A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 20 No. 1 (Spring 2010) ISSN: 1546-2250 A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons Van Noy, Rick (2008). University of Georgia Press; 152 pages. $16.95. ISBN 0820331031. The relationship between people and nature has been at the heart of my graduate studies, so I was intrigued by the title of this book: A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons. Van Noy, a parent, avid outdoorsman and professor of English, states that this book is a “collection of essays about our attempts to get outside” (xiv). The impetus for Van Noy’s book was Rachel Carson’s 1956 essay, “Help Your Child to Wonder,” published posthumously in 1965 as the book The Sense of Wonder, and it is a tribute to the work she outlined but was not able to write before her death, informally titled The Wonder Book. It is also fair to assume that the book was born out of an effort to supplement the practical perspective of the children-and-nature movement, recently brought to public attention by Richard Louv’s 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods. The thread of Van Noy’s inspiration from Carson’s work is clear throughout the book, and he does an excellent job of sharing the magical, aweinspiring quality of Carson’s viewpoint, which is remarkably in tune with the perspective of children. Van Noy explores four main ideas surrounding the effort to connect children with nature. In order of prominence in the book, these include: (1) getting kids outside despite the challenges; (2) children’s innate attraction to nature; (3) the benefits of experiences in nature; and (4) a need for a holistic approach to make the effort a success. Throughout the book Van Noy touches on three major challenges to getting kids outside: fear, the “screen,” and the differences between nature today versus the nature that parents knew as kids. The main 336 idea in nearly every chapter of the book is that there are many ways for parents and their kids to make “forays into nature” (16), despite these challenges. Van Noy speaks generally about fears that prevent children from going anywhere on their own, but goes into greatest detail regarding the fear of nature itself, or using David Sobel’s term, “ecophobia” (93). Van Noy is quite successful at making a clear and poignant argument that allowing fear to win is in fact more detrimental to children than the injuries that can occur. He suggests that along with fear comes a healthy respect and sense of wonder for nature, and opportunities to learn invaluable life skills, including how to manage risk. The power of the “screen” (television, computer/video games, and the Internet) to lure children away from healthy outdoor play seems to irk Van Noy to no end. However, he admits the irony that, as much as he complains, he himself used the TV as a babysitter to give himself peace and quiet to write this book. The third major challenge Van Noy examines is the difference between nature today and the nature parents knew a generation ago. For instance, he mentions that a chapter he hoped to write on ice-skating was not possible due to two years of weather too warm for ponds to freeze. Although Van Noy acknowledges that this timely issue is wrought with complexities, his most straightforward solution to getting kids outside is to “be their guide.” He suggests that parents reorient their perceptions of nature and just focus on what is most important to preserve for the next generation: the feeling of “the freedom of playing outside when you were young” (142). While the obstacles Van Noy addresses are no doubt challenging, these are still much lower barriers than those faced by many lowincome urban families. While Van Noy’s point that parents are limiting their children’s important developmental experiences by worrying about their venturing into the “world beyond the fence” (142) may be apt, such parental fear takes on an entirely different reality in crime-ridden urban areas with minimal access to nearby nature. Van Noy makes no claim that his...