Connecting Children and Nature
Teach Kids to Explore Outside Creatively.
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Encourage your kids to get outside with these activities for connecting children and nature. Discover the importance of nature in child development.
by Wren Everett
We all know that kids spend too much time on their screens. We all know that it’s healthy and important for them to get outside. But when it comes to getting kids motivated to explore nature, sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Do we just set them loose in the backyard and hope for the best? Dig out our wallets to send them to a nature camp for a week? Yell at them to get off their phones yet again?
For the motivated parent, guardian, or educator, there’s a whole world of fun ways to get kids actively engaged in exploring the natural world (and sometimes they’re just as fun for the adults). As a former environmental educator, I’d like to share some of my favorite tried-and-true ideas for getting kids to explore the fields, forests, or streams with a creative twist that don’t require you to spend a penny or have any special nature knowledge yourself. Hopefully, you can find your next adventure waiting, just a few steps outside your door.
A note before we begin: I caution against making these adventures information-heavy. For certain people, it can be tempting to work in “teachable moments” about pollution, or science, or to turn the whole thing into some sort of moral lesson about the political stance of your choosing, but I advise that you rein yourself in. It’s usually best to let them just be children: running, sliding, falling, picking things up, looking around … and the interest and curious questions can and will follow later.
Children and Nature Poetry
Some of you may roll your eyes at the thought of doing poetry with children, but I’ve had good success with this activity with a huge range of children — don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! All you need are pencils, scraps of paper, and a nice, open area — I typically took groups to a field beside an old farm pond.
Give each child a scrap of paper and a pencil and place them where they won’t be bothered by anyone else (but are still within your sight). Have them choose one of their senses (or, if you’re doing this with only one or two children, all of their senses) and write the most descriptive sentence that they can for what that sense is experiencing. Every singular sentence should be written on its own scrap of paper.
Once all the observations have been made, gather everyone together on a nice, dry spot and place all the scraps of paper into a hat or bag. I usually begin with a starting sentence that says something about our location “By the summertime banks of the old farm pond …” and then read the “poem” by pulling out one random scrap of paper at a time. Have someone write down the completed poem, if desired, and end the poem with a concluding sentence (which can often be your beginning sentence).
Steton Walk
Named for Naturalist Ernest Steton, a “Steton walk” is, essentially, a chance for a child to (safely) be on their own in the forest, listening, looking, and just “being” without anyone else interfering in their experience. (I’ve used this activity often for urban children who’d never experienced being alone in nature — it probably won’t be as effective for children who’ve already had plentiful nature experiences.) Two adults and a clearly-defined trail with no intersecting trails are required for the activity.
One adult stands at the “start” point with the child, while the other adult goes ahead to wait at the “end” point. The child is then allowed to walk freely from the start to the end. You can change up the activity by doing it at different times of day (a night Steton walk with no flashlight can be fascinating!) or changing the length of the walk.
Goldsworthy Sculptures
Andy Goldsworthy is a nature artist, world-renowned for his meticulous sculptures made entirely out of natural materials. From mandalas of pine needles and carefully arranged leaves to stacked spires of stone, his creations are both beautiful and transient, echoing the ever-changing nature of Nature itself. Check out a library book or search some of his images online (they’re easy to find!), then go out and create some of your own Goldsworthy-esqe sculptures with your little ones.
While this activity may immediately appeal most to a meticulous, quiet child, many rambunctious kiddos are fascinated by the challenge of trying to stack rocks as high as possible. The act of collecting your materials often leads to interesting discoveries as well.
Note: While potentially beautiful, rock-stacking has become a nuisance in some shared, public natural areas — especially when done in sensitive streams where animals depend on the stones taken out of those streams (which are usually just left in a heap on the land rather than returned). I recommend doing it on your own land (and seeing how long it lasts).
Build a Fort/Shelter
There’s something about building a structure big enough to sit in that appeals to children of all ages. There are no rules to fort-building, aside from making sure it’s not so unwieldy that it crashes down on your head. You can check out a bushcraft book from the library to see “official” instructions for building a lean-to (Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger is a classic), but there’s honestly no “right” way for kids to build a fort. For done-in-one-afternoon success, try to incorporate an existing structure into the fort, like a fallen tree, rock overhang, or big boulder. If playing in a public area, build and disassemble your fort out of natural materials in an out-of-the-way area so you don’t make an eyesore. If on your own land, consider building the fort sturdy enough to spend a warm summer night in it!
Scavenger Hunt
When given the opportunity, many children can be surprisingly observant, often noticing things that are easy to overlook, or finding interest in the seemingly mundane. A nature scavenger hunt is a great way to use this natural affinity and turn it toward exploration. Create a list of nature things for children to find, set a fixed boundary for their safety, and have them go hunting! Here’s an incomplete sample list that I’ve used for younger children.
- 10 pieces of trash (give them a bag to help clean up!)
- Five different-shaped leaves
- A bird feather
- Something in every color of the rainbow
- An exoskeleton
- Round, squarish, and flat rocks
- A snake skin
The activity can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like. Older children can be challenged to find more specific things — specific species of trees, types of rocks, or creatures, such as spiders, millipedes, or beetles to examine their behaviors without disturbing them or their habitat.
Night Hike and Owl Hunt
Daytime exploration of nature is certainly fun, but the night is just as interesting, and much less utilized. Some of my most memorable experiences with children outdoors were at night, under the stars, when a whole different cast of animals came out to the party. While flashlights might seem to be required, human eyes can adjust to the darkness surprisingly well if given the chance — particularly on a moonlit night. If you have access to a field with trees nearby, try going on an “owl hunt.” Listen to their sounds online (AllAboutBirds.org has a great collection of sounds) and then see if you can hear or spot them hunting. If you can play a recording of an owl outdoors, sometimes one will hoot back!
As you’ll soon discover, kids are easily delighted by the world around them, once they start opening their eyes to it. I don’t believe modernity has taken us so far that they — and we — can’t remember how to observe, interact, appreciate, and explore the beauty and wonder that’s always been waiting out there. So throw those phones in a drawer and get your shoes on, it’s time to discover something new!
Wren Everett and her husband quit their teaching jobs in the city and moved back to the land on 12 acres in the Ozarks. There, they are learning to live as modern peasants: off-grid, as self-sufficient as possible, and quite happily.
Originally published in the July/August 2025 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
