I came across an article in some magazine when I was at the doctor’s office last week. The article was about a school in Washington State that had an outdoor preschool. Everyday the children had class OUTSIDE!! They were learning what wonders nature had to offer. They learned what the could eat, what animals were out there and how they lived, and how nature works. This amazed me.
If any of you have kids or know kids or maybe just pass them on the street you should read Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods. I will admit that I have read only the beginning chapters of this book due mostly to the fact that I lent it out and never got it back. But what I did read really struck a cord with me. Louv talks about the lost relationship that children have with nature. It is all around us, a tree on every corner, but it has become a back round item and children don’t think twice about planting one or cutting one down. It’s almost like a lawn ornament instead of a living thing. We tell our kids to stay close to home, don’t get muddy, don’t climb that tree you might get hurt. Children are children of the Earth people!!! They, as well as adults, were meant to learn and explore the world around them. Louv also talks about the correlation between this lack of relationship between children and nature and the increase in ADD, depression and obesity.
For those of you who know me well know that a few years ago I decided to embrace the pagan religion. One main reason was their relationship to nature and the world around them. I love pagan gatherings were I get to watch the children play. They are outside, in the dirt and mud and loving it. They are taught to explore it while also respecting it. They are taught the importance of the seasons and the cycles of the earth itself. It is this upbringing that I wish to raise my kids in someday.
I also encourage all the adults that read this to re-explore their relationship with nature. Just as a child I wish you to explore, go for a walk in the deep woods or take the kids out in the rain and get muddy with them. Teach them the bird calls they here, or the flowers they see. With the current recession there is plenty to do free of charge at your local state parks.
I am going to end this blog with some of my favorite quotes I found on the internet, as well as some links that I hope you will all check out. thanks for reading!!!
This is the main article that I found in the magazine:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011657278_preschool21m.html
Nature center preschool right here in MN:
http://www.dodgenaturecenter.org/Preschool/
http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/childrennature.shtml
Richards site:
My favorite park site, many activities for kids!:
http://www.threeriversparks.org/
“Passion does not arrive on videotape or on a CD; passion is personal. Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young, it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature. -Richard Louv
“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”–Richard Louv
It’s a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it’s even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it’s a lot more fun.”
— Richard Louv
“Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its preservation. Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing? ” –Richard Louv
Louv continues: “As children’s connection to nature diminishes and the implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can be powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder.” –Richard Louv
“Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets. And any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.” — Luther Burbank (American horticulturalist and botanist, 1849 – 1926)
“… a ditch somewhere – or a creek, meadow, woodlot, or marsh…. These are places of initiation, where the borders between ourselves and other creatures break down, where the earth gets under our nails and a sense of place gets under our skin.… Everybody has a ditch, or ought to. For only the ditches and the field, the woods, the ravines – can teach us to care enough for all the land.”— Robert Michael Pyle, The Thunder Tree, 1993
“For ourselves, and for our planet, we must be both strong and strongly connected — with each other, with the earth. As children, we need time to wander, to be outside, to nibble on icicles, watch ants, to build with dirt and sticks in the hollow of the earth, to lie back and contemplate clouds….” Gary Paul Nabhan & Stephen Trimble, The Geography of Childhood, 2004
The lives of children today are much different. Children today have few opportunities for outdoor free play and regular contact with the natural world. Their physical boundaries have shrunk due to a number of factors (Francis 1991, Kyttä 2004). A ‘culture of fear’ has parents afraid for their children’s safety. A 2004 study found that 82% of mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 12 identified crime and safety concerns as one of the primary reasons they don’t allow their children to play outdoors (Clements 2004). Due to ‘stranger danger,’ many children are no longer free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless accompanied by adults (Pyle 2002, Herrington & Studtmann 1998, Moore & Wong 1997). Fears of ultraviolet rays, insect-born diseases and various forms of pollution are also leading adults to keep children indoors (Wilson 2000). Furthermore, children’s lives have become structured and scheduled by adults, who hold the mistaken belief that this sport or that lesson will make their young children more successful as adults (Moore & Wong 1997, White & Stoecklin 1998). Brooks (2004) says that a childhood of unsupervised loitering, wandering and exploring has been replaced by a childhood of adult supervised and scheduled improvements.
