Nature Study

A couple of weeks ago, Chase attended the first of his three nature study classes at Chippewa Nature Center in Midland. We had never been to the Nature Center before and we were delighted. While Chase enjoyed his class, Ian and I explored one of the nearby trails. It was a small 0.4 mile paved loop that went close to the Pine River and through a small pond area. The pond area was a little creepy to walk through because there were dozens of large red drangonflies flying around. We survived, though, and met up with Chase after his class.

I then took Chase around on the trail. We loved that it just sounded like a forest. There was no noise from people or from cars. It was shady, but warm, and it smelled so green! It looked like we were being stalked by a rough looking black squirrel for part of the time. We came to a stand of pines, the kind that don't have any branches except for near the top. Underneath the pines the ground was completely covered in long dry pine needles; there were no bushes or shrubs at all. Chase ran around in the open space among the pines and I thought, "This needs to be a regular part of our life!"

In the Nature Center bookstore, I had noticed a book titled Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. I had read and heard a little bit about the benefits of nature study for children. Chase and I both keep a nature journal and I've regularly encouraged Chase to add entries to his journal in an effort to grow his observation skills and allow him to practice sketching and coloring. But more was happening during our little walk through the woods than those narrow goals. I felt relaxed on that walk. I wasn't thinking about my to-do list at home and I wasn't striving or pretending. I was just enjoying the creation around me, humbled by the overwhelming number of things around me that I couldn't name and didn't understand. I was connected to a bigger world that stretched out to the sustaining hand of God.

How could such experience not be good for children? I determined right there that I would work to make sure that Chase had regular interaction with nature, without an agenda. I've enjoyed the book by Louv for the most part, (though he holds the assumption that we're drawn to nature because of evolutionary wiring and not because "[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Eccl 3:11). Louv points out a number of characteristics of our modern culture that keep us from connecting with nature like our parents or grandparents did. It's been a good exercise to evaluate some of our choices in light of our new goals for exploring outside.

Last week, all four of us visited Deerfield County Park, another tract of land with plenty of trails and trees that sits just outside of town. Niether I nor Jim had ever been there. The walk started out kind of boring on a two track trail near a scum covered pond. The trail opened up to a bridge that crossed the Chippewa River and then split into a few diverging trails. We followed one and then another and found ourselves following a quiet and very green riverside path that had all sorts of things to explore. The night ended with the discovery of an Indiana Jones-type bridge that took us back across the water. We saw huge carp under us and what must have been millions of water bugs stretching away on the river as far as we could see. Altogether it was an amazing night!