Many years ago I was slightly athletic and played little league softball at Schutte Park in Dover. It has since expanded quite a bit and is much nicer than back then offering sports fields galore, a nature trail and this great playground:
We have been SO lucky to have some amazing weather this Winter and I am well on my way to achieving my goal of blogging about every public playground in Dover. I think I only have a handful left and this was one of them. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought much of this park even though we drive by here frequently, but the boys had a blast here. The playground is excellent, it’s fairly new with lots to do.
Naturally, I was more excited about the nature trail though so we found an entrance by the picnic pavilion (also very nice BTW) and walked the trail.
It’s pretty short, maybe about a quarter of a mile, and not a loop. We made it one by walking back to the playground along the outside of the woods. One of my pet peeves is going back the same way we came so usually avoid trails that I can’t make in to a loop. The trail is very stroller friendly, aside from some roots here and there. As you can see in the photo above, there were lots of evergreen trees in the understory of the forest. They are American hollies, our state tree, and the boys loved finding the red berries sprinkled along the trail. This opened up a conversation about seeds and how many different types there are. Along the way we found a handful that showed the variety and they even took it upon themselves to dig a little hole and plant one.
When we go on hikes, even short ones like this, it is a great way to open up dialogue about what is so cool about nature. Even at 2, O can understand many of the topics that we discuss. Reading our nature based books prepares them even further for making discoveries while we are hiking and D loves relating what he’s learned at home to real world scenarios.
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