The shift from summer to fall often means children spend more time indoors in classrooms. They have less time to engage in outdoor activities, and those that they do enjoy are often organized sports. The outdoors becomes mostly a venue for soccer games and flag football rather than a natural playground to explore.
While team sports are great for building confidence, responsibility, community, and physical skills, there is still value in extending free play in nature into the fall. Psychologists and philosophers believe that connecting with nature can be a spiritual experience that helps balance time spent on screens. Interacting with the natural world can also lessen depression and anxiety.
Making natural connections isn’t particularly difficult for kids. As parents and caregivers, many of us have experienced the excruciatingly slow pace of a walk with a toddler who stops to watch ants on a sidewalk or wants to collect fallen leaves. This is the first step to connecting with nature: paying attention. Spend time outdoors together looking for interesting natural things to see. Invite children to take the lead in pointing out something that they want to examine more closely. Then spend a few minutes really looking at it. Use a magnifying glass if appropriate and you have one handy. You might also suggest that children photograph or sketch the item to help focus their attention.
Paying attention also invites us to use as many senses as possible in exploring the natural world. Encourage children to listen to the sounds of the wind. Suggest that they try to replicate the percussive patterns they hear as rain beats on the ground. Notice how pine needles feel. Stroke the bark on different kinds of trees. Taste a raindrop. Smell a pile of fallen leaves as they decay. When children intentionally engage nature with more than their eyes, they have more potential points of connection.
Spending time with children in nature also encourages them to develop a sense of responsibility for the environment. As kids pay attention, they may notice signs that the natural world needs caring for. They see trash in waterways where fish and ducks swim. They notice brown spots and dying branches as well as brightly colored leaves on trees. They collect rain water and wonder about its strange smell or color. They may even see the destructive aftereffects of a major storm or wildfire and hear that climate change has made such events more frequent.
If children do begin to ask questions about climate change and/or caring for the environment, find ways to make a difference together. Watch videos on Earth.Org or visit NASA Climate Kids and pick a particular issue to follow and respond. Look for specific advocacy campaigns on sites like Earth Guardians or Plant-for-the-Planet and participate. Use local community boards and social media to find others who share your concerns and work together to address a local problem or join a national or global campaign.
Comments