A few years ago the Oxford Junior Dictionary dropped a number of words as they were seldom used by children and, as such, didn’t merit inclusion. Astonishingly more than forty nature words were omitted – names such as bluebell, dandelion, kingfisher and lark – and replaced by modern ones that occurred more frequently in our children’s vocabulary: blog, broadband and bullet-point.

The philosopher, A J Ayer argued that “unless children have a word for something, how are they to conceive of it”. Prompted by these exclusions, author Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris produced an exquisitely illustrated book of ‘spells’ called Lost Words.

Starting at acorn and ending at wren, it is a volume of beautiful rhymes, descriptions and word-scapes that endeavours to engage childhood and nature. As a naturalist myself, being confined during springtime is frustrating, particularly as I know what I’m missing; sadder still is the thought of children on a sunny morning in front of a computer screen having no concept of what they are missing.

Blackbird, by Elizabeth Dack

This period of confinement and restriction presents an opportunity for us all to try to encourage our children to become absorbed in the natural world; a world of sights, sounds, smells and touch. This doesn’t necessarily require a long journey to wild places – gardens, parks and verges of paths all contain something of interest. There is as much wonderment in the small and commonplace as in the mighty and rare.

Here at Norfolk Wildlife Trust we have always worked hard to encourage young people to enjoy and value wildlife. But we also understand how hard it is sometimes to motivate children to occupy their time usefully. So hopefully this spring and summer we can help provide you with some ideas to both amuse and inform your children.

Learning about birds is a great way to start. They sing, are often colourful, come in all shapes and sizes, and are present even in our most urban environments. Spending time quietly watching in the garden or from a window, a child can easily spot ten or more species of bird.

If you live in the city centre, the local churchyard or cemetery can be a great place to see birds, and in spring many migrant birds use urban green spaces like these to rest and feed.

This time of year birds are very active collecting nesting material, and with patience you can work out where your garden blackbird, robin or starling is nesting. Maybe allow your child to leave some hair from a brush or a pile of dried grass; wet clay left in the middle of the garden for nest building will be used by lots of different birds. But remember please don’t disturb them or approach the nest, even for a quick peek.

A beginner’s spotter guide is available on the NWT website. You can also find our webcams there: on these you will find some birds very different from the ones in your garden, including the rare stone curlews at Weeting Heath and the fascinating common terns at Ranworth Broad.

Make a collage from nature

Indoors you can set an art challenge, perhaps a collage of natural items collected from the garden or during a walk. Remember, please don’t pick wildflowers, instead have your child photograph them and set a challenge for the family to find out their names using the internet or our spotter’s guide.

My sons’ favourite activity was searching the garden at night. I’d insist we stay still at first and leave the torches off. We’d listen for snuffling hedgehogs and the hoot of an owl. In spring many birds will continue singing at night, although the famous nightingale of London’s Berkeley Square was probably a robin, they will often sing deep into the night, especially if a lamp-post is near.

With the hubbub of the day evaporated their song is a sweet fluid sound, unlike the frogs and toads that can be pretty vocal at night. Once the torches are on who knows what you may find.

With nine hundred species of large moths in the UK, many as colourful as their butterfly cousins, a bright lamp on a white sheet laid on the lawn will, on a warm still night, attract a bewildering array of moths.

Failing that, the kids could convince you to spare a splash of red wine to make wine ropes. A short piece of thin rope soaked in a solution of wine and dissolved sugar, hung in a tree, proves irresistible to some of the more discerning moth species.

My boys are grown now, I miss constantly pointing at things flying by or popping out of the ground. Eventually through a process of osmosis the names of trees and common birds were bored (pun intended) into them, sometimes I tried to make it fun!

Joking aside, I believe a desire for us to live on a clean green planet is discovered, fundamentally, through nature play in childhood. Although stopping the decline of our natural world is clearly our generation’s job, turning it around is ultimately the next. The need to engage children through education is important, but enchanting them through art, words, mystery and wonder is vital.


Header image by Matthew Roberts
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