I have to stop and wait patiently.
From time to time, several children pass by, watching my son have a good time and want to participate. But the mother behind her grabbed the child's little hand. "Look, it's all mud. It's too dirty. Being bitten by ants is terrible. Let's go ... "
The child was pushed away by his mother, reluctantly, and turned back step by step.
I guess I am also a "careless mother" in the eyes of that mother. How can children play with ants?
Now parents seem to pay more and more attention to it. They don't let children touch anything dirty, mud can't play, sand can't touch. Cicada, which we often saw when we were children, now children hide when they see it.
Children's toys are becoming more and more advanced, and holidays are also various interest classes and special classes. The only thing missing is contact with nature.
But are the children happy?
When I was a child, at that time, in spring, azaleas were everywhere, and we picked them to make garlands;
There are red wild fruits everywhere in summer, so eat a round belly;
In autumn, a group of our friends sit on the mountain and play "war", bake potatoes together, climb trees and dig birds' eggs together. The children's silvery laughter always comes from the river in the country.
Every summer vacation, our children, about the same age, take cows to eat grass on the hillside, and we make objects of various shapes with yellow mud and have fun. The sun went down, and we rode cows and hurried home like a victorious soldier.
On summer nights, it was too hot to sleep, so we caught fireflies and put them in transparent bottles to illuminate them until late at night.
In childhood, we were always running and laughing. In retrospect, it is still the happiest time.
I told my son about it, and his eyes were full of surprise and envy. These are all new worlds that he has never experienced.
Every time I finish, my son will beg me to tell it again, and even let me take him back to his hometown for a while.
I asked him, you are much happier now than when my mother was a child. There are so many delicious and interesting things, but my mother had nothing when she was a child.
The son shook his head and said, Mom, I envy you more. You can be so free and unrestrained and have so many friends.
Indeed, children live in reinforced concrete cities. They are immersed in a dazzling array of electronic products and a network with chaotic information every day. They rarely have the opportunity to get in touch with the outdoors and nature, and they can't deeply appreciate the fun.
As early as 2005, American writer Richard Love put forward the concept of "natural absence" in his book The Last Child in the Woods.
This is not a disease that needs a doctor's diagnosis or medication, but a dangerous phenomenon in today's society, that is, children spend less and less time in contact with nature, which leads to a series of behavioral and psychological problems, especially their poor perception of nature.
Surrounded by "technological life", many children in rural areas, including now, are gradually moving away from nature, and the way children play is mostly limited to the Internet, mobile games or indoor playgrounds. Some children even said directly, "I prefer to play indoors, because only houses have power outlets."
They have gradually lost their instinct to be close to nature, and even feel that playing in nature seems a bit worthless, eccentric, childish and boring.
Just like San Mao wrote in Plastic Children many years ago, she took several children to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sea, but the children were immersed in playing games all the way and were unmoved when they got to the seaside, saying, this is the sea, let's go home, and the cartoon started at half past six!
There is a saying in the movie "Nature is Speaking": Nature doesn't need human beings, but human beings need nature!
Research shows that "congenital deficiency" is not only a child's insensitivity to nature, but also leads to children's insensitivity to surrounding things, weakened observation and appreciation ability, decreased creativity, inattention, myopia, obesity and poor physical coordination.
Moreover, it is prone to psychological problems such as irritability, anxiety and depression. At the same time, it will also lack the minimum respect and respect for nature, which will indirectly damage children's moral, aesthetic and intellectual growth.
Emerson said, "The secret of cultivating a good man is to let him live in nature".
Children's less and less natural experience and natural fracture will make them lose their insight into life and even lose their inner support for life. This will not only affect the healthy development of the next generation, but also have a great impact on the ecological environment and human development of the whole earth.
The psychology of children's development shows that children's sustainable development comes from the comprehensive mobilization of senses such as touch, hearing, vision, smell and taste, and they receive external stimuli all day long.
Nature is a place where all senses can use and learn while doing, full of all kinds of "moving parts" and infinite possibilities, full of mystery and unknowns. It needs full observation and perception, exploration and thinking, so as to stimulate children's curiosity, thirst for knowledge and creativity, and cultivate children's learning ability and practical ability.
Children need close contact with nature, just as they need adequate nutrition and sleep.
Direct contact with nature is beneficial to children's physical and mental health, and has therapeutic effects on attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder, childhood depression and anxiety, and can also improve cognitive ability.
In short, a child has the opportunity to explore and play freely in the natural environment, and will soon find a spiritual shelter for himself, which is very important for his inner life and even the healthy development of adults.
As rachel carson, the author of Silent Spring, said, "People who feel the beauty of the earth can gain the strength of life from it until their whole lives."
Exploring nature with children is the most relaxing, enjoyable and economical activity, and requires no special skills, as long as you are willing to spend some time and are interested in it.
You don't have to go far. Garden greenbelts in nearby parks or communities, surrounding rural fields and weeds, enjoying flowers and pulling weeds, catching insects and watching birds are all ways for children to get close to nature.
Try to show the children more flowers and plants. Now it is the street garden, which is the green belt of the community. All kinds of flower-recognizing artifacts on mobile phones are very convenient. You can know the name, characteristics and stories and legends by taking a photo, which can fully mobilize children's vision, touch, smell and taste.
Observe the shape of each leaf, the color of each flower and the number of petals, touch their different textures and smell different fragrances; You can also plant a plant in a balcony flowerpot to understand the whole process of planting, rooting, germination, growth, flowering, fruiting and harvesting;
Children are very sensitive to bugs in nature. They are small and have poor eyesight. They can easily find bugs, such as bees and butterflies on flowers, ants on the ground and snails on the roadside after rain.
You can find a garden, watch bees collect honey, watch them rise and fall on flowers, go in and out, and their hind legs are covered with pollen.
You can use a little biscuit crumbs to observe how ants eat and drag food several times their own weight. If you pass the message, ask for help, unite to carry food, and follow their actions to find the ant's home;
You can open a stone to explore the treasure and find the nest of small ants, the home of earthworms, crabs and crickets in the secret world;
Snails can be found on the roadside after the rain. See how they quickly retract into their shells when disturbed, how to lean out with their abdomen and legs and move slowly, and take a magnifying glass to see how they eat with more than 20 thousand teeth.
Nature is full of all kinds of natural beauty. You can collect all kinds of stones, appreciate their different shapes, colors and patterns, and draw your favorite patterns on them.
We can pick some wild flowers and weeds and put them in vases at home to decorate our lives; Can collect all kinds of flowers or small insects to make dried flowers or specimens as research objects and decorations;
You can use photography, painting and writing to record the diary of observing nature, and record the opening of flowers, the opening of leaves of trees and various natural beauty.
Exercise can be done outdoors as much as possible. You can take your children to play ball games, walk, run, climb mountains, fly kites, have water fights, and fly paper planes. It can not only please the body and mind, but also strengthen the body.
In short, don't let the internet, exam-oriented education and reinforced concrete jungle imprison our children. We should strive to create opportunities for children to return to nature and see birds flying, insects flying, rivers rushing and flowers blooming.
Let children mobilize every nerve in the whole body, see, smell, listen, touch, taste, ask and think, so that children will always be closely connected with this magical natural world.
Thomas Berry, a famous ecological thinker and cultural historian, said: "We should use the whole universe to shape a child. From the outside to the inside, we should use the whole universe to educate a child and use the whole universe to perfect a child.
Every child has a heart of curiosity and exploration. When they grow up, they will have unforgettable memories, take risks, challenge and experience different kinds of growth.