Senses Turned On

The National Wildlife Federation advocates an initiative called Green Hour - time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world.

'Children should have access to and time for play in nature. A right for unstructured play. A right to create and explore. A right to experience the sense of wonder of being outside.' 

We have just returned from a fabulous family walk through a local nature reserve. We had stared off identifying a bald eagle nest high up in a coniferous tree on the edge of the forest. We had seen one of the pair land in the tree and on closer inspection the huge construction created from broken branches and rescued twigs was spotted. Our naturebags accompanied us and my 6 year old found time to stop and write an entry in his notebook : 

'I went to Camosun Bog and I saw a male duck but we didn't see the female. I like Camosun Bog.'

Bees were stirring as well as a small white butterfly. Before long, our path led us to some open woodland where the refrain 'Can we play hug a tree' was heard....and we all had a turns.....many turns. I noted how my sons were using some great descriptive language to vocalize what they were touching when blindfolded as well as drawing the attention to certain features of the tree when acting as the guide. They were turning on their senses. 

For more information on Green Hour visit www.greenhour.org