Nature Study in the City - March 2016

We all want our children to spend more time outdoors. However when you live in a city, connecting our children to nature can be difficult.

In this series of blog posts, I hope to inspire you with some ways you can teach your children about the natural world, and give you some creative activities to do indoors or in a city garden.

Spending time outdoors in a natural environment has been proven scientifically to benefit children.

Since the release of the book Last Child in the Woods, which brought attention to the developmental effects of nature on our children, there have been multiple studies that prove likewise.

Some of the benefits of outdoor play include:

• Supports development intellectually, emotionally, socially, spiritually and physically (Kellert, 2005).

• Encourages creativity: Studies show that children engage in more creative forms of play in the green areas. (Bell and Dyment, 2006).

• Improves Concrentration: Exposure to natural settings increases children’s ability to focus and enhances cognitive abilities (Wells, 2000).

• Improves Academic Performance: Children who partook in outdoor science programs had an improvement in their science results by 27% (American Institutes for Research, 2005).

• Reduces ADD symptoms (Kuo and Taylor, 2004).

• Improves eyesight (American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2011)

• Encourages healthy eating  (Bell & Dyment, 2008) 

• Reduces stress  (Wells and Evans, 2003)

Book Recommendation

Before we start, I want to let you know that we have been using this vintage nature book, Looking At Nature, by Elsie Proctor, as our primary text.

It is fantastic. Unlike most nature books, it is not just pages of facts, but it also poses lots of questions for the children to answer and gives great ideas for outdoor activities and experiments.

This is what we have been doing this March:

Observing Germination

We began this month with a trip to the supermarket to by some compost and plant seeds. I read in the book Looking at nature , that Sunflowers , Nasturtiums and Runner Beans are easy to grow...we'll soon see!

I decided to begin with an activity I remember doing at school. We filled jars with kitchen roll, and then carefully pushed two Runner Bean seeds in the gap between the glass and the tissue. Then we added enough water the to jars to make the tissue damp, and left them on a sunny window-sill. 

Within 5 days this is what we saw:

The children drew what they saw for their Nature Notebooks, and we discussed all the parts of the plant and what plants need to grow. They learnt the words germination, shoot and tap root.

This is something you can do indoors, in a small space, and at very little expense!  

Began Planting Our Children's Garden

This year I am giving a part of our small garden to the children. They will be responsible for growing the plants in that patch, weeding, watering etc.  If it works...it's going to be a fantastic source of learning opportunities. 

The boys planted their Sunflower Seeds , and left them in our cold-frame to grow.

Looking for catkins

Thankfully we have a number on trees on our road that have catkins. We collected what we could find, and brought them home to identify.

Visited our City Parks

At this time of year, there is so much to see in the park. The daffodils are blooming, the birds are back and building nests, and everything is stirring back to life!

We spent several hours looking for the first signs of spring. The boys drew some daffodils for their nature notebooks, and I just allowed them to explore. The only rule we have in the park is ....You Are Not Allowed To Walk On The Path! 

Drawing daffodils

Playing hide-and-seek! He's  counting...

He's hiding!

They found this muddy pond and were in there wading through the murky water...They loved it!

I hope this will encourage you to get out into nature with your children, wherever you live. 

What activities have you done outdoors with your kids? Do any of you have any recommendations for other plants we can put in the children's garden? Please let me know in the comments below :)

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Make sure you don’t miss the next in this series!

I'm hoping to get it out the same time next month insha'Allah. 

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Peace and Love.


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