Going Stir Crazy? Help The State of Maine Track Critters

If your kids are anything like my kids, when August comes around, they start to climb the walls. At my house, when the kids get super rambunctious, we like to play a game of I-spy. It usually engages their brains and their sense of competition for a few minutes. The trickier they try to get, the longer it takes, which is usually a good thing.

In talking with a few of my favorite local families this week, however, I realized that there's a way to level up our I-Spy game and help the state of Maine in the process.

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The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, on their website, has this section for "Citizen Scientists".

Aside from keeping an eye out for Turkey and White-Tailed Deer, they have programs for folks to help track birds, bumblebees, reptiles and amphibians, dragonflies, and butterflies, to name a few. Basically, all the stuff kids are into anyway. Now they can take their interests, get outside for a bit and help the state keep track of these populations.

Send the kids outside, or better yet, take them for a nature walk and do it as a family. Give them a small notebook and have them record what they see, where they see it, and when.

They'll feel super cool at getting to be a "Citizen Scientist"  and you can get a much-needed break from the arguing and the "I'm bored! There's nothing to do!" statements.