What is the best way to get your kids excited about nature? Make your family time involve nature. Kids love spending time with their moms and dads and those moments are moments that they will never forget. If you can make your special family time happen in the great outdoors your children will automatically associate the outdoors with good times and will make it a priority for the rest of their lives and will then do the same when they raise a family.
Many people work long hours maybe even at more than one job and when they get home they just want to relax. Many families turn on the T.V. as soon as they get home and consider watching T.V. as family time. If you cut the T.V. and spend that time out in the backyard garden, at a local park, or on a neighborhood walk you can get exercise, spend valuable time together, and teach your children about the outdoors.
Also consider the family vacations you take. Do you visit large cities, watch movies, or visit theme parks or do you go camping, hiking, and backpacking as a family?
The way you choose to spend time together as a family does have a huge impact on who your children will be as adults. If it is important to you that your children have a love of nature then make an effort to explore nature as a family.
I totally agree. My kids favorite times are when we go to a park and hike around or go biking on trails. We always bring the camera to take pictures and stop to look at nature more closely. We also have a vegetable garden they love to help with.
ReplyDeleteI agree too! Where are you in those two pics??
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! Adam and I did so much hiking and camping before children & even when our first was tiny & could easily be strapped on for a hike or snowshoe. The toddling years are a bit more challenging, and involved a bit more planning. Now that they are nearly 4 & 6, we're definitely getting back into it. The kids cite our first real camping trip as their favorite vacation so far!
ReplyDeleteWe've done both of the "types" of family vacations - theme parks & hiking/outdoors. There are plusses & minuses to each. As babies, there's a certain ease with a hotel, stroller, and kid-targeted amusement park. But that doesn't necessarily make it fun. The most fun we've had as a family are the more unplanned trips - hiking, snowshoeing, geocaching. Nature appreciation is so important, and look forward to the days when nearly every vacation we take involves backpacking & camping out in the wilderness with our kids!
Glad I found this post - yay google reader clean-up! ;)