It's no secret that I strongly promote getting children involved in the outdoors. I spend a lot of time encouraging veteran hunters and anglers to introduce the outdoors sports to the younger generations through 
my speaking engagements, radio program Outdoors Live, and written articles. It's something I feel very strongly about.
One of the best ways I know to get a kid interested in the outdoors is to take them camping... near a river if possible. I've been taking my daughter, Sara Kate, camping for the past seven years and was surprised when she told me on a recent outdoor adventure that she didn't realize just how many things there was to do and see when outdoors.
While the children were swimming and splashing in the water, I was wading along the banks with my digital camera strapped around my neck, just relaxing and savoring the time outdoors. Every few minutes it seemed I was able to find something new to take photos of. First it was wild flowers, then it was water bugs, leaves floating in the 
water, and scores of butterflies.
As I sat at the picnic table, viewing the photos on my camera, Sara Kate came up behind me. "Wow", she said, "Where'd you find those butterflies?" Laughing I pointed toward the river's edge where she'd been playing just moments before. "Show me!" she said excitedly. I walked with Sara back to where I had taken the photos just a short time before. Wading back through the water, I pointed to the bank. Sure enough, the butterflies were still there, flittering from wild flower to wild flower.
We watched them for some time. "I didn't even see those flowers earlier," Sara softly commented, not necessarily to me... but more to herself. It wasn't long before we were joined by the other children, each adding their own excited comments as they watched the butterflies up close and personal. I shared several quick facts about the butterfly, including that the average species of butterfly only has an adult life span of a
bout two weeks. The children didn't think that was quite fair! They also thought it amazing that butterflies don't have eyelids, thus they always have their eyes open. Such small details made their minds work overtime. Lots of questions and opinions soon followed.
Sometime later, I left the children and headed back to the campgrounds, listening to their excited chatter behind me as I departed. However, something new suddenly caught my eye and I found myself distracted by a little caterpillar climbing up the side of a tree. The next thirty minutes or so would be spent chasing this caterpillar round and round that lopsided, leaning old Sycamore.
Now, I've seen lots of caterpillar in my lifetime and this one wasn't really much different, but this time I had my camera and I wanted a couple of photos. With each photo though, 
I'd notice something different and would zoom in just a little bit more or from a different angle. I was totally intrigued by this little guy, though no doubt, he was a bit annoyed with me and my camera!
My time spent taking photos of the caterpillar brought back some wonderful memories of when my son Casey was young. He once found a caterpillar and decided he wanted to keep it. I decided that this would be a great learning experience for my son and said okay. We placed the caterpillar in a wide mouth jar with a few fresh leaves, putting holes in the lid of the jar for air, and adding a small stick for the caterpillar to climb and attach himself to. It wasn't but a few days later that I heard my son's distressing cry, "My caterpillar's gone!" Peering into the jar, I couldn't help but chuckle. "No, it's not!" I said. "Look! There's a cocoon!" 
Every day my son watched that cocoon, awaiting the arrival of his butterfly. Imagine his excitement the day he found it fluttering at the top of the jar, waiting to be released! And that's exactly what we did. Gathering the family around, we stepped out on the deck and watched as the butterfly emerged from the jar and for the first time spread its wings, and flew into the yard. In silence we watched until it disappeared from sight. The look of pride on my son's face was priceless.
Returning to reality, I saw the children running excitedly towards me. "Look what we found! Tadpoles! Can we keep them?" Laughing, I agreed. After all, it's another learning experience for the kids. The transformation of a frog from a tadpole was one of my own very special memories of a child. My mother's birdbath was always home to a number of critters; tadpoles being my favorite. She didn't mind as long as they remained outside.
Before this camping trip was over, the children found a number of interesting 
critters and insects to admire. They caught crawdads in the river, competiting to see who could find the largest. A wasp nest was disected and the children were able to view the different stages of a wasp's life. To our surprise we were also visited by a Great White Egret, who seemed as curious about us as we were about it. It never flew far, but stayed within view, finally flying into a nearby tree, peeking out occasionally to watch us as we strained to watch it. As we prepared to leave for home on the final day, a majestic Bald Eagle soared across the hayfield. It was an appropriate and stunning ending to an already wonderful outdoor adventure.
