Into The Wild

Your Kids in Nature

We all want to pass along our love of nature to our kids. But that deadly roll of the eyes at the mention of a hike can kill even the best intentions. Here are some tips for unplugging from TV and plugging in to the real-life — Discovery Channel.

Compiled by Michelle Mohney

Start Early

Nature is an easy sell to toddlers — it comes naturally — so it’s often easy to do lots of fun outdoor activities at this time. As a child gets older, he may develop other focuses or a “natural resistance to parental suggestion.” Ease off. Let your child define the activity, and see if you can work out creative ways between you to keep his hand in it in some small way. There’s a good chance he’ll pick it up again later if he doesn’t associate it with fighting.

Nudge, Don’t Push

Before you begin imagining your child as the next Sir David Attenborough, introduce the wonders of nature slowly. The National Wildlife Federation calls for “one green hour” of unstructured play in a green outdoor space each day, but you can begin with suggesting a 10 or 15 minute daily romp after school. Do it before homework, so you’re sure to fit it in before dark.

Nature Plugged In

To engage teenagers and the “clinically indoor,” nature and technology may need to team up. Try geocaching, a high-tech outdoor scavenger hunt that utilizes GPS technology. Or, take a (Web) page from kids like Kevin Corrigan of the Kev Kev Birdwatch Club (see “Natural Youth”, this issue) or Joshua Morrison of GEEKs in the Woods and encourage your child and a group of friends to create a Web site or blog based on experiences in nature. Capture moments of your family adventures in nature with a digital camera and create a Flickr gallery to share with family and friends.

Doing Nothing Is Everything

To inspire unstructured, creative play in nature, all parents and caregivers often need to do is share their own joy and wonder of nature, then sit back and simply watch kids find and explore what interests them. As Goethe said, “A joy shared is a joy doubled.” Children’s attention spans are short and parents must not get discouraged if kids shrug off activity suggestions. If you step back and encourage independent exploration, you can count on kids to wander off and eventually find something they do like.

Make It a Priority

Cultivating a connection between your children and nature isn’t simply another item on the to-do list of our kids’ overscheduled lives. Research and experience suggests it’s vital for children’s emotional, cognitive, physiological, and moral development. (It’s also vital for nature’s own future.) Make nature as important as homework — it’s usually a much more enjoyable assignment to keep.

360 Degrees of Nature

On a regular basis, encourage kids to experience what Lizette Castano, executive director of the Children’s Nature Institute, calls “360 degrees of nature.” Find an exciting place surrounded by the green, buzzing, chirping, rustling wonders of nature and go on a nature walk; or try canoeing, fishing, camping, hiking, biking, skiing, or brush cutting at restoration workdays to challenge kids who believe “experiencing nature” is passive and boring. (Visit the Leave No Child Inside Initiative for more ideas.)