Teaching Your Toddler - in Nature

Education does not only occur in the classroom or even indoors. Teaching your toddler can be as simple as taking a walk in the backyard or finding a nature trail to explore. There are many opportunities in nature to teach your toddler. And making the teaching a fun experience for both of you is the easiest way to teach your toddler to love learning. Here are several ways that you can teach your toddler while enjoying the natural world around you.

Colors and Shapes - Keep your eyes open and be ready to point out what you see to your toddler. All of the colors of the world are at your fingertips when you are in nature. Show your toddler the green grass, the blue sky and the white clouds. Point out the red flowers you see. Ask your toddler to tell you what color certain things are. Ask them to find a particular color and show it to you. Show them how shapes show up in nature. Circles can be found in flowers and in the sky. Use a nature walk to reinforce lessons learned throughout the day. If your toddler is showing an interest in a certain shape, find as many as you can in the park or on a nature walk. Ask them to look for them. Collect colored items and make a colors collage when you get home.

Counting - Counting is easy in nature. Count the number of trees you see. Count the number of flowers you find. Ask your toddler to find three acorns and give them to you. Count how many park benches there are at the park. Have them collect a certain number of different objects and make a collage for each number. Try three and have them collect three leaves, three flowers, three acorns, three pebbles. Then, when you get home, write the number three on a sheet of construction paper and help your toddler glue the items to the paper. Then, they have a number three collage to help them remember.

Environment - Don't think you have to go to a special place to teach your toddler about nature or take advantage of it. To a toddler, the back yard is humongous. Use nature to teach whenever you are outdoors. The backyard, the park, the zoo, nature trails and the beach are all places you can take advantage of. Show them the differences between each place. Take advantage of each environment you visit for different lessons.

Seasons - Take advantage of the different seasons of nature for different lessons. Talk to your toddler about what season you are experiencing and how it differs from the other seasons. Tell them it is Spring now and that the world is waking up. Tell them that Autumn is nature's bed time when they are preparing to sleep for the Winter. Ask them what they see outside in the Winter or Summer. Help them remember what it was like last season.

Lessons - Don't just think of colors and shapes and counting as the only lessons you can teach in nature. Toddlers are able to learn and understand many complex ideas. Teach them about conservation and recycling. Take advantage of the trash cans at the park to discuss keeping the world clean. Talk tot hem about how garbage can hurt nature when you come across trash on your nature walks. Make sure to bring a small garbage bag with you and have your toddler help you clean up the trail you walk on. Talk to them about how the animals need a clean house and it is up to us to keep it that way. Early lessons stick with us, so teach your toddler to love the world at a young age.