Awaken your child’s love of nature By Melanie J. Martin
In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv explains that “nature deficit disorder” is creating a generation of children who have little investment in protecting nature. As we remove ourselves from nature, he says, it causes “diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness.” This is happening everywhere, even here in Eugene, where we bill ourselves as “the world’s greatest city of the arts and outdoors.” But the trend doesn’t have to continue.
Nature educators emphasize the benefits of allowing your child’s experiences in nature to be unstructured. Many excellent programs for children are available at our local nature centers, but they should be enjoyed in addition to regular family walks and “free play” time. Show your enthusiasm for nature, and don’t worry about making everything educational.
Noted environmental author Rachel Carson knew that young children should not be focused on learning scientific knowledge but rather on simply enjoying nature. In her book The Sense of Wonder, Carson explains, “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it.” Your main goal should be imparting this sense of awe about nature.
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Beth Stein, program director of Eugene’s Nearby Nature, points out that parents should encourage sensory immersion. “There are plenty of things that kids can interact with in a sensory way that are safe,” she says. Kris Kirkeby, head of education outreach for the Lane County Audubon Society, agrees that children are highly tactile and that parents should help them to retain this richness of perception. Try exploring the variety of life on the forest floor with your child. Set clear boundaries, checking for poison oak, and let your child fill up a “treasure box” with non-living things such as seeds and feathers, Stein suggests. “You do it too!” she adds. After talking about your finds, return them to the earth. Observing the small things in nature strengthens children’s concentration skills and helps them to appreciate the beauty that’s all around them.
Kirkeby suggests having your child close her eyes as you guide her along slowly, placing her hand on the bark of trees and other materials so she can explore them. Ask her to describe what she feels and smells. Or, try having a simple scavenger hunt for a certain color or shape.
Louise Shimmel, executive director of the Cascades Raptor Center, an organization that rescues and rehabilitates injured birds of prey, points out that children need to feel that they are part of nature. “I think that anything that can be done to create empathy for those animals and show that they’re more like us than not creates empathy for other humans as well,” says Shimmel. By hearing the individual birds’ stories at the raptor center, she explains, children learn to relate better to other living beings. Stories about individual animals, real or made-up, can also help your child to relate to animals in a more personal way, as humans have known for thousands of years. Try telling stories interactively together as a family.
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Kirkeby also advocates using art as a way of connecting with nature. Take a sketchpad on your hike so your child can draw animals and plants that he sees. Later, help your child to make a storybook of his drawings. “Neurologically . . . we learn things differently by drawing than we do by writing,” says Kirkeby. Drawing can help your child gain an intimate knowledge of and feel a personal connection with an animal.
Just remember, every activity doesn’t have to be structured or educational. As Fran Rosenthal, education manager of Mt. Pisgah, says, “The most important thing is just that they come out and experience and touch and smell and enjoy being there.” So get out there together and enjoy your local habitat!
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Cascades Raptor Center
Visitors can observe 60 raptors from 33 species
32275 Fox Hollow Rd.
541/485-1320
eraptors.org
Lane County Audubon Society
Bird walks and field trips
541/485-BIRD (2473)
laneaudubon.org
Mt. Pisgah Arboretum
Walks and workshops, wildflower and mushroom festivals
34901 Frank Parrish Rd.
541/747-3817
mountpisgaharboretum.org
ReWild Eugene
Providing workshops and classes for kids, teens, and adults. Classes encompass survival skills and primitive skills such as skin-on-frame boat making, edible wild foods, making moccasins, and more.
http://primitiveeugene.blogspot.com
BOOKS
Keepers of the Animals, by Joseph Bruchac and Michael J. Caduto
Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv
The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel Carson
As we remove ourselves from nature, he says, it causes “diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness.” This is happening everywhere, even here in Eugene, where we bill ourselves as “the world’s greatest city of the arts and outdoors.” But the trend doesn’t have to continue.
