Loving Nature as a Child

That’s me at the age of 4, hugging the life out of a deer.  Every deer wants a hug, right? The poor thing was eventually released from my grip and darted off to see another day.

Nature was exciting to me as a little kid. Between trips to the wildlife park in my hometown, visits to the family farm, and hiking the Rockies on summer vacations, I was entertained.  Sometimes we would see deer or elk, or an unusual-looking bird, encounter a creek or a puddle in which to search for crawfish and frogs, and sometimes it would start raining unexpectedly and we had to race home or take shelter under an overhanging rock.  The outdoors excited my childlike mind.

I’m not a mom yet, but I already wonder — will my children come to love the outdoors as I do?  This question follows ones like will they be smart like their father?? Please, Lord, let them inherit his wits.

I hope so.  I plan to do all I can to show them the wonder of the natural world.

I also plan to teach them to appreciate a good pun, and Brandon plans to teach them about angular momentum and Albert Einstein. I’m sure by the age of 4 they will have tuned us out.

But really, can nature compete with all the other facets of life? What if their best friends are all inside on the computer? What if they want to spend all day at the mall?

Then I will know that they are really my child.

I assume teaching them to love nature will be a little bit like anything else I must teach them. I’ll have to lead by example, stick with it, and answer “Why? But why? But why?” questions repeatedly.

I plan to continue to pursue my own love of the outdoors in the hope that it will be contagious for them.  I followed my family on outdoor pursuits growing up and now look at me: I unhooked Brandon’s fish the other day with my bare hands.

I’m reel tough.

I’ll also want to make sure I include their friends in our outdoor activities.  I’ve realized that one of the reasons I enjoyed nature as a child was because the people around me made it fun.

I still remember waving at passing cars from the back of my grandad’s Winnebago on our way to fish on the coast.

I remember my hike up Enchanted Rock in 4th grade with my friend Carmen and her parents. Carmen made her dad peel her apple for her and I thought that was weird. Why do I remember this? I’m not sure. But I also remember looking out from the top of Enchanted Rock and feeling like I could see all the way to the Pacific. I couldn’t, but that was my youthful imagination at work.

I remember how hard I laughed when a seagull pooped on my friend Laura’s dad during a Girl Scout trip to the coast.

I remember racing my childhood friend Leila on horseback across her family’s farm.

All of these experiences took place with the backdrop of nature and created happy thoughts about the outdoors.

If my future child is anything like me, they’ll be social creatures too and I may have to peel their friends’ apples on the side of a mountain, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

I also plan to use Pinterest to find games and activities for them to enjoy outside.  There are a ton of ideas there for how to entertain your child in nature.

And I plan to be OK with mud and dirt. Not on the sofa, per se, but on my children.

And during scorcher days of August, when it is 113 degrees outside,  I plan to be OK staying in the AC and watching Discovery Channel.  Shark Week is timed very well.

My grandad was a farmer, and always got his outdoor work done in the morning so he could spend the afternoon inside.  He built his farm house with windows facing north and south to avoid direct sunlight, and he tiled the floor.  His living room was always cool and every afternoon he would take a nap.  Whenever I visited him on the farm, we obeyed this schedule.  And the great outdoors had their effect on me regardless.

If only I still had his air-conditioned Winnebago. I would LOVE to bring that family camping trips.