The weather is starting to become warmer, and Spring is nearly here. This is a great time to take your children on a nature hike. They can learn a lot about the insects, plants, and animals that are located nearby. This is a great way to combat nature deficit disorder.
Have you heard of nature deficit disorder? It isn’t a learning disability, or a physically heritable condition. It refers to the lack of experience with, and understanding of, the natural world. Years ago, it was normal for kids to spend hours playing outside. This gave children plenty of opportunity to explore the natural world that existed right in their backyards. So much can be learned from these types of experiences!
Today, kids tend to play indoors. It may be because they live in a dangerous neighborhood, where it isn’t safe to play outside. Or, it could be that kids today are more interested in video games than playing on the swing set in their backyard. Either way, the result is that there are a lot of kids who are unable to recognize or name the plants, insects, and animals that are nearby their own homes.
You can combat nature deficit disorder quite easily. Take you kids on a nature walk! The weather is starting to become Spring-like, which means that plants are budding, birds are singing, and bugs are ready to crawl out of the ground. Help your children learn about the natural world that is around them.
You will need some supplies. A camera is a great way to take photographs of the flowers that are in neighbor’s yards, or of the birds that sit on wires. Your child cannot take those things home, to study later. Photographs will record what they saw. Let your child take these photos himself. This could inspire an interest in photography.
Bring some plastic, zip-lock, bags to store bits of nature into. It is generally acceptable to pick up a small rock that sits on the sidewalk, or a leaf that has fallen from a tree. Get an empty plastic jar to collect bugs into. (You can let the bugs go after you finish studying them).
When the nature walk is over, it is time to learn. Have your child try and figure out the name of the plant, rock, insect, or animal that they saw on the nature walk. This could require the use of some good nature guides that can be found in the library or at your local bookstore.
You can extend the lesson by teaching more about what you saw on the nature walk. What is the natural habitat of that animal? What does that bug eat? How was that rock formed? If your child is especially interested in biology, you could take additional nature walks, through new places, and compare results.
Image by turtlemom4bacon on Flickr