Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of 
SciWo is an assistant professor of geosciences. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found 
Gosh it's a difficult time of year, when the desire to frolic outdoors in the late fall/early winter chill is tempered by the mountains of papers to grade, endless meetings to be held, and the lurking danger of syllabi for next semester. It's the time of year, when you have every intention of taking dog and kid for a walk after work, but that by the time you reach daycare, it is pitch black, and even though you haven't gotten there any later than you did a few months ago, you feel terrible about leaving your kid in the care of strangers so late into the night.
Minnow and I have been trying to find ways to counter these daylight confines by squeezing in fun adventures on weekends (trips to living history farms, nature centers, and local playgrounds) and by using our long winter evenings to read about the adventures and misadventures of other outdoor enthusiasts. With that as an intro, I present the current favorite book in the Science household, Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Bear Scouts.
(Isn't it amazing how Minnow is picking up on the rhyming and able to supply her own words to end some of the lines of text? In another take she did far more of it than displayed here.)
After we're done reading about the Bear Scouts' adventures, we can retreat to the cozy four-season tent...
pitched inside my home office. Do you think my students will believe me if I tell them their papers aren't graded because I've been camping every night this week? (As I write this, Princess Pup has made herself comfortable in the tent, as she patiently waits for me to finish and play with her.)
To all the students and faculty out there, good luck with the end of the semester crazies and may you find time to escape to nature when it is all over.
Environment
Comments
When you're finished with the Bear Scouts, be sure to hunt down a copy of the Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree - lots of good woodsy animals and a seasonally appropriate non-religious message at the end. It's a little longer than Bear Scouts but still has the great rhyming pattern.
Posted by: Jennifer | December 4, 2009 9:38 AM
Ha ha! We also have a tent up in the house right now. I like to hear about Minnow's accomplishments because then I know what I can expect in a few months (among other reasons)!
Posted by: tinkeringtheorist | December 4, 2009 10:35 AM
Cool! Glad I'm not the only one with an indoor tent. And the BB Christmas Tree book is now duly added to my amazon wish list. We have a lot of the bears in our library, but not that one.
Posted by: SciWo | December 4, 2009 11:18 AM
Arachnologist and diplopodologist Dr Jason E Bond at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, is most recently well-known for naming a spider (Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi) after Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Neil Young. Kristin Day of The Daily Reflector.
Posted by: sikiş | December 5, 2009 11:58 AM
Thank you for sharing with us that you spend time with your children. It is beautiful to see that. I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old and I'm a 7th year grad student. My children also love books. I taught my daughter to read when she was 3 1/2. I couldn't afford a daycare so I stayed home with her during the day and went to school at night. My son is 2 and he goes to school the whole day, but I try to teach him too, in the train and at dinnertime. You inspire me.
Posted by: Lina | February 4, 2010 9:57 AM