Junior Naturalist

We attend many programs at our local state park. I don't know why we didn't do this before. Shayla loves to be rewarded for her accomplishments. When she learned that she could earn a free junior naturalist tshirt by attending nature programs, she was ecstatic!





Me? Not so much!





She only had to attend 15 per summer - 1 hour each programs, including visiting the nature center, fishing, hiking, Nature Detectives and Wild Week programs. ONLY 15! UGH! Where was I going to find 15 hours!?! I took her to the camp store and bought her a state park t-shirt. It was cute. That's a good alternative. Right? Wrong!


But Mom, I want the green t-shirt, the junior naturalist one. You can't buy it - you have to earn it!




Guess I failed again as a mother!


We talked with the naturalist and she gave Shayla credit for the two Wild Week programs she had attended, they were worth 8 of the 15 hours! Then she had record of several nature center visits. So we already had 11 hours!






After attending 2 Nature Detective programs and working 2 hours at the Nature Center - painstakingly carrying water, changing the water in the fish tank, and feeding all the animals.





Yes, even the ones that eat live worms and mice!






The hard work paid off, she got her "free" t-shirt! She is so proud of this shirt!








It wasn't too hard to accomplish, especially since we had already unknowingly completed half of the required time. We also used the time spent at the state park to work on several of her outdoor themed Brownie scout badges!


For her next reward, she is going to start working for a hat, then the bag. Only 30 more hours before the summer is over. Yeah, right, like that's going to happen!