Nurtured by Nature

Shortly after I posted on my children’s gravitation to the natural world around us, I read about an interesting study in Newsweek on the psychological effect the natural world has on humans.

Apparently the calm, focused feeling I have after observing ants with my children isn’t just because we stopped we rushing about for a bit. The study showed that:

interacting with nature requires a different and less demanding form of attention, and that the temporary switch-over allows workaday concentration to replenish. Getting into the woods and away from the hustle-and-bustle actually equips us to cope better with the cognitive demands of daily life.

Just like we need to eat a variety of foods since each provides a particular benefit, we also need exposure to a variety of environments since we receive different gifts from different settings. Makes sense.

One portion of the article that grabbed my attention was this:

Kahn has done extensive cross-cultural studies of children’s values and attitudes about open space and animal life and forests and plants and water—and the degradation and disappearance of all these things. He believes that, with every generation, kids are lowering their knowledge and expectations for what is a normal interaction with nature—creating a kind of generational amnesia about the natural world. City kids know about pollution in the abstract, for example, but have no idea that their air is a far cry from the clean air their grandparents breathed.

This has me thinking about how much time my children spend in non-urban areas and how to get them more. (Note to self – we need to visit some new parks to see what is there.) It also reminded me of the recent announcement that nature words have been removed from the Oxford Junior children’s dictionary. If kids don’t ever see herons and clover, of course they won’t use those words.

When I was a child, I explored outside for hours without any adult supervision. That is not an option I feel comfortable with for my children but we can go together. And, as the research shows, it will go good for both of us.

This month the APLS Carnival is focusing on nature. All of the selected posts will be available at the Green Phone Booth on January 20 so be sure to go there to read more. Then head outside for your own dose of nature!

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