Ahead of Earth Day, Laura House, Education Lead and Quality Coach at tiney, explores how to create eco-friendly habits in your setting, and why this starts from the moment we step outside.
Have you ever seen a young child squatting down low on their haunches, quietly peering in total fascination at a snail as it slithers over a leaf, or at a worm wriggling in their fingers? When Small meets Smaller, some learning happens about perspective and our position in relation to the more-than-human-world. Children have a knack for noticing the things we often overlook. Children’s fresh gaze can teach us so much about looking deeply, slowing down, and noticing the impact we make on our environment.
A small child with soil on his face gently holds a worm in his hands
Working with young children is both a huge pleasure and an enormous responsibility, because it’s these early experiences that lay the foundations for the rest of their lives. Living in an age of climate crisis adds another urgent dimension to this responsibility - not only do we as adults need to take steps to limit our impact on the planet, but we also need to nurture children’s connection with the natural world. As David Attenborough has said, “No one will protect what they don't care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced”.
Step outside and into nature
If children can experience nature first hand (and foot, and head, and heart), and associate it with play and joy, then they will be inherently motivated to respect and preserve it. According to one study, 87% of people who regularly played outside as kids valued nature as adults. As Richard Louv says In his book ‘Last Child in the Woods’, “If kids don't touch and experience nature, why would they want to save it?".
What’s more, there’s a wealth of evidence to show that spending time outdoors is good for many aspects of children’s development. Not only does it boost their physical and mental health, but playing outdoors also supports children’s ability to manage risks safely, helps them regulate their emotions, and improves their concentration.
Here are some simple ideas to support this connection with the natural world, even if you don’t have access to a private garden:
- Take a walk. Embrace whatever natural spaces you have near you, be they woodlands, grasslands, wetlands or parks. Having the right kit and suitable clothing will enable children to safely explore these spaces - whatever the weather - so they can wholeheartedly experience uneven surfaces, splash in puddles, squelch in mud; climb logs and slither down slopes. Even young babies can explore the natural textures of the outdoors. Natural environments really are the best playgrounds! As it’s often said, the mud will wash off, but the memories will last a lifetime.
A baby rolls on the ground in Autumn and inspects a leaf
Notice the shifting seasons. When we really observe nature we start to tap in to rhythms and patterns that are much bigger and older than us. Perhaps ‘adopt’ a tree in a local park and visit it each season, noticing changes in the leaves, blossom, fruit or seeds. You could begin a ‘nature table’ at home, where children can make their own seasonal ‘museum’ to display natural treasures they find when out and about, or press some seasonal flowers between some heavy books.
Look deeply at nature. We can provide lots of ways to help children see and observe nature really closely. Invite children to take pictures of the nature they see around them. Make your own loo-roll binoculars and take them birdwatching. Offer magnifying glasses so they can inspect the minibeasts they find down in the undergrowth, and make a telescope so they can look up at the stars.
A young birdwatcher looks through his home-made binoculars
Re-think how we resource play materials in our homes or settings
As well as getting outside, we can look inwards to our settings and consider how a few small changes might offer great savings, more learning opportunities and also be kinder to our planet.
Here are some ideas for how to provide brilliant play materials that won’t cost the earth:
Collect freely-available ‘loose parts’. Consider buying fewer pre-fabricated toys and instead increase the range of natural, recycled or re-purposed materials we offer. Start by collecting items you’ll find at home such as clothes pegs, teaspoons, scarves, bottle tops, loo roll tubes, or yogurt pots; and gather some whilst out and about (twigs, acorns, pebbles, leaves, shells…). There are tonnes of ideas in our Loose Parts Guide, which is available in the app for all tiney childminders to explore. Open-ended, natural materials materials can be combined in may different ways and support children’s creativity. A pre-formed plastic toy phone can only really ‘be’ a phone in a child’s mind - but a simple wooden brick has no limits as it can be re-imagined as a phone, or car, or anything they like! Open-ended materials offer more learning, less stuff. What’s not to love?
Seek natural materials over plastic where possible. Young children need sensory experiences because they learn with their bodies through engagement with the people and things they encounter in their environment. And yet, plastic offers such limited sensory experience - it mostly feels, smells and tastes the same. It doesn’t give the level of sensory feedback that natural resources can offer. A baby exploring a ‘treasure basket’ of items such as wooden and metal spoons, a stick, a potato, a pinecone, a rock, a piece of paper, and a piece of cotton cloth gains so much more information about weight, texture, shape and smell than if they were exploring a set of plastic toys.
A ‘treasure basket’ containing a range of natural and household items for a baby to explore
Source toys from toy libraries or charity shops instead of buying new. Nearly 80% of all toys end up in landfills, incinerators or the ocean. Plastic toys are difficult to recycle because of their complex form and chemical additives, so instead of purchasing new items, try to source these second hand. You could even set up your own Toy Swap Shop, rotating items between other childminders in the area. This keeps things fresh for the children without having to spend a penny on new resources! What’s more, when we make a point of buying second hand and explain why that’s important, we plant the seed in children’s minds to think twice about consumerism and move towards a more circular economy.
Think beyond toys and repurpose household items for play. A great way to begin is by taking a look in your kitchen cupboards - often a treasure-trove of resources that can be used for creative play. Some dried beans or lentils in a baking tray along with a range of spoons and measuring cups offer plenty opportunities for role play as well as exploring capacity and volume. You can rinse and cook the beans after so there’s no waste. Or try adding spices and herbs to home made bread dough (the best edible playdough!) and explore the marks children can make with a potato masher or fork in the dough.
Teddy’s teatime with beans and conkers
Embrace small acts of nature activism
As well as exploring the outdoors and considering our indoor environments, we can empower children as change-makers and advocate for their voices. As Greta Thunberg said, “No one is too small to make a difference”. There are many ways we can tread more softly on our planet, whilst involving children as active agents in this process. Here are some ideas:
A petunia grows on an urban kerb
Let’s show children that they can make a difference to our local environment and can lead on the changes they want to see. Scatter wildflower seeds in pavement cracks! Refill a herb shaker with seeds and sprinkle them along the ground where you see bare bits of earth. Apply for some free trees and involve families in your community in a tree-planting day. Help children make their mark and get the satisfaction that comes with saying “I planted that!”
Save carrot tops and seeds from shop-bought tomatoes and begin your own window-sill vegetable garden, involving the children in caring for the plants and talking about what plants need to grow and stay healthy. When children have a chance to sow, grow, harvest and prepare their own vegetables, they’re more likely to try new flavours and start to understand where their food comes from.
Take part in citizen science - spot and count butterflies, birds and other wildlife and contribute to real research on biodiversity in the UK.
Engage children in conversations about how they want their local environment to improve. Can they make a poster to encourage people to pick up litter in the park? Can they draw pictures of the changes they’d like to see in their local area? You could send these to your local MP. Even very young children can and do have opinions on the environment, and as adults we can amplify children’s voices and ensure they are heard.
It can be a daunting thing raising children in a world where climate crisis is a reality. Sometimes it’s easy to despair, but luckily for us, children make it easy for us to hope too. It’s through play and their natural curiosity that children learn about how things work or could be better; about how all things are interconnected. Play is also how children learn about about big concepts like power, beauty, joy, humility and the relationship between the self and the rest of the world. And I think that play can be part of the journey to a more sustainable way of living too. When we enable children to play in and with nature, we empower the next generation of custodians of our shared planet.
For lots more practical tips on how to embed sustainable play into your home or setting, check out our guide ‘Empowering Children to Build a Healthier Planet’.
