Tolay Park offers kids of all ages a place to play

Have you ever had the chance to go play outdoors with 40 kindergarteners?

To do so gives one a fresh perspective on nature and on what we adults often miss. Last month, I had the opportunity to join kindergarteners from a local school along with their parent and teacher chaperons on a field trip to Tolay Lake Regional Park for Healthy Earth/Healthy Bodies, one of the education programs offered by Sonoma County Regional Parks.

Wow, were the kids enthusiastic!

The first stop was Marvin’s Garden to learn about the plant cycle, acting out each phase. Seed, water, root, leaves, flowers, pollination, fruit. Have you ever pretended to be a seed sprouting roots?

“What’s your favorite fruit or vegetable?” asked the docent. The number one favorite: bananas. A loud group groan went up when one child said, “Broccoli.”

Why did broccoli get such a bad response? I love broccoli.

The kids planted seeds for the vegetable bed and found a lizard there. What excitement in discovering this little reptile. They crowded around to watch him until he scurried away. Then it was time to write in their journals about plants. Do you remember writing in journals when you were in kindergarten? I sure don’t.

The next stop was Goatopia, the corral where we found goats young and old, and nearby, a couple of pigs, a miniature horse and chickens. How remarkable to pet a goat. They can be so affectionate.

No goat milking today, though. The babies need all they can get, but we learn about how it is done.

Then it was on to see the baby chicks in the brooder. The docent let everyone see a chick up close while teaching about hens, eggs and chicks.

“How do you know if it’s a boy or girl?” asked one child.

We ran up the hill on the Cardoza Road Trail and learned that our hearts are now beating faster.

“Why is that? Is it good for us?” Then, through the gate, we arrived at the Native American village - a few kotchas or dwellings made of redwood bark planks. Lots of questions as the kindergarteners tried to imagine building and living in kotchas.

After that, down the trail to the historic barn. It is huge and dark, paved with old stones. We looked for owls up in the rafters and spotted two.

“How do they get out of the barn? What do they eat?” The kids were fascinated. We learned about owl pellets, the regurgitated matter found on the ground. A parent told me she saved a skeleton that she retrieved from an owl pellet when she was in middle school and can’t wait to show her son. What a great conversation that will be.

A mother asked me, “How can I come here again? I live near the freeway where it is so noisy. It is so quiet and peaceful here.”

As I told her, I reflected on how important it is for all of us, young and old, to go play outdoors in natural settings and to build healthy communities.

(Carol Eber, the chair of the Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation, lives in Petaluma.)