Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
~ Dr. Seuss The Lorax
How do you get a child to care about nature? You’d think it would come naturally to all children, but it doesn’t. Bright light, rough textures and cold winds can all make it difficult for some children to like being outdoors. It helps to make it personal. Just as children learn how to love other humans by first forming an attachment to their primary caregiver, so too do they learn how to love nature by first forming a personal attachment to an individual natural setting. This setting could be a backyard, a garden, park or a wood. Sometimes, all it takes is an attachment to a solitary tree to begin a lifelong relationship with nature.
A simple walk around with your child can provide them with the opportunity to get to know every nook and cranny of their outdoor world. Even in your own yard, you’d be surprised what creatures share your space. Encourage your child to look under rocks and peek inside bushes. The more you know about local wildlife, the more you’re going to want to know. Field guides can be helpful and the Internet can offer a great deal of information, but neither resource is a subsitute for personal observation.
Just playing a game of hide and seek can help increase a child’s comfort level outdoors. If you have safety concerns, pair a young child with an older child or adult as they hide or do a search. The goal is to get them accustomed to outdoor textures such as the prickliness of evergreen needles and the roughness of tree trunks.
Keep your sense of proportion by regularly, preferably daily, visiting the natural world.
~ Catlin Matthews
You needn’t stay outdoors for long. Frequent visits in different seasons and weather will reveal that bright sunshine, precipitation, wind and cold are all part of nature and can even be enjoyed when dressed appropriately. Once a child gets beyond their initial comfort zone, it becomes easy to take next steps to forming an attachment with the natural world. Before you know it, they’ll be crying to stay outside.
This post is the third in a series about Getting Children Outdoors.
My oldest child and I got trained as volunteers for FrogWatchUSA. The younger two LOVE to go out on unofficial listening walks, and they can identify some of the more common calls.
Becomingcliche, what a leap your children have made towards becoming nature lovers. Frogs were a big part of my children’s outdoor experience. There’s something very unthreatening about amphibians that makes them so appealing to children.
And there’s hope even for the kids who can’t stand the feel of a worm in their hands. My daughter wouldn’t hold a bug until she was seven. She’s fourteen now and is a volunteer at our zoo helping other kids learn about the wonders of nature. And it doesn’t phase her to toss crickets to our reptiles.
Good for her. I recall playing with worms as a child but still had a problem feeding crickets to lizards last time I tried.
Good suggestions! I had a special hemlock tree I loved to climb, so your mention of “an attachment to a solitary tree” truly resonates with me… Love the quotes you chose and the pictures are priceless!
Barbara, I wonder if your hemlock tree is still around. Their life expectancy is 300-400 years. Glad you liked the quotes and pictures 🙂
The hemlock is still around! It lost its crown in Hurricane Gloria in 1985, but it recovered and kept growing. I visited it back in September – it’s in the third picture in this post: http://www.ingebrita.net/archives/8727
Those hurricanes can be nasty. Hurricane Juan lopped the top off a few trees here but it takes more than that to keep a good tree down. Thanks for the link Barbara. Hopefully your tree has many more good years left.
I’ve got kiddos with sensory processing differences! I had to do this in patterns. We said hello to the sky and the sun etc. We touched grass (or we didn’t so much)–so we plucked a blade or two after asking permission and stating that we felt afraid of the prickle and the scratch but would like to get to know and admire what grass is all about. We drew grass. We looked at a billion shades of green. We went back out and said hello to many green things, and decided to touch a hand on the top of mine…
We used picture books inside to help to draw attention from nasty scary wind onto specific items, a bit like scavenger hunt. Outside became a try it zone, a place to try and again reject, until another day. Sometimes an acceptance zone! A brave asking for the next ‘scary’ or ‘scratchy’ thing!
Elisa’s Spot, it just goes to show that a creative mother will find a way around whatever obstacle is put in her children’s path. Drawing and reading picture books are all part of the process, but what is most remarkable in your approach is the gentle and encouraging dialogue you used to connect your children to youself as well as the natural world. I’m sure that will be key to taking next steps.
Good tips! I love your blogging emphasis here, dear Amy-Lynn. I am wondering why nature was such a challenge to me as a child. But that isn’t true. It was both a challenge and a fairy-tale. How many hours I sat up in the apple tree, dreaming. How many hours wandering to the edges of the cornfield, the creek? It was both a Mystery and a gift, a huge abyss to maneuver before it would reveal its secrets. My brothers surrendered to it much easier. I preferred the world of the mind, the stories, the fantasy. Only later did I realize that it could be both…
Kathy, we each have relationships with nature that are as unique as our personalities. Nature is so multi-dimensional. It holds something for everyone, at every age. I’m sure the King of the Faeries will agree if we ever get around to meeting him under the elder tree 🙂
Beautiful. I had a favorite tree, where I would go to read.
Pattisj, it seems like there is a connection between trees and books, one that goes beyond the pulp that’s used to make paper. They both seem to inspire wonder.
Those kids are so lucky to have you Amy-Lynn. And so am I …
Sybil, I’m lucky to have them and you too. We’re all lucky. If we were any luckier we’d be leprechauns 😉
best place for a kid to be… along with mom and dad
Patricia, you’re right, it’s the best place for people of every age.
We literally grew up outside and our two boys were blessed to have had the same opportunity. They also had a wonderful great grandmother who nurtured their love of nature and outdoors by sharing hers with them. Bless that lovely woman! But it’s interesting that of our three grandchildren, only one seems to have a natural affinity and love for being outside and in nature. The other two need much more encouragement and creative engagement.
Colleen, we all go through phases so perhaps the two grandchildren who don’t seem as engaged with nature now, will discover it again at a different stage of life. And when they do, they’ll make that connection in their hearts and minds to their great grandmother who first introduced them to the outdoors.
I am a nearly-40-year-old man and I still have problems holding bugs and worms…
My little girl was running around naked after her bath yesterday, when it started lightly hailing, and she wanted to go outside to “feel the weather” – so I cuddled her tight, opened the back door, ran with her, my feet bare on the grass, to her trampoline and back! 🙂
Pepsoid, I don’t think you’re alone in your reluctance to handle crawly things.
Imagine if indoor workers had Talise’s sense to go outside to ‘feel the weather’ for a few moments during their workday? We’d all be a bit saner I think.
I concur!
S’funny, just as I was reading your reply, a character on ‘Jelly Jamm’ said, “A little weather can’t hurt you” – which technically speaking is not true if you are hit by lightning or a golf ball sized hailstone, but putting these unlikelihoods aside… I did have my reservations, for a few seconds, about fulfilling a naked 3.5 year old’s request to “feel the weather,” but then I thought, “What the heck’s the harm?” – and indeed we do seem to forget at times that our bodies were designed for outdoorsyness!
This is a wonderful series. I think it’s becoming a book, Amy-Lynn. I see a theme: parents don’t “send” their children outdoors to play but “bring” their children outdoors with them because it’s fun to look around and see what there is to see. (Of course it is also good to send them over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for excellent outdoor treats!) I’m thinking that if we can entice more young parents to discover the natural wonders outdoors–and how being absorbed in those wonders takes them away from their worries–their children will be out there too.
Gerry, sending a child outside to play is so much more effective if you go with them. Last weekend my grandson asked if we’d be going out in the woods for a picnic. Yes I told him, right after we get back from our little excursion to the seashore.
You’re right about being taken away from your worries outdoors. I also like how nature can make you feel so small and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
Glad you like the series 🙂