This is a guest post by Cathy Warren.
Albert Einstein said that it is the supreme art of the educator to awaken joy in creativity and knowledge. As a parent with an eye on environmental awareness and social responsibility, teaching children to love and respect nature can be more impactful when they understand we are all connected in this world.
The idea of thinking globally and acting locally will resonate with a child when the projects can go from fun to profound, then back to fun. It is that link between insight and enjoyment where the joy is awakened. We may have multiple economic and environmental reasons why a tree is important but, for a child, a tree is for climbing. This is where lessons on conservation begin.
Seeing Nature’s Beauty
Creating art projects is one of the first things that a child learns in school. Art teaches more than motor coordination. It gives the child a reason to share expressions of emotion and creativity. In other words, it gives a child the opportunity to say “Mommy, I made something pretty.” Early school-aged kids are just beginning to define their likes and dislikes. Art gives them the ability to communicate this.
Craft projects are a great way to start the conversation about nature. Pinterest is full of kid-friendly nature projects. As the educator, it is your job to keep the lesson going forward. While making a leaf collage, talk about the color of the leaves. Explore the importance of the leaves falling from a tree. Create a conversation that starts with the individual leaf and expands to the ecological system that we see during fall.
Finding Nature Everywhere
About half of children worldwide live in urban areas. Nature, for them, is the park that was built downtown or the flower growing through the crack in the pavement. Yet every bird that crosses the sky and every beetle on the ground is a potential lesson.
In science there is a concept called systems theory. It is an interdisciplinary theory used in psychology, biology and physics. Systems Theory looks at the connections between separate parts of a structure. It is easier to understand how humans are the number one threat to the African elephant when your thumb hovers over an ant, meaning the difference between life and death.
Living In Community
Mother Nature’s lesson to all of us is that we live in communities. In a study by the Human Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, results showed that natural landscaping gave a greater potential for positive social interaction. People congregate and have fun in surroundings that are connected to nature.
The best and simplest lesson that any environmentally conscious parent can give a child is to play in and take care of a park. It may seem simple, but seeing a parent pick up a piece of trash is invaluable. The sense of ownership that a child has after using and maintaining nature’s gift is what creates a lifelong conservationist.
About the Author: Cathy Warren owns a vegan restaurant and grows organic produce to sell at the farmer’s market every Saturday.
