Are children losing touch with nature?

[mariagoss]

I would really like to hear opinions on this. Are children's lives too structured? too protected? If children are losing touch with nature, is it due to busy parents, lack of safe places, t.v. and computers or any other factors?

I have been asking parents and early years workers about this I hear and see that adults are still trying to engage their children. But the world is changing.

How are parents and early years workers utilising nature in a modern age. I'd like to hear from you all, whether you live in a rural or urban area.

I'm an unemployed Nursery Nurse and outdoor type person.
Children are fascinated by the natural world around them. I spent ages the other day in a nursery watching a wasp walk around the garden (or making sure the children didn't pick him up anyway!), and half an hour studying ladybirds. Time to get absorbed in an activity is important. Luckily we had no planning to adhere to at the time, but a lot of nurseries would be rushing children off to a structured activity.
I have found that a lot of the other staff are not keen on nature. I picked an apple off a tree in the nursery garden once and ate it. One of the other staff said "Urgh! That's a tree apple!" I suppose non-nature lovers pass non-nature loving down to their children, who will then pass it down to theirs etc.

you sound like you're writing an article, my dear. can i suggest 'media requests?'

i also suggest you read 'last child in the woods' cover to cover, and that webchat by wotsername that dealt with kids and technology...

hth

Thanks for the tips, I have 'Last child in the woods' and maybe youre refering to Sue Palmer 'toxic childhood'. I'm writing my dissertation for a degree in early childhood studies and there is a lot of reading to do so any leads are welcome. I also need to research for myself, hence Im putting the feelers out to see what others think.

thanks for those comments. I too a outdoorsy and I think it so important to nurture the childrens relationship with nature, for their sakes and the environments.

oops sticky key pad - I too am an outdoorsy type x

that's the one. sue palmer.

make sure you write up your qualitative research methodology properly and get participant's informed consent if you're using this as a study.

no adults will be harmed during the making of this dissertation, promise. you sound in the know - what's your background?

Not sure if this is relevant but in the school holidays I took my 3 young dc on a nature walk. We had a Marvellous swallow and amazons type day paddling in the stream, making dams etc....
However when I picked up the push chair from next to the style ( I couldn't lift it over) the police were in attendance. They threatened to fine me for abandoning the push chair!
It's too far for my toddler walk to this area without his pushchair, so we wont be able to go again till he's much bigger

I love days like these Svrider (when we get the chance). I had a back pack for my littlies to sit in, which meant we could go anywhere. last year my youngest was three. we climbed a 'mountain' in the lakes and she was pretty heavy. this year she climbed up herself. I am not super fit but quite strong. The back pack gives you freedom if your back can handle it. (bought mine second hand for £30 and after many happy trecking hours sold it on for the same).

Oh I know the ones, we did get one but I just didn't feel confident with it. I'm trying to find a bit of countryside to share my love of nature with the dcs. I was brought up surrounded by farms and trails, and Im not useful having to plan it all out. A buggy left near a Style would not have been a police matter in my day
I'm also trying to get out of the habit of jumping in the car every time I want to go anywhere, not least coz we've now only got one car

Wot was nice though was that all the dcs loved every minute. I did wonder if we'd get there, only for the oldest one to say "now what?"!
But they were absolutely captivated. We also played pooh sticks, talked about where the water was going and looked for fairys

we took dd1 up snowdon when she was 4 mos old. it was snowing. she was in a front carrier. we've always used carriers for ours until they are capable of walking that far (well, except dd2 who has cp, so we bought a go-anywhere 3 wheeler - beaches, mountains no object)

(just a social research msc, op, no panic, but have a particular interest in qualitative/ internet research. mn is a great resource for ideas, but it makes me twitch when it looks like people are using a thread as the actual source of data for quotes. there's no informed consent if you don't tell people exactly what you are using their words for, and check that they understand how they will be used, in what form etc. ideas are fine. the whole newspaper column thing using mn quotes last year (year before?) was a bit of a debacle. participant harm not really a concern here, but ethically if you are using quotes instead of just garnering ideas for possible external research, then you need to be explicit about it. it may seem unnecessary for an undergrad dissertation, and you would probably be fine for an early childhood studies degree, but it's good practice to start as you mean to go on, etc uni ethics committees are the work of the devil. )

