Health Care Providers Making the Nature Connection

Currently I am taking an Early Childhood Educational Leadership Class. I am afraid that most of my free moments are spent reading articles on early childhood and doing research in order to plan my dream of creating an urban nature preschool. It is exciting to see that there is so much concern these days about children and nature. There are excellent resources that explain how many personal and-I believe -community illnesses can be prevented. It is exciting to see health care providers making the connection between lack of time in nature and asthma, myopia, obesity and even the mental health of youngsters. It is also exciting to see that there are ways to change this that will be good for individuals and communities. I am hoping my preschool could be a start, but with attention communities can organize to change the landscape of their communities to be healthier, greener, and beneficial for all.

Translucent leaves shining in the sunlight

Today we went on leaf hike. We made tree trunk vests out of paper bags and later did tree rubbings by holding the paper up to trees and running a crayon over it. We may make the tree vests fancier tomorrow by adding roots (strings) to the bottom of the vest and possibly stick xylem and phloem. In any case I was thrilled to have my kids initiate the hike we took today. For a few minutes before the rush hour sounds came back- loud and jolting- all I could hear was their singing and humming as they played with leaves and meandered along the trail of our local urban forest.

Who likes the rain?

These are just some fun stories for tots and young children. I especially like the multi-cultural science book. Sung with a few songs like "the rain is falling down, splash" and along with the cotton ball over a tray of water cloud activity and you have a great mini-lesson on rain. In the spring I would add April Rain Song by Langston Hughes.
The early childhood naturalist educator I worked with this morning made the lessons even more fun singing a song "if gumdrops fell like raindrops." and then she led a nature hike looking for signs of rain and plants and animals that thrive in the rain such as worms, lichen, and fungi. My favorite part was when she went to a grassy area and asked all the kids to touch it and say what they noticed.