Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Teach Your Children to Appreciate Nature

Photo source: sgbrown



God has given us so many gifts in nature, we need to teach our children how to appreciate them. Teach them to “stop and smell the roses” sort of speak. I have always loved nature and have taught my children to appreciate it as well. Now hubby and I are teaching our youngest granddaughter, Jazzy, to appreciate even the smallest things in nature by simply taking her for walks on our place in the country. 




We are fortunate enough to live on 40 acres in the country in southern Oklahoma. There is nature all around us every day and I want Jazzy to appreciate even the smallest of nature’s beauty. As we walk up our driveway, I take us across a field of wildflowers. She found some tiny little flowers and told me to be careful not to step on them. I had her pick one so we could take a picture of it.



 
As we walked through the woods, we came across this rock, draped with moss. Jazzy said it looked like it had on a coat. I had to agree with her, it looks like a cloak of moss to keep the rock protected from the cold. I’m glad she uses her imagination when she looks at things. So many children don’t really use their imaginations much these days.
 

 
 
I wanted her to feel the softness of the moss and appreciate its beauty and texture. She said it was soft, but it still tickled her hand a little. She asked me if these were little trees and I told her no, that this was more like the “carpet” of the woods. She wanted to walk on it, but her Papa told her no, that we would find some rock that didn’t have “carpet” on them to walk on later.
 
 
Jazzy especially liked the “fluffy white flowers” on the blooming trees. I’m not sure what kind of trees these are, they don’t get any fruit on them and they really don’t appear to be dog wood trees, but they are beautiful in spring! She didn’t want to get too close to them as there were bees buzzing around all the blossoms. I explained to her why the bees were buzzing the flowers and how important to us they are.


 
 
I think she finally started getting a little tired. I know Papa and I were wore out! We took a little break and sat down for a few moments before we headed home. When her mom got home from work, Jazzy told her all about the “cool” things we saw while we were on our walk. I was glad she enjoyed the walk and I think she learned a few things at the same time.