It’s been a very busy summer, so I apologize for not writing much lately. I have been outdoors a lot and have a lot of new material to share. The first is a vingette from and fternoon this summer. I took my son to the local duck pond to feed said ducks and was pleased that I wasn’t the only one there with a child. Another parent had her three little girls there and was telling her about the ducks. Suddenly without warning she started to tell her one little girl that she was bad. What had the child done? She had put her hand into the pond. The pond had “duck germs” and the child would get sick.
I mention this story because there are many ways that we, as adults, can harm a childs love of nature. This is one. We also will tell them that bugs are gross, digging in the dirt is dirty and that its not safe in the woods with the cougars and the bears and the trees and whatnot. A friend actually shared the tore this summer that a school board was removing white pines because a child could get hit by a pine cone falling. This kind of lunacy has to stop. We can start by letting kids get wet, get dirty and enjoy the great outdoors.
Kids and Nature 