Little kids love to be outside—on playgrounds, playing sports, or even just going for a walk. Parenting books often talk about how much learning can take place from simply making observations while on a walk with your kids. One preschool teacher I know took this idea to the next level. When she lined up her children to go outside, it was for a Nature Discovery Adventure! Each time they received a different task to complete or observation to make. Sometimes they gathered sticks to use in crafts. Other times they counted pine cones or named the colors they saw in the leaves. This teacher combined the children’s love of nature with their inquisitiveness to create a science experiment. Even better, any fussiness or frustration during the time outside was forgotten by the time they returned to the classroom.

Mother Nature

In the field of child development, there is an ever-present debate over the influence of nature vs nurture in the physical, cognitive, and social growth of living things. Are children born a certain way or are they a product of their environment? Intelligent arguments exist on both sides of the debate. However, look at the subtitle and consider the name Mother Nature. Of course, not everyone has the perfect mother, but the concept of motherhood involves nurturing. So, the idea that Father Time is the linear, driven entity and Mother Nature is the cyclical, healing entity is no accident. What if God’s created earth is both nature and nurture? What can we learn from this idea?

Vitameatavegamin

There’s an old I Love Lucy sketch in which Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo becomes the spokesperson for a new product: Vitameatavegamin. It boasts being able to heal all that ails you, because it is loaded with vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals. It doesn’t exactly work and hilarity ensues. But still today we continue to look for miracle pills, drinks, and foods that will help us deal with pressures to be mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy. But what if God has already given us that miracle . . . in nature?!