Teaching Kids to Appreciate Nature

Kids today live a very different life than we did a few short years ago. They spent more time inside than ever before playing video games and watching television. Even their play time is structured with organized sports and play dates. What ever happened to just exploring the world?

Well, we all know what happened. The world they should be exploring got more dangerous than it was back in our day. Not to mention the fact that more families have both parents working so there is no one home to supervise the kids. It is no wonder parents would rather have their kids secluded in the safety of their home.

Family Nature

But kids can still explore the world? It is just up to mom and dad to take the time to teach them about nature and the world around them. It doesn't take much to teach kids about the environment, just spend an afternoon a few times a month exploring your neighborhood, a park, or even a nearby forest or mountain.

Teaching Kids to Appreciate Nature

Teach your children about the animals that live in the different environments around you. Bugs, small reptiles, and animals such as raccoons and skunks all live in different types of places, but they can still be in your corner of the world. So many kids grow up having no idea about the types of creatures that live among them, no wonder they are frightened of them!

Kids also need to learn about plant life. Teach them the difference between good plants and those that are poisonous or noxious weeds. You can teach them that the insects and animals use the plants for food and shelter. Some plants even provide food and other things that we need like fibers for clothing and wood for furniture and building homes.

The time you spend with your kids exploring the world will benefit both you and them. You will develop a deeper bond as a family and your kids will learn valuable lessons that will help them in life and in school. Understanding a little more about nature will help your children in science classes as well as any environmental classes they may take.

By spending time in nature with you children you can help them learn to be good stewards of the land. They will develop an appreciation for the world around them and understand that these things are not to be taken for granted.

Teaching Kids to Appreciate Nature

Teaching Children About Nature

Children who have spent unsupervised time in nature grow into more confident adults - adults who feel at home in the world. As children play, they make no distinction between the natural world and themselves; they have an innate sense of themselves as belonging to and part of Nature.

Children naturally connect and commune with animals as their "friends." This is why they are drawn to animal toys and cartoon figures. Though there are frightening and dangerous animals in the world, this is knowledge that children acquire later -- and is a modification of the basic feeling of trust and safety they have with their animal companions.

Too often in modern culture, "growing up" means becoming increasingly alienated from Nature and from our natural selves. A key part of saving our planet is changing our relationship with it, befriending it, and feeling at home in the natural world.

Since most of us live in cities these days, it is easy to assume that a connection with nature is not possible, since nature is "out there" somewhere -- in a national park or wilderness area. But nature is as close as our own animal bodies which breathe in rhythm with the living world. We carry within our very cells the history of the evolution of life on this planet, and share mitochondrial DNA that is unchanged from our earliest Homo sapiens ancestors.

Even in the city we are surrounded with the wild nature of this planet. The Falconer of Central Park is a fascinating book that describes the myriad species of birds that alight in Central Park in New York City as they annually migrate with the changing seasons. News articles highlight the excitement New Yorkers feel when a raptor builds a nest high on an office building on Wall Street. Office workers watch the parents as they build the nest and sit on the eggs, and celebrate the birth of the young raptors.

Cities have parks, rivers and gardens; wherever you are, the weather is a constant reminder that you are part of a globally interconnected natural system. The wind on your face as you walk from the parking lot to your office building is part of the Earth's natural spirit that is touching you.

Abandoned city lots are quickly colonized by weeds, trees and shrubs as well as birds and small animals. Cities and suburbs are home to an astonishing array of wildlife. Birds, insects, rodents, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals such as rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons and possums -- even deer, coyotes and foxes -- make their homes among us. Children are often naturally quite aware of and curious about the animal life they see.

Educating children about Nature - through teaching, talking about it, and spending time exploring it - helps them know their place in the natural world. This breeds self-confidence, wholeness, and a sense of community with all living things. Knowing that they belong to the natural world changes how they behave. Children who are "ecologically literate" enjoy recycling and taking care of the environment.