A small but lovely group of Royal Rangers (Christian Scouts) from Neumarkt joined us for a visit to the woods. The nine children and four leaders had already visited for the 2nd time and remembered a great deal from our last woodland day together.
The young Scouts were very observant as they walked, and we spotted roe deer droppings, a tuft of roe deer hair and tracks in the mud. We even noticed a lightning scar on a tree. Our huntresses Susanne and Jessi were happy to answer the children’s curious questions and were delighted by their interest.
As the Royal Rangers are currently studying red deer as their group topic, our shed antlers in various sizes made a great visual aid. After a snack in the hunting lodge, we examined and discussed them closely. Our guests could hardly believe that the stag grows a new set of antlers every year, which gets bigger and heavier each time.
One boy’s comment made us a little sad: his teacher doesn’t believe him when he says that a badger sett has many entrances and exits. The child had come back from a woodland day full of joy, eager to share all he had learnt, only to be disbelieved because the teacher herself knows little about nature.
It’s high time we did something to change this and helped people – young and old alike – get closer to nature!