Land Trusts & Native Species: Community-Based Educational Resources to Support Self-Directed Learning

Mar 17 2020
Self-guided hikes are a great way to keep your family active outdoors and engaged in nature! They’re also excellent ways to support learning via community-based educational resources, including land trusts & native species!
Download this free interpretive trail guide Hilltown Families created with the Hilltown Land Trust for the [continue reading]

25 Self-Guided Hikes in Western MA to Support Place-Based Learning

Mar 17 2020
Here is a list of self-guided hikes to do with your family or on your own. To support place-based learning, before you head out, conduct an online search about the natural and human history of some of these community-based educational resources. Bring with you field guides, sketchbooks, cameras, and magnifying glasses and spend the afternoon [continue reading]

Summer Camping Adventures Promote Nature-Based Play and Learning

Aug 7 2019
Camping is one of the most classic outdoor adventures of childhood, and thanks to the wealth of state parks and forests found locally, there are endless camping adventures to be had in western Massachusetts! From exposing young campers to sleeping outside to allowing children to experience all aspects of the local landscape, camping trips are [continue reading]

Hilltown Families on Mass Appeal: Learning through the Lens of Spring

Apr 30 2019
Hilltown Families and Mass Appeal (a weekday, hour-long lifestyle program on NBC) have teamed up to offer a live monthly segment on WWLP 22News!  Each month, community-based education specialist and Hilltown Families’ Founder, Sienna Wildfield, joins Mass Appeal hosts to talk about ways to engage in your community while supporting the interests and education of [continue reading]

Learning Landscape for September: A Transition Between Seasons Brings a Colorful Table

Sep 24 2018
Every month, Hilltown Families features a new Learning Landscape, which aims to inspire learning along with a common theme easily spotted in our surroundings that month. The hope is to bring a little bit of the outdoors inside for inspection, dissection, identification, creative play, art projects, and lots of other educational activities. September has brought [continue reading]

State Forests and Parks: Treasure for all to Enjoy

Jul 20 2015
So much fun for so little money. It’s as simple as that. We are so lucky to live in a state dotted with an abundance of well maintained state forests and parks. Affordable programs are put in place for us to get as much out of them as possible. *Hint, ask at your local library [continue reading]

Nature Table for October

Oct 20 2014
October is a bright month, and the nature treasures of mid-fall are plentiful. Similar to September’s offerings, collections this month in “Nature Tables” have included lots of mushrooms, seeds, and colorful leaves – all indicators that though temperatures have remained warm, the winter is coming! [continue reading]

Nature Table for September

Sep 16 2014
September’s chilly mornings have arrived, bringing with them the first natural indicators of fall. The back-to-school month’s treasures reveal an emerging rainbow of color amongst the summer’s sea of green, as well as the harvest of foods of all kinds (for both humans and local creatures!). Though early fall flowers may be allergy-producing for some, [continue reading]

Parenting Green: Winter Curiosity & Outdoor Play

Jan 1 2014
“I am always amazed at how the kids tend to be the ones to notice the pulse of our natural world through their curiosity,” writes Angie this month in ‘Parenting Green.’ What are some of the ways your family stays connected to nature when the winter wind and snow makes you feel like it’s not [continue reading]

Let’s Play: Sunflower & Popcorn Houses

Apr 17 2013
Families in the Dirt Snow pants, boots and mittens be gone! It’s time for sunny afternoons and mud pies after a spring rain. Outdoor clean up. Digging. Rakes. Water. Hoses. Sticks. Rocks. Shovels. Mud. Now that the younger ones are completely engrossed in dirt play, encourage the older kids to put down their devices and [continue reading]

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