When it comes to iconic, old-fashioned, get-the-kids-outside activities, you can't beat fishing.

While we're not big fishermen, we do take the kids and their little poles down to the river from time to time. I don't think Nature Girl would have started fishing a couple years ago if Disney didn't make a Disney Princesses fishing pole (now that's marketing!). As this summer wanes, however, that 5-year-old can now get her own bait by seining for grass shrimp or digging for worms, bait her own hook and catch her own fish. All without saying "ewww", no less. Her big brother still gets skeeved out by worms, but we're working on that.

As my little girl was baiting her hook last weekend, the picture of my grandmother flashed in my mind. Earlier this summer, we set loose eight cousins under the age of 9 to fish at Storm Lake in Iowa. It was a bit chaotic. But Grandma, whose father was a fisherman-farmer plain and simple, stepped right up and started baiting the hooks with ease -- despite the fact it had probably been 50 years since she last went fishing. I'm sure that when Grandma was 5, she could bait her own hook, too. Heck, she probably took off in the morning by herself with just a pole and a bucket and came home with a pile of fish for her mom to cook up for dinner that night.

In our case, we're not eating any of the latest catch (Nature Girl - quite reluctantly - threw them all back). And the only thing the cousins caught in Iowa was Nature Girl (she took a hook in the arm ~ I don’t know who was more upset, the hook-er or the hook-ee). But as much fun as I would have gutting and cooking fresh fish (not), it's participation alone that equals a successful fishing trip.

Anne Arundel County parks offer numerous fishing spots, such as Quiet Waters Park and Downs Park. Click here for more information. The Maryland DNR lists additional areas around Maryland for fishing.

We all love waterpark resorts, amusement parks, and all-inclusive-type vacations with lots of scheduled family and kid activities (Disney cruise, anyone?). But sometimes getting back to basics, back to nature, can provide all of the excitement and warm family memories you can ask for.

Our friends the Hertels reminded us of this with their week-long camping trip to Assateague Island, a place I know we will visit in the near future. After all, where can you lie on the beach and look up to see a few wild horses standing face toward the sea, letting the ocean breeze blow away the horseflies? How about a place where you shouldn’t leave your burger buns and corn on the cob outside your tent, since those same wild horses might just get the midnight munchies?

Assateague is a federally-protected island, harboring 320 species of birds, 37 miles of beaches and 300+ wild ponies. Camping is allowed on the Maryland end of the island, which lies just 8 miles from Ocean City, Maryland. This is a perfect example of the raw beauty and diverse ecosystems native to the Chesapeake Bay area -- we would be fools not to take advantage of our proximity to the island.

Here’s Deb's description of their stay:

Typical day: wake up and have breakfast, ride bike/walk or yoga on beach, go to Nature Center/Playground, ride bikes and scooters, put on swimsuits and sunscreen – go to beach and play/swim/read, eat lunch, back to beach, surf, fish, build castles, play football, shower, ride bikes/scooters and play with friends while Mom and Dad cook dinner, play cards and games, make fire, roast marshmallows and make S'mores, go to beach to hunt "ghost crabs" w/ flashlights, brush teeth and fall sound asleep listening to the Ocean w/ a strong breeze tucking us in . . .

I'm most intrigued by the "ghost crabs" . . .

I now have a mission to plan a trip to Assateague. For now, we are reading Misty of Chincoteague, the 1947 story by Marguerite Henry about two children living on Chincoteague Island who visit Assateague and are entranced by a mystical mare. You can bet when we're done with the book the kids will be clamoring for a visit to see the wild horses!

Summer is officially over. I know it's not technically over until September 22nd or so, but school started Monday, so as far as my kids are concerned, summer is over. The good news is that we have a whole new crop of outdoor activities to enjoy.

Three big ones either just started or start very soon, so get them on your calendar. First is the Maryland State Fair in Timonium, which is going on until September 1st. Especially for city kids, or even forest kids – heck, any kid who doesn’t live on a farm or belong to 4-H, the state fair is a great opportunity to see, hear, taste and smell the animals and food from our local farms. We’re not just talking about getting to see a few cows and pigs, though. Kids will marvel at champion-sized watermelons and sows, and everyone will be shocked to see how many different kinds of chickens there are. I can't even begin to describe all of the exhibitions and demonstrations scheduled, there are so many. Oh, yeah, they have rides, too - can't forget the carnival rides!

