The wind picked up a little today and my walk through the woods had a very pleasing crunch. It was difficult to NOT kick my feet through the leaves (so I did!). Even harder to imagine that some people wouldn’t realise just how wonderful this can be.
Encouraging children, and some adults too, to make that first step towards rekindling a relationship with nature can be a difficult task. But Autumn is here and the trees provide us with a simple solution for bringing the outdoors indoors.
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Tree Identification
- On your next walk, collect some leaves. If you can go one step further and get the kids involved in the leaf collection – all the better! Try to get a number of different types.
- Make sure the leaves are whole and slightly pliable if possible (helps reduce breakage).
- Take these little pieces of the outdoors indoors and compare them to tree identification information. A great resource chart can be found here, Tree Name Trail: A Guide to Common Trees.
Naming is a very useful way to bring many aspects of nature closer to a reluctant outdoors person.
Knowing which trees are in your local natural environment can be of great benefit to understanding a little more about how our landscape works. Trees for tools, for fuel, food and shelter – basic bushcraft knowledge.
Beginning to identify the outdoors indoors can be just the spark necessary to jump start a powerful relationship with nature. And with that a greater respect and understanding for maintaining the delicate balance of our natural world.
Great ideas!
Lovely post, Karen. Outdoors in can be a great way to extend the fun & learning from a walk and a great way to stay away from electronic media & out-of-the-box toys.
Cheers- Bethe @balmeras
A gentle beginning to nature connections for some and a thoughtful reminder to get outdoors for others! Thanks for sharing your ideas, Karen.
@VickiEhlers
I LOVE trees, almost as much as I love crunching and kicking autumn leaves. Happy fall to you 🙂
Just a lovely, lovely post Karen. Autumn is a fab time to be out and about. thanks for sharing. xx
I don’t usually stop to write a comment, but it is difficult to find actual thoughts on this subject today. You did a lovely job in this blog post and I am going to look at the rest of your blog. Keep up the good work!