"Fungi are the grand recyclers of the planet and the vanguard species in habitat restoration"

When we hit this time of year I feel a little more at one with the world. The temperature drops to how I like it, the autumnal colours are amazing and the fungi starts popping everywhere. There's something so satisfying about stomping through the woods and being greeted by something beautiful growing from the ground, on logs or high up in trees. Opeie started showing an interest in fungi after we spotted a bright red toadstool one afternoon about 5 years ago, we had no idea what it was and needed to know more. Then a couple of years back we read 'The Grim Grotto', one of the books from Lemony Snicket's 'A series of unfortunate events', which got him hooked again and it kickstarted an ongoing Mycology project that we add to every autumn.

After turning over rotting logs and crawling around on our knees may-september looking for beetles, its nice to change it up a little on the build up to winter time and we are never disappointed by what the autumn months have to offer. I thought I'd share some of the great fungi we have found...

I love these outdoorsy projects that we start because they are never ending, we're always spotting new fungi and Beetles meaning we can keep popping back to the Entomology and Mycology projects to add our finds. I really feel like revisiting these projects is great for Opeie's development as he is looking back on how he was covering the work last autumn and he can see his own growth which is really satisfying for  him (and me).

We're still not confident enough to eat what we find but the excitement of finding new ones is more than enough. Now to try and identify the ones we don't know for a Popes and Twink video.

“Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.”

 

I love that every time we go for a walk Opeie picks up an object to take with him to photograph  Sometimes it's a toy and sometimes it's something he has created, whatever it is though he wants it photographed in a tree, in grass, next to a mushroom or on moss which to me always says a lot about how he feels about nature and being outdoors. Today was Yoda's turn for the star treatment.

"The fungus among us"

I have loved this Autumn, Opeie and I have been on so many homeschooling adventures and even though I have my 'am I doing enough' moments. I am confident that Opeie has learnt a lot over the last few months and most importantly has loved every minute of it. Homeschooling has been amazing since day one, being able to learn while being outdoors and doing exactly as we please has had an amazing impact on Opeie and he is the happiest and most loving child, I am so proud of how he is growing. Our outings throughout the week are a mixture of mini games and investigation that are ongoing. One of those, which started during the early Autumn months was fungi hunting.

It all started when we spotted fungi straight out of a Disney movie. I've never seen red toadstools (The fly Agaric) growing anywhere before so it was a nice surprise and kick-started a fungi hunt everywhere we went adventuring. Our collection is just getting started but I wanted to share the photos that we have collected so far which Opeie is really excited about. I named the post after a mushroom burger that I had in Orlando earlier in the year at the vegan restaurant Ethos. So here they are "The Fungus Among us".

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

Mrs M has pointed out nearly every day recently that this is the most beautiful Autumn that we have had and she is so right. The colours on the trees have been amazing and the dry weather has meant that all those red, orange and yellow leaves have been blowing around in the wind for weeks. It has also given me and Opeie the chance to get out adventuring even more. This has been the perfect season for our home schooling fun and we've been taking the Micro scooters out looking for interesting things wherever we've been. Autumn is great for fungi hunting and this year has been exceptionally good as we've spotted toadstools and lovely red Agaric fungus, which Ive never seen out before.

There is so much fun to be had in this dry, sunny autumn weather, making piles of leaves and jumping around in them and we have been taking full advantage. These scooting adventures of ours are what homeschooling at this age is all about. Getting out and taking in our surroundings is the best kind of education for young children and these afternoons scooting together have also been a great way of breaking up the more academic learning we have been doing at home.

I'm hoping that this dry Autumn means that we are in for a similar winter, so that our Micro adventures can continue through the colder months and our outdoor home education can continue on wheels.