Nature Play as an Everyday Joy of Childhood?

Frequency Requires Proximity

• Posted by Ken Finch on June 25, 2012 at 12:02pm in C&NN Natural Families Network
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• Most of us who enjoyed nature play in our childhoods realize that it didn’t matter if we had a pristine patch of forest to play in or just a couple of vacant city lots.  Either way, there were endless things to find, explore, capture, imagine, and play with.  But what was important is that these places were right there, within our walking/running/biking distance.  No car, no parent, and no schedule were needed to get outside and play in nature.

The children and nature movement is fostering wonderful new ways for kids to play outdoors, such as designed natural playspaces, family nature clubs, and naturalized schoolyards.  These and other similar efforts are valuable steps – not only for the kids, but for parents who are reconsidering their children’s indoor, nature-deprived lives.  Yet most of these new approaches are challenged in one vital dimension: frequency. 

               

When Dr. Louise Chawla (University of Colorado) researched influential childhood experiences in nature, she found that, “The special places that stood out in memory, where people formed a first bond with the natural world, were always a part of the regular rhythm of life.”  Those powerful experiences didn’t typically come from annual family camping trips, but rather from day-after-day, week-after-week events in children’s lives.  Actually, no special research is needed to realize that frequent childhood activities have more lasting impact than ephemeral ones.  Practicing the violin once a month is not a very effective strategy!  Is it better than nothing?  Perhaps – but only if you set your sights very low.

The same equation applies to nature play.  If we want it to have maximum impact, then it needs to be “part of the regular rhythm of life.”  It seems unlikely that we can achieve this solely through monthly meet-ups or widely scattered playspaces – strategies that require parents, cars and calendars, and thus compete for time within families’ hectic schedules.  Are these approaches valuable?  Absolutely!  Are they sufficient?  Unlikely.

If we really want to power-up nature-based play, it needs to be available where children can enjoy it almost any day, without adult involvement or confining schedules.  For most kids this means either home yards or neighborhood parks – and (sadly) only the former is likely to alleviate the fears of 21^st-century American parents.  Can a typical quarter-acre suburban yard actually support nature play?  Or a city lot half that size?  Or an apartment courtyard?  The answer is yes, especially for kids of about two to eight years old.  Younger children’s worlds are much smaller than those of adults.  They don’t need sprawling spaces or eye-popping vistas.  Their attention naturally focuses on tiny and manipulable pleasures:  on dandelions rather than rose gardens; on earthworms rather than herds of bison; on a patch of dirt to dig in rather than a yawning cave to explore.

Unfortunately, the typical American yard is no haven for nature play.  Good nature play requires “rich” settings – that is, a diversity of plants, animals, and landforms that create endless opportunities for discovery and engagement.  Turf grass lawns, solitary shade trees, and a few neatly trimmed shrubs do not meet these criteria.  However, even the sparest yard can be augmented for good nature play with a little thought, a dose of elbow grease, and much less money than what those elaborate backyard play sets cost.

The key is to create yards with a “density of diversity:” a collection of micro-habitats that will harbor lots of natural discoveries and delights throughout the seasons.  These micro-habitats might include a shrub thicket, a wildflower garden, a jumbled pile of boulders, a tiny garden pond, a butterfly garden, a berry patch, a mass of tall native grasses, or even a space allowed to just grow into whatever comes up!  Once you’ve established a few of these tiny worlds in your yard, you can enhance them with a digging pit or a giant dirt pile, a couple of large logs, bird and toad houses, a bench or hammock in a quiet nook, and plenty of “loose parts” to nurture creative and constructive play.  These loose parts can be branches, driftwood, cattails, bamboo poles, boards, tree cookies (log slices), tarps, seed pods, pine cones, large boxes, hay bales, and whatever else you can readily scrounge up.

By focusing your primary efforts on creating multiple micro-habitats, you will ensure authentic nature play:  interactions with real nature, in all of its beauty, wonder, unpredictability, and adventure.  Manufactured outdoor play components – like the plastic play equipment designed to look natural – do not create the same connections to the natural world.  Kids can’t peel the bark off a plastic log to find rollie-pollies, and they won’t find monarch caterpillars feeding on fiberglass leaves.  In fact, one big, over-grown wildflower bed -- or a patch of flowering shrubs laced with tiny paths -- will bring more lasting and real nature play to your kids than will any human-made product! 

Note, though, that nature playscapes are more “messy” than most home landscaping, so you may want to keep much of your nature play zone in the backyard where it won’t generate hostility from neighbors who think front yards should look like golf greens.  However, certain nature play features are usually “dressy” enough to bring into front yards, like butterfly gardens, boulders, and herb gardens.  And by highlighting street-side nature play, you may encourage other local parents to think more about “kid-scaping” their own yards.  Nature play zones get better and better when more of your neighbors imitate and add to your own efforts!

None of these steps towards home-based nature play require great knowledge, training, or expense.  They can be implemented bit by bit, and your plans can be in constant flux as you discover what your kids and their friends most enjoy.  The ultimate goal is to create enough nature play “critical mass” so that your kids are excited to play in their own yards -- day after day, and whenever they wish.  Then nature play will be a regular joy for your children; then it will achieve the frequency needed to influence and benefit them for decades to come!