If you miss the State Fair, the Anne Arundel County Fair in Crownsville runs September 10th-14th. The County Fair is a more modest affair, and a little more manageable than the State Fair, although it boasts the same sorts of events. Your kids won't want to miss the pig races (don't tell PETA), the bee hives in the exhibition hall, the giant slides, the carnie games or the Tilt-a-Whirl.

If you want to avoid the flashing lights of the Midway, try out the pastoral Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville. Don’t let the heavily costumed die-hards scare you away from the Faire! In fact, after you've been a couple of times, you might just find yourself eyeing the costume shop in hopes of finding a wench or wizard get-up in your size.

The Faire takes place in a re-created renaissance village tucked into the woods, and trust me when I say that one day simply isn’t enough to enjoy all that the event has to offer. Jousting, comedy routines (adult-oriented and family-oriented), wandering entertainers, theater productions, an outdoor playground featuring a pirate ship, and on and on -- there is always something to see or do. The picture to the right is last year's audience-participation version of Robin Hood (free). The picture to the left is the renaissance up-do our daughter talked us into letting her get (not-so-free).

The Faire has a number of special themed days, and the one our kids love is on September 27th and 28th this year – Pirate Adventure Weekend. Cast and visitors alike of all ages arrive dressed to the hilt in full-on ... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

For the past couple of years, I have fantasized about sending my kids to a "nature-immersion" school. Imagine teachers taking students outdoors for classes, teaching each subject with an infusion of nature. Because of children's natural affinity for all things nature, learning would be more fun and the hands-on activities would lead to a deeper and more lasting educational experience. And that's on top of helping kids learn to appreciate the gifts of nature and become better stewards of our environment.

While a nature magnet school isn't in the works, the Capital reports that government officials are talking more about the importance of attaining "environmental literacy" and "making outdoor learning an integral part of schooling." Click here to see an article about the event promoting environmental education and the "No Child Left Inside Act."

For anyone interested in a true nature-immersion school, check out The Island School in the Bahamas. Students only attend for a single high school semester, but local educators I've spoken with have raved about the tremendous impact the experience has had on students from their schools.

There is a wealth of bird-life in our region, from the soaring osprey and the gawky great blue herons that live along the water, to the flitting hummingbirds and various songbirds that dine at our bird feeders.

At Casa Klepper, we open up our Audubon guide to identify the ones we've never seen before, and we puzzle over feathers we find, guessing what kind of birds they came from. Since we sometimes hear more birds than we see, we decided to try learning to identify birds by their songs (ha! easier said than done).

There are lots of commercial CDs and MP3s out there for bird enthusiasts wanting to learn bird songs, but we found a couple of free websites that work just fine for us bird-feeder-watchers. The kids' favorite is Learn Bird Songs, which only plays the songs of 38 birds, but is easy to navigate and seems to feature birds mostly from our area. I've bookmarked this one on our computer since it's easy for the kids to use. They really enjoy hearing a bird song on the computer and recognizing that they have heard it outside, as well. Being able to hear the song and then identify the bird will take some time, but we've gotten a few of them down. (The kids like to quiz me, making me guess the bird when they play the song.)

The other good web resource we found is at eNature. This website has over 550 birds, and includes pictures, songs (although not for all birds) and encyclopedia-like entries about the birds. It's a bit cumbersome for really young kids, but it is a good supplement to Learn Bird Songs because of its comprehensiveness.

Happy birding!

You never know what you might find underneath your house, especially when you live in a cottage in the forest. Among the scattered (non-living) things we found under our house after we bought it was a rolling seine net. I'd never heard of such a thing (as usual, I'll blame it on my land-locked upbringing), and I certainly wouldn't have known what to do with it even if I had. Fortunately, our local expert (aka "dad") knew just what it was for, and he organized a seining expedition at the Severn River last week.

We (and by "we" I mean "dad") pushed the net along the bottom of the river, through the seaweed and sea grass, and dumped the contents on the sand when the net was full. Nature Girl, her brother and a friend dived right in, pulling out tiny mud(?) crabs, even tinier grass shrimp and slippery minnows. An eel slithered away from the first haul, much to dad's dismay, and the blue crab they found was, alas, just an empty shell.

For a pretty simple activity, seining really impressed the kids. In fact, today they dragged dad out of the house to go seining again. Since they knew they'd find some grass shrimp, the kids brought their fishing rods this time. While they didn't find another eel, each of the kids managed to catch a white perch using the grass shrimp as bait. Yet another successful nature expedition!

The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center invites families to seine in the tidal pool at their location (seine nets can be borrowed from the visitors center). Visit their website for more information.

