Ideas for Getting Your Kids into Nature

Tearing your children away from their screens and into the backyard, let alone the woods, can be difficult, but the slew of benefits that the outdoors provides children’s minds is ample reason to give it a try.

Happily, there are lots of ways to make nature as stimulating as the activities kid like to do inside. Here are some ideas:

Set up treasure hunts. Make a short, simple list of things for your children to look for outside—such as “a shiny object,” or “something you can hold liquid in.” The satisfaction of finding the objects turns it into a reinforcing activity, and it will keep them outside in search of the next list item.

Identify things. Get a book—with pictures—about birds, bugs, leaves, trees, or flowers in your local area, and go outside looking for specific creatures in the book to identify. Matching leaves to pictures and names has a reinforcing treasure hunt kind of appeal. The same goes for bird calls.

Give them the tools to discover. Gifts like a bug box, a magnifying glass, or a shovel will promote ways to explore the outdoors with a fun new tool that feels professional and empowering.

Start a collection. You can find small parts of nature like rocks or shells almost everywhere, and starting a collection adds appeal, giving a kid motivation to search and therefore spend time outdoors. Just make sure you’re not in a state park—most have rules that don’t let you bring anything home.

Use the technology to your advantage. If your child is hooked on any and all electronic devices, have him bring along a camera or phone and create video or photo journals of various nature trips. He’ll still be near a piece of technology, but he’ll be using it to focus on the world around him.

Go fruit or vegetable picking. Coming home with a basket of food that they’ve gathered on their own is both rewarding and might make them appreciate their food, and where it comes from, more.

Plant a garden. Tracking the progress and seeing the eventual product of a seed your child planted provides a different, deeper sense of achievement than beating a difficult level in a video game or getting a lot of likes on your last Instagram.

Take a hike. Walking on a trail to a waterfall or breathtaking view also gives kids a sense of accomplishment, rewarding them for their physical efforts during the hike. This goes for bike rides, too. If there’s a swimming hole at the end, they’ll even be able to cool off. Just don’t forget to bring snacks and take short breaks to keep their energy up!

Make art projects. For the children who would rather sit inside with some arts and crafts, get them to use objects from nature for their art. Picking flowers to press onto paper, using berry juice as paint, or collecting pinecones and rocks to decorate are ways to infuse nature into activities they already enjoy.

Build something. You can also reverse the process and make art with your kids that will support and nurture the natural world—things like bird feeders or flower boxes. Children will keep coming back to watch an object they created provide for other living things.

It is important that we lead our children by example and of course there are many benefits of being outside in nature for adults too, including stress relief and mood improvement. Try to get outside with your children—not only will it show them how important spending time in nature is, but you might find you enjoy it just as much as they do! Below we have included a web video from last year’s virtual preschool as a fun example, a creature hunt with Mrs Nicholas!