Time to Wonder and Wander
Close your eyes and think about one of your favorite memories as a child. I recently attended a
conference where the speaker asked the crowd to do this. We were all very surprised as people
started to share their answers. Almost every single person who spoke up had a memory that was
connected to nature. I know this is certainly true for me. I was very lucky to grow up with fields and
forests to explore, the truth is children will find nature anywhere.
When my children were five and seven, we took them to Washington DC. They had never spent much
time in a city, so we were excited to see their awe over all the traffic and big city stuff. They enjoyed it
all, but their favorite part of our whole visit was a big tree on the open lawn by the Washington
Monument. They ran around on the green grass and climbed and played all over the tree, while my
husband and I took pictures of the monument. They complained when it was time to continue on with
our sightseeing. This moment has stuck with me as a reminder of how much children need time with
nature.
Another morning of our trip, we were on our way to one of the museums to see dinosaur bones and
other exciting stuff. That morning they got distracted by a line of ants on the sidewalk. We stopped for
a while, in the middle of the sidewalk, and let them study the activity for a few minutes. But as bored
adults, we couldn’t help but remind them that we had ants back in Maine, so let’s go! I think most
parents can probably think of a time when their child was more interested in the puddle or a particular
stick on the ground, than the amazing thing you were trying to get to.
Children don’t care if nature is big or small, fancy or just a rock they found. In fact, they often prefer the
ordinary rock that they found at the top of the mountain rather than the view that you climbed there to
see. As adults, we need to provide more space and time for our children to experience nature.
Children need time to observe, time to dawdle and time to poke at things with a stick, without adults
feeling the need to teach them something every step of the way. As adults, it is easy for us to pull them
by the hand to the big exciting thing. The reality is they learn so much more if we just step back and
allow them the time to explore the world through their eyes.
This post was originally written for my Growing The Future column for the Daily Bulldog.
