[How to Go about It -- Some Principles of Style]

        Encourage your child to take the lead, in deciding where to go, where to stop, and what to pay attention to -- but don't hesitate to point out things that interest you.

        Encourage your child to explore actively. Look inside and under things, poke into out-of-the-way places, take things apart to see how they're made, compare their differences and similarities.

        Encourage your child to use all of his or her senses -- feeling, tasting, smelling, looking and listening closely -- in exploring and understanding the natural world.

        Encourage your child to relate actively to the plants and animals you find. Help him or her learn what's safe to handle and to taste, and what's dangerous.

        Show him or her how to be tender with the creatures (and plants), how to explore without damaging their environment.

        When you notice something, like where a plant is found or on what part its pests congregate, try to think of reasons why, and test them out if you can.

        Encourage your child to project imaginatively into whatever he or she is observing. Become squirrels as you watch one run along a branch; while you look closely at moss, make yourselves tiny and prowl beneath its fronds.

        Your own example and attitude, in all these regards, will be more powerful than anything you can tell your child.

[Ten Ways to Extend Your Explorations]

        Take a good magnifying glass on a walk, look closely at everything. You'll introduce your child to a world of living detail.

        Put a hula hoop on the ground in a vacant lot. Count how many different kinds of plants and small animals you can find within it. Spend half an hour just watching everything that happens inside it.

        In springtime, look at the different forms of seedlings as they grow. Explore what conditions of moisture seeds need to sprout, what kinds of protection they need to survive.

        Buy (or make) a butterfly net, and sweep it over flowerbeds, lawns, borders. Unload your catch into a clear plastic bag, you'll find dozens of kinds of insects. Put the bag in the refrigerator, they'll slow down enough to examine closely.

        Study a particular tree for a long-term project (oaks are great.) Follow its changes through the seasons. Examine it closely, discover the community of small animals (and other plants) living on it and using it.

        From late spring to fall, find all the kinds of seeds you can. Compare their shapes, think about how they're distributed.

        Choose a common weed, like dandelions. Each time you find it, think about how it got to that particular place, and how it has managed to survive.

        Look for evidences of water (or just moisture) in the environment. Try to recognize its effects. See what lives in the places where it has lingered longest.

        Pick up interesting pebbles and rocks in your neighborhood. Get a basic guide to rocks and minerals, and identity the common ones.

        See how far the traces of nature invade even the most artificial environments.

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