Nature Deficient

So it was my birthday a little while ago and my lovely sister bought me a copy of Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. I've been reading it on my train home from work and it's really had me thinking. Not just about how sad it is that we aren't giving our children the opportunity to experience nature, but also about how lucky we are to have the opportunity to experience nature and how we should make the most of it.

My knowledge of the natural world is limited and I want to make sure that Kit grows up being able to name trees as well as all the Toy Story characters, so I've been gathering field guides and info so we can learn them together. Fundamental to learning that though I want him to have natural roots. To run and play in nature. To watch, see, feel and hear.

Most of the time when we're out and about I just follow Kit's lead. He led me to watch him pick up twigs and hold them pretending to be a tree. He asked for paper and a crayon to draw the chickens, and he followed some other children who were drawing in the mud with a stick. We looked at the birds and tried to identify them and jumped in muddy puddles.