Opportunities abound to engage your children to enjoy the great outdoors.
By Erika Piotrowski
As an environmental educator at the Irvine Nature Center, I’m always grateful to have the opportunity to connect children and parents to nature in a real and exciting way.
At Irvine, we are lucky to have the benefit of 210 acres of forest, meadows, and wetlands that are a perfect place to explore the beauty of various habitats and the native plants and animals that live there. Whether you’re out in the forever wild, in a local park or in your own backyard, there are plenty of ways to engage your children and teach them about the wonders of our natural world.
Here are some naturalist-approved tips to get your kids out and exploring:
Try a Nature Craft
Craft time is a favorite here at Irvine. Our students and campers love to make all kinds of crafts using fallen items they find on their hikes. We like to use crafts not only as a fun activity for kids, but also as a learning tool for children to start to identify the plants and animals around them.
Grab a guide book and head outside to explore our native trees and plants. Leaves can be made into necklaces with the help of some string or yarn, or collected and used to make beautiful pieces of art including leaf rubbings with crayons. Your child can also use plants, sticks, and pebbles to make funny faces, animals and other fun creatures on paper plates — just a little glue will keep their found nature items securely in place.
The best part? Your guidebook can help you and your child work together to identify the plants and leaves they’ve found.
Learn About Plants and Animals
It’s easy to get your child excited about the natural world by showing them their favorite bugs, birds and local animals.
Spring is a beautiful and productive season for nature. Birds come back from their warmer migratory areas, and can be seen collecting food for their babies and materials to make their nests. Your child will love to observe busy birds building their nests. They can help feed the birds by making their own fun birdfeeders to hang on tree branches and then refilling the feeder every week.
In the springtime, your child may see hungry caterpillars munching on leaves and other plants. Once the caterpillars are large enough, they form their chrysalis to later emerge as beautiful butterflies. Similarly, spring time is a wonderful time to visit local ponds and streams to see small fish and tadpoles, and talk about their lifecycles. As spring turns into summer, your child may see frog eggs, tadpoles and fully-grown adult frogs in the same area.
Have your child bring a jar or net to catch these caterpillars, butterflies or tadpoles for a short while so that they can really see the detail in the wings, legs and faces. Observing these creatures up close will give your child a new way of looking at a world that she might not notice every day.
Encourage Sensory Playtime
Our natural world provides all kinds of objects and textures for children to play with. From spikey grasses, to bumpy bark, and soft dandelions, there is plenty for kids to explore.
You can turn that old Amazon box into a sensory nature box filled with all sorts of different plants, sticks, rocks and other gathered items. Your child can enjoy playing with the items you found together outside. If your child is artistically inclined, she might enjoy using these items to paint with — a dandelion makes a great paintbrush.
Climb, Crawl and Jump
Children are naturally interested in exploring the world around them regardless of the season or weather. A simple activity such as climbing a tree, digging a big hole or balancing on a log gives children a sense of accomplishment and confidence in their abilities.
Whether they’re in a city park or a rural forest, there are plenty of places for your child to discover.
Springtime is a wonderful time for you and your child to get outside and start exploring the natural world. We invite you to head outdoors, enjoy the fresh air and sun, and explore the beauty of nature.
Erika Piotrowski is the naturalist and an environmental educator Irvine Nature Center at 11201 Garrison Forest Road in Owings Mills.
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