Exploring Nature with Your Senses: Contact

Whereas wandering by means of nature, all of us soak up our environment utilizing our senses. We scent flowers, contact tree bark, hearken to hen calls, see particulars (like an ant path on a tree), and even style a number of the pure objects we come throughout (assume berries or edible flowers). And whereas investigating nature on this approach comes naturally to most kids, generally we dad and mom neglect to permit our youngsters the time and area they should do it. By no means concern, Hike it Child is right here! This month, we’re sharing 5 other ways to discover every of the 5 senses along with your kids! So get exterior as a household, decelerate, and discover nature along with your senses collectively!

Wish to study extra about exploring nature along with your senses? Try our different posts on utilizing your sense of listening to, style, scent, and sight!

Picture Credit score: Michelle Pearl Gee

Exploring Nature by Contact

People inevitably discover the world by means of contact. Just about each single second of the day is crammed with some variation of the contact sense. Although we take virtually all of our contact sensations without any consideration and don’t assume a lot about them, one minute exterior can really feel like this:

You contact the doorknob to let your self exterior and instantly really feel the nice and cozy air and a slight breeze in your pores and skin. You’re taking a step exterior and your naked ft really feel the nice and cozy cement floor. You stroll towards your entrance yard and brush your arm up towards a bush. You attain out to the touch some flowers proper earlier than your ft contact the cooler grass. You’re taking a second to relish the sensation of the grass earlier than you sit down and really feel the smooth floor underneath your physique, and perhaps a slight itchy feeling in your legs.

The sensory expertise of contact actually occurs on a regular basis, a lot so we have a tendency to dam out a lot of what we’re feeling. However, if we decelerate exterior, apply somewhat mindfulness, and take into consideration every feeling because it touches our physique, it may possibly shift any outside experiences vastly.

Listed below are 5 methods you possibly can decelerate and actually expertise contact in nature collectively:

1. Create a contact field. Kids love guessing video games and creating this straightforward exercise won’t solely present a pleasant household gaming expertise however may also create a possibility to essentially discover nature by means of contact. All you do is collect some easy nature objects and put them inside a field. Don’t let your kids see what’s within the field and have them guess what nature merchandise it’s primarily based on contact alone. You’ll be able to put one merchandise in at a time (good for youthful kids) or abruptly to make it tougher.
2. Stroll barefoot in nature. The human foot is extremely delicate and experiencing a wide range of floor cowl feels totally different on our ft and supplies totally different sensory enter. Whenever you deliberately take into consideration every sensation your ft are feeling, the entire expertise of strolling barefoot shifts only a bit.
3. Discover totally different textures in nature. Create a easy scavenger hunt and set your youngsters unfastened to search out a wide range of textures exterior. You too can simply have the concepts in your head and have the youngsters seek for one by one whilst you meander your favourite path. Some examples of easy-to-find nature textures are tough, clean, chilly, heat, moist, dry, exhausting, smooth, and many others.
4. Hug a tree. Actually. Not solely will it really feel very nice to do it, however additionally, you will have the ability to really feel totally different sensations. Can you wrap your palms all the way in which round? Is the bark tough or clean?
5. Rely the pores and skin sensations. Sit down for 1 to five minutes relying on the ages of your kids and their potential to focus and rely what number of sensations you possibly can really feel in your pores and skin. The wind in your pores and skin, the heat of the solar, the sensation of the bottom underneath your physique, the fly that landed in your leg, and a lot extra. It’s exhausting to deal with solely the sensation of contact, however it’s wonderful what number of various things our pores and skin can really feel in only one minute.

How are you touching nature this week?

ABOUT HIKE IT BABY

Hike it Child is a 501(c)(3) non-profit group devoted to creating alternatives and eradicating limitations to entry so households with infants and younger kids can take their first steps exterior. With greater than 300 communities throughout North America, they firmly imagine all households have the correct to attach with nature, profit from spending time outdoor, and be impressed to a lifelong love of nature. To study extra, go to HikeitBaby.com, Fb, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.  To assist their mission and additional their programming geared toward supporting households, donate right here.