Children benefit in countless ways from exploring the natural world. Richard Louv’s classic book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, lays out copious scientific evidence.
Children who play outside in nature are physically and mentally healthier. They focus better, are more creative, and suffer less from anxiety and depression. They are less obese and less prone to a variety of ailments. Children who play in nature also grow up to be adults who get outside more and teach their children to do the same; the cycle continues.
Sounds great, you may be thinking, but how do I get my screen-obsessed kid to actually want to go outside? Or perhaps: how do I expose them to nature when I live in a nature-deprived space, like a city?
As an environmental educator and former US national park ranger, I’ve asked myself similar questions. How do I get a group of fifth graders to enjoy today’s hike? How do I encourage urban children to find and explore nature near them?
Below are five of my best answers to these questions: how to teach children to love the natural world.
1. Start them young
My parents are not nature nerds or outdoors enthusiasts like me. Even though they both grew up in the country, at heart they are city-folk eager to leave the farms and mountains of their youth behind and, as my mother once promised herself, “Never be more than fifteen minutes from a K-Mart.”
It must have been a surprise to them, therefore, to have given birth to a nature-lover. As a child I obsessed over field guides, collected rocks, and tumbled over the brambles in the small patch of forest between our townhouse and the next neighborhood over.
For a few pivotal years of my youth–the golden age for developing a love for nature–I spent almost all my waking moments outdoors. I developed a deep appreciation for the natural world, not because I was encouraged to do so by my family, but because I lived near it at a young age.
A 2019 University of Chicago study found that children don’t have an inherent affinity for nature; they must develop one over time. Early exposure to nature plants the seed for this love affair: children who love playing outside–flipping rocks to uncover bugs and salamanders, digging in the dirt, climbing trees–will become adults who love being outside. “Get them when they’re young” is a nature educator’s mantra.
That being said, there is no age limit for becoming a lover of nature. Just get them outside. Teenagers and adults can fall in love with wilderness. Playing outside with your children as an adult, you may even kindle your own passion for nature.
2. Find nature where you can
If you are lucky enough to have a backyard or other safe outdoor space around your home, encourage children to play there. If you do not have a backyard (or a slice of wild, mountain woods behind your home like I was fortunate enough to have as a kid), then find nature in other spaces.
If you live in an urban area, take children to city parks or to poke around in the soil at a community garden. Search for nature programs at local nature centers or community centers–do some research about what natural spaces are in your area and how to access them.
Find nature wherever you can. Is there a tree or shrub or cactus on your street? Do birds frequent it? Research with your child about what the plant is, what birds might visit, what other creatures–squirrels and insects and lichens–might call it home. Build a map of the plant, from roots to crown, labeling all the things that it depends upon and that depend upon it. One plant: that is nature.
No matter where you live, there are some aspects of nature–a body of water, a cloud, a hill, a plant, a bug, a bird cartwheeling overhead. Find those moments of wildness and share them with your child. No natural thing is too small to be a window into the processes of the natural world. Even an ant can be a starting point for a learning journey. (Ants are really cool.)
3. Model outdoor-love for them
Kids copy the behaviors of the adults around them. If you spend all your free time scrolling through blogs on your phone (thank you for your patronage by the way–no judgment here), then don’t be surprised when your children also spend most of their free time with their eyes locked to a screen.
In order to encourage outdoor time, you might actually have to get yourself outside and play with your kids, modeling the behavior you are encouraging. Pick up a rock and look under it to find bugs. Point out the plants you know, and if you don’t know any, look them up with your kids in a book or website or app.
Don’t be intimidated or embarrassed by your lack of nature knowledge: use your inexperience as an opportunity to learn with them. There are all kinds of outdoor activities you can do with kids, even if you are new to the whole nature thing.
Remember that representation matters–when a child sees a park ranger protecting a natural space or a zookeeper caring for wild animals, their knowledge of possible careers expands. When a child watches a parent or adult they admire appreciate nature or enjoy fishing or canoeing or building campfires, their understanding of what an adult can be and do expands.
An adult me can be someone who goes outside and explores nature. Be the adult that models this idea for your child.
4. Don’t force
Once a month at a US national park, I used to lead a public hike advertised for “families who wanted a little more of a challenge.” This hike attracted fewer participants than my other gentler ones for kids, but I still always had a handful of folks, usually men and their sons, who seemed to want to push themselves on a Saturday morning.
