Do you feel like your home life revolves around screens and gadgets? Do you feel disconnected from the natural world? Do you wish you could provide your children with nature-based activities at home? If so, you’re not alone.
Many parents feel the same way, but there’s no need to feel guilty. There are plenty of ways to introduce your children to the natural world at home, even if you don’t have access to a garden, a forest, or a local field. Here are some ways to teach your children about nature at home.
Get a Live Butterfly Kit
Does your child love butterflies and caterpillars? Well, you can always get them a painted lady butterfly kit. This kit contains live painted lady caterpillars, a butterfly habitat, water mister, a butterfly feeder, a sugar water dropper, sugar, a colouring page, as well as instructions.
As a parent, you can comfortably engage your child as they learn how to care for butterflies using these kits.
Planting and Weeding
Do you like gardening? If so, that’s great! Gardening is a great way to introduce your children to the natural world. You can teach your children about the natural world by helping your plants grow. Have your child help water the plants in your garden or yard.
To get them more involved, ask them to water at certain times, such as before bed or right after school. It might also be fun to have them help plant seeds in a pot and watch as they grow over time. If you have access to an outdoor garden, consider planting herb plants with different scents and colours (lavender is soothing), or teach your child how to make herbal medicines from dried herbs and oils.
Hiking with Your Children
Hiking is a great way to introduce your children to the natural world. Hiking with your child is an excellent way to talk about the environment and get them interested in nature. Try hiking near a park or a forest. You can also take out your children on nature hikes in their backyards.
If you’re unable to hike in the woods, you might consider taking them on hikes around the neighbourhood or by a park filled with trees and plants instead.
Gardening Tools and Techniques
If you have access to an outdoor garden, it could be fun for your children to learn how gardening tools work like shovels, hoes, rakes, and shears.
If you’re unable to garden outside, you can offer them some miniature herb garden kits for their indoor pots. The kids love playing with tools. They might even learn how gardening techniques can help weed out invasive plants and grasses.
Plan for the Future
If your child is old enough, you might consider setting up a “save the environment” bucket list for your child. If you’re unable to take them out hiking, let them know about other adventures they could have outdoors. Have fun dreaming up new and exciting activities for the future.
By involving them in the decision-making process or choosing, they get more interested in nature. This will help them appreciate nature even more in the future when they’re older.
Teach Your Child About the Planet’s History
When your child is old enough, show them what life was like without the resources we have today. Explain how humans used to need to live off of basic food sources like berries and game that consisted of only what the animals would naturally eat. Explain how people had lived in the wild for thousands of years before the industrial revolution.
When it came to technology, our ancestors were no different from us. They used tools such as nets and traps to catch fish, hauled water in buckets, and made pottery. Some of their tools were more advanced than how we use them today. Let them understand where the earth is coming from.
Get Them Involved in Save the Earth Activism
Get your child involved in environmental activism. Go on walks to collect trash along roadsides, teach a lesson about recycling in school, or do volunteer work for an organization that works to preserve the planet.
Talk about how air pollution can affect our health; show them how it affects animals’ lungs and what that means for our bodies. This can be a great way for kids to bring something positive into the world.
Conclusion
There are many reasons you should teach your children about the earth and nature. It helps them understand how the world works. Many adults have lost sight of how the earth works and what it takes to keep it from being destroyed.
Although most people think that modern technology has saved us from nature, our lifestyle has led us to ruin. If kids hear about these facts before they are adults, they will be more informed and aware of what is happening in our world, which desperately needs change.