Childrens fun in the forrest
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Introduce your child to nature!
When the child is pre-school age, you do not have to teach the proper name of things. That will come later. Just let them use their eyes, hands and ears to enjoy nature. Teach them that some things should never be wasted in the forrest because this is the animal babies home.
I have been working with children age 5 - 12 and teaching them about nature. When they are younger, they need to learn to just enjoy the wild nature. Help them to not be afraid. Allow them to learn silence. There is a really lovely game here. Close the eyes and listen to your own breathing for a while. Then listen to other sounds in the woods. It could be the wind that they feel on the cheek. May be a bird singing to us. Bumble bees, flies and the sound of the tree tops moving.
Tech them to not pick, remove or destroy things they see. There is much in the forrest that you can just listen to, look at or smell.
Needles and leaves
One thing that I know that they like is to see the difference of needles - in many lengths - and leaves. The birch has leaves and the pine needles. They will be observant from now on. That is the whole meaning with this "lesson" out in the forrest!
Needles and leaves
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Buy some eye loupes!
These loupes are often sold where you can buy cameras or photo equipment. I found the best ones in a little store for looking at stamps.Since I was working with classes of children, the stamp store sold many over the years=) .Try to find a kind of loupe that you can put a band around so the child can have it hanging around the neck. Otherwise they get excited and leave it there to run and tell you what they have found!
I must say that this is the BEST investment I have ever done. To look at things in the forrest through a loupe is an adventure of a special kind. Common bark suddenly turn into a new exciting world. Ants, small bugs and craves open up to the child. Look at a leave and you can see the little tiny openings on the surface. Look at a pine cone or a flower. Everything is now changing into a dimention you did not know was there.
Eye loupes
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A world in our world
Cameras for beginners
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Our digital age allow freedom of photos
The digital camera is one of the most wonderful things for learning children. They can take photos of the flowers and bees, the friends and the trees. They can watch them at home and enjoy the memories. And then the pictures can be deleted or saved, what ever is ok.
Macro photos will show the young ones this wonderful world of nature that we often overlook. The stamens and pistils, the wings of a butterfly and so on. Just teach the child to use the camera properly and not view it as a plastic toy. A camera is worth to treat carefully.
Many of the cameras these days can survive if we drop them, manage rain and dirty little hands. The whole idea is to make the child AWARE of the beauty in the forrest or on the beach.
Some of the new digital cameras allow video films too. Imagine taking a movie of a butterfly or a dog running away. These videos make the memory really alive.
May be you can borrow the camera and take a photo of the person looking through a loupe?
A fortaste of macro photo
More books for children with questions
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Digital cameras on Ebay
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Kodak EASYSHARE Z700 4.0 MP Digital Camera - Silver
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Samsung MV800 Red 16-megapixel MultiView Digital Camera
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Canon EOS Rebel XSi / 450D 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black (Kit w/ EF-S IS...
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Canon PowerShot SX40 HS 12.1 MP Digital Camera - Black
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Do you too feel at home in a forrest?Loading...
Excellent hub and great for the kids to learn in this way.
mulberry1 20 months ago
I think all children need to learn about nature and the earth. Cameras are a great way of exploring the world around us and they allow kids to "collect things" while still leaving them intact.