Summer break offers excellent opportunities to be outdoors, whether
it’s visiting the beach, mountains, deserts, or even your backyard. Breathing
fresh air, getting exercise, satisfying curiosity, and feeling a warm breeze on
your face are a few of the many joys of exploring the wonders of nature.
Under the caring guidance of parents, young children can
gain an amazing perspective of the world around them, from engaging in a backyard
safari to spending a week at a national park. We live on a beautiful planet,
and it’s worth exploring!
Here are five simple steps for parents to expand their
children’s appreciation for nature:
Ecosystem outside your back door— A patch of weeds, flower
garden, a green belt, and community park yield an abundance of tiny discoveries
for young explorers. Children can record their observations by drawing pictures.
Here’s an opportunity to teach the importance of examining and appreciating
plants and bugs only with their eyes and not with their hands.
Digging in the dirt – For a small child, a small hole in the
back yard is a portal to an amazing journey where imagination and science
intertwine. Pick out a spot where your child can use a kid-appropriate shovel
and bucket to find worms, bugs, rocks, plant roots, and more. To enhance the
experience, plant some plastic dinosaurs to recreate a paleontological dig!
Exploring with your ears – Encourage your child to sit
quietly on a bench. After a few minutes, your little one will easily pick up
bird songs and the sound of wind blowing through the trees. The child can
pretend to be a creature silently hiding. This will engage their imagination while
experiencing the simplistic beauty of the natural world. This activity definitely fosters the value of
patience and reinforces the discipline of learning to sit quietly and listen
attentively.
Nature scavenger hunt – This is a fun way for children to
pay attention to their surroundings, as well as seasons of the year. While in
the yard or on a short hike, children can pick-up leaves, seashells, and small
rocks as a reminder of the places they explored. Each item can be linked to a story
in pictures about the outdoor experience. (Please note public park rules in
regards to collecting items.)
Let’s talk about it – Discuss the experience of being
outdoors with your child. Parents can follow-up with questions and observations
to determine the child’s favorite part of being outdoors and what they would like
to do on their next adventure in nature.
Materials:
To create corn kernels, paint sections of bubble wrap with yellow, orange, red, and brown paint. The more sporadic and multicolored the bubble wrap becomes, the better. Press bubble wrap, paint side down, onto a large sheet of white construction paper, then remove.