I scoured the internet trying to find a place to buy a personal-sized, rolling net like the one in the picture, but I couldn't find anything other than giant seining nets for fishermen. If you know of a local store that carries these, let me know!

Summer camp is over, and my little Nature Girl is sad. But we're holding on to that "in-camp" mentality for as long as we can. Today we went on a rainbow scavenger hunt along the Severn River with Nature Girl's girlfriends, just the right thing for a beautiful day (we finished before the thunderstorms).

I got the idea from "Scribbit", a great blog written by a mom in Alaska, and what a fun idea it is. It's pretty simple - take an egg carton and paint each cup a different color, then fill each cup with things you find that match the colors.

Well, when Nature Girl and her five friends (aged 4 and 5) first got the cartons, they started having what looked like light saber duels with them. This I would have expected from NG's Star Wars-obsessed brother, not from a bunch of little girls in sun dresses.

Once they understood their mission, however, the young Jedis quickly turned their attention to the hunt. Walking, running, squealing and falling over each other, the girls looked for white feathers, blue flowers, brown pine cones, green grass and orange leaves to place in their cartons. We had no trouble finding things of every color, and had only a few instances of sharing violations : ).

Some things didn't fit in the carton, but the girls still took the time to watch them: sea nettles (white), schools of fish (gray), a great blue heron (blue) sitting on an osprey nest (brown) and quite a few blue crabs (blue and red). One mom commented that it was fun to have an open-ended activity that allowed the girls just to explore without interference. It comes so natural to kids, and you could tell they were having a blast.

Each girl got to go home with an egg carton filled with her nature finds. Hopefully the cartons will all be used again. I know ours will -- it will be fun to have a rainbow scavenger hunt in the fall when the leaves change colors.

And guess what my kids and I saw today after the afternoon rain? Yup, a rainbow. Scavenger hunt complete.

"Go. Play. Out. Side. Now." When you follow this with "Why don’t you boys go build a fort?", you'd better be prepared to follow through with it. Fortunately for me (not being much of a fort-builder), our handyman (aka "dad") was home.

We didn't have any plywood, so a Li'l Rascals style He-Man Woman Haters Club clubhouse will have to wait. But dad knows little boys and he knew that a tarp thrown over a rope tied between two trees would do just fine.

The fort must be imbued with some magical powers, because the next thing I knew, the boys (ranging in ages from 6-9) were scrubbing dirty and cobwebby fort furniture, blazing a trail to the fort and getting the area cleared out -- all of their own initiative, I must add.

Nature Girl popped in and out of the mission, leading the effort to dig up rocks (in case of a bear attack) and worms (not sure what those are for). The boys even considered naming the club the "No Girls Allowed Except Nature Girl Club." But in true boy fashion, they now prefer that no girls be allowed.

Lack of plywood notwithstanding, the boys do remind me a bit of the Li'l Rascals (Nature Girl must be Darla). They're assembling weapons out of rocks, sticks and rubber bands (again, in case of a bear attack), eating PBJs in the fort and debating what to put on the official club flag. Maybe next they'll build some milk crate scooters and go down to the ol' fishin' hole with their bamboo fishin' poles.

Or maybe someone will bring a Nintendo DS to the fort and they'll sit out there playing Mario Bros. all afternoon. That will pose a parental dilemma. Would that qualify as "playing outside"?

OK, I know this blog is about getting kids outside, but I have to say something about YouTube.

You can find a video about just about anything on YouTube. Once you bypass all of the prurient, juvenile and inane posts (of which there are millions), there is a treasure trove of videos posted by and for wildlife photographers, birders and all kinds of nature lovers.

Just yesterday, we were watching a hummingbird outside our window and couldn't get a good view of it since it kept flying away. So we went to YouTube and saw up-close videos of hummingbirds, including a short video about their annual migration from Mexico to the northern US.

I first used YouTube with the kids when reading a book about animal babies to my daughter. It was a silly book and it simply wasn't accurate. So, we went to YouTube to watch videos of all of the animal babies (and then some) mentioned in the book. We saw a newborn joey climb into its mother's pouch and nurse; we saw sea turtles hatch and then run toward the sea; we saw lion cubs tumbling over each other; we saw baby chimps clinging to their mother. As abundant and varied as nature is in the Chesapeake Bay region, we can't see this kind of stuff on a nature walk.

To be clear, I don't recommend children using YouTube without adult supervision. There's just too much inappropriate material. But all it took for me to know the value of the website was to watch the video of a two-inch long, blind, newborn joey crawl its way from birth canal to pouch. Wow! or, rather, Crikey!