January 20, 2012, 12:17 am

The New York Botanical Garden will be hosting two workshops at the 6th Annual K-12 Expo on March 10th:

• Make Your Own Bog with a Venus Fly Trap! (bring your kids!)
• Bringing a Garden to your School (for parents / teachers)

In the meantime, they have provided some insight into how best to explore nature this winter. Enjoy, and mark your calendars to see them in-person come March!

As we pass the holiday season, many of us settle into the winter doldrums. This is a perfect time to start a New Year’s resolution to embrace and explore nature! For those of us that live in the New York City metro area, the winter can be chilly, but not a barrier to outdoor fun. Here are a few tips for beating the winter blues while exploring the natural world:

• Visit the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory on The New York Botanical Garden grounds. Inside this steamy glasshouse, you will see plants from tropical rain forests as well as the American and African deserts. Bring a cell phone, and explore these plants with the new interactive Adventures in Adaptations scavenger hunt.
• Take a winter hike. New York City has beautiful parks such as Inwood Hill and Van Cortlandt Park for “getting away” from the city life. Many plants have brightly-colored berries during winter as well as beautiful buds waiting for spring. Don’t forget to listen for chirping birds and search for animal tracks in the snow.
• Start some indoor flower bulbs. Blooming flowers can bring wonderful fragrance and color on a dreary day. Bulbs, such as Paper Whites and Amaryllis, are easy and cheap. Start an observation journal with your kids to record the weekly changes in the plant. Make a prediction about the number of days before your bulb flowers. Don’t forget to sketch the flower in its full glory.
• Build a snow man, or snow people. Find new and creative ways to show off your artistic abilities with snow and other natural materials. Make snow explorers on top of hills, dinosaurs searching for food, or other mystical creatures. Use natural materials for arms, hands, Remember they don’t need to be life-sized; make things at a smaller scale. If there is enough snow, build a snow fort and pretend that your snow creation is the look-out.
• Don’t forget sledding! You don’t need to be a kid to go sledding, so pick up an old sled at a second-hand thrift store, and head for the slopes. Try different positions on the sled to see if your speed increases down the hill. Take break at the bottom of the hill to look at the clouds in the sky to pick out different shapes, or look for nests inside the leaf less trees. Don’t forget to get some hot cocoa after you’re done!