We are lucky enough to have a beautiful duck pond at one of our local parks. It is a lovely pond with big slopping heels for rolling down, green open spaces for picnics, winding paths for walking, and ,of course, plenty of bridges and docks to stand on while you feed hungry (and might i add greedy) little ducks and geese. Needless to say the pond is one of our most loved destinations. We visit so often that we can pick out most of the ducks and we know their behavior. One of the big black ducks has a unique way of getting his bread: he gets out of the water and onto the dock with you so he can beat the compaction in the water. The duck with the red bumps always gets right underneath the dock to catch fallen crumbs. And one amazingly cool duck has a white feathered afro!
We have been known to picnic by the water in summer, feeding the ducks the crusts of our bread as we lounge about in the green grass. Now that we have cooler fall temperatures we go with scarfs wound tightly around our necks and bags of leftover bread in hand. We have also spent many a Saturday morning eating bagels or doughnuts on the big benches, something that Gus and I often did before we even had Raz!
Duck ponds are made for kids, they can learn so much from these simple adventures.
Raz is quickly learning that ducks say "quack" and geese say "honk"
Pointing out colors on ducks is a fun way of breaking up the normal color practice.
We also like to count the turtles that line up at the waters edge. Sometimes we will get lucky and have a tiny turtle by a big one so we can show Raz the diffrence between big and little with turtles!
Respecting animals is another big one. He is learning to gently toss the bread to the ducks and to respect their space. I think it is a good lesson since he is interacting with the ducks by feeding them while not being allowed to pet them or harm them in any way. It is a gentle way for him to learn these boundaries.
Also the boundaries of not getting to close to the water is good practice. It took me awhile to not be a nervous wreck every time he stood on the dock alone, I was always afraid he would fall in or get to close to the edge. I knew that he needed to learn the proper and safe way of standing near the water so I had to really force myself to relax and set clear limits. Keeping a close eye on him while still allowing him the chance to behave well on his own is a fine line but at 18 months he already knows that he needs to stay close to me and never try to lean over the rail. I will always keep a close eye on him near water but it is a good lesson for our children to know how to act near water!
And of course tossing bread is a great activity all in itself!
If you want to feed the ducks a great way of collecting bread is to keep a bag in your freezer for leftover bread. If you have a few pieces that are about to go bad they can be put aside in the bag and easily thawed out to take to the pond when you are ready! We do this so we always have something to feed to the ducks when the mood strikes. And trust me, it will strike a lot!
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