Every Thursday, a rotating group of people will be writing about how to spend quality time outside with your kids — on the sports field or outdoors.

This week, Liz Baird, of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, shares an easy way to spend some quality time with your kids outside by exploring all the new buds bursting.

In April, the gray tree branches become colored with a pastel array of hues as their buds burst, revealing blossoms or leaves. This is a great time to get outside with a small magnifying glass and look closely at the twigs. If you look closely at a bud, you'll see it is made of hard protective scales that protect the tiny tender leaves or flower parts inside. The buds stay closed through the cold or dry season and "burst" with the arrival of warmer temperatures and rain.

As you watch the buds burst, there are lots of things to observe. Figure out if leaves or flowers are emerging. If you watch the bud scales, you might notice that the scales protecting leaves generally fall off, but those that protect flowers generally become the showy colored structures called bracts, that surround the flowers. The white "petals" of our native Dogwood are actually bracts.

Talk with your kids about why it would be an advantage to have flowers emerge before leaves. For wind pollinated flowers, such as those found on oaks and hickories, pollen can disperse without being blocked by the leaves. For maples, Redbud, Dogwood and other insect pollinated flowers, they are more visible without leaves and probably more attractive to insects.

You can also record the date of budburst for a variety of trees. Keeping track of these dates over several years helps us see patterns and make predictions about when budburst (or other natural phenomena) will occur in the future. Scientsts are using this data to document global climate change. There are several ways that you can become a part of that work through online programs such as Journey North and Project Budburst.

Some folks say that the trees that get their leaves first are also the first to lose them in the fall. Get outside and make some notes on your calendar now, and check next season to see if this is true!

The N.C. Museum of Natural Science in downtown Raleigh offers free programs daily, including a great storytime where kids can meet some of the museum's animals. On Saturday, the museum will be celebrating Earth Day with a big festival. Go here to learn more about the Earth Day festival and other special events.

Check out our daily themes at TriangleMom2Mom:

MONDAY: Meet!
TUESDAY: Ask!
WEDNESDAY: Eat!
THURSDAY: Play!
FRIDAY: Out!

WEEKEND: Relax!