Supporting Christian Science families and their young children
Materials
Backyard, park, hiking trails, woods
Instructions
Children love to be outside. They love to explore and discover on their own by crawling over the grass, rocks, and even snow. Follow your child and discover all the amazing things together!
Materials:
Small child’s play tent or blanket hung over a card-table
Grill: Cardboard box — cover with black paper and cut a hole for a small cooling rack
Plastic food
Paper campfire
Child’s sleeping bag
Handmade fishing pole and paper fish; blue blanket to serve as a pond or river
Stuffed animals
Flashlights and/or lantern
Directions
Invite your child to pretend play that he is camping, cooking food, sleeping in a tent, fishing, warming up around the campfire
Lesson extension: Go on an overnight camping trip!
By Dorothy Halverson, Director of Acorn Programs
Children and nature go together – or at least, they should. For children, the sense of freedom experienced during the unstructured play that occurs in nature creates a source of independence and inner strength. Being outside feels good. Children are free to explore, move about, and make noise, all delightful forms of self-expression that are often restricted indoors. Children are creatures of nature. They flourish in its presence simply because the trees, the sky, the mountain streams, and the ocean waves beckon them. Even the most energetic children will slow down to dig a hole in sand, watch a ladybug crawl, or spend focused time playing with a stick in a mud puddle. The plethora of activities nature offers are not laden with rules and for a moment, or for days, we get to be in awe of the natural wonders that hold so many mysteries beyond our comprehension.
The natural world is a giant, open-ended learning laboratory. Children are innate scientists and love to experience the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors. Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, and problem-solving, and it instills a sense of beauty and calmness. Children learn that by waiting patiently and quietly, the door opens for nature to show its secrets. It exposes us to things that are alive and growing, which promotes curiosity and exploration. With an adult as a guide, children can learn about being gentle and respecting living things.
It’s fun for children and adults to share imagination together. Spend time following your children and looking at nature through their eyes. As we put away our preconceived notions as to what we’ll see or learn, our sense of wonder will grow. There is always something new to be taken in everywhere, whether we’ve been there hundreds of times before or it’s the very first time. We will never see “sameness.” Children bring our attention closer to the ground, and as a result, often lead us to rediscover the wonders of the earth around us.
Building and digging in the dirt, watching worms wiggle through the soil, gazing up at clouds, jumping in puddles, listening to birds sing, smelling fresh-cut grass, collecting seeds, or building things with twigs and mud provide endless opportunities for discovery. Interacting with the natural world allows children to learn by doing, and experiment with ideas. All senses become engaged when children interact with nature. In the natural world, children think, question, make suppositions, and thereby develop inquisitive minds. They can play alone or connect with one another, learn to share, and problem solve.
In the natural world, children will often collaborate to make up games and rules because there are not prescribed sets of instructions. When exploring outside, school-age children may not be in close proximity to adults, which gives them the opportunity to make up their own rules and solve their own problems, without inhibition.
The youngest children also benefit in many ways from being outdoors, and they still need our supervision. Your child’s open-ended play, whether digging in the garden, running as fast as she can, or collecting wildflowers on a long walk, will be enhanced if you join in. Providing a reasonable balance of risk and safety is our job as parents. Providing some level of challenge allows children to learn the next skill.
Children all over the world play outside – a unity of shared experiences. Our children are future stewards of the earth. In order to raise adults who are passionate about protecting the environment and preserving our planet, they must first develop a deep love for it. The only way to enable children to grow comfortable in nature is to open the door and allow them to explore the wonder and awe of the natural world.
Materials
Binoculars
Handmade binoculars
Bird Book
Provide your child with a pair of binoculars. Ask your child what happens when she looks through the binoculars? Allow time for your child to enjoy exploring her environment through the lenses of the binoculars.
Next, invite your child to make her own pair of binoculars using two toilet paper roles. After making the handmade binoculars, go birdwatching in your backyard or nearby park. What birds did you see through your handmade binoculars? Bring along a Bird Guide to help identify the birds.
Ingredients
1 cup Chex cereal
1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios
1 Cup raisins
1 cup peanuts (omit if giving to toddler)
1 cup M&Ms
Directions
In a large bowl, invite your child to measure one cup each of the ingredients listed above. Stir with a spoon. Spoon trail mix into a small cup and enjoy as a special camping snack.
Materials
Several construction paper fish
Paperclips
Marker
Wooden dowels
Magnets (with center holes, if possible)
Fishing line
Blue construction paper
Large bin or plastic container
Number chart 1–10
Directions
Invite your child to tear blue construction paper into strips and place in the plastic bin or container. Tie fishing line to a magnet and then tie it onto the end of a wooden dowel approximately 18–24 inches in length. Using a black marker, draw dots from 1–10 onto the different fish shapes. Slide a paperclip on each fish and place in the large bin and cover with the paper water. Invite your child to go “fishing” using the wooden dowel as a fishing pole. As each fish is caught, count the number of dots and match it to the corresponding numeral.
This activity requires some patience as your child searches to find fish and supports counting and numeral recognition.
Materials
White copy paper
Writing instrument
Pictures from magazines
Markers or crayons
Book: S is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet Book
Directions
After reading the book, S is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet Book, by Helen Foster James, invite your child to work through the alphabet, connecting a “camping word” with each letter of the alphabet. Encourage your child to write the upper and lower case letter at the top of the page and then draw or glue a picture or photo of something relating to camping that begins with the letter (e.g. Aa: ants; Bb: boat; Cc: campfire, etc.). Label each picture. Create the book over several days. Once it is complete, invite your child to put the pages in alphabetical order as he sings the Alphabet Song.
Enjoy reading the book together. Consider taking a camping trip together and take pictures to use in the camping alphabet book.
Materials:
Hula-Hoop
Various materials with texture, small toys, ribbons to tie onto the hula hoop
Directions:
Collect a variety of materials, ribbons, scarves, rattles, small baby toys that can be tied to a hula hoop. Include things such as felt, silk, burlap, corduroy, velvet, etc. Lay the hoop on a baby blanket and place your baby on her tummy in the center of hoop. You baby will enjoy exploring all the different colors and textures. Supervise closely.
This is a wonderful activity to support tummy time for your baby and will bring hours of exploration.
Die-cut stars of various sizes in red and blue
Crepe paper streamers – red, white, blue
Glue sticks
White paper plates – generic brand
DirectionsPlace die-cut stars on a paper plate. Cut out the center of 1 paper plate. Invite your child to choose various stars to glue onto the rim of the paper plate. It’s helpful to have them press down on the stars and count to 5 or 10 to help the stars stick to the paper plate. Once your child is done gluing stars, cut red, white, and blue streamers and have your child glue them at the bottom of the plate (underside). Hang when dry.
Materials
Construction paper — we used red, white, and blue for patriotic week
Variety of objects
Paper shredder
Large plastic tub
Directions
Shred several pieces of construction paper in a paper shredder – enough to fill a large plastic tub. Hide several different objects in the tub. Invite your child to seek and find all the objects. Count the objects.
Lesson Extension
Take a picture of each object in the container. Cut out the pictures and glue onto a separate sheet of paper or cardstock. Invite your child to match the object with the picture.