Helping Children Find Joy in Nature

I love being outdoors. I’ve no doubt that the joy nature gives me was first fostered when I was a child and had the freedom to wander the fields, woods and marshy lakesides of rural Minnesota. I was also fortunate to have parents and other adults share their love of nature with me.

I want today’s children to also witness nature’s miracles and to care about the natural world. People need nature—and now more than ever, nature needs the support of people. If we can help children to find joy in nature, nature will benefit from their advocacy.

To maintain a bond with nature, it’s essential to enjoy it. Enjoyment happens when we slow down and closely observe the natural world around us. It’s also human nature to avoid the feelings of sadness and hopelessness such as when we read the following facts:

• More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered
• Dozens of songbird species lost more than 50 per cent of their populations between 1970 and 2014
• One-third of America’s wildlife species are at increased risk of extinction

If we human beings are wired to spend time with what gives us joy and energy, then these facts won’t motivate us to spend time with nature. Instead, let’s give priority to enjoying nature. When we include children in this enjoyment, we enhance the quality of all our lives. Equally important, we increase the number of people who actively support nature. Even though what I’m talking about is fun and allows all ages to participate, it may still seem difficult to know where to begin. After all, how can we add more projects when we and our children are so busy? 

Beginning is actually easy, not only because it is fun, but it can be quite simple. For example, we could begin by joining our children in the backyard and watching an ant colony. It may seem like there isn’t much to see at first, but the more we learn about ants, the more exciting we’ll find their world. If the biologist, E. O. Wilson, spent his forty-year career studying only ants, there must be something special happening in the ant world. He said, "Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans." That makes them worth an afternoon’s observation! We can gain a deeper understanding of the ants’ world with children by reading together Judy Allen’s book, Are You an Ant?

Observing and identifying songbirds can involve all members of the family in a convenient and year-round project. Bird feeders positioned close to a house window allow all ages to report what they see. As children get older, they can enter dates and bird names in a tablet shared by all family members but when the preschooler shouts, “red bird, red bird,” it behooves us to come quickly and with equal enthusiasm. Our excitement nurtures our children’s life-long love of nature.

Of course there’s so much more to explore in nature. Teaching an older child to use a magnifying glass or even a microscope opens up complex worlds. A bit of pond water and enthused adults result in memories a child will hold forever. Even though we might not know protozoa from arthropods, it’s wonderful for children to see adults excited about learning new things. To help us out with pond water, Peter Loewer and Jean Jenkins have written, Pond Water Zoo: An Introduction to Microscopic Life.

I find that both enjoyment and learning are increased when nature is brought temporarily indoors for close and continual observation. Don’t worry—I’m only talking about temporary quarters and little, contained critters like caterpillars and tadpoles! The excitement is contagious when eggs are maturing into frogs or when caterpillars transform into butterflies. Our porch table provides a convenient, temporary home that is frequently seen by the entire family as well as neighbors. 

Frogs are pretty amazing at any age as they develop from eggs to tadpoles to frogs. By early April, a large puddle by our wetlands usually contains “frogspawn” or large groups of eggs. A few eggs in a glass bowl allow the family to watch their development as the eggs transform into embryos that then escape their clear-jelly eggs as tadpoles. These tiny tadpoles swim with tails and breathe through gills as they develop legs and lungs. It’s a big day at our house when they are then ready to go back to their pond. Details of their development are easier to observe after reading Anna Milbourne’s children’s book, Tadpoles and Frogs. It has beautiful photographs and information we can all enjoy.

Does being aware of nature always promise such an idyllic experience? The answer is a definite no, but realistic outcomes tell us a lot about nature too. When my daughter was six years-old and already an animal lover, we faithfully carried fresh pond water to “our” tadpoles in their fish bowl as we watched them develop into small frogs. It was with great ceremony that we carefully carried their bowl across the meadow to the creek. Ever so carefully, we lowered the bowl into the water to ease the baby frogs into the creek, when snap, snap, snap-- fish came out of nowhere and rapidly ate them! I hope I said something wise at that time, but I only remember the two of us kneeling there wide-eyed and mouths agape.

When spring turns into early summer, we get another chance to test our courage by observing the butterflies’ complex life-cycle. This project is also easier to observe indoors by the one-time purchase of a butterfly enclosure. People in the eastern United States often focus on the monarch butterfly because of its easily-identified beauty and endangered status. Even urban folks now plant milkweed in their yards as food for the monarch’s five “instars” or caterpillar stages. Children learn to watch adult monarchs who hover around milkweed before laying their eggs. Their younger eyes excel at spotting the tiny, white eggs on the under-side of milkweed leaves. Bringing a milkweed leaf indoors with an egg or tiny caterpillar begins four weeks of observation as an egg changes to caterpillar, then to chrysalis and finally to butterfly. During lulls in the action--and when not busy fetching fresh milkweed leaves--young children will know what to anticipate if we have first read together Deborah Heiligman’s book, “From caterpillar to Butterfly.” Every stage of the monarch’s growth is so beautiful and miraculous that we adults are also easily kept in awe.

The outdoor journey of a caterpillar to maturity is as precarious as that of the tadpole to mature frog. It’s estimated that only one out of ten caterpillars survives to become a butterfly. I don’t think our lesson is that all tadpoles and caterpillars need rescuing. I do have to chuckle, however, when I realize my brain wants to label all predators as “bad,” and their prey as needing to be rescued. I have to admit that the fish weren’t evil because they ate our little frogs and the beautiful songbird isn’t bad when she feeds caterpillars to her young.

Our human brains automatically categorize and label new things to make sense of the world and so we often label things as either good or bad. Perhaps then, our most important lesson from observing nature is to humbly recognize how complex and inter-related all living systems are. The elimination of wolves in Yellowstone Park demonstrated this on a larger scale than our backyards. Without predators, deer and elk proliferated and the land became overgrazed. River banks became eroded and birds, beavers, mice and bears disappeared. When we attempt to eliminate what we see as “bad” in nature, entire ecosystems unravel.

On a smaller scale, ecosystems unravel in our yards, gardens and farms when we attempt to eliminate “bad” weeds, insects or predators. Taking time with youngsters to look closely at nature will hopefully give us the awareness needed to respect nature’s complex interrelationships.

This awareness might, for example, result in habitat for hundreds of species if we were to substitute native plants for sterile, manicured lawns. Chemicals disappear as we begin to understand nature’s delicate balance. We become skilled at avoiding milkweed when mowing the meadow and have a great excuse for planting flowers in our vegetable gardens. Viewing our environment through nature’s eyes may also entice us to provide additional habitat with wider fencerows or even setting aside some farmland as wildlife habitat. Our children’s enthusiasm may someday influence their entire communities as they share their love and knowledge of the natural world.

Living a life where nature fills ordinary moments with joy and gratitude can make every day special. These shared moments of excitement and awe create a relationship with wildlife that will enrich our children’s entire lives. In return, we of all ages cannot help but support nature when we have come to treasure its beauty.