It's that time again! This month our Guest Blogger is Tina Hamilton, who embodies all of the qualities and traits that we are working diligently to instill our daughter. With thoughtful discovery and careful exploration, her father and a special circle of other childhood mentors gave her a foundation of love, respect and honor for all of the beauty Mother Nature has to offer. Enjoy!
I have been hiking my entire life. Before I came along, my
dad was a lifelong Boy Scout who spent more time outdoors than in. I started
hiking with him before I could walk – we have family pictures of him carrying
me on his back in an external-frame baby carrier from Patagonia.
 |
| Old School Daddy Hiker! |
As soon as I was old
enough, I signed up with the Girl Scouts as a Brownie. With adventures
planned by my scout troop and the (much wilder) adventures planned by my dad, I
spent entire summers as a child hiking and camping in the woods, and spent the
winters with my feet firmly attached to cross-country skis.
Between my dad, the Girl Scouts, and simply being a product
of the 1980's, I became a stalwart young environmentalist. I followed to the
letter every instruction found in "50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the
Earth," I had comic books about pollution in the Amazon rainforest, I read
every book by Jean Craighead George I could get my hands on, and I spent long
hours debating with my dad whether it was more environmentally sound to use
paper plates or to waste water on doing the dishes (I argued that the water
could be cleaned while landfills remained forever; Dad argued it was late and "Get Smart" was about to come on).
My experiences in the great outdoors and my involvement in
the green movement (before it was known by that name) shaped my life in
considerable ways. It gave my dad and I common ground on which to come together
during my difficult teen years and my travel abroad for college. It also gave
me, I think, an inner core of strength on which I could rely in hard times. "I
want to come home," I would cry to Dad in a trans-Atlantic phone call. "Go for
a walk in the woods," he would say. "You’re always at home in the woods."
 |
| Discovering the beauty of Mother Nature |
The benefits of spending time outside can't be
under-emphasized – exercise, family bonding, exploration of nature, and
learning responsibility and self-reliance. Going hiking or camping can even
make your brain function better, according to neuroscience research reported in
Backpacker
Magazine.
So what can you do to get your own kids to fall in love with
nature? Take some hints from my dad:
- Start them early. There are a lot of child-carriers that are far more comfortable for parent and baby than the blue monstrosity still hanging on a hook in my dad’s basement.
- Go at their pace. Start with places close to home – a city park can be just as fascinating as a mountainside to a small child. If you've got a yearning for a longer hike, leave the kids at home.
- See it from their point of view. I still remember the day my dad and I counted 87 extremely tiny frogs that were congregating on the hiking trail. I don’t know where we were or if we ever made it to our destination. But I clearly remember my dad's excitement matching my own as we kept count.
- Bring a friend. For a kid, sharing an outdoor experience with a friend is much different than sharing it with an adult. Plus, kids can keep each other far more entertained than adults can – just ask my dad about the gigglefests my cousin Becky and I used to have.
 |
| Climbing Ruins |
My final advice? Make it meaningful. Both my dad and the
Girl Scouts spent a lot of time emphasizing the "Leave no trace" philosophy. "Take only pictures, leave only footprints," my Scout leader would say. "Leave
it be so you can come back and enjoy it again next time," Dad would say. Knowing
that taking care of the earth was my job gave me a sense of responsibility that
has definitely grown over time – and it all started when I was a toddler
adventuring through the woods on my dad's back.
___________________________________________
About the Author
No comments:
Post a Comment