I work in a day nursery, and find time to explore nature with toddlers. We have drilled holes in a log to make a bug hotel (yes, 2 year olds operated a drill driver, shock horror)
We have made raised beds and grown award winning veg (ok, first place in the church harvest fair children's section)
We have learned about bugs and the kids have had a slug crawl across their hands, to the general horror of my colleagues
I am limited to what I can offer without leaving nursery premises, but there's plenty of nature to be found anyway.
I looked forward to the frost, as it means we can look at the frosty spider webs tomorrow!

I have just come back from a weekend away with another family, camping at the beach. They took three itouches, 2 DSs and a laptop and no bucket and spade.

When we were eating breakfast this morning parrots were hovering and my dcs were feeding them. They took the bread out of my girls hands. The five year old from the other family didn't even look up as she was watching a movie on her itouch! And the worst part was it was Rio.....which is about a fecking bird! Now it might have been the exhaustion but I cried.

We took the iPad when we camped this year. And the nintendo. It was great because it rained every day. The children still fed the ducks their breakfast cereal in the morning. Obviously with the rain and ducks we are not in such an exotic part of the world as you savoycabbage!

madwomanintheattic. just ideas at this stage honest. but is something grabs me I will send a personal message and ask specifically if I can use it.

inmysparetime. it is good to read that the children are finding nature where they are - we don't always have to travel far to find it.

savoycabbage. irony at its worst :( you show em how it's done :)

Bumping for you as I too am doing a dissertation in early years childhood. It's on risky play

I work in a private day nursery and we do try to be outside as much as we can and try to give the children opportunities to connect with nature but sometimes obstacles are placed in our way by management.
For example, I planned a walk to the local shop to buy some fruit to take to the nearest green space to have a little picnic and eat our fruit sitting on the grass, watching the world go by. The manager said we could go to the shop, but we had to return to the nursery so we could wash the fruit and chop it up for the children. I really didn't want to do this, as the whole point was to choose and eat the fruit outside. Children don't often get the chance to eat whole fruit, it is too often peeled and chopped for them.
I have to say that I disregarded what the manager told me and went with my original plan.The children got so much more out of the experience, and it gave us a chance to just sit and talk.

If you are doing the ECS dissertation then it is research-based, no? In which case I think you need to seriously look at how you're asking these questions and why. I realise you say you're only asking for ideas at this stage but the fact that you're planning to PM anyone who's quotes might be of use would worry me, because of the way you've asked questions/made comments and because you haven't taken any ethical or methodological considerations into account.

IMO you should go and do your reading (I second the Louv book), finalise your methodology with your University and ask MNHQ if you can post a survey, if that's your plan.

yes firstly you need to review the literature, decide on your question and then your methodology.

Honey Pablo, look for Tim Gill's book on childhood risk, I found it very informative, it has comparisons between generations and countries, and shows good and bad practice examples.

Thanks inmysparetime I have got that book already, found it very useful. i have also discovered he has a blog rethinkingchildhood.com/

honeypablo, I think your manager missed the point. Hope you didn't get into trouble.

Suepurblybuilt - dont worry. I havent even got as far as asking what to whom and why yet. I am hoping to put a few questions together and I was going to keep it local but if MNHQ allow surveys then that would be brill. I know it looks like I havent thought it through, thats because I haven't. Just reading Louv, Gill, Lovelock, Palmer, to name a few to see where it takes me. Still need a good hook

Thanks everyone, I have read comments, chatted (on thread and privately) and this was very helpful to my studies.
Just to address any concerns, I have no intention of using any of these comments as research evidence, it was purely to gain perspective as there is so much one could say on this and I needed to narrow it down. Thanks guys.x