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With new X-Boxes, Play Station 2s and Nintendo Gamecubes hooked up in homes throughout the city, it's probably easy to forget - as did Brother and Sister Bear in the popular Berenstain Bears series - that Mother Nature offers alluring wonders as well.
And the Geneva Park District's Peck Farm Park is the perfect spot to uncover some of the beauty of nature.
For example, dried flower petals and herbs can provide a scent for homemade soap in the "Scented Soap Workshop." Children can follow animal tracks, learn how a fire can disturb the life cycle of a tree, make art projects with seeds and take nature hikes in classes at the 100-acre-plus facility on Geneva's western edge.
And who hasn't been fascinated with bees and how they make honey? Adults can learn about beekeeping from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 22 through March 12, at the Peck Farm Barn.
Charles Lorence will teach participants how to start raising honeybees, seasonal management of hives and the use of bees for pollination and honey production. Class members will assemble a bee hive and learn how bees live and work in the hive.
"We try to offer programs that are going to keep people connected with nature, even during the cold months," said Heidi Kinder, program assistant at the park. Several programs, she said, provide fun "with the little things you wouldn't notice when it's nicer, like making things with seeds or pressed leaves or following animal tracks."
Kinder, an artist, teaches nature drawing and painting classes at the park, and also leads the young people's popular "Nature Explorations" classes.
"The kids get to know nature. They start to feel comfortable learning a little more about animals and having fun outdoors," she said.
Upcoming classes at Peck Farm Park include:
- "Up, Down and All Around," with kids acting as nature detectives, searching for nests, holes, tunnels and signs of wildlife; from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (kindergarten through second grade) and Thursday (grades third through fifth).
- "Winter Blankets," discovering the benefits of snow to wildlife. Kids will conduct experiments, make a snowflake craft, paint the snow and, if there is enough snow, build a "quinzee," a temporary shelter used by native peoples of the north; from 4 to 5:30 p.
