Start by taking “hikes” in your local park. Carry a magnifying glass for an up-close look at plants and insects. Older children can record their findings in a small notebook or tablet, or draw pictures with colored pencils. If you have a digital camera, let them use it to record what they see for their very own nature CD.
HELPING HANDS
Mini Museum
Your children will gain interest in nature and the things you might see on your camping trip if you help them start a “museum.” Encourage your children to pick up interesting specimens on your hikes and clear a shelf or table top to display these interesting finds at your home.
Take time to look at the plants that grow around you. Examine the way plants change in the course of just a few weeks, from bud to flower to seed. Find the stump of a tree that was cut and count the rings. How old was that tree when it was cut? Measure the tree’s circumference and diameter. (These are good words to teach your 9- and 10-year-old children, but for 6- or 7-year-olds, just explain how many inches the tree is across or around.) You’ll need to carry a tape measure.
A visit to a pond or a lake can be an opportunity to look at rocks on the shore: How many different colored rocks can you find? Bundle up on a rainy day and go out to look for animal tracks—dogs, cats, squirrels, birds—in the mud. Or make your own tracks and study them. Who has the biggest track? Who has the most distinguished tracks? Why are some tracks deeper than others?
A simple walk to find cones and pretty leaves teaches kids about nature.
The birds and “wild animals” in your neighborhood are another focus for nature study. How many different kinds of birds can you see? How many squirrels? Can you catch a butterfly or a flying bug in a net? Look at the butterflies you see and draw pictures of them. Look at the way butterflies and other flying bugs move through the air. Remember the boxer who “danced like a butterfly?” Can you and your children dance like a butterfly?
Where you live, do you have the ducks, Canada geese, raccoons, and possums that I have in my urban Seattle neighborhood? If not, a trip to the zoo may be in order, not to look at exotic animals but to concentrate on the locals.
CHECKLIST
Young Scientist’s Nature Kit
These in-city excursions are good times to begin teaching your children respect for nature. They can look at the animals, but they should not chase them, feed them, or pick them up. They should learn to look at but not pick the plants. On the other hand, if something is already detached and lying on the ground, such as a pine cone or a pretty rock, it is permissible to pick it up.
Let your child start a “museum” at home of interesting specimens he or she has collected on your walks. Set aside a shelf or a table top for the collection. Be sure to return those items to the park when you clear the shelf
Since your camping trip will include nights spent out of doors, take some of your nature hikes at night. Look at the full moon with binoculars. Look at the stars. A 5-year-old might be able to learn to recognize the Big and Little Dippers. With help, older children could find other constellations. Older children can also track the phases of the moon, from new to full and back to new again.
Step into the backyard at night or go to a safe park and listen. What can you hear? At my house, I hear ducks quacking and geese honking as they fly by. Keep a night journal of what you see and hear. Use a flashlight to look at, and under, the plants in your yard. Are there insects there that you didn’t see during the day? Can you find a moth? Moths are creatures of the night, while butterflies are seen during the day. Moths spread their wings out flat, while resting butterflies generally hold their wings up straight.
Sometimes the out of doors can be studied indoors. Parents who are feeling intimidated at the idea of all this nature study because they have no background for it can accompany their kids to the closest library. Spend an afternoon browsing through the books on birds, bugs, rocks, flowers, and plants. Younger children will be content to look at the pictures. Older children can select some books to take home. Ask the librarian for help finding the books appropriate for the age and interest of your children. While you’re there, look at the books on camping, too.
Is there a museum of science or natural history near your home? Is there a botanical garden or a greenhouse in a public park? An ecology center? An outdoor store? Any of those places will have displays or exhibits that you can use to say, “This is what we might see when we’re camping.”
Quick Quiz
Nature Study
Q: How many places are there near your home where you can begin to study nature?
A: Your yard, the library, the park, the science museum, a botanical garden.
PEAK and Leave No Trace
REI, the outdoor retail cooperative, and Leave No Trace (LNT), an organization that teaches responsible outdoor recreation, have joined together to offer a program they call Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids, or PEAK. PEAK is based on the seven principles of Leave No Trace.
REI will send staff members or volunteers to speak to your child’s class or youth group or even birthday party. A PEAK presentation is made up of several different activities. Wendy Miller, events and outreach coordinator at the REI in Seattle, told me about an activity called the Web of Life that has been very popular in our area. This activity introduces the seven principles through a game in which kids use cards around their necks to trace the food chain, from mosquito to salmon to bear. For other presentations, the REI representative may bring a backpack containing camping equipment useful for responsible camping, like a trowel for digging a hole for your human waste, or a bear bag for storing food out of the reach of animals.
Contact the REI store nearest you (find one by calling 800-426-4840 or visiting www.rei.com) to arrange an age-appropriate presentation for your group. Visits can
