Once a month my wife and I take our daughters out for parent date-nights: Charlotte takes one of our daughters somewhere just the two of them, and I do the same. This month my wife took our oldest to a new nature preserve she found in Dublin: the ML "Red" Trabue Nature Reserve. According to them... it was beautiful! I've never been myself but my oldest came home proudly with a Northern Catalpa leaf and a story about a mama and baby duck!

I took my youngest to Blues Creek Park near Marysville. There we played on the playground, fed fish in the pond, enjoyed the blooming Foxglove Beardtongue and the bumblebees in the expansive prairie... and, like the title of this blog post suggests: skipped stones!

As we threw rock after rock across the little creek, an older gentleman walked across the path behind us and commented: "I remember doing that with my boys decades ago... no better way to spend some time with your dad". And I agree: spending time doing simple but fun things outdoors with your kiddos is the best!

In a world of rapidly changing markets, trends, fashion, slang etc... sometimes the best, healthiest choice is to slow down, put the phone down... and skip a stone! So, where can you do that around Columbus? I'll tell ya!

1. Whetstone Park

Where to Skip Stones: park in the first parking lot just after the bend, across from the pond and prairie. Walk straight into the woods. In no time you'll come across multiple gravelly beaches in the creek that have the perfect flat skipping stones!

What else Mr.Jared loves there: where do I begin?! This park has GIANT beautiful Sycamore trees, a vast and gorgeous prairie full of native flowers, a secret vernal pool, walking paths, Red-shouldered Hawk nests, ducks, forts, Ebony Jewelwing damselflies, oh and the Park of Roses!

2. Battelle-Darby Creek Metropark

Where to Skip Stones: go to the nature center (and stop in... the living stream in there is awesome! Oh, and say hi to the Buffalo!) and take the Riffle Run Trail. A Steep hill takes you down by one of the cleanest rivers in Ohio! Skip Rocks and enjoy the scenery.

What else Mr.Jared loves there: Seriously, the nature center is beautiful (and was designed by a former LDBB parent!). This park has beautiful prairies (I really like prairies... you'll learn way more next month!), tons of cool bugs and birds, and like I said... Buffalo!

3. Shale Hollow

Where to Skip Stones: Park near the nature center and cross the bridge to the natural play area. Walk into the creek wherever and use the shale that's all around... it makes the best skipping rocks anywhere!

What else Mr.Jared loves there: This tucked-away park in Delaware, Ohio is worht the trip! Their natural play area (a spot where kiddos can explore all over and climb, play, walk in the creek etc) is amazing! You'll find forts, a creek you can walk through, crayfish, a waterfall that looks like Jurassic Parkj (minus the scariness), concretions, and... you guess it, prairie! Woo hoo! Cool nature center too.

4. Highbanks Metropark

Where to Skip Stones: Park near the shelterhouses/zipline in the Big Meadows Picnic Area. Take the southern-most entrance to the Scenic River Trail. Soon you come across a path to your left that leads towards the river... follow it and ... ta-da! Rocky beach and gorgeous river views!

What else Mr.Jared loves there: This park ALSO has a super-sweet nature center and prairies! Also, tons of cool dragonflies, woodland wildflowers, bluebirds, fish, and more. Plus, this stretch of the Olentangy gets a high quality cleanliness ranking by the EPA! Yay!

Central Ohio has many more places to put down your phones and skip stones, but these four are a good start! If you make it out to skip stones and explore at all four, you'll be a changed family... for real! Get some good ol' Vitamin N and see what happens!

(Side note: when you do have your phone, check out the Seek app by iNaturalist... a great and accurate app for pointing your camera at plants and animals and finding out more about them... I use it almost daily!)