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A few suggested resources with ideas to support home-based nature play:

- “A Parents’ Guide to Nature Play” from Green Hearts Institute for Nature in Childhood:http://www.greenheartsinc.org/Parents__Guide.html

- National Wildlife Federation’s guidance on creating backyard wildlife habitats:

www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Outdoor-Activities/Garden-for-Wildlife/Crea...

“Nature Play:  Simple and Fun Ideas for All” from Forestry Commission England:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-7LSEHW

A Child’s Garden:  Enchanting Outdoor Spaces for Children and Parents, by Molly Dannenmaier

Plants for Play:  A Plant Selection Guide for Children’s Outdoor Environments, by Robin Moore

Natural Playscapes:  Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul, by Rusty Keeler

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Animals and Children

ANIMALS The attitude of respect for nature, plants and animals begins in the home and in the first years of life —spending as much time as is possible outside, in all seasons, experiencing animals in the natural world—listening to birds, collecting shells on the beach, reading about animals, learning to recognize and to name insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.
Nature Table or Nature Shelf
Add to the nature area, or the special table or shelf you use for plant specimens, the child's collection of shells, found birds nests or old nests of insects, found bones and perhaps famous artwork depicting animals.
Caring for Animals
Children have a wonderful affinity for animals at an early age. Just as they are learning to be kind to each other, and to respect the environment in general, this is the time to show them exact ways to be kind to animals. One of the lessons I learned to give in my first training course in London was to pick up and hold a cat, beginning with giving attention to being quiet and moving slowly and carefully as one even approaches the cat. Then to speak with a gentle voice. And finally I learned to show the child exactly where to put his hands as he picks up the cat and gently cradles it to his chest. Children are delighted to learn the tiny details of caring for animals, and we should not expect them to automatically know how to treat animals without having had careful, hands-on lessons.

Observing Animals
Animals are best observed free in nature to show children how they really life, who they really are. If we hang a bird feeder  just outside the window and show the child how to sit quietly so that the birds won't be afraid, we provide a way to watch birds being natural, rather than in a cage. Binoculars give the child a feeling of participating in the birds' activities, and allow the child to watch birds from a distance. It is surprising to see how a child can focus and become still when the interest in watching an ant or a bird has been awakened. When an animal is going to visit the classroom, we must prepare, with the child, for all of the animal's needs ahead of time—comfort, exercise, food, warmth, gentle handling—and have the visit last only as long as the guest is comfortable. The consideration for the animal being more important than the satisfaction of our curiosity. In our home we kept two containers always clean and ready to receive a guest salamander or small garden snake. It takes no time at all to dig up a dandelion or another small plant, and to put it in the terrarium with a sprinkle of water for the animal to hide under for its short visit. A terrarium can be as elaborate as a ten-gallon aquarium with a wire top, or a simple jar.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that, even though it may be a short visit, the animal will need air. So if a container such as a large jar is used, be sure to show the child that there must be holes in the metal top, or show how to fasten cheesecloth with a rubber band to make a breathable top. There should also be moisture but it is easy to put too much water in a container than is comfortable for the creature. The visiting animal should not be in the class more than for the time it can be truly comfortable. Help the child understand that it is there just as a visitor, for us to look at and appreciate, to learn about how it moves, what kinds of parts of the body it has, how it eats, and so forth. Then we thank it for the opportunity and let it go. These lessons should be thought out ahead of time and presented slowly and carefully to the child. This shows that the adult respects the work and expects the child to be careful and to do his best.

Hatching cocoons in the home or the classroom is a truly magical experience for the child, and there are mail-order larvae available so that this can be done safely at the correct time. Observing the life cycle of one animal is a good way to introduce the amazing phenomenon of life cycles in different animals, and to present books and pictures that show the life cycles of other creatures, such as tadpole to frog, and the difference between placental and other mammals.

Language of Zoology
At first the language cards of zoology should be shown when the animal is present. For example after observing a snake, show the child a set of cards of reptiles, which will include several snakes.
When observing a fish, show the child the cards of the external parts of a fish. Then the external parts of amphibians, birds, and mammals. Point out the similarities and the differences between the body parts of these animals that those of the human, or the child. Which animals have eyes and a mouth? Which have legs? Then the child will discover the connection between front legs and arms, and the variety of placement of ears, and all kinds of other things.

When working on the maps of the continents, show the child the animals that come from different parts of the world, from which continents. When looking at a globe that shows mountains and rivers, etc., show her which animals live in different biomes. Books should be chosen carefully, the pictures real, and the text not just watered down adult text, but with facts of interest to the child. Give a child simple picture books, beginning reading books, but also advanced reference books. Look for pictures of entire animals, with a white background, so the child can see exactly what we mean when we point to a picture and call it "tiger" (and not "tiger and rock and bushes," or the "head of a tiger.")

Dissections
Just as dissection of flowers is not appropriate at this age, the dissection of animals, and studying internal parts, can be fearsome to the young child. This is put off for the curiosity and understanding of the older child, and even then only on found animals.

Art
Art is connected to zoology as it is to all areas of life. Drawing or painting, or working with clay, from nature, or from books, or from imagination, animals are an inspiration. Having beautiful art containing animals is an inspiration for the child to create her own.












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