High Park and Montessori Fun

We spent a few hours in High Park this morning and truly enjoyed some time at the Park’s zoo.

I am not the world’s biggest fan of High Park zoo – the pens just feel too  small and a few of the animals seem a bit too lonely for my liking, but similar to my feelings with the Toronto Metro Zoo, it is an opportunity for Aodhan to really connect with wildlife that he wouldn’t see in any other situation. Suffice to say: I am torn.

Today we popped down (we live a stone’s throw from the foot of High Park) and meandered down the winding paths until we found the animals. The weather was pretty grim and it was early, so we were lucky – and connected with one of the feeders who allowed us to feed all of the animals and we learned so much! It was an amazing treat to hand feed a bison and yak.

Early in 2010 Aodhan and I were present for the birth of the baby bison (again, thanks to an early morning stroll), and I was sad today to see that the young bison had been given to another zoo.  Am I anthropromophizing by feeling horrible for the big brown eyes of the mama bison?

In addition to the zoo, we climbed some stairs, we played hide-and-see, and we found a bird’s nest. If it weren’t for my freezing fingers I think we would have stayed all day.

After High Park we got busy with some really fun Montessori-inspired fun.

Aodhan LOVED pouring the water into the different measuring cups. We tried pouring with three different containers. Aodhan was really quick with assessing which cups were more and less full and he quickly caught onto pouring slowly as a way to prevent spillage.

Afterward, we used a measuring spoon to transfer dinosaur eggs into our valentine ice cube tray and then tweezers to move puffs into our cat ice cube tray. Fun!

I am sharing this at the bi-weekly Outdoor Play Link Party co-hosted by
Mama Pea Pod Green Sam and Avery Learning for Life and The Golden Gleam!