My 2-year-old doesn't know what a Cow says.

At my son’s 2-year-old checkup, the pediatrician asked me if he knew what sounds animals made.  He then looked at my son and said “What does a cow say?”. My son had no idea. He has no idea the correct answer was “moo”. 

We do not live on a farm, and we do not live near a farm with cows, in fact, my son has never seen a cow up close to hear one “moo”.

But what he could tell the pediatrician was what a bluejay says. He can identify turkey vultures and seagulls by their size and colour while flying, he can identify a crow by their calls. He can identify prickly bushes, jewelweed, goldenrod, lavender and dandelions. He has built a relationship with these beings through their experiences within his environment.

He knows he likes the smell of lavender so he automatically smells it when he sees it, he never tries to smell goldenrod. He knows prickly bushes because he stepped on one once and it hurt. So now he tells people when there are prickly bushes so we can pull them out. He blows the seeds of mature dandelions to watch them fly. He never blows on jewelweed. He’s built relationships with these things, through sight, through sound, through smell, through manipulating them, through experience with them. He is not viewing them in a picture and learning through memory that a cow says ‘moo’ or a pig says ‘oink’. He is touching these beings when they're full of life in his environment. He is building sensory awareness, knowledge of place and nature connection. 

It can be easy to get stuck in the rote childhood expectations of developmental milestones. Stacking blocks, hopping on one foot or learning animal sounds, and losing sight of how children can develop organically through unstructured outdoor experiences. Stacking odd-shaped rocks, balancing on uneven terrain and learning to identify local flora and fauna serves a much deeper connection and purpose while still achieving developmental milestones.

Connecting with nature doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to mean a forest, a lake or the beach. It can be the grass in your own backyard or the yard in your Centres. It is the wind against your face, the clouds going by or listening intentionally to the birds chirping. Sometimes we try too hard to “find” nature and “learn” how to connect with it through activity books or bringing the outdoors inside. Nature connection is about emotion, our senses and experiencing a relationship outdoors. When you connect emotion with a sensory experience, it’s impactful. When we place ourselves back within nature, back within our relationship with all beings, human and non-human we return our connection and our rightful place.

With love,

Stephanie