Have you ever given thought to all the benefits to children of letting them explore the natural world?  When they are outdoors and climbing trees, skipping stones, scaling rocks, or rolling down the hill they are getting much needed physical activity which can help curb childhood obesity.

The visual beauty of nature also has a calming effect on children.  They can relax, breathe deeply, and reflect on their surroundings.  Think about when you were young and you laid down in the grass and looked for shapes among the clouds in the sky and how relaxing that experience was.  Children can also use their senses to explore nature.  Ask them, “What do you hear as you stand here under the trees?  What do you smell or what does the branch of the evergreen tree smell like?”  Try taking paint chips to the outdoors and give them to children to go and find something in nature that matches the color of the paint chip.  Use the sense of touch to feel the texture on a plant’s leaves, the bark on the tree, the surface of a rock, or the roughness of a pine cone.