My favorite memory is climbing trees and watching birds at a bird feeder in my grandparents' backyard.   I also enjoyed exploring creeks and the woods near our home.  I don't think I was interested in identifying the plants and animals I saw at the time but now I have a good background knowledge of how things behave in nature.

I have so many good memories of growing up in nature! Here are just a few: Walking in the vegetable garden with dad after school and noticing what’s growing in the different seasons. Running through yards and climbing trees with friends on my suburban block. Helping mom teach art at a marsh. Splashing in a cold creek on a family picnic. Looking for shells in the sand on the beach and then using my grandpa’s magnifying glass and field guide to identify them.

My interest nature I am sure started before an age I can remember - the trees in my yard were my friends it seemed from the beginning, I also vividly remember sitting on my mothers lap as a 3-year-0ld watching quail in the yard.


My favorite outdoor memories include riding bent over saplings like they were horses, building rafts from waterlogged logs, long walks through the vacant fields.

I have the opportunity to run an outdoor classroom this year - which I have some experience in already. Always looking to improve.

Crecí en la Ciudad de México, pero las excursiones que organizaba mi papá al bosque o a la playa despertaron mi fascinación por la naturaleza. Podía pasar horas atrapando mariposas y catarinas. Disfutaba mucho estar en el jardín de mi abuelita y hacer pefumes con las flores.  En la escuela me encantaban las clases de ciencias naturales y en la secundaria la materia de biología. A los 17 años mi Papá me regaló un curso de buceo y fue cuando decidí que quería ser bióloga marina. Vivir en La Paz Baja California Sur fue un sueño para mi. Tuvé la oportunidad de salir a observar aves con el equipo de ornitología de la universidad y esa fue la primera vez que me detuvé a observar las aves y desde entonces lo sigo haciendo. Ahora soy mamá de dos niños con los que pasó muchas horas a la semana en la naturaleza, mi objetivo es que aprendan a observar, que desarrollen su curiosidad y que sin importar que carrera escojan siempre cuiden de la naturaleza.

I grew up in Mexico City, however the day trips that my dad organized to the nearby forest and our regular beach vacations awakened my fascination for nature. I could spend many hours catching butterflies and ladybugs. I enjoyed very much my grandmother's garden and doing flower perfumes with my sister. In Elementary School my favorite subject was natural sciences, and in Middle School Biology. When I was 17 years old my Dad gave me as a present a Scuba diving class, on my first open water dive I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist. Living next to the ocean in La Paz Baja California Sur was a dream come true. During college I had the opportunity to do some field work with the ornithology team, that was the first time I observed and identify birds, something I keep doing. Nowadays I am the mom of two boys (9 and 5 years old) and I try to spend  many of our time together in nature. My goal is that them develop their curiosity and learn how to observe and appreciate nature, and in the future they keep enjoying being outdoors and take care of nature.

I loved overnight camping, the smell of the woods, collecting firewood, hiking, just being outdoors.  That has stayed with me all my life.  My mother was a birder which at first I found boring but have since learned to enjoy identifying bird sounds and sometimes the birds I see.
favorite memories:  building doll houses in trees in our back yard, racing  periwinkle and hermit crabs at the beach, fishing with my great uncle, exploring caves on family vacations.

I have two grandchildren who are now the perfect ages for doing things with me outdoors ( in short periods eg on weekends , after day camp).hoping to engage them in ways that build memories together.

I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. Being outdoors was really important to my parents. I remember going backpacking as a family and settling in to our tent for the night surrounding by total quiet except for the sounds of nature. I remember our excitement at the moose who would come into our yard to try to eat from our garden. I have a vivid memory of climbing a tree and discovering an abandoned bird's nest at the very top. In my surprise, I almost let go of the tree! It was like finding a hidden treasure that nobody else knew about.

I grew up on a farm in Southeastern Idaho. Some of my happiest childhood memories involve fishing moss out of a nearby stream or hiking through a field of sagebrush to an old pioneer cabin where I discovered some blue (robin's?) eggs in a bird nest. We could see the Tetons in the distance and often walked down to the Snake River. We would often throw breadcrumbs into the water to see the rainbow trout jump. The winters were very cold and snowy but the summers were quite lovely. On Sundays we would drive up to Yellowstone Park to see Old Faithful go off or visit Mesa Falls. One time a buffalo wandered into our front yard!

