By: Kristen Tyson,
M.A.
As the summer season begins to recede in preparation for
fall, the time begins where you can once again think about heading outside and
exploring the richness of Texas. The
sweltering temperatures are steadily abating, giving the perfect opportunity to
take your friends and family on a nature trek.
Waterside reflections beat television any day.
Unfortunately, research has shown that going outside and
engaging in wildlife-related activities is aberrant for most American
families. It appears that school-aged
children no longer explore the outdoors or use their imaginations in creative
ways without relying on technology to occupy them. Perhaps this is also why 1/3
of school-aged children are currently overweight or obese. It would be easy to blame this problem on
someone else, but the truth is, it is our responsibility and privilege as
parents to take kids outdoors and teach them about nature.
Here in Texas, there are only a few months of the year where
you can spend any length of time outside without melting into the ground from
the heat. Those months are fast approaching as we prepare for school to start
back up, so what should you do about your own family’s involvement with nature?
Personally, my husband and I decided to write a list of the top 10 places in
Texas that we should visit between the fall and winter months, and activities that would make the experiences
that much greater. The
Nature Conservancy offered great tips and stories on how to include kids in
nature, so I took their advice and added a few items to my list. We love to go
on cheap thrifty day or weekend trips and Texas Parks and Wildlife
provides a great guide
to find parks that are near you, and they even offer a workshop
that teaches basic outdoor skills and supply the equipment your family needs.
Father and son bonding: priceless.
With these tools in hand and my top 10 list, I am ready to
show my kids why mommy and daddy are so interested in wildlife and the
outdoors. Our son will be able to hunt with my husband this year, which is an
amazing tradition to pass on, but what is even better is for my son to
understand the dynamics of the habitats and the animals that he will hunt. It
should be more about that feeling of being outdoors than about the thrill of
the hunt. The Texas Youth Hunting Program is a good
place to start for young hunters who don’t have land access. Just remember that youth 9 years old and up
are required to attend a Hunter
Education class.
Now all I have to do is wait for the new season to descend
upon us and get ready to experience a real vacation, in nature.
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted
until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a
still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and
free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important
than television.”
-Aldo Leopold