Establishing and fostering a connection to nature in our children is a critical component of ensuring biodiversity and climate protection. Regrettably, today’s children are more engrossed in video games or watching televisions with just a sliver of a bond to nature. Not that video gaming is wrong, it can be beneficial for the development of your kids. However, in a time like ours, it’s crucial than ever to educate children about wildlife. As parents, teach your children about it by instilling in them its importance.
One important method is deliberately educating them about wildlife and its conservation through fun activities rather than preaching. Don’t overly stress them, and don’t be suspicious of getting extra help from top assignment services once in a while to help with more tedious tasks. Such ways would ideally inspire them to take meaningful action to conserve it in the future. It will also help you spend quality time with them.
Here are six ways to educate children about wildlife! We have also covered the reasons and the right age to do this.
1. Play Nature Theme Games
Spend time playing games with a nature theme. A scavenger hunt or an I-spy game in the park is an ultimate platform to get children outside and teach them about the various plant, insect, and animal habitats.
2. Watch Animal Television Shows
Children nowadays are addicted to tv shows and spend almost a day on them. You can build their interest in wildlife by choosing shows such as animal documentaries and animal shows. It will not only entertain but keep your child informed about the current wildlife landscape. Such kid-friendly documentaries regularly air on National Geographic Kids and Animal Planet.
3. Identify Animals on Normal Walks
Explore your local area and teach your kids how to distinguish between local plants, trees, fish, and animals, that you can come across on your walks. Identify different species and write a life list of animals for your kids. You can even help them draw the organisms they find interesting. Bird watchers often keep life records, which are lists of all the birds they’ve encountered, along with the location/ place of the experience. Allowing your child to keep count of the new species they see will inspire them to continue learning, so it will be a very satisfying process for them because as they go through the records with time.
Many families go on walks everyday to nearby parks or gardens. Let your children explore! You might want to have a look on our guide for wildlife identification.
4. Take Them to Ethical Wildlife Exhibits
By taking them to such festivals, you can show them how wildlife is exciting in immersive ways. These events and exhibitions are educational, entertaining, and suitable for people of all ages. The exhibits also pique the interest and imagination of the young, resulting in a strong influence. However, make sure you do not take them to places where animals perform for human satisfaction. Take them to ethical wildlife exhibits instead. Here you can see them in safe places while they do their own thing!
5. Buy Them Picture books
Many children are attracted to fairy tales and animal stories. They love these more when you get them a picture with bright colors. Picture books help them to create fantasy scenarios in their heads. Parents should let their kids buy books out of courses and let them read and live in the fantasy world. If your child holds an interest in books, help them buy an animal picture storybook, which will help them learn about their behavior according to circumstances.
6. Take Them To Wildlife Safari
Many parents assume that zoos and aquariums can teach their children about wild animals. While their intentions are sincere and admirable, this is not enough. There is something more important than kids learning about the behaviors and biology of wild animals. It is teaching children to have compassion for individual animals and species as a whole. It starts by recognizing that wild animals deserve to be natural and wild.
Therefore, take your kids on an ethical wildlife safari. Let your kids observe species in their natural habitats.
Why and When to Teach Kids About Wildlife?
So the question is should we teach our children about wildlife? If yes, then when is the right time?
The answer to the former is a solid yes. We have already managed to push many species of animals to the verge of extinction. Owing to years of environmental degradation, humans have decreased biodiversity and disrupted ecosystems. We have destroyed animal habitats for urbanization. Today, many animals are endangered species. From unethical caging of animals to using exotic animals as props, news of animal trafficking today is prevalent because of globalization. On many other occasions, you might have come across cases of human-animal violence as well, with interactions sometimes being harmful to both parties.
Hence, today it is a necessity to initiate conversations of animal rights and wildlife protection. As a measure, we must educate our kids and future generations more about the significance of nature conservation. Growing consciousness across different channels is one way to accomplish this.
We must educate children to like the topic of wildlife dispute at a young age, because only then will we raise enough consciousness within everyone.We recommend starting when they are toddlers.
The awareness can be bought through textbooks that students learn in school. It will help us draw fresh-faced people’s attention to this matter using numbers, images, figures, stickers, and diagrams. The value of introducing wildlife education in education cannot be overstated. Hardly anything, no matter how powerful those techniques may seem, will not be able to substitute the strength of words. Words and visual images leave an indelible imprint on today’s youth, but none replaces books for teaching children about wildlife protection. From recognizing the importance of wildlife conservation to animal protection for the Eco balance, books that hold this knowledge will aid these issues. One may also use plays and skits with all our other ways above to teach kids about wildlife.
The Bottomline
With our fun ways, educate your children on wildlife and play your role in protecting the world. Young minds are easy to influence. Hence, they will grow up as compassionate animal lovers that use their voices to end animal oppression. It is also a fun activity to do. Here are some books and resources for you too.