One Saturday a father and son were my only takers, and I spoke to them about their interests. The boy–around eleven years old (the perfect age to be pulling away from Dad)–made it clear that he hated hiking and didn’t want to be there. The father explained that his son was going to enjoy hiking, whether he wanted to or not. It had the makings of a pleasant morning.
I decided to focus on the boy. “What kind of hike would you want to do?” I asked. “Not a difficult one,” he said, apparently intimidated by the advertised “challenge” of my hike. “We don’t have to do anything difficult,” I assured him.
“I don’t want it to be long,” the boy said. The hike was advertised to last two hours, but with only two participants I could modify it.
“How long would you like it to last?” I asked.
The boy thought for a bit, taking the question as seriously as I was taking his opinion. “One hour,” he said.
“I can do that,” I told him.
I knew the trail network well, and I knew how to pace a group. I knew the sights that kids liked–the wetland with its screeching frogs and skittish turtles, the rapid, swollen river, the crumbling frontier buildings tucked under trees. I walked the man and his son through it all, and then popped us out into the parking lot exactly one hour later.
The father was startled that we were done, maybe even a little disappointed. He had spoken a lot about toughening up his son, bragged about all the difficult hikes he himself had conquered, complained that his son wouldn’t join him for long hikes.
I informed the man that his son had requested a one hour hike and that’s what I’d given him.
I turned to the boy. “How was it?” I asked. “Not too bad,” he said, the hint of a smile on his face communicating that he had maybe, just a little, enjoyed our walk.
If you force children to do something they don’t want to do, they will grow to hate it. Children set boundaries all the time, especially as they get older; it’s important to listen.
The boy on the hike that day asked that we do a one hour hike, and when he felt heard and had his boundary upheld, he let down his guard a bit and enjoyed himself.
If children are unsure about an activity, let them make some of the decisions about how it will go. If your child hates to play outside, let them choose what game you will play. Allow children to take turns choosing what nature or outdoor activities you do as a family or group.
Give children ownership and agency about what kind of activities they do, and do not, under any circumstances, force them to do things that terrify or upset them. If a child does not want to go on the ten hour, cliff-edge hike, don’t make them. Ask them what they would rather do, or find a compromise activity that is less scary.
The more kids enjoy themselves in nature the more likely they are to feel safe to explore more adventurous activities. Don’t push; let them enjoy nature in their own way.
5. Do activities that align with the child’s interests and age
I once heard a man whose young child liked dinosaurs rail about how he hoped she never grew out of this interest, about how society forced kids to give up their childhood dreams of being a paleontologist or ballerina or racecar driver. I understood that he was trying to stick up for his daughter, that he didn’t want her to abandon her childhood dreams the way perhaps he had, but, as an educator I was confused.
A hyperfocus on something like dinosaurs can be a pivotal stage of childhood development, when children create imaginary worlds that helps them develop a sense of who they are. Some of these children do grow up to study dinosaurs as adults, but most discover new interests as their brains continue to develop. Did this man not want his child to grow?
As children’s brains and bodies develop, so do their interests. Babies are tactile–wanting to touch objects and put them in their mouths. (Have you ever noticed how you can look at almost any object and imagine how it would feel in your mouth? That’s because you did a lot of mouth-mapping of the world when you were a baby.)
There is a developmental stage when some young children become obsessed with digging, as any parent with a bucket and shovel at the beach can affirm. Another interest for young children is in building small worlds out of what they find around them (that same beach parent has assisted with many a sandcastle).
Doing nature activities that fit the developmental stage of your child can not only help their minds grow, it can set them up to find joy and fascination in nature. If your child loves animals, or maps (another developmental stage), or treasure hunts (also a developmental stage), then do activities that involve those things, just do them outside. Attach what they already love to do to a natural setting, and see if they don’t beg to do it again.
If you want to learn more about how to build activities that captivate and grow young nature lovers, check out David Sobel’s brilliant book Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. I use it religiously when building nature lessons for kids.
Conclusion
With these five techniques, I’ve had success getting kids from all backgrounds, ages, and interests excited about being in nature. I hope they work for you. Remember that children have a natural curiosity and drive to explore the world around them. For the most part kids won’t have to be pushed to play in nature, once in it. Just let them be kids.