Photograph Courtesy of family+footprints.
There is something so powerful about giving children the opportunity to be in nature - to be still, to be active, to be creative, to challenge themselves. The benefits, well, they are seeming endless. But what about those of you who are thinking, sure that's great, but I just wish I lived in a place with more nature?
I hear you. We can have this vision of ideal natural spaces which simply don't exist where we live. If you live in a city, you might be trying to make the most of urban parks. If you live in the suburbs, you may be trying to make the most of smaller tracts of undeveloped land. And even in rural areas, you may imagine the benefits of a forest, where you only have fields or deserts or wetlands.
It's simultaneously okay to want those things and to also make the most of the nature you have around you. Because the truth is, children benefit from time in nature, no matter what that nature looks like. It doesn't need to be fields for miles or the deepest part of the forest. Children will have positive takeaways from the experience even if you've found the only tree on your street.
There are a few reasons for this. Aside from the science behind it, the world is much bigger to a child than to an adult. Spaces feel much larger to a child, in part because they themselves are smaller. But this is also because children tend to focus in on details. Do you recall the last time you set out on a hike - or tried to get from any point A to point B? A child can quickly become engrossed in details along the way, where they stop and want to explore. They are deep in focus on the details of a world much bigger in their eyes than in ours.
Children are also great at making a lot out of a little. You know the classic story of the child who plays more with the box the toy came in than the toy itself. The same thing happens in nature. Kids have a way of sometimes finding things other than what we adults would have thought to be most interesting and have that be their fascinating element of the day. Be it acorns or a patch of dirt, sticks, leaves, pine needles, driftwood - you name it, kids have found a way to make that incredibly exciting.
And so, while you may still want to figure out ways to access your ideal natural setting, with kids as your guide, you'll find they still benefit from their time in other natural spaces as well.
So let's focus in on how we get the most out of the nature around us, with these few ideas:
01. Spot Nature
Step outside of your home for a moment - even ask your child to join you - and look for nature around you. What do you see? Are their flowers you didn't realize before? Leaves rustling overhead? Grass sprouting up in the sidewalk? Puddles in the street? Head to the location nearest you with some open land to do the same. When we start looking for nature, we find that it is in more places than we may have realized. Each of those are opportunities for families to engage with nature.
02. Observe Enagement
Once children start to engage, take a step back to watch how they themselves are making the most of nature. Are they using their senses to understand and appreciate it? Are they testing out cause and effect? Are they in the beginning stages of creating an imaginary situation ripe with creativity? Observe the way they take in the outdoor space they are in so you can run with it.
03. Offer Prompts
If the timing feels right to not interrupt a child's learning process or if children aren't yet finding a way to connect with the natural space you're in, try prompting ways to deepen their engagement. Do you have ideas for what they could do? Do you have questions about something they could answer or you both could research together? You could also dive in and just start playing with the natural materials or engaging with the natural elements yourself to try and boost your children's imagination.
04. Run with a Child's Ideas
Once children are engaged and you've watched the direction they are taking their ideas, run with those moments. Join or sit back, but let them make the most of the space. It may look different than you imagined. Children might stomp in puddles or use them as rivers. They may lay in the grass or create a fairy house. They may break sticks or use them as fishing rods. It's impossible to know what a child will do with their time in nature, but however they've connected, let it run its course.
05. Take Your Time
One of the best ways to get the most out of nature is to take your time with it. By leaving large blocks of unplanned time, children are free to explore, engage and benefit. Even though positive takeaways come out of even just a few minutes in nature, the benefits deepen the more time you have. Likewise, the more regularly you use nature as your go-to location for play, the more likely children will be to find their groove in the outdoors.
Nature is all around us. It doesn't have to be a national park or long hikes in the great outdoors. Children get so much out of even just the littlest bit. Here's to finding joy in whatever nature you have nearby.