Cumming Nature Center

As a team who is very, very passionate about getting kids outside, we've loved seeing all of the great articles about outdoor education that have been published this fall! Gratitude has been a big theme for our Forest School community this fall, as parents and kids alike enjoy the opportunity to get off-screen and spend time immersed in the woods. We still have some spots available for the winter/spring session of Toddler Forest School (up to age 4), Forest School (ages 4-12), and Field Studies (ages 13-15): RMSC.org/ForestSchool

Outdoor play is healthy for body and brain alike, but it's easy for parents and educators to feel intimidated at the thought of taking kids outside when the weather is cold. In this Facebook Live lunch & learn event, staff from Cumming Nature Center's Forest School program will share the fundamentals of keeping your child warm and happy in winter weather. Join us to discover the basics of winter clothing and tips for warming up in the woods.

Nurture your child's love of nature through Forest School at Cumming Nature Center! We're now accepting applications for the winter/spring sessions of Forest School (ages 4-12) & Field Studies (ages 13-15). Scholarships are available. Learn more and apply at RMSC.org/ForestSchool

We just can’t stop sharing images from this magical snowy weekend!

Start your child's birding journey this winter with Backyard Birders, a Backyard Adventure Kit from Cumming Nature Center! Each kit comes with 5 days of guided activities and supplies designed to get your child outside to explore the natural world. All purchases support outdoor education at Cumming Nature Center! Learn more: http://ow.ly/wOvm50CSsDB

"We create wonderful places by giving them our attention." Join CNC and Naples Library tomorrow at 11am for a discussion of The Forest Unseen by David Haskell. This book is a master lesson in the art of paying attention to nature, and we'd love to have you with us even if you haven't had a chance to read the book yet! Register here to receive the Zoom link: rmsc.org/bookclub

Things we're thankful for in 2020: 3. The creativity, curiosity, and courage of the next generation (and how lucky are we to get to hang out with them in the woods everyday!!)

One of our Forest School parents captured this beautiful shot of the solstice spiral in the pines! Spirals show up throughout the natural world (think snail shells or fiddleheads) and are often used at solstice to represent the seasonal cycle of light and darkness. Walking the spiral is a representation of our journey into the darkest day of winter solstice, as well as our inevitable return to the light-filled days of summer. Come walk the solstice spiral today - we’d love to see you!

We love this #SpookyScience experiment from Rochester Museum & Science Center. A perfect excuse to get outside and explore the colors of fall!

Join the Naples Library and the Nature Center for our virtual book club next Wednesday! We'll be discussing the novel Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. Register to receive the Zoom link. Book Description: "Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factionsreligious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicianstrapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world."

It's SpoooOOOOOoooky Saturday! Large swathes of this ghostly fern can be found along the Conservation Trail at the nature center. The New York fern (Thelypteris noveboracensis) is a deciduous fern that gets its name from the saying that New Yorkers burn the candles at both ends - a nod to the distinctive tapering bottom of the New York fern's fronds. Okay, so these plants aren't haunted, but we feel like there's a great ghost story in the making here! #halloween #ghostlyferns #thehauntedwoods

Happy Reptile Awareness Day! We think it's always an appropriate day to celebrate the ectothermic friends that we have in reptiles like turtles, snakes, and lizards. Reptiles often have a negative reputation in the human world, so our challenge to you or your kids today is to pick one reptilian species that you find scary or gross and do some research into that creature's fantastic and complicated life! Post something you found interesting in the comments below and let your curiosity kindle someone else's!

It's Spooooooooky Saturday! If you spy a spherical salmon-colored specimen out in the woods this fall, you may be seeing Wolf's Milk Slime or Toothpaste Slime (Lycogala epidendrum). Angie, our Environmental Education Coordinator here at CNC, calls this slime mold "Fairy Pepto Bismol" because of its bright pink color and tiny, fairy-sized quantity. Fun facts: at various points in history this very weird and super cool lifeform has been considered an animal, a plant, a fungus, and is currently classified as a type of amoeba! And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that slime molds can move...albeit very, very slowly. So if you have dreams about The Blob tonight, blame this post!

Next up for Eco-Book Club: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver! Join Cumming Nature Center and the Naples Library on Wednesday, November 4th at 11am for an online conversation about this NYT best-seller. Register here to get the link: RMSC.org/bookclub

Calling all archaeology nerds: before heading down to CNC’s archaeology dig on Sunday, visit RMSC on Saturday for a family-friendly introduction to archaeology!

This Sunday, travel back in time and discover the remains of Frost Town, a 19th-century mill community located on the current site of Cumming Nature Center. Try your trowel in the trenches and piece together the daily lives of the settlers who once walked in these woods. You're gonna dig it! Learn more & get tickets: RMSC.org/archaeology

It’s important to cherish the lives, accomplishments, and contributions of Indigenous people every day, but, for #IndigenousPeoplesDay, we wanted to take time to celebrate those who are Native to the land we now call the United States. In RMSC's upcoming Changemakers exhibition, you'll hear the stories of nearly 40 Haudenosaunee women who have made a positive difference in their communities and left their mark on history. One of these women is Terrylynn Brant, Mohawk seedkee...per and educator. Passionate about sustainable food and sustainable living, Brant helped build an Earthship at Mohawk Seedkeeper Gardens: a self-sustaining education space dedicated to revitalizing indigenous sovereignty through traditional foodways. By preserving Haudenosaunee heritage through seeds and cultural eating, Terrylynn is strengthening indigenous communities and traditions. You can learn more about Terrylynn and the other featured Haudenosaunee women when RMSC's new exhibition, The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World, opens in November. For now, check out the RMSC website to learn more: RMSC.org/changemakers To learn more about Mohawk Seedkeepers, go to: facebook.com/groups/846377065399516/ : Kate Bueckert

We hope you have a toadally awesome Sunday!

SPOOKY SATURDAY! This big ol' yellow garden spider (also known as a writing spider, a banana spider, or a zigzag spider) may seem scary, but we maintain that the spooky is often spectacularly cool when you take the time to learn about it! There is some spooky folklore associated with the yellow garden spider, however. One of its alternative names, the writing spider, comes from the zigzag pattern commonly woven into its web (fun fact: this type of web construct is known as a stabilimentum). Sometimes this zigzag can look like writingand the story goes that if you speak your name to the writing spider and it writes your name into the web, you'll surely die. Now that's some spooooOOOOOoooky stuff!!