wildflower bingo.

This is one of our new favorite games. It is wildflower bingo. We found it a few weekends back at a local kids store. Each playing card is filled with the plant squares, and the selection cards have the image and name on front, and info about each plant on the back. The boys always insist I show the image, read the name, and read the back info each and every time. We played a lot of wildflower bingo this week while we were all sick.

On our pretty rural drive back from picking up our CSA box this week, A started yelling that he saw purple clover - you know, from the game! The rest of the ride home they looked out the windows scanning the roadside for plants they could identify - chatting with each other about each new thing. Since then the both boys have continued to point out MANY different flowers that they now recognize - wild bergamot, horsemint, sunflowers, goldenrod, butterfly weed, violets, and cattails. I admit, sometimes they identify something that does surely resemble what is on the card, but we might not be entirely accurate...but they are indeed identifying many things accurately (and enthusiastically). How cool!

There have been many new plants that they want to know about now too - and for those of you in the area, we found a nice easy to use online resource of what is in bloom here. And, of course, now that they are interested in plants in the area, they want to know what EVERYTHING is, and A was excited to find that there are wild things just growing out there that you can EAT. So, on to a new fun adventure!