My father loved fishing and driving around the farm to survey the crops (mostly potatoes). My mother liked to work in her flower garden. However, I don't remember either of them engaging with me much around the outdoors. My brothers were put to work early on the farm and I would help with the fall harvest but much of my time was spent indoors helping care for my eight younger siblings. I wish I'd paid more attention to my surroundings when I was younger. I've taken a much greater interest in both the landscape and the birds as an adult.

I lived in the lake District in the Uk. We had a resident Robin that visited every day and would follow us around the garden as we tilled the soil and planted new flowers and vegetables. There was also a family of Pheasants that lived in the garden and I can remember seeing the nest for the first time filled with beautiful eggs.

 

I want to help children connect with nature so that they start to understand how everything is connected and interdependent.

I lived close enough to walk to beaches (Long Island Sound), had unimproved lots to play in,  and grandparents to visit in rural upstate NY. Didn't realize how lucky I was to have these outdoor playgrounds every single day, but knew i wanted to be outside all the time, in it, as did most kids I knew.  I am sure this gave me a real comfort level for being out in nature - from water to high weeds, getting dirty,  seasonal berry picking and lots of bugs! And a respect for the awesome power of water and wind.

When I was a child in England, I remember making mud pies and digging in the garden.  I remember climbing the back wall and then climbing trees.  With the neighborhood kids we would go on adventures.  We learned how to use a doc leaf to calm down the itch of stinging nettles.  I remember being afraid of the swans at a nearby park.  They wanted to eat our sandwiches when we had picnics.  I remember walks with my dad through meadows with cows and sheep.  I remember walking though the moors and feeling the wind.  We would go for miles.  Since COVID, I have gone outside to a nearby nature preserve almost every day.  The joy of watching and listening to Canada geese fly right over you makes my heart glad.  I firmly believe in the healing power of nature.  There is a joy that comes from making sense of the discoveries that you find.  I started watching birds and animals.  My life has definetly changed for the better.  I want to share these treasured times with my students.

My memories from childhoood that involve nature are from both an exploration perspective and an athletic perspective.  Physical education has little to no joy once school began.  Other students were mean and inpatient, whereas, prior to school experiences and continuing through that time in the home environment was my brother's teaching of various sport.  Exploring nature, was also a home environment experience.  We spent time in parks and in our backyard getting familiar with local wildlife.

From the physical education perspective, my dad taught me to ride my bicycle, which was the beginning of a lifelong environmentally friendly way of getting out and about.  We also played badminton, tennis, baseball and football.  My older brother taught me the skills needed to be able to have fun at these sports with him and other.  The learning process was a time of bonding for my brother and I, which was very valuable.

From feeding squirrels, to rescuing and identifying birds and insects the outdoor environment was a field of dreams to my child brain. I loved animals since I was a child and journeys to the beach, woodlands and in the inner city provided experiences with nature that created within me a strong connection and responsibility for nature, whether it be plants or animals.

My goals for spending time outdoors is to foster that same sense of stewardship in the students that I teach.  I have endeavored to do this with my own children as well, and I remember a snow day that found myself and my children out in the forest, silent under it's blanket of snow where we had two distinct woodpecker appear (a pileated woodpecker and a red sapsucker).  Smiles of secret wonder were shared by all, and this gift invaluable to this next generation, who will be the keepers of our planet.

I feel that if you know it, understanding it and develop positive feeling in and around it...well, you'll protect it.  That is what my goal is.

When I was younger, our parents would take us to the creek with our cousins and we would play for hours. I still have photographs of it and can remember those moments exactly!

In our neighborhood, we would play outside from morning until night. We had a cornfield behind our house, where we would walk for hours. We built forts outside in the neighborhood from natural materials and played capture the flag with just ourselves and hand-made flags.

Now that I am 41, I crossed an item off of my bucket list. We drove to the Everglades last summer. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had. Driving down the road and seeing nature and alligators, exploring their habitat, and riding on a boat where they live.

I will be crossing another item off of my bucket list in a few weeks - we will be visiting the Grand Canyon. I can't wait!

I take my children outdoors as much as possible. They enjoy it so much, and I am having fun re-living the memories I had as a child.

As a young girl, I often had breakfast with my favorite aunt. She would identify different birds (sparrows, wrens, blue jays, robins, cardinals, etc.) and she had a book of birds that she'd refer to. I love that she shared her interest with me and gave me such attention.

1. I remember my brothers and I would feed blue jays before we went to school in Utica, NY. This helped me a great deal because I didn't really have friends at school but I had my special bird friends.

 

2. Playing in the park and swinging on swings!

 

3. I have already done this with children in a Summer Program. The children walked outside and discovered plants and had to draw the plants and research them and talk about them.

