Re-Connecting Our Children with Nature

       Being in nature can be a wonderful experience for children (and adults).... it's a full senses experience, as compared to a 2-D experience of watching TV, or even reading.  Being outside involves the sense of touch, smell, sight, and hearing, and is 360 degrees.   Being in nature is a great way to calm and focus children, even hyper ones.  It's a wonderful way to learn about the natural surround and science.  It's a great way to get exercise, and for children to gain confidence.
        
        It can be overwhelming to think about getting your kids into nature... it seems like unless you're going to a State Park you aren't in "nature".  But there is nature all around us, even in urban areas.


   "Find a ravine, woods, a windbreak of trees, a swamp, a pond, a vacant and overgrown lot- and go there regularly.... an old Indian saying: "It's better to know one mountain than to climb many"."- from "The Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv



Items collected from our last nature walk

       If you have a yard, let the kids have a corner to dig for worms, plant flower seeds, or make mud pies.  Go on a nature walk in your neighborhood.  I did this with my kids in Nairobi when we lived in a crowed housing complex that had almost no yard to speak of.  Yet, everyone had a tiny spot in front of their gate that they planted flowers, bushes and trees and we would go and try to identify those.   Walk around your neighborhood or park and try to identify the leaves.  This is especially fun in fall with the lovely colors.  Come home with a collection of leaves to press in a book and keep.

        Being in nature, even "tamed" nature is good for us.  I think it's because it brings us closer to God on some level as we experience the environment that he created (even in an altered form).  Richard Louv, in his book The Last Child in the Woods  believes that it is an evolutionary reason that nature is restorative to us as humans.  I believe that it's because God created us, and God created nature.  So, when we go into nature, it's a way of feeling God's presence. 

      The Last Child in the Woods has a list of "100 Actions We Can Take" which has many great ideas for getting your kids into nature, and there are other books like The Green Hour by Todd Christopher, and magazines for kids like Ranger Rick  and National Geographic for Kids. 

   So... go play outside!