Meridian Magazine : Grandparenting: Discovering Nature with Your Grandchildren

Discovering Nature with Your Grandchildren
By Fay A. Klingler

One of the most wonderful gifts you can give to a grandchild is the opportunity to enjoy and discover nature. Whether it is a summer, moonlight walk in a gentle rain, a service project cleaning the vacant lot down the street, or sledding together down a slope covered in new, winter-white powder you become more involved with each other and develop a sense of wonder and appreciation of God’s creations.

When you plan outside activities, you’re not only helping your grandchildren. You’re helping the adults in the family as well. Exploring nature can be comforting, uplifting, and liberating in any season of the year. Perhaps it has something to do with the sunlight aligning your circadian rhythms with the cycles of nature. I don’t know what it is.

But I do know that activities outside the home, whether they be structured or spontaneous, can act as a refreshing reprieve from daily concerns and frustrations. Healthy attitudes about life and the joy of living are often formed by families camping, hiking, or boating together. Discovering nature has a lot to do with releasing creative thought processes and having fun.

When our children and grandchildren come to visit in the summer, we are usually working in our garden. They all enjoy helping us shell peas in early summer, snap string beans in the middle of summer, and shell dry beans in late summer. We take a bucket of produce and sit on the soft lawn near the garden and talk and laugh and eat. It is a fun time. (The LDS Grandparents’ Idea, Fay A. Klingler, Book Spring Creek Book Company, p. 106.)

Several of our children own four-wheel-drive vehicles. In the summer we have a family, car caravan overnighter or picnic in the mountains. It’s fun to follow each other through the woods on little roads (or no roads!), stop occasionally to hike around, cook over an open fire, write notes on each other’s cars in the dirt that has collected on the back windows, and sing songs through the intercoms we’ve connected to each car. (The LDS Grandparents’ Idea, Fay A. Klingler, Book Spring Creek Book Company, p. 105.)

Consider the following ideas and experiences. Perhaps one of them might spark an interest and help you develop a family activity that captures forever a moment of beauty and adventure in the lives of your grandchildren.

Discovery Walk
It may be in the neighboring city park, the nature reserve, in the mountains, or your own backyard. Listen for and point out the sights, sounds, and smells. Do you see the many hues of green in the landscape? Can you identify and name the birds by the sounds you hear? Do you recognize by the smell the lavender growing freely on the hillside?

Two of my grandsons go to the elementary school a few blocks from my home. My daughter was ill and needed help with the children. I walked to the school to meet them. On the way back to my home, we leisurely picked up leaves, grasses, pinecones, and pieces of bark. They ate the snacks and drank the water I brought for them. We talked about school activities, the funny shapes and sizes of our “finds,” and whatever came to their minds. When we got home, the boys used their “finds” to dip in paint and stamp get-well cards for their mother. They enjoyed working with the different sizes, textures, and shapes. They even found grasses that worked well as fancy paint brushes!

Recently, while babysitting, I took a granddaughter for walk around the block. She picked up a stick and waved it like a wand, gently tapping bushes and trees along the way. Then she spontaneously started singing in a happy, uninhibited voice. I recognized the tune and joined in, stopping only to point out the colors of passing cars or the sounds of the quail skittering across the driveway ahead. Her joy to move freely outdoors was obvious.

Walking on the California beach this past winter was a thrill. My daughter and granddaughter discovered a washed-up lobster, a starfish, sea plants that felt like rubber, and numerous colorful shells. We jumped small streams of fresh water at the shoreline, and even sighted three porpoises swimming a short distance out from the beach. Later on the Internet, we researched and learned about porpoises and yearned to repeat the visit.

Terri and Jasmine find a starfish on the beach.

Overnight Camp
It could be in a campground or in your own backyard. It could be in a tent or sleeping under the stars. It could include structured activities or leave the time for roaming and spontaneous discoveries. Just the act of setting up camp, orienting to the area, and doing without the luxuries of home can be an adventure, fun, and exhilarating.

Sometimes for our family camping trips, I plan to teach a survival skill to my grandchildren. Usually I have a craft, like the windsock they each made a couple of trips ago. Or I might give them small gifts to enhance their experience, like flashlights or insect nets. I always take my cards to play double, triple, or quadruple Solitaire. Last summer I brought a smiling, candy-filled piñata.

Camping trips can feature everything from crafts to piñatas.

Scenic Drive
It may be across the valley, in the mountains, or to the neighboring state. Driving outside your area can help a grandchild feel relaxed and less confined. Point out colors and shapes, different animals’ behavior, rainbows, and cloud formations.

When my dad could no longer hike or walk, he took our family for drives where we explored trails through the mountains. I’ve never forgotten my mother telling us about my grandfather’s desire for his children to see and enjoy nature. As she spoke of him, she helped us keep a tally on the deer we saw, encouraged our noticing the colors and kinds of flowers growing along the roadside, and pointed out the varying smells, like the strong odors of sage and mesquite. It was on one of those summer drives I carefully collected and discovered the sweet taste of fruit from the prickly pear cactus.

Community Events
It may be a city fun run/walk or a community garden watch or fishing competition. Participating as a family group in community events can be thrilling and uniting.

I have been a runner for many years. To tell the truth, now I would consider myself more of a walker than a runner! Nonetheless, when I chose to participate in community runs/walks, I invited by children and grandchildren to participate with me. This year I have a goal to run one more 10K. I will invite my family to participate with me. Everyone in the family will be invited to the pre-race dinner in our backyard. Runners will be encouraged to spend the night and travel with us to the competition site. The whole family will be asked to cheer us on along the race route. Working toward a common goal unites families and instills lasting positive memories.

Family Work Project
It may be building an outside patio, helping in the garden, cutting down a tree, or washing cars. But the camaraderie and bonding that occur are priceless.

Last summer several of my grandchildren helped me build and landscape a stone patio. We talked and laughed. They made a difficult chore seem so much easier.

My brother invited his extended family over for a car-washing evening. Every family brought their car to be cleaned and everyone scrubbed, splashed, and laughed their way to cleaner transportation! I’m planning to follow my brother’s example in August this year. Does that give you any ideas?