My favorite memories of outdoor play are the many hockey games, neighborhood spanning water gun fights, and bike rides. My goals for spending more time outdoors with my children is to foster a lifetime interest in nature and reduce screen time.

I grew up in urban India (city of Mumbai) and in a culture where the rat-race had to be won every waking moment. I remember feeling something magic whenever I found a picture of a bird or animal in the newspaper - that was my access to nature - and I'd painstakingly cut it out and file it, mull over it, draw from it and wonder what it was like to be in their world. Fast forward 30+ years, and I now volunteer in avian rescue/rehab (raptors), I have a Naturalist certification, and I am working towards writing and illustrating for children - to share, early in their lives, the vast wonder that is Nature.

I grew up in the city of Chicago.  Our home had a small backyard.  A large apartment building was next door.  It was largely a neighborhood of concrete, bricks and tiny green yards.  At the end of the sidewalk that led to our separate garage and the alley, was a flower bed of bright pink flocks.  The flowers are one of my earliest memories; I was amazed that something could be so beautiful.  My grandparents owned a small summer cottage in Wisconsin.  When we visited them, I was always amazed by the "dinner-plate-sized" dahlias that my grandmother grew and the cucumbers in mason jars that my grandfather grew.  These were my earliest encounters with nature.  Living in Alaska now, my goal is to enjoy and share our amazing natural environment with my grandchildren (and help them take an occasional break from their electronics ;-).

Both sides of my family(paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother) were the first Nature mentors for me. My Ukrainian grandmother spent more times outside than in working in her garden and delighting in bird watching which she passed on to me. My grandfather was  a Pensylvania  outdoorsman who hunted an fished when not running his general store. My brother and I would spend time with our cousins in the backwoods when we visited him. His love for the outdoors and knowledge about the animals;tracks,bird sounds and fish started us off in wanting to know what they were. My parents carried on the tradition of outdoor vacations as well as we would always include hikes and visits to the Canadian forests and the lake or ocean beaches.

As for my goals for spending time outdoors with a child/children: I teach a Nature Art journal class with my middle school students and want to enhance that experience for outdoor appreciation moreso. As for my younger students, I do what I can to get them outside to draw.

Mi interés por las aves se remonta a mi niñez en la que caminábamos al bosque con mi papá para recolectar arcilla que luego nos servía para elaborar piezas de cerámica, sin embargo en el camino nos invadía el canto de los guardabarranca (Clarín Jilguero), esta ave despertó mi amor por la montaña.

Organizaba salidas a las arboledas cercanas a mi casa cuando era el encargado de cuidar a mi hermano menor, les contaba historias y los entretenía por horas, y mi objetivo es volver a hacerlo como parte de mi emprendimiento para el conocimiento de la naturaleza y ecoturismo en Totonicapán, Guatemala.

I grew up in the Mojave Desert in Southern California in a small town called 29 Palms.  In the summer evenings, when the bats would come out, my dad would go into the yard and toss small pebbles in the air.  He delighted in watching the bats dive down towards the pebbles in an attempt to catch them.  Between my dad's enthusiasm and the fun my brothers and I had catching Desert Iguanas and Horned Toads, I developed a strong appreciation for nature, and especially the desert environment.

We have a lot of rabbits in our neighborhood. I remember my son being very curious about what kind of rabbit they were, so we went to the library and checked out rabbit books and found the rabbits in our development were Eastern cottontails. My son wanted to know more so we reserved all the books in the library system about Eastern cottontails.

Making mud pies and following my dad around the garden, asking questions about plants.

As a young child growing up in Montana, we could ride our bikes or walk to creeks, and hills, and follow country roads.

I spent a lot of time with my cousins exploring the land around our town and riding out into the countryside.  We would catch frogs from the creek and muddy spots.  There were stands of trees, gentle waving grasses, and many other outdoor natural things to wonder about and discover.

We also had a lot of "poisoned" ground from local mining claims. Our parents of course insisted we not play on or near the ore hills.  As 8–9-year old's we of course did not listen and collected shiny rocks and other bits of Debrie from contaminated sites.

I was always interested in being outside versus indoors and that continued into my adulthood.

 

 

 

 

When I was 2 or 3 years old I was babysat by out neighbor 1x per week. At the end of the day my babysitter would take me outside under her huge walnut tree and we would sit together and feed the scrubjays walnuts. That is one of my favorite memories.

Some of my favorite memories outside, were just sitting with my mom and observing everything around us. I remember being "bored" with this, and now that she is gone, I cherish those moments I had with her. I now just sit outside and watch the birds I am feeding and their interactions.