Assateague Island – Where the Ponies Run Free

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If you live anywhere near Maryland, Virginia, or Delaware you shouldn’t pass up a trip to Assateague. In fact if you are looking for a family vacation spot, this is a wonderful place to come, learn, explore, and play. You can skip the Ocean city boardwalk, you can pass up the traffic on Coastal Highway in the summer, and head straight down Rt. 611. Make sure you stop at the visitor center to explore all the wonderful history, to check out the hands on learning, and to view the Island through high powered telescopes. Here is a peak of how our day looked.   

Who doesn’t want to sit in comfy rockers on a beautiful sunny deck and look out at the water?
We are loving it here already and we haven’t even gone inside yet. (smile)
I highly recommend reading a few books about the places you plan on visiting. It will enhance your experience and allow the children to already have an understanding of where they are and what they are seeing. A few books that I recommend reading about Assateague are Chincoteague Revisited, Sea Shells, Crabs, and Sea Stars, and the amazing book that Photographs the life of the ponies In the Herd

So much beauty in the world.

The boys have already been able to explore maps, look through telescopes, learn about a Jetty, see all of the Inlet passageways, look at marsh lands, and that was just the beginning. 
Soon they spotted the hands on learning and what an exciting area that is. They listened to Conch shells, they held horse shoe crabs, they played with bones, that’s right…. bones (laughing) kids like that stuff.

Around the bend you find 2 huge fish tanks where the boys tried to find all the different types of fish listed. Fish tanks are so much fun to look in.
The hands on learning gets even more exciting with a tank filled with all kinds of living creatures. 
We touched all kinds of sea life, I even got peed on. They thought that was hilarious.
Of course we couldn’t leave the visiting center with out picking up the famous Newbery honored book Misty of Chincoteague for our next read aloud.

You know your a homeschooling mom when you seize every opportunity to learn or create something  (of course I know that lot’s of mom’s do this, even if they don’t homeschool). I brought along a bag full of card stock and colored pencils so the kids could draw a picture of a favorite thing they saw or learned about. I thought this would be a great addition to our family nature journal.

Blaze snapped this picture while we were enjoying the rockers. It was so peaceful there.
Next we headed out to the beach, we opted for the bay side this trip. Which was a perfect choice, the bay was calm and it is always fun to explore.
In fact, the boys spotted this horseshoe crab right when we got there. To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have gotten in after that but I kept that to myself, they thought it was cool and it definitely didn’t slow them down. 
I had to add this picture of Baby Bell I just thought it was so cute. She was wonderful of course and let me snap a few pictures before getting her out to feel the sand and check out the beach.
The famous Ponies/Horses. They are so beautiful, and it’s just so amazing to watch them wondering around the whole area. It makes me realize, this is their home and we are just visitors. 
 The kids loved seeing the horses as much as I did. 

Baby Bell, Her first time awake at the beach and able to enjoy it. 
She’s our princess
It’s such a joy to watch the children explore and enjoy this wonderful place. 

This was such a great day. Assateague is by far one of my favorite places in this area to visit. This visit we dedicated to spending time at the visiting canter and the bay, The next time we come here will be for some amazing bird watching. The trails here at Assateague offer many opportunities for bird watching, in fact the island is known to have more than 320 different species including thousands of snow geese, waterfowl, shorebirds, hawks, and falcons. These birds make Assateague their home to feed and nest, which makes it a perfect place for our families nature study.
I hope you can make it here for a visit, it’s so worth it.