Introduce Your baby to Nature
July 13, 2008 by Jennifer
There are plenty of ways to get your littlest family member outside; especially now that it’s mid-summer.
The best times for a baby to be outside during the summer is early morning (before 11am) or after late afternoon (after 4:30 or so). This way you avoid the worst of the sun. You may run into some bugs, but it’s easier to protect against bugs than sun.
Once outside you can…
- Encourage your baby to hear new sounds – birds, the wind, bees buzzing, and more.
- Smell flowers, soil, grass, bark, and pine cones.
- Explore textures with your baby. Bark vs. sand. Grass vs. smooth rocks.
- Take a nature walk and go slow. Don’t be concerned with getting anywhere, just let your babe stop and mess around.
- Don’t freak out. If your baby sees you flinch at bugs and dirt, she might too. This is a hard one, because I think I did pass my spider issues onto my son, but in a perfect world I could have sucked it up and acted not scared of spiders.
- Play with cups in a stream or pond.
- Play animal scavenger hunt – point out squirrels, frogs, birds, and butterflies.
[image via stock.xchng]
When my daughter was younger we used to go for walks all the time, now that she is older she loves going to the mountains to play in the creek (running or dry) play in the tree, or basically just be a kid. I agree it is a little hard not to pass on the fear of bugs to our kids but spiders and scorpions are a hard one for me.
I agree! getting kids out when they’re very small is an easy way to help them form a connection with nature that they’ll carry with them their whole life. I take my youngest on my bike with me and she seems to soak it in as much as she can. Every time we pass the bike in the garage she goes to it saying “go bike”, “go bike”!