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Our children grow up in isolation from nature. Even if they get out in the summer to the country. For them, another habitat is natural — man-made. How to help them notice the world around, feel in contact with water, plants, insects, and at the same time spend time together with interest? Some ideas for the summer weekend.
Remember how long you looked at the cobwebs in the forest as a child, inhaled the smell of poplar earrings in the spring or stood on the dacha veranda, watching how the rain grows, and then the rain subsides and bubbles burst in puddles… Our children, living in a multimedia space, are increasingly watching natural phenomena in the window of a monitor or TV.
But the problem is that adults themselves often do not know how to help them connect with the outside world. American writer, ecologist, public figure Jennifer Ward came up with 52 exciting activities for adults and children aged 3-9 years old, which will help to feel and understand the world of living and inanimate nature, and also develop imagination and stimulate curiosity. 5 unexpected experiments from this book.
1. Meet the rain
Who said you have to stay at home when it rains? Stand with your child under an umbrella and listen to the rain drumming on it. Watch how the droplets flow down the umbrella and fall from it to the ground. Listen to this sound. What do you feel?
Catch a drop of rain and let it spread in your palm. Has it soaked into your skin or rolled off? Close your eyes and expose your face to the rain. What is it like? Track where the rain is heading and how it behaves as it hits different surfaces. Have puddles appeared? Where and why? Where did the rain leave no traces or soak into the surface of the earth? And where did he gather in the streams?
Are there any animals or insects outside that enjoy the rain? If so, who do you see and who can you observe? Do you hear the sounds of any animals or insects in the rain? If the rain is light and the sun periodically peeks out, try to find a rainbow.
When you’re done enjoying the rain, don’t forget to dry off when you get home.
2. Watching the ants
Of all the insects, ants are the easiest to watch—they can be found anywhere, from sidewalks to playgrounds, from tiny lawns to endless fields. Insects have six legs, and the body is divided into three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. Remember that all ants bite and their bites are painful! Do not touch ants of any size.
Watch them for a while. Find the ant trail and follow where it takes you. Ants walk in a chain — this is how they look for food. When one ant discovers food, it leaves a scent trail on the spot so that the other ants in its colony know where to go. If you find a chain of ants, it means that they went out in search of food for their colony.
Do one interesting experiment to see how ants communicate with each other while walking one after another.
Gather some twigs and leaves and lay them out in a circle near the anthill to create an enclosed space. Do not make the fence too high, let it be low and wide. Pour some sugar and cookie crumbs into the circle. Soon, the ants will find your gift, and as they take it, they will leave a scent to return to the same place later for more treats. Other ants from the same colony will quickly find the trail and follow it to get to the food source.
As soon as the ant chain is formed, carefully remove the sticks. Watch what happens: the ants will be confused as the trail disappears.
3. Looking for seeds
In spring and summer, plants have a lot to do: they need to grow, bloom, pollinate and, if they are lucky and pollination has occurred, give seeds. Seeds travel in many different ways, from flying through the air to clinging to a squirrel’s tail. For some seeds, it is very important to move as far as possible from their «parent» in order to find their own piece of land. Late spring or summer is a great time to go in search of seeds.
Have your child put a mitten or an old scratchy sock on their hand. Now go for a walk. When you pass by grassy clearings, ask the child to run his hand over the grass. You can also touch plants that have already faded. Experiment with different vegetation. Very soon you will notice that passengers — seeds — have clung to the woolen product.
At home, pour earth inside the sock, put it on a saucer, and put the saucer on a window sill illuminated by the sun. Pour water over your sock and you will soon find out what will grow out of it!
Another way to help seeds germinate is to use a Styrofoam egg carton or an empty milk or juice bag. Fill the box with earth, collect some seeds, put it somewhere where there is a lot of sun and see what happens.
4. We spend the night under the open sky!
In warm weather, you have an amazing opportunity to spend the night with your daughter or son outside. At this time of day, a completely different world opens up there! After a daytime sleep, nocturnal animals come to life. Stars light up. The moon illuminates the sky by reflecting sunlight.
Plan an outdoor sleepover with your child. Set up a tent in the nearby woods or spend the night at your summer cottage. If this is not possible, go for a short night walk. Sit quietly and listen to the night sounds. Who publishes them? Frogs? Crickets? Bat? An owl or even two owls? Or was it some small animal snooping around looking for food?
Discuss every sound you hear. What is the difference between the night sounds coming from outside when you are at home and the night sounds around you outside? How are they different from the sounds you hear during a daytime walk? What other sounds are there at night besides those made by animals? Maybe wind noise?
Sit back for a good night’s sleep and let nature lull you to sleep.
5. Looking for life around
All children like to play detectives. Go to the street where the mystery lives and invite your child to follow the life of those representatives of the wildlife world who have settled very close.
Many animals live near humans, from tiny spiders to deer grazing in the meadow, depending on where you live. You just need to find clues that will tell about the animals living nearby. It’s time to spy!
Have your child look for evidence of animal life, such as cobwebs, a chewed or gnawed leaf, a feather, snake skin, or a burrow entrance. Although we can see signs of animal life and not notice them themselves, most likely they are somewhere nearby.
A mouse can sit in a mink, which sleeps during the day. If we see a cracked shell, then perhaps it is a bird or a squirrel that dined on a nut and poisoned itself to look for new food. Do you see flowering plants anywhere? Without pollinators such as bees, butterflies or bats, there would be no flowers.
What other signs indicate that insects and animals, large and small, live near you? Carefully look under rocks and fallen trees to see who lives underneath them. When you return home, also carefully inspect everything. Is there any evidence of animal life near your home? What did you find? Become detectives and find out how the world works around you.
Read about these and other outdoor activities with children in Jennifer Ward’s book The Little Explorer. 52 exciting outdoor activities. Alpina Publisher, 2016.