman tree, he went quiet. He just stood there with a craned neck and stared. He had been super excited to see the World’s biggest tree and had a million question, but now he just stared. As he walked around, we picked up a seed pod and spoke of how this giant tree had once been a teeny weeny seed. That broke the silence and then a stream of question followed about how the seed grew so big. 

By Daniel Mayer (mav) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

When our younger one stood in front of the General Sherman tree, he went quiet. He just stood there with a craned neck and stared. He had been super excited to see the World’s biggest tree and had a million question, but now he just stared. As he walked around, we picked up a seed pod and spoke of how this giant tree had once been a teeny weeny seed. That broke the silence and then a stream of question followed about how the seed grew so big.

The Sequoia National Park

This was a rather unplanned trip. Short vacation, room booking and a drive up. There was a nip in the air. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park are administered together as a single contiguous park and it’s in the southern part of Sierra Nevada range. As we drove up, all kinds of questions popped up. Our kids who had been busy playing some car games, now had the windows rolled down even as their eyes took in everything. The trees started short and soon they towered. The questions poured forth:

Why were these giants here and not in other parts of the country?

Had anyone climbed to the top?

How come they don’t topple over?

How can they live for 2-500-3000 years when we can’t?

Why are there so many seed pods?

How long do they take to grow this tall?

How come some are shorter than the others?

How can there be such greenery and then a desert adjacent to it?

Things to Keep in Mind While Planning a Trip

When one is traveling with kids, some pre-planning has to be done. Here are a few things to keep in mind while planning any trip:

• Distance of travel
• Would it interest the Kids?
• Is the weather suitable for outdoor play?
• Is it affordable?
• Will the Kids have fun?
• Is it